(Two important updates to this posting occurred overnight as the gigantic mess that will be our congressional elections in November has gotten even worse) Look for the boldface additions in this revised–for the third time—column).
The two people in this household are going to vote in the November election. As of today, we are not sure who we will want to be our member of Congress because we aren’t sure which congressional district we will be in.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh might have settled it yesterday when he flatly rejected the appeal of the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling that the old districts will be used for the election. Kavanaugh is a Trump appointee and we would not be in this mess if Trump had not asked his loyal Republican-dominated legislature to skew congressional districts to help keep him in power.
However, shortly after that, a lower federal court judge ruled the other way. We went to bed last night glad the day was over but knowing it is likely today will produce more political and judicial mayhem that none of us deserves but that all of us are getting, thanks to a President thinks our political system was invented just to keep him happy.
But since then, things have really heated up.
Shortly after that, the Chief Federal District Judge of this region, Stephen Clark, ruled the other way, issuing a temporary restraining order telling Hoskins to use the gerrymandered map while the case goes forward in the federal court system. We went to bed last night glad the day was over but knowing it is likely today will produce more political and judicial mayhem that none of us deserves but that all of us are getting, thanks to a President thinks our political system was invented just to keep him happy.
Governor Kehoe thanked the judge for providing “much needed clarity for Missouri voters and the election process.” Since yesterday was the last day to make changes to the November ballot, he said, “the Missouri First Map will be used in the general election.”
He said, “Voters and candidates deserve consistency, certainty, and not to have the rules changed between elections,” an observation that is interesting because that is exactly what President Trump, the legislature, and Governor Kehoe have done “between elections” in 2024 and 2026.
The scramble yesterday has left the Missouri Supreme Court, shall we say, in a state of high urinary agitation. We awoke this morning to read a Missouri Independent report that the court has ordered Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to appear before it in person at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning to show why he should not be held in contempt of court for telling election officials to go ahead with a district map the court has forbidden him from using. It seems Hoskins had, as soon as Clark’s order came down, certified the official state ballot using the rejiggered congressional districts and sent the order, and his certification of the districts out to local election officials. He says the Clark order, in effect, overrules the Missouri court’s order.
The Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court wants Hoskins to explain exactly why his actions “is not an affirmative violation” of the court’s injunction which has the backing of a United States Supreme Court judge (who ranks higher on the judicial food chain than Clark) and, “if he is not willing to comply with this court’s injunction, he should take no action in all things related to the congressional district map until guidance is received from a higher court…”
Chief Justice W. Brent Powell made it clear this hearing is a face-off between Hoskins and the court. Nobody else will be allowed to intervene.
The last time we can recall a sitting state official to answer to the Missouri Supreme Court was when the court tried and convicted Secretary of State Judy Moriarty in 1994 of committing impeachable offenses—-
—–which raises a question about how all of this could eventually play out for Hoskins, should anyone want to make a case of it. If the GOP continues to control the legislature, that question likely is going to be moot.
This whole ugly thing is compliments of the same political party that gave us two amendments that were stomped flat by voters in August, allowed a small number of maverick state senators to produce two or three of the least productive legislative sessions—probably since the Civil War when we had a government supported by the U. S. Army in Jefferson City and a bunch of exiles pretending to be a Confederate government based in Texas, and who so badly fumbled a chance to pass a sports gambling law that the interested parties gave us a constitutional amendment that is of grave disservice to the people of Missouri
Republicans have no one to blame but themselves if voter in November seek retribution for this craziness by promoting many GOP lawmakers back to private life. Will the majorities in the House and Senate switch in November? Probably not. But we’ll be watching to see if the two-third majorities and the accompanying arrogance that comes with such margins disappears at the hands of voters who think these lawmakers have gone too far.
The Missouri Supreme court has blamed our Secretary of State, who was one of those maverick senators, for this mess. And the court underlined its feelings with a unanimous vote.
The court suspended the congressional district maps drawn because President Trump is afraid he’ll lose control of Congress in November and asked the Missouri legislature to approve maps that will oust one of our senior congressmen, Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. That would giving the GOP one more Congressman from Missouri who can protect Trump.. The legislature was more than happy to oblige him.
But then some citizens who felt such manipulation of the political system more focused on government of one person, by one person, and for one person is not exactly what this country is all about. They went around and collected signatures of about 300,000 other dissenters demanding the new map not go into effect until the people had agreed to it. The number of signatures was more than adequate to put the question on the ballot.
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins apparently found some wiggle room in a federal district judge’s ruling last December that the new map would be suspended if the petition had enough signatures and a vote could be held on overturning that map. The judge’s opinion noted, however, that Hoskins believed he had the power to declare the petition itself was unconstitutional.
The Missouri Supreme Court told him, twice, that he had to rule on whether the petitions had enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
Rather than do that before the primary election that used the questionable new districts, Hoskins waited until the primary election was already underway before proclaiming the petition unconstitutional.
The Missouri Supreme Court said he screwed up, saying there actually are no new districts because opponents had gathered adequate signatures to have an election on their legitimacy. Unless voters approved the districts, they did not exist.
But Hoskins let the election proceed with the new districts. So now we have candidates in our eight districts and—-
?
Justice Kavanaugh’s terse rejection of the districts is a second loud slap in the face of Hoskins and the obedient Trumpicans in our Capitol, coming after our Supreme Court’s ruling.
As we understand it these two rulings, we have no districts except the old ones and the candidates did not run in the old districts. They ran in the new ones which the court says don’t exist. The Missouri court has said rather clearly that Hoskins is responsible for any confusion the people of Missouri might have.
That’s a very heavy load of responsibility. Hoskins will be up for re-election in 2028. Missourians are likely to be reminded of these events.
Out of this complicated embarrassment so far, however, is something vitally important. The Constitutional right of Missouri citizens “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” to enact laws through a petition process and to overturn offensive laws enacted by the people who are supposed to represent us has been upheld. The court decisions have upheld Missourians’ right to initiative and petition in overwhelming numbers. (Next year will be the 120th anniversary of the adoption of initiative and referendum in Missouri. We need to have a big celebration.)
Hoskins disputes the Missouri court’s ruling that he’s the one to blame. He seemed to argue in a radio interview (KFTK) that the Trumpian map should be valid for November because voters used it in the primary election.
—although the State Supreme Court says they (we) voted in illegal and therefore nonexistent districts. Justice Kavanaugh obviously didn’t buy Hoskins’ arguments either.
We must confess that we are as befuddled as most people are and we’re not convinced we understand all of this folderol or if we have explained the situation correctly.
If the districts were not legal, then there actually was no congressional primary election, right? And those of us who voted were just rehearsing for the real thing. Can that be correct? Are we headed to November with candidates nominated in a non-election?
And since the petition issue gathered enough signatures to merit a vote and no districts, old or new, will be established until voters have decided on the petition issue, how can we vote for our congressional delegation in November?
If it turns out that one of the winners in August is not a resident of the old district that might be in effect in November—-
Well?
I feel as if I am wading in the dark through an endless swamp of mashed potatoes and the legislature led me to it. Lawmakers are back at the Capitol for a day or two next week to consider overriding any of the Governor’s vetoes from the spring session. Can they, will they, do anything to restore some orderliness in our state political system?
To paraphrase an old saying:
“To err is human. To really screw up things you need a politician.”
I am now going to take some aspirin and lie down and hope this all passes.
(picture credit: Demotivators)
