After the November 2018 midterm election, Missouri voters could congratulate themselves on being ahead of the curve <\/a>in the nationwide drive for anti-gerrymandering laws. But the elation was short-lived. One day after voters passed Constitutional Amendment 1\u2014nicknamed \u201cClean Missouri\u201d\u2014 by an overwhelming 61% margin, Republicans in the \u201cShow Me\u201d state showed their true colors and began a cynical effort to undermine the new law.<\/p>\n The Clean Missouri amendment includes sweeping new provisions aimed at reducing government corruption at the state level. The new law limits gifts to legislators and bans elected lawmakers from becoming lobbyists immediately after serving in office, among other restrictions.<\/p>\n But the biggest news in the new law is how it revises the process for redrawing congressional district boundaries after each national census. And that\u2019s the provision that Missouri Republicans are targeting.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what is different about Missouri\u2019s new approach to congressional redistricting. According to AP,<\/a><\/p>\n Other states have created independent commissions and required bipartisan votes to redraw legislative and congressional districts. Missouri will be the first to rely on a new mathematical formula to try to engineer \u201cpartisan fairness\u201d and \u201ccompetitiveness\u201d in its state legislative districts; the Legislature will continue drawing the state\u2019s congressional districts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s an experiment\u2014one that Missouri Republicans want no part of because, according to an AP analysis:<\/p>\n \u2026it has the potential to end the Republicans\u2019 super-majorities in the state House and state Senate and move the chambers closer to the more even partisan division that is often reflected in statewide races. But the size of the likely Democratic gains remains uncertain, partly because the formula has never been put to a test.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n [Also, there\u2019s science, analysis and factual information involved. Those things apparently turn off Missouri Republicans as well.]<\/p>\n So, without missing a beat, Missouri Republicans declared war on Amendment 1. According to the New York Times,<\/p>\n The day after the election, the Republican speaker of the Missouri House, Elijah Haahr, said that he wanted \u201cto strike up conversations with African-American lawmakers who have expressed misgivings that Clean Missouri could reduce the [number] of black lawmakers,\u201d Jason Rosenbaum of St. Louis Public Radio reported<\/a>. That\u2019s a classic strategy<\/a> for Republican gerrymandering: Effectively guarantee black-held seats in exchange for reducing the overall number of Democratic seats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In addition,<\/p>\n \u2026opponents of the amendment created a political group<\/a> to undermine it, Tony Messenger, a metro columnist for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has noted. The group has the Alice-in-Wonderland name of \u201cFair Missouri\u201d and $150,000 in initial funding. Its goal is to place a new measure on the ballot that would sabotage parts of the amendment before they can take effect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The most cynical anti-Amendment 1 strategy is one that will take place far out of the spotlight of ballot initiatives and special elections. Rumor has it that one Republican state representative is preparing a bill that would simply defund the newly created state demographer\u2019s office.<\/p>\nThe covert, state demographer gambit<\/h3>\n