Attorney general claims referendum on new Missouri congressional map is illegal
Matthew Sanders
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Missouri’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop a vote on a new congressional map passed by the Republican supermajority during a summer special session.
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The lawsuit was filed against People Not Politicians, a group that has raised more than $1.7 million in contributions since forming.
The group’s leadership said in a news release Wednesday that it has collected more than 100,000 signatures on its petition to get a question repealing the new map on a statewide ballot. The group’s first initial petition forms were rejected, but Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins gave them the go-ahead Wednesday to start collecting signatures.
In a release, Hoskins said signatures collected before Wednesday could not be used.
Hanaway’s lawsuit came just hours later.
Lawsuit against People Not PoliticiansDownload
In it, Hanaway asserts that the effort to get the map before voters is unconstitutional because the Missouri and U.S. constitutions give the power to redraw districts explicitly to the legislature.
Hanaway says in a statement that the lawsuit “is about protecting Missouri’s constitutional authority from being hijacked by out-of-state dark money groups.” Missouri Republicans have long complained that Missouri’s initiative petition process allows for groups that don’t report their donations to have an outsized impact on the process.
Republican lawmakers passed the new map, which eliminates one of two Democrat-friendly districts in the U.S. House, during a special September session. The map splits up the Kansas City area and the current Fifth District, a seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
Several lawsuits have been filed to challenge the new map, claiming maps can only be redrawn every 10 years after the census.