Nonpartisan redistricting panel unlikely
Friday, December 8, 2006(Deseret Morning News)
Nonpartisan redistricting panel unlikely
Not unexpectedly, U.S.
House GOP leadership
announced this week that the Utah/D.C. extra
seat bill will not be
heard during a four-day lame-duck session that
is supposed to end
Friday night.So whether Utah gets a fourth U.S. House seat and the District of Columbia gets a full voting member apparently will be decided in the new, Democratic-controlled Congress starting next month.
Utah legislators went through a well-publicized, three-week process of forming a special redistricting committee, holding six hearings around the state and meeting in a special session Monday to adopt a new four-seat plan — as GOP House leaders demanded.
Should Congress give Utah a fourth seat before the 2010 Census, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, would end up in a much more Democratic 2nd Congressional District.
But since Utah and national Republicans have thrown everything at Matheson except the kitchen sink in his recent re-elections, giving him a safer 2nd District isn't much of a consolation.
Indeed, finding little fault with the proposed four-seat map, local Democrats have used the Utah/D.C. debate to argue that a nonpartisan redistricting commission be adopted and redraw legislative and congressional seats following the 2010 Census.
To which various GOP legislators tested — again — the gullibility of Utah residents by claiming that the Legislature should redraw the districts because lawmakers know their areas better than any commission could, that no group is really nonpartisan and without political bias, and blah, blah, blah.
Republican legislators are never going to give up the power of redrawing their own legislative districts. And while the minority Democrats may, now, push for a nonpartisan commission, I'm guessing if they ever got a majority in the House and Senate, they, too, would find reasons for not adopting a nonpartisan redistricting commission — like they would have to redraw the GOP-gerrymandered districts at least once to make things "fair."
Democratic legislators were, admittedly, given much more say in the four-seat redistricting that just took place.
Part of that is because GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., reading the political tea leaves of Congress, demanded that Matheson be well taken care of. And part was because GOP lawmakers no doubt knew they couldn't beat Matheson no matter how they drew his 2nd District and so decided to just not be so hard-nosed.
Besides, except for the few legislators who hope to run for Congress some day, most lawmakers aren't that interested in U.S. House district lines. But they are really interested in how their own legislative districts are drawn.
As I recall, in 2001 when the Legislature debated a new redistricting plan for legislators and U.S. House members, there was little talk about a four-seat plan that was adopted then.
An aside here: In his House blog, Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, says that it is "dumb" for media editorials to keep saying that legislative Democrats have little say in House and Senate decision-making.
He goes on to point out that each legislator has the same rights, voting privileges and debate opportunities as any other.
Apparently Urquhart never read Animal Farm, where pigs ran the show — to paraphrase: All legislators are created equal, but some are more equal than others.
This observer will continue watching and commenting (Urquhart terms it "whining") on the Utah Legislature.
Anyone care for some pig swill?
There will be an abundance of it when the Legislature convenes its general session Jan. 15.
Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com