JEFFERSON CITY — Three years ago, hardline members in the Senate Republican supermajority demanded the redrawing of Missouri’s congressional districts to flip one of the last two Democratic seats to the GOP.

Party leaders derided them as delusional and foolish. Colleagues and pundits branded them as grandstanders . The proposal was rejected by a bipartisan majority.

This past week, the hardliners got their way. Urged on by President Donald Trump, nearly every Republican senator voted to gerrymander a new GOP seat. Then they rammed through a plan asking voters to severely limit citizens’ ability to change the state constitution by gathering signatures on a petition. To do it: They cut off debate in the Senate, something long considered sacred, for the fourth time this year, the most

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