Mayor Corroon and former Congressman Hansen sign petition

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(KCPW News) Former Republican Congressman Jim Hansen joined Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon on the steps of the Capitol today to sign the Fair Boundaries petition.  It’s a proposal to create an independent commission that would draw the state’s political boundaries.  Hansen, who has also served in the state legislature, believes his own party tried and failed to kick Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson out of office by gerrymandering his district.

“If anybody’s shot themselves in the foot, it was the Republican party.  They turned Jim Matheson into a giant.  He’s a very formidable person,” he said.  “To go after someone for reapportionment is a terrible way to do business.  That’s not the way we’re supposed to do it.   The people do that.  Read the Constitution; it’s ‘we the people,’ not ‘we the gerrymanderers.’”

Hansen added that redistricting is not a partisan issue.

Mayor Corroon noted that Salt Lake County is divvied up among all three of the state’s Congressional districts, and linked gerrymandering with poor voter turnout.

“In Utah, gerrymandering has become an art form.  Winners of elections are increasingly determined by who is drawing the districts.  In Utah, as elections become less competitive, the incentive for meaningful campaigning goes down, and of course, voter turnout goes down,” said Corroon.

Corroon and Hansen’s signatures are just two of the 95,000 the petition will need to put the Fair Boundaries Initiative on the ballot in November 2010.  But because of the state constitution, even if a redistricting commission is created, the legislature will still have the final say over the state’s political boundaries.