Senate redistricting plan would dissolve Carnahan's seat

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (MISSOURI DIGITAL NEWS) - A Senate Committee unanimously passed a redistricting plan Monday as Missouri anticipates the loss of one Congressional seat.

Under the new plan, all of Missouri's districts will grow in population.

The committee's chair Senator Scott Rupp says the loss of a congressional seat will cause some districts to grow more than others.

"Every single district had to gain population due to the loss of the congressional seat. Now, some districts had to gain far more population. For example, the city of St. Louis in the first district had to gain a hundred and sixty one thousand people," Rupp said.

The House has also proposed a plan that would account for the lost seat, following the 2010 census. Both the House and Senate plans would combine the two districts in St. Louis City into one, a seat that is currently held by Democrat Russ Carnahan.

The Senate committee's plan will now be brought before the Senate.

Kadee Brosseau, Missouri Digital News

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U.S. Census: Center of population still in Missouri

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Missouri still boasts the nation's center of population.

The new demographic center of the U.S. is Plato, Missouri, an unincorporated village in Texas County in southern Missouri.

Plato has a population of 109 people.

The U.S. Census Bureau first calculated the center of population in 1790, when it was determined to be Chestertown, Maryland. Since then, it has steadily moved west.

The Census Bureau will install a marker at the site next month.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Census: Missouri's Hispanic population grew by 79%

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - New U.S. Census numbers indicate that Hispanics continue to be a rapidly growing segment of the population throughout Missouri.

While the overall rate of population change in Missouri was 4.8 percent, Hispanics increased at a rate of 79% since 2000.

Missouri’s population grew by about 390,000 since 2000. Of those new Missourians, nearly 94 thousand – or 25% - are Hispanics.

Madison County saw the greatest Hispanic rate of increase in Missouri, thought the sample size was small.

Cape Girardeau County’s Hispanic population grew by 136 percent. To put it in another context, Cape County added another 7000 people since 2000 … and 850 of them were Hispanic.

Roughly 3.5% percent of Missouri’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, up from 2% in 2000.

In Southeast Missouri, only Dunklin County has a higher percentage of Hispanics than the state average.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Cape Girardeau to redraw ward boundaries

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The City of Cape Girardeau is going to look closely at its ward boundaries after receiving the latest information from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Cape Girardeau has six wards, and each ward should have about 6,300 residents.

The city’s population grew from 35,349 to 37,941.

Assistant City Manager Ken Eftink says that areas west of town exhibited the fastest growth.

"That’s where most of the new construction has taken place. In our case, to the northwest we had the Whispering Oak area coming in to the city limits. To the southwest, we had the Dalhousie area coming in to the city limits," Eftink said.

The City Manager’s office redraws the ward boundaries, which are then approved by City Council.

In addition to ensuring an equitable distribution of population amongst the wards, Eftink says that they must take into consideration where council members live.

Eftink says that he is interested in seeing the 2010 census data for the downtown region to see if efforts to encourage residence in the historic district are bearing fruit.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

Image courtesy of the City of Cape Girardeau

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Redistricting does not favor Russ Carnahan

Image courtesy of Missouri Secretary of State.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Due to a slower rate of population growth than other states, Missouri will lose one of its nine Congressional seats. All indications point to the elimination of the 3rd Congressional District, currently held by Democrat Russ Carnahan.

The 3rd District covers southern St. Louis, parts of southern St. Louis county, and Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve Counties.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly will redraw the Congressional districts, and it is highly unlikely that the GOP will exclude one of their own party members, according to Southeast Missouri State University political science professor Jeremy Walling.

Carnahan is one of three Democratic Missouri Congressmen. The other two are Emanuel Cleaver from Kansas City in the 5th District and Lacy Clay from St. Louis in the 1st District. Eliminating Carnahan’s seat would results in clearly drawn partisan lines amongst Missouri’s districts, Walling says.

"The Republicans aren’t going to be too sad about ensuring that the Missouri 1st and 5th Districts stay Democrat because they are going to be Democrat anyway," Walling said. "So I can see them wanting to split up the Russ Carnahan district and divvy those votes up and make the Missouri 1st an even stronger Democrat district in the process."

The result would be eight congressional districts with well-entrenched incumbents. The only exception would be freshman representative Vicky Hartzler’s seat in western Missouri, which Walling says may come in to play.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Missouri census figures should be available today

The results of the 2010 Census are in the mail, so to speak.

The U-S Census Bureau sent state-specific data to Missouri leaders yesterday. The data will be made public this afternoon.

The data will include summaries of population totals, as well as data on race, Hispanic origin and voting age. The data will cover a wide variety of geographic scales, such as census blocks, school districts, and cities.

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