4-District Utah

[jimrtex]

The Utah legislature in special session passed the following 4-district redistricting bill, which is contingent on Utah being given a 4th seat, as part of a deal to give a representative to DC.

Maps begin at page 5 of the bill.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Matheson is basically safe under this.

[Verily]

Which of the new districts does Matheson live in, 2, 3 or 4? If he lives in 3, which I think has the bulk of his current district, a Democrat (like the Mayor of Salt Lake City, I forget his name) might stand a shot at District 2 as well.

Looks like they did a good job at nonpartisan redistricting (or at least ungerrymandered redistricting), too. Kudos to Utah.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

He lives in 2. The current map was gerrymandered to get rid of him basically, they split up Salt Lake City and gave his district that huge rural area in an attempt to get rid of him. He should have no problems in that 2nd district.

[7,052,770]

so will they hold 4 special elections later this year if Utah gets a 4th seat, or just 1?

[Verily]

so will they hold 4 special elections later this year if Utah gets a 4th seat, or just 1?

They'd have to hold at least 2. The new 3rd district contains almost none of the old 3rd district, and the new 2nd district consists mostly of areas that weren't in the old 2nd district.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Well, he can still run in the 3rd district. You just have to live in-state, and those people have been voting for him for a while. It isn't a gerrymander for Utah to break 3-1 Republican, either.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Well, he can still run in the 3rd district. You just have to live in-state, and those people have been voting for him for a while. It isn't a gerrymander for Utah to break 3-1 Republican, either.

He'd have a much better chance of winning in the 2nd, which is probably the most similar district population-wise even if not area-wise. Plus the new 3rd district contains Utah county, which pretty much eliminates the chance of any Democrat winning it.

Basically the new 2nd district is safe for Matheson, all other districts are safe GOP.

[Cubby]

I've heard this plan before, that Utah and DC each get an extra seat.

Does this mean that the bill will pass and DC gets their own rep? It would have been bigger news if it happened already.

The map looks okay. They should just make sure that Utah County and Summit County (Park City) are in separate districts.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Park City should be in Matheson's district in this map. So it appears that contrary to DWTL's delusional hackishness, Matheson is far far safer under the new map.

[Cubby]

Park City should be in Matheson's district in this map. So it appears that contrary to DWTL's delusional hackishness, Matheson is far far safer under the new map.

Thats good.

And Verily, the Mayor of Salt Lake City is Rocky Anderson, a great Democrat by Utah standards.

[minionofmidas]

He lives in 2. The current map was gerrymandered to get rid of him basically, they split up Salt Lake City and gave his district that huge rural area in an attempt to get rid of him. He should have no problems in that 2nd district.

Are you sure? It includes pretty much all the rural parts of Utah that have any sort of democratic tradition...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

He lives in 2. The current map was gerrymandered to get rid of him basically, they split up Salt Lake City and gave his district that huge rural area in an attempt to get rid of him. He should have no problems in that 2nd district.

Are you sure? It includes pretty much all the rural parts of Utah that have any sort of democratic tradition...

It was still much tougher for him than the old district.

This was the old map:

[Verily]

I think the below is the old map, not that one:

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

no, that's the current map. The above map is the pre-2002 one.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Side note: Check out the ad of the guy who ran against Matheson this year. Try not to throw up: http://youtube.com/watch?v=coJlRueuhwI

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The old 3rd had a Democratic congressman in the early '90's; lost his seat in '96 IIRC.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The old 3rd had a Democratic congressman in the early '90's; lost his seat in '96 IIRC.

He survived 1994?

[socaldem]

I think the new 4th district from Salt Lake County down to Washington County could potentially elect a very conservative Democrat.  

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I think the new 4th district from Salt Lake County down to Washington County could potentially elect a very conservative Democrat.  

How many Democrats are left in Tooele county these days?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The old 3rd had a Democratic congressman in the early '90's; lost his seat in '96 IIRC.

He survived 1994?

Yes. I think he lost in '96 because of Clinton's environmental policies or something.

[jimrtex]

The old 3rd had a Democratic congressman in the early '90's; lost his seat in '96 IIRC.

He survived 1994?

Yes. I think he lost in '96 because of Clinton's environmental policies or something.

Clinton went to Arizona and announced that he was designating a huge area of Utah as wilderness area.

[jimrtex]

Looks like they did a good job at nonpartisan redistricting (or at least ungerrymandered redistricting), too. Kudos to Utah.

The bill being considered in Congress specified that the 4th Utah seat would be at large.  Apparently, that was the part of the deal to get the bill out of committee.  Democrats didn't want to give a seat to the GOP, and the GOP didn't want to give a seat to DC alone.  So they compromised and let the Democrats screw around with Utah a little bit.

In switching from 3-districts to 4, it makes the most sense for the two outside districts to give up 1/4 their population to the central district, and then split the expanded district in half.  The Democrats were afraid that would flip their one seat.  They were willing to give up on the at large seat if they could avoid redistricting.

When hearings were held before the Constitution subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee in September, one of the legal experts testified that not only was the plan to give DC a representative suspect constitutionally, but he had a question about the at large seat.  There were also apparently rumors about amending the bill.  Del. Norton was frantic in trying to get assurances that it wouldn't happen.

Governor Huntsman called a special session to redistrict a 4th seat, so it appears that there was some sort of attempted deal to push the bill through Congress if amended to have 4 districts.  But it may have required that Utah demonstrate a fair plan before it could go through Congress.  In any event, the bill died when Congress adjourned.

When the Utah Senate took the vote, the Democrats whined, not because the redistricting was unfair, but they wanted to complain that there wasn't an independent redistricting commission.  But they voted for the bill anyway.   The 4 votes against it were based on opposition to representation for DC (by legislation).

[jimrtex]

so will they hold 4 special elections later this year if Utah gets a 4th seat, or just 1?

It is not clear.  The current 3 have been elected for a term of 2 years.  I don't see how you could throw those results out.  And I don't think you could let voters who had participated in the selection of one of three, also vote for another representative as well.  So maybe it wouldn't take effect until 2008 (which would also give time for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of DC representation).

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

so will they hold 4 special elections later this year if Utah gets a 4th seat, or just 1?

It is not clear.  The current 3 have been elected for a term of 2 years.  I don't see how you could throw those results out.  And I don't think you could let voters who had participated in the selection of one of three, also vote for another representative as well.  So maybe it wouldn't take effect until 2008 (which would also give time for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of DC representation).

Or all three Utah Representatives could agree to resign and trigger a statewide special election.  I imagine that there would likely be a lot of pressure for them to do so.

[jimrtex]

so will they hold 4 special elections later this year if Utah gets a 4th seat, or just 1?

It is not clear.  The current 3 have been elected for a term of 2 years.  I don't see how you could throw those results out.  And I don't think you could let voters who had participated in the selection of one of three, also vote for another representative as well.  So maybe it wouldn't take effect until 2008 (which would also give time for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of DC representation).

Or all three Utah Representatives could agree to resign and trigger a statewide special election.  I imagine that there would likely be a lot of pressure for them to do so.

But I'd think that would make their current district seats vacant.