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WASHINGTON - Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. warns that if Utah doesn't act quickly to create a four-district congressional map, the state may be in for a long wait to pick up an additional U.S. House seat.
Democrats, who triumphed in midterm elections and will take control of Congress beginning in January, could decide to abandon a plan coupling an extra seat for Utah with congressional voting rights for Washington, D.C., Huntsman warned.
"They could move forward unilaterally and take care of voting rights in Washington, without any kind of commensurate increase in representation for Utah," the Republican governor said. He called that prospect a "worst-case scenario."
"We have an open window. And it's going to close very quickly," Huntsman said.
Without some creative deal-making, Utah would expect to wait until 2012, after the next census.
But legislative leaders don't want to be rushed into rejiggering political maps. They balked last month at approving a hastily drawn four-district map, including a Democratic-leaning one for Rep. Jim Matheson, Utah's lone Democrat in Congress.
"We were being asked by Congress to have an up-or-down vote on a map drawn in the back room," Senate President John Valentine said Tuesday. "We're just not going to do that. . . . We really felt like it was important to have the process include public participation. We were not willing to just play Whac-a-Mole with the Congress."
Instead, state legislators may hold public hearings on the proposed map and then vote on it by Dec. 4 as a way to advance the tandem Utah/D.C. plan.
Chris Bleak, chief of staff to House Speaker Greg Curtis, said that today Republican leaders will take the proposal to their caucuses and "take their temperatures."
There could be some strong objections.
At least one member of the statehouse circulated a letter Tuesday calling the proposal the "fourth seat slippery slide," slamming the idea as one that would eventually hurt Utah and boost Democrats.
"In return for a Western, Republican Utah seat for possibly four years [until we get it legitimately in 2012] we give Washington, D.C., and the Eastern Democrats an extra seat forever," said outgoing Rep. David Cox, R-Lehi. "That doesn't seem like a fair trade."
Congressional Democrats have raised concerns that map-makers may attempt to redistrict Matheson out of his current seat into a more Republican district. The Legislature in 2001 gerrymandered the Democrat into a majority Republican seat, though Matheson has since won three elections in that district.
Though Congress may only be in session for one week in December, Huntsman says that's enough time to get the bill out of committee and passed by the House and Senate. He says the Legislature would not need more than one day in session to approve the map, but he didn't want to predict the outcome.
"That's completely their call," Huntsman said. "They'll take whatever we have and they'll develop their own conclusions."
In Washington, Ilir Zherka, executive director of the advocacy group DC Vote, said he was optimistic the machinations in Utah would yield good results and the bill could pass this year granting the ability for citizens of the nation's capital to have a full-fledged member of Congress.
"We've got the momentum," Zherka says, noting he agrees with Huntsman that getting the bill passed now is more helpful than waiting.