This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Gov. Gary Herbert may have done a little arm-twisting toward making a congressional district a bit more friendly for Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, perhaps hoping as critics once charged but Herbert has denied that it would persuade Matheson not to run instead for governor against him.
Documents obtained through an open records request show that a key lawmaker felt Herbert intimated he would veto a version that included more conservative, rural areas in Matheson's 2nd Congressional District than a final plan eventually would. That helped lead to a two-week standoff between the House and Senate.
But little else is revealed about Herbert's thought process on redistricting because his office declined to release any documents that it says would "reveal the Governor's contemplated policies or contemplated courses of action." The Salt Lake Tribune appealed that Monday, arguing the governor's office based the decision on a misreading of the open records law.
Also, documents that were provided showed that the governor received 502 emails urging him to veto the final map, and only three asked him to sign it but one of those three read, "be Stupid sign the bill dummy [sic]" from Frank P. McNeil.
During the redistricting debate, Morgan Philpot the Republican who ran against Matheson last year accused Herbert of pushing for a friendlier map for Matheson so that he would not run for governor. Herbert denied that and told the media he was not pressuring lawmakers to do anything but draw a fair and balanced map that had a mixture of rural and urban areas in each district.
Now, an email released from Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, the House chairman of the Redistricting Committee, shows the governor's staff exerted pressure on lawmakers during a meeting.
Sumsion's email asked "if the governor will veto any plan that is short of these expectations" outlined by his staff "since Ally [Isom, the governor's spokeswoman and deputy chief of staff] alluded to it at the end of our meeting. We are now simply trying to find common ground with the Senate."
Sumsion sent that email after the House and Senate had deadlocked on plans and called a two-week timeout to seek compromise. Sumsion said at the time that the governor and many House Republicans did not like a plan passed by his committee and the Senate because it did not have enough rural lands in a new 4th Congressional District.
That district originally was drawn to include only western Salt Lake and Utah counties. The House later proposed to combine it with numerous rural counties taken out of a Senate-proposed 2nd District for Matheson, which might have made it more friendly for the Democrat. A final compromise included only portions of Juab and Sanpete counties in the 4th District with western Salt Lake and Utah counties.
Isom said on Monday that the governor never threatened a veto. "The governor gave guidance and principles by which he would judge outcomes ... and legislators inferred that the governor was threatening a veto when the word veto was never used in the conversation."
Sumsion said Monday, "Never overtly or directly was a veto threatened in that manner. But from some of the tone of the discussions, I wondered." So he said he was asking in his email how much room the House had to maneuver with the Senate in negotiations and still have the governor sign it into law.
Derek Miller, Herbert's chief of staff, replied to Sumsion's email at the time, saying Herbert "is not focused on any particular map or any particular boundaries but rather the principle that each congressional district should have an urban/rural mix so that each member of Congress is attentive to the needs of both constituencies."
Isom added Monday that Herbert "is not concerned about Matheson," and did not try to make a more friendly district for him. She added that Herbert wanted lawmakers to drive the process, twisted no arms, declined to tell lawmakers which maps he preferred, and when asked just restated his principles that he wanted fair districts.
The governor late last week told reporters that "redistricting is a complicated and emotional process and certainly politics have a bearing on what takes place out there. I think having an urban-rural mix was a good policy."
Herbert said the final map may not have been the one he would draw, but that "at the end of the day [lawmakers] did follow the law, it was reasonable and rational, and at the end of the day I would like to encourage people it's not the lines on the map that pick our elected officers. It's people that show up and vote."
Democrats argue that Republicans split up their one stronghold of Salt Lake County to improve odds that the GOP can win all four congressional districts and say they are considering a lawsuit challenging districts that they figure are at least 62 percent Republican (while the GOP says they are at least 59 percent Republican).
Meanwhile, Herbert's office declined to release any documents showing Herbert's reasoning or courses of action in redistricting, saying they are exempt from disclosure under a portion of Utah's open records law, commonly called GRAMA, that protects "records of the governor's office … that if disclosed would reveal the governor's contemplated policies or contemplated courses of action before the governor has implemented or rejected those policies or courses of action or made them public."
TheTribune appealed that decision, arguing that portion of the law is designed to avoid pre-empting an announcement by a governor through release of documents, but once decisions are made and announced, the exemption evaporates.
The governor's office also used that portion of the law to black out portions of documents that were released that also might have indicated the thought process of the governor's office, including notes on constituent emails sent to the office.
Many of the constituent emails used strong language and were passionate. "If you have an honest bone in your body, you'll veto this affront to democracy," said one from Ben W. Jensen.
But one of the few urging Herbert to sign the bill, from Doug Liddiard, said the "redistricting map was drawn by the Republicans because they won the elections. When the Dems win the election, they can draw their own boundaries where they want. Sign the bill, please."
Robert Gerhke contributed to this report.
What Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act says
63-G-305(29) • Protected records include "records of the governor's office, including budget recommendations, legislative proposals and policy statements, that if disclosed would reveal the governor's contemplated policies or contemplated courses of action before the governor has implemented or rejected those policies or courses of action or made them public."