One Democratic state lawmaker stormed out of a redistricting meeting last week. Another left right after the vote. And a third was left to try to counter the Republican version of events.
    Welcome to map-drawing, Utah style.
    The latest example of minority vs. majority, winner-takes-all American politics was set during meetings last week when lawmakers used sophisticated software to shift the boundaries of Utah's three congressional districts to add a fourth.
    It's a scene that's normally repeated every 10 years. And with each decade, Republican lawmakers - who outnumber Democrats nearly three to one in Utah's Statehouse - reinforce their majority by adjusting legislative and congressional voting maps to protect GOP candidates.
    A similar scenario plays out in most states. Sometimes the Republicans are in charge; sometimes the Democrats.
    Salt Lake City Democratic Rep. Roz McGee wants to take the politics out of the process by creating an independent redistricting commission.
    Picking up where others have left off, she's sponsored legislation the past two years, trying to reform Utah's redistricting process. And each year, her bills have been squashed by Republican law- makers.
    "That is the ebb and flow of what we enjoy in a democratic process," said Draper Republican Rep. Greg Hughes last February, before GOP members of the Government Operations Committee killed McGee's bill.
    The doomed proposal would have required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to approve any new voting map.
    Undaunted, McGee is back this year and she has returned to her original concept: a nonlawmaker redistricting commission appointed by Democrats and Republicans.
    "Redistricting is a political process," says McGee. "But it is not appropriate to have legislators choosing their own districts."
    Five years ago, GOP lawmakers used state Republican Party data on voting patterns to rework legislative boundaries, combining eight Democratic lawmakers' districts into four. And they made Congressman Jim Matheson's district more Republican. In the end, Democrat Matheson still won, but three minority-party members overall were eliminated from the Legislature.
    GOP lawmakers also refused to consider information about race and ethnicity of voters in drawing boundaries. The Wall Street Journal editorial page at the time called Utah's redistricting map a scam.
    McGee's legislation would require amending the state Constitution to establish a commission, determine qualifications for its members and bar them from running for office.
    Not surprisingly, minority Democrats like the idea. State Democratic Party Director Todd Taylor says he would rather boycott redistricting than give an air of bipartisan legitimacy to Republican lawmakers' efforts.
    "The system is so entirely and totally corrupt. We have reached an impasse," Taylor said. "If it were up to me, there's no way we could play, because they're going to do what they're going to do. Why lend credence to the pretense?"
    Some Republicans, after having more Democrats scooped into their districts, also have been rebuffed in attempts to reform redistricting. Former legislator Kim Burningham and current West Valley City Rep. Ron Bigelow tried and failed to take redistricting out of the hands of partisan lawmakers. Congressman Jim Hansen retired from his seat four years ago after lawmakers dramatically changed his district.
    Acting state Republican Party Chairwoman Enid Greene said she is willing to discuss setting up a redistricting commission. But she believes other states or Congress should act simultaneously to unify the redistricting process across the country.
    "It's an unpredictable, messy process. The time has come to look at it again," Greene said.
    And Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., also Republican, would consider a commission.
    "Obviously, a redistricting commission wouldn't have worked during the compressed time period we're under to draw the fourth congressional seat. But long-term, it's an idea he is open to," said spokesman Mike Mower.
    walsh@sltrib.com