One thing stands in the way of this bipartisan triumph: Democrats in Congress don't trust Utah's leaders to fairly draw any new congressional map.
Hmmmmm. Wonder why they think that?
Utah Congressman Rob Bishop essentially admitted Tuesday that Utah is a hotbed of gerrymandering, dismissing the constitutionally odoriferous lines drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature last time as no harm, no foul.
Bishop noted that the state GOP did everything but cede Jim Matheson's home to Wyoming in its attempt to jigger him out of his seat in the last round of reapportionment. But, Bishop said, the state's sole Democratic member of Congress won anyway.
The plan, introduced by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., would get D.C. a real vote in the House of Representatives. That is something long sought by residents of the District - where the official licence plate reads "Taxation Without Representation" - as well as by congressional Democrats who have every demographic reason to believe that that new member would sit with them.
The deal is to amend, by statute, the number of representatives in the House from the current 435 to 437. D.C. would get one, and the state that came the closest in the last reapportionment - Utah - would get the other. As Utah is the reddest state this side of Mars, the idea is to maintain the balance of power by adding one member of each party.
Or maybe not.
National Democrats worry that, in turning three districts into four, Utah would again attack Matheson's base so that, instead of sending one more Republican to the House, Utah would send two more Republicans and one less Democrat.
There is a fair solution to this, of course, one that literally surrounds our state. Arizona, Idaho and Colorado are among 12 states that have handed their reapportionment duties from their legislatures over to independent, bipartisan commissions, where there is at least some hope of drawing lines that are compact, logical and might create seats within reach of either party.
Such a commission for Utah was a good idea to begin with. Actually creating one could go a long way toward proving that our state was worthy of extra representation in Washington.
