Candidate filing begins Tuesday morning

Current state law requires candidates to file between 8 a.m. on the last Tuesday in February and 5 p.m. on the last Tuesday in March, if they are running for elected offices being decided in the August primary and November general elections.

But, because there still are no final district boundaries drawn for the state's 34 Senate seats, 163 House seats and eight congressional districts, lawmakers had been considering a bill to delay the start of filing by a month.

Last Thursday, the House changed that proposal to a March 19 first-day-of filing, ending on March 31.

But the Senate didn't vote on the bill Thursday afternoon, because some lawmakers spent an hour discussing their unhappiness with the proposed new state Senate districts released at 12:30 a.m. Thursday by a special citizen's commission.

This afternoon, the House adjourned before the Senate even resumed debate on the bill.

So, procedurally, the legal steps required before a bill can be sent to the governor can't happen until at least Tuesday morning.

And the House won't resume its debate until 10 a.m. - two hours after the law requires filing to begin.

Meanwhile, Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green denied a request for a temporary injunction, filed today by a Columbia lawyer on behalf of Republican activist Molly Teichmann, whose previous lawsuit resulted in the Supreme Court's overturning the state Senate districts drawn late last year by a panel of six appeals court judges.