By Kristina Whitley
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, will present his ideas on how to redraw the state”s Congressional boundaries today at the Legislative Redistricting Committee meeting.
“The map I will present to the legislative committee demonstrates, I believe, how the interests of the voters and the guidelines of our Constitution can be met,” Matheson said.
For months, state Republicans and Democrats have been arguing over how to redistrict the state to accommodate population changes discovered in the 2000 census. Forty-two thousand voters need to be added to Matheson”s 2nd District, but how to do that has created a politically-charged mess.
Reps. Chris Cannon and Jim Hansen, both R-Utah, originally presented a map which would have drastically altered the boundaries of all Utah districts, creating three “part-urban, part-rural,” majority Republican districts.
State Democratic leaders also presented a redistricting plan which would have kept the 2nd District entirely in Salt Lake County, but also would have shoved Hansen”s 1st District from north and western rural Utah to north and eastern rural Utah.
Matheson decried both plans as unnecessarily disruptive to Utah voters, and promised earlier this month to present his own redistricting map. The Redistricting Committee will meet today at 2 p.m. in the State Capitol. The meeting is open to the public.
