POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Preserve the rural nature of Missouri's 8th Congressional District -- that was the message area residents gave the House Special Standing Committee on Redistricting, which met Thursday at Three Rivers College.

The Poplar Bluff stop marked the third hearing of four held across the state in recent weeks. Legislators must decide how to reduce Missouri's nine congressional districts to eight following a 2010 census count that left the state 15,000 residents short of the amount needed to maintain all seats.

The committee, which includes District 154 Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, will add about 90,000 people to the boundaries of the 8th District. It currently contains almost 657,000 people, and all districts must have 748,615 when maps are redrawn.

"I feel very strongly compelled to implore you to keep this congressional district rural," first speaker and Three Rivers President Devin Stephenson said in his testimony. "We don't need counter-competing missions with metropolitan areas of this state. The last thing we need is to be gobbled up, pushed on a back burner, overlooked or treated second-class in a district that is filled with the demands of a metropolitan culture."

This sentiment was echoed by small business owners from Butler County, as well as residents of Farmington and St. Francois County.

It is vitally important the 8th District be kept rural, testified Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce president Steve Halter. Under its current representation by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican, the district has received support in meeting infrastructure needs, such as making U.S. 67 four lanes, and promoting economic development.

Nate Kennedy of Poplar Bluff offered another opinion, telling the committee redistricting should make congressional elections more competitive, with lines drawn to create a close 50/50 divide on partisanship.

"In the last few years, we've seen a lot of anger toward Congress and high incumbency rates," Kennedy said. "I think it would make things better if Congress had to listen to their constituents more. ... Make congressmen work harder for their seats."

The overwhelming testimony in the recent hearings has been to keep rural districts rural, said committee chair state Rep. John J. Diehl Jr., R-Town and Country, following the hearing.

Richardson said legislators have a challenge in trying to add more than two times the population of Butler County to the 8th District. Butler County ranks fourth in population among the district's 28 counties, which stretch from portions of Taney County west to Mississippi County in the east and from Washington County in the north to Dunklin County in the south.

It would be inappropriate to speculate now, he said, if the district will need to take on part of a metropolitan population to gain that many people.

Conjecture across the state has centered on how the Republican-controlled Senate and House could use this opportunity to solidify or improve the party's position in Missouri's congressional districts.

"My experience with this committee so far is that it has not been a partisan process," Richardson said. "I think the committee is more focused on ensuring adequate representation than politics."

The committee needs to draw a map both sides can support because it still requires the signature of a Democratic governor, Diehl pointed out. If the governor vetoes the new district lines, Republicans would need the support of some Democrats to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.

A panel of federal judges will take the matter out of state hands if Missouri is unable to reach a consensus on the geography of new districts. That is something that has happened in the past, Diehl said.

The next committee hearing will be tonight in St. Louis. Next, state representatives will put together options and hear further public comment on those options at meetings in Jefferson City. They say maps will be completed by the end of the 2011 legislative session in May.

Pertinent address:

2080 Three Rivers Boulevard, Poplar Bluff, MO