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GEORGE KENNEDY: Unless Districts are Redrawn, Missouri Will Stay Red

Missouri School of Journalism

It was certainly no surprise that Republican Sara Walsh won Tuesday’s special election in the legislative district that covers southern Boone County and parts of Cole, Cooper and Moniteau counties. The surprise was that Michela Skelton came within 300 votes of taking the seat for the Democrats.

After all, Ms. Skelton was the first Democrat to even run for that office since the redistricting of 2011. If more than 25 percent of the Boone County electorate had turned out, she might have won, since she got 58 percent of this county’s vote.

The outcome leaves Boone County represented by three Republicans and two Democrats in the state House of Representatives and a Republican in the state Senate.

It seems reasonable to ask how that can be, given that Boone is, in national and statewide elections, a Democratic island of blue in the sea of Republican red that covers the state between Kansas City and St. Louis.

 

Read the complete column online at the Missourian.