Washington University will move from Missouri’s first congressional district to the third district as a result of federal redistricting from the 2000 national census, if the state Court of Appeals passes the proposed plan.
The move from Representative William L. Clay’s (D) district to House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt’s (D) district shouldn’t affect most WU students who are not registered voters in Missouri.
The U.S. Constitution mandates that a census be taken every ten years, but according to the Census Bureau, the statistics have been used only since 1980 to “merge local voting behavior data with small-area census counts to create legislative districts with balanced populations.”
Redrawing district lines allows a more equitable distribution of voters among geographic boundaries, in accordance with the “one-person, one-vote” rule of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Missouri Democrats and Republicans were supposed to reach an agreement for a bipartisan redistricting plan by August 28, but because of lengthy discussions and failure to agree on where to draw lines, they missed the deadline. The redistricting plans now lie in the hands of Missouri’s Court of Appeals.
“Congressional incumbents want to see a new district plan that gives them a good chance of being re-elected,” said American Studies Professor Steven Smith. “Within the same party, there is tension between those who want to keep incumbents versus maximizing seats [in the House of Representatives].”
With the next congressional elections taking place in 2002, winning seats in the House will be crucial to maintaining or toppling the balance of power, since a switch of merely six seats will put the House in a Democratic majority.