St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 18
By law, legislative redistricting isn’t supposed to be a partisan process. In practice, it almost always is. This fundamental building block of our democracy is flawed because it has been so badly abused by the people drawing the lines.
Congressional districts must be of nearly equal population; legislative districts must be “substantially” equal in size and as compact as possible. They’re not supposed to be racially polarized. In reality, politicians of both parties generally work together to make sure that incumbents are protected. Party is less important than job protection.
With rules being fairly vague, courts often sign off on absurdly awkward districts. Since the 2010 census, the redistricting process has worked to the devastating disadvantage of the Democratic Party.
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, reckons that since the 2008 election, Democrats have suffered a net loss of 13 governorships, nine U.S. Senate seats, 63 U.S. House seats and 949 seats in the 50 state legislatures. The GOP controls 32 of those Legislatures and after inauguration days, will have 33 governorships. In 23 states, including Missouri, Republicans will have a trifecta: both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office.
Democratic Party officials, reeling from shocking losses last month, have decided to start over. From the bottom. They formed the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, headed by former Attorney General Eric Holder, to coordinate efforts to win state legislative and gubernatorial races in 2018 and 2020. The goal is to block Republicans from retaining control of redistricting after the 2020 census.
President Barack Obama has promised to get behind the effort, pointing to the partisan gridlock that plagued his eight years in the White House. The committee should focus particularly on helping moderate candidates, who have had a difficult time gaining traction. Incumbents in both parties fear alienating their hard-core base lest they face primary challenges from the left or right.
Democrats are onto something. The question is whether they can unify the various identity groups within the party around the concept of moderation. With the waning power of labor unions, there’s also a question of who pays for the effort and who does the heavy lifting of candidate recruitment and getting out the vote.
Republicans achieved their sweep with relentless discipline and plenty of money from advocacy groups and corporate interests. Too often, while Republicans were recruiting, organizing and enacting voter suppression laws, Democrats were complacent. Now they’re in a deep hole; the next round of redistricting could make the hole deeper.
The current system, as Obama recognized, rewards partisans, not centrists. Government becomes more polarized. Now Democrats are going to try to fix this in two to four years. It’s a battle worth fighting, but they’re getting a very late start.
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Springfield News-Leader, Dec. 7
This community is full of people who take moments to help others. Those that volunteer regularly, spend time on a board, or give in other ways.
There are very few who make it their life’s work, but that’s what Roseann Bentley has done.
Bentley started on the Springfield school board in the 1970s, and served nine years in that role. Dedicating that much time is notable, but that was only the beginning.
She followed that with about a decade on the state board of education.
After almost 20 years as an advocate for children and education, she took that mission to Jefferson City.
She was elected to the State Senate in 1994 and served the maximum eight years. She was the first woman elected to the State Senate from Southwest Missouri and the first asked to serve on the Senate Finance Committee.
When her time was up in Jefferson City, she returned to Springfield where she has since served as a Greene County Commissioner.
Through all that, she has given her time and energy to countless other organizations including the United Way of the Ozarks, the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, the Mayor’s Commission for Children and many others.
In addition to being the first female Senator from the area, she was a founding member of Female Leaders in Philanthropy and was the first president of the Junior League of Springfield. She was, unofficially, a local pioneer for women in leadership roles.
She has been a champion for early childhood education when there wasn’t political will to fund it. She has made difficult budget decisions during tough financial times in Greene County. She has been a strong but calming voice in arenas where it was badly needed.
Spend only a little time with her and you’ll learn she does it all because she has the heart for it. She cares deeply about the people, and especially the children, of this community.
She has been given at least a dozen prestigious awards, including being named the 2003 Springfieldian, but it somehow doesn’t seem like enough.
We also can’t say enough to show how grateful we are for her dedication. So we simply say: Thank you, Ms. Bentley, for a lifetime of service.
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Joplin Globe, Dec. 19
In all nine photos, they were smiling.
These members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church were people of many talents and aspirations and included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, a pastor and state senator; Myra Thompson, 59, who taught Bible study; Cynthia Hurd, 54, a librarian; and Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, who was such a talented singer that friends likened the voice to that of an angel.
Completing the photos were Daniel “Dapper Dan” Simmons, 74, so nicknamed for his shiny shoes and fine hats; Sharona Coleman-Singleton, 45, a high school track coach; Ethel Lance, 70, the church sexton who kept the building spotlessly clean; Susie Jackson, 87, a member of the choir; and Tywanza Sanders, 26, Jackson’s nephew and an aspiring poet.
This will be the second Christmas that their church, their families and their friends will be without them. However, it will be the first after which their killer has been convicted.
On Thursday, a jury convicted Dylann Roof of the slaughter of these nine church members who had put on their smiles on June 17, 2015, to welcome him to their Bible study at the Charleston, South Carolina, church.
There was really never any doubt of Roof’s guilt or that he had fired 77 bullets into the congregation. The only defense presented according to Associated Press reports was that Roof was a product of our society, that he had just been imitating what he saw on the internet and believed that he had to give his life to “a fight to the death between white people and black people that only he” could see and act on.
As this jury meets in January to decide Roof’s sentencing and measure whether he deserves the death penalty, we would simply ask that they take another look at those smiling faces and contrast them with the hatred displayed so violently by Roof.
We live by our choices, and sometimes we die because of them. No one at the church that day - except Roof - had made a choice to die.
He should pay for his decision with his life under the laws of capital punishment.
His actions, in our view, are deserving of the death penalty.
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St. Joseph News-Press, Dec. 19
The coming session of the Missouri General Assembly will see a welcome push to crack down on corruption in state and local governments.
Given the public’s dim view of crooked officials, this proposal should fly through both the Senate and House and reach Gov.-elect Eric Greitens’ desk in record time. Reality, however, means factions opposed to greater oversight and stiffer penalties will try to slow down or derail this effort.
State residents need to know the facts about Senate Bill 176 and be prepared to advocate for its passage. The bill’s key provisions:
Increase penalties for official misconduct in the first degree, elevating the crime from a misdemeanor to a class E felony, which comes with a possible sentence of up to four years in prison.
Create a category of official misconduct in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, which will give prosecutors discretion in matching the alleged crime to the proportionate penalty.
Give Missouri courts additional powers to issue orders that increase the likelihood stolen public funds are recovered for their intended public use, and to enable the prompt removal of officials who have abused their powers.
Empower local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to request an audit of any local government suspected of fraud, misconduct or abuse of public funds.
Other than corrupt officials, opponents of these laudable steps could include organizations representing municipal and county officials. We advise them to tread carefully or face the wrath of the electorate.
State Auditor Nicole Galloway gives the example of a county collector providing thousands of dollars in unjustified property tax abatements to a family member. Under current law, that’s a misdemeanor. In the future, it would be a felony.
Breach of the public’s trust is bad enough, but when it results in a large loss of public funds, that should be a felony crime that comes with the prospect of substantial prison time. Also, authorities should have tools to reclaim the lost funds.
Such are the commonsense goals of this bipartisan legislation.
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