A release from the Missouri Secretary of State’s office:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, February 23, 2012

[….]

Secretary of State’s Office Receives Tentative State Senate District Maps

Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan released the following statement after the State Senate Reapportionment Commission filed tentative district maps with her office:

   “Absent any further action by the state legislature or Missouri courts, candidate filing will begin on Tuesday, February 28, as state law requires.

   As it currently stands, citizens will be able to file to run for the congressional districts approved by the state legislature and the state House of Representative districts submitted by the Appellate Apportionment Commission in late 2011.

   Although our office has received the tentative Senate maps, the process for finalizing those boundaries remains incomplete until the conclusion of a 15 day public comment period. Because of that, candidates who intend to file for state Senate may consider waiting until after the final map is filed with our office.

   For anyone who chooses to file for state senate before the boundaries are finalized they may later withdraw, pay another filing fee and re-file in another district until filing closes on March 27 at 5:00 pm.”

It should also be noted that there are currently lawsuits pending challenging both the congressional district maps and state House of Representatives district maps.

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I have a sneaking suspicion that our candidate filing stories are going to go a long way toward feeding the blog content beast in the coming month.