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WASHINGTON - Utah's lone Democrat in Congress may get carved into a Democratic-leaning district under a plan Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and legislative leaders are pushing as a way to drum up support for Utah to get a fourth congressional seat.
Huntsman, House Speaker Greg Curtis and Senate President John Valentine - all Republicans - endorsed a map Wednesday for four congressional districts, in which Matheson would represent northern Salt Lake County and Summit and Morgan counties.
Matheson was first elected in a district that was wholly within Salt Lake County, but was gerrymandered into a more Republican district stretching from Salt Lake City's Avenues all the way to the Utah-Arizona state line.
The state leaders' move comes as an attempt to assuage congressional Democrats' fear that if they vote to give Utah a fourth U.S. House seat, Matheson would be merged into a district more Republican than his current area. A bill awaiting action in Congress would grant Republican-dominated Utah another House seat as a way to counterbalance a seat for the Democratic haven of the District of Columbia, which currently has no voting member of Congress.
''It is imperative that we come together and do what is best for Utah," said Huntsman. "Clearly, it is in our best interest to gain a much needed and deserved fourth seat."
Curtis and Valentine endorsed the map as well, hoping that the new 2nd Congressional District map would help get a congressional vote on the legislation to get a fourth seat.
Currently, the legislation would have the fourth seat elected at-large until after the next census, but House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner has said he will support the bill only if the new House member would be elected in a normal district. That's a sticking point for Matheson and other Democrats who worry about GOP gerrymandering.
Matheson's spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend refused Wednesday to comment on the new proposal.
"This is the governor's map, and the Republican leaders' map," Heyrend said. "They're going to have to answer questions about the map. It's not Matheson's map."
In a statement, Matheson said there was a compromise bill that took partisanship out of the formula, "until one member of Congress blocked the bill's progress. If it gets unstuck, I look forward to voting for it. But clearly, the ball is in the majority party's court."
Heyrend did say that Matheson will vote for the bill to give Utah a fourth seat - with or without the at-large provision - if it makes it to the House floor.
That could be a long shot.
U.S. House Democratic Whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said a previous compromise to have the fourth seat temporarily elected at-large was a good deal and had won "overwhelming bipartisan support."
"That agreement should stand," Hoyer said in a statement. "Further, members of Congress ought not be in the business of drawing their own congressional maps. That is a dangerous precedent that is not in the interest of voters."
Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, acknowledged the map was "far better" than what Republicans proposed in 2001, but he criticized the state leaders for not including Democrats in the discussion.
"Once again we're back to politicians choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians," Taylor said. "It's characteristic of their past tactics of packing and splitting [the Democratic areas]. If you can't split them enough, you pack them" into one district.
Taylor says he puts no stock in this actually passing the Republican-dominated Legislature.
But Curtis, who huddled Wednesday with the governor and Valentine to create the map, said he believes the new district drawings would pass with "pretty strong bipartisan support."
"I don't want to speak prematurely, but I think my colleagues on either side of the aisle will know the value of a fourth seat," Curtis said. "I don't think you can craft a seat any more Democratic than what this is."
The map would have to be tweaked, state leaders admit, because some districts have too many people and some too few.