Letter to the Editor: Keep Your Maps to Yourself

And I thought 2011 was the year of political confusion…

Running for office is a unique experience and this year, it is historic. Just when we thought there was “a process” for determining representation, the process itself has created only havoc instead of the certainty upon which our system relies.

I am referring to the time-honored tradition of making sure that everyone has appropriate representation in Jefferson City. And by appropriate I mean accurate, fair and proportionate, i.e. everyone has a state representative and each state representative serves about the same number of people.

The Missouri Constitution requires this new representation to be re-determined every 10 years after collection of US Census data.  That way, we are all working off the same numbers.  A certain, acceptable level of partisanship is then used every year by a governor-appointed committee to determine who represents whom.

But this time, with partisanship at an all-time high, we had the misfortune of such political division getting in the way of what is supposed to be a ho-hum exercise.  Campaign life was just getting back to normal when all maps broke loose.  The Supreme Court kicked the lawsuit to throw out the boundaries down to the Appellate Court.

So now that the Missouri House Districts are under challenge, will they go the way of the Missouri Senate maps and require a “do-over?”  Not to mention the uncertain fate of the U.S. Congressional maps.  We may know more on all fronts by the end of this week.

And what are the voters and candidates to do?  How can we talk to our community about our plans for fixing Jefferson City when the voters do not know their choices yet?  It would be like a committee of a few picking the presidential nominees.  Someone else will narrow down the choices for you, but not tell you until the last minute.

What I do know is that we all need to wake up to the true cost of severe partisanship.  Politicians can no longer afford to keep bickering for bickering’s sake.  Stubbornness has taken us down this path of uncertainty.  Newsmaking these days should be about how people work together to improve the life of every Missourian.

Less partisanship could have prevented this turn of events.  Perhaps taking partisanship out of the process altogether would improve the process and faith in government.  Less partisanship certainly could not hurt.

Vicki Englund is a candidate for the 94th District in the Missouri House of Representatives.