Unless the Missouri Senate takes up and passes a bill Monday afternoon, the candidate filing dates for all offices on the August primary and November general election ballots will begin at 8 a.m. next Tuesday.
The state House passed a bill Thursday afternoon that moves the filing dates back to March 19, but the Senate never took a vote on the House-passed measure - after a number of senators spent about an hour complaining about the proposed new state Senate districts adopted by a citizen's commission about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, who sponsored the original bill to move the filing dates back to March 27, told reporters he stopped Thursday's debate "out of respect to some of my colleagues" who are upset with the proposed new Senate districts map.