SALT LAKE CITY — As citizens protested on Utah’s Capitol Hill Monday, legislators spent a long day in political posturing, negotiating and haggling in closed meetings over just how to carve up the state to create four U.S. House of Representative districts.
At press time, lawmakers were still in a stalemate between a map drawn by Utah House members and Senators. Check universe.byu.edu for updates.
After a day filled with numerous map substitutions to create the congressional districts, legislators were expected to vote on the final map late in the evening.
Since the 2010 Census gave Utah a fourth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a legislative committee has been studying ways to reapportion the states population among the fourth district. Legislators already approved maps for statehouse House and Senate seats.
In the end, Democrats opposed plans that would split up Democratic strongholds in the congressional district represented by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. Some maps under consideration would split Utah County’s populated area from its rural half west of Utah Lake.
Late into the evening, lawmakers were considering a revision of a map first proposed two weeks ago. Rep. Kenneth Sumsion, R-Lehi, said at nearly 8 p.m. he was hopeful the new map was a compromise the House could agree on, and was confident the Senate would concur if the map passed.
Earlier in the day, the House met to discuss other possible substitute maps, most of them variations of the senate map, SB3002.
Emotions were running high early in the day as the Republican House caucus voted to close their caucus discussions to the public. Rep. Brad L. Dee, R-Ogden, who conducted the meeting, claimed it was to protect the party from the lawsuit threatened by Jim Dabakis, chairman of the Utah Democratic Party. As members of the public and media filed out of the Republican caucus room, Dabakis was not pleased.
“They had a chance to do the right thing and they picked the wrong way,” Dabakis said.
Represent Me Utah organized a protest at 5 p.m. underneath the Capitol rotunda. There were shouts of “Let us in” and “Our house.” Strains of “To Dream The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha” and “God Bless America” echoed over the megaphone as the protest waned. Protesters expressed dissatisfaction with the map itself, as well as the lack of confidence in the process.
“It still dilutes votes,” Kelli Lundgren said of one of last proposed maps.
Lundgren organized Represent Me Utah out of the Utah Coffee Party and has been following the process since April.
“We showed up at almost every meeting across the state and back here at the Capitol,” Lundgren said. “So we’re here to follow through to the end on the process, no matter the outcome.”
Dabakis said he would take legal action against Republican Party members if a bill he considered unfair was passed.
“We are going to sue them if they continue to present these preposterous proposals,” Dabakis said.
