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Layton • As Democrats long feared because it would dilute their votes in the one stronghold they enjoy in Utah, a key Republican publicly proposed Thursday a redistricting plan that would split Salt Lake County among all four new U.S. House districts next year.

Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, the House chairman of the Legislature's Redistricting Committee, said his plan is designed so that "all four congressional seats represent all the interests of Utah" by having a rural-urban mix, combining the four slices of the county with rural areas elsewhere.

Democrats have said Republicans actually seek to hurt the re-election chances of Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. While Salt Lake County is so large it must be split at least once, Democrats say forming one district entirely within that county would create a relatively safe seat for Matheson — and make sense.

Agreeing is the Utah Citizens Counsel — with such members as former GOP Gov. Olene Walker and Chase Peterson, former University of Utah president. It has proposed four congressional maps, each of which includes an all-Salt Lake County district. The group said it made sense to keep as much of that county together as possible as a community of interest.

Sumsion said he is not firmly tied to his proposal and that he put it out simply to create more debate and to show what a four-slice plan for Salt Lake County — often mentioned by Republicans — might look like. He said he may make other proposals, also to spur debate.

Currently, Salt Lake County is split among three congressional districts — a configuration that nearly led to Matheson's ouster when it took effect a decade ago following the last redistricting.

Sumsion received immediate feedback on the four-way split proposal at the hearing Thursday — all negative from a long line of Davis County officials who did not like that his plan would also cut their county in half.

"It creates a Mason-Dixon Line," complained state Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton.

Layton Mayor Steve Curtis added, "To split Davis like that and create a north-south divide shouldn't happen. We should be kept whole."

Sumsion's proposal would create a district combining most northern Utah counties with the eastern counties of Duchesne, Uintah, Carbon and Daggett. Sumsion said he did that because Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, "is probably our best congressman on land issues," so he wanted to stretch his district to the oil and coal areas of eastern Utah.

Sumsion's current proposal would also cut Utah County in half, roughly following Interstate 15.

In Salt Lake County, the plan would keep its southeast quadrant in one district, the southwest quadrant in another; keep Salt Lake City, West Valley City, South Salt Lake, Holladay and part of Murray in another; and keep northeastern canyon areas together.

Also at the meeting on Thursday came the first proposal of how to combine some state House districts together in Weber County, which would force freshman Reps. Jeremy Peterson and Dixon Pitcher, both R-Ogden, into the same district.

Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, and a member of the Redistricting Committee, said slow growth in the past decade means Weber County must lose a seat, and fast growth in Davis County shows it should gain a seat. He is proposing the creation of a new district largely in Syracuse, which was one of the fastest-growing cities in the state.

The state House delegations in both Davis and Weber counties currently are all-Republican, so dissolving a seat in Weber means putting some Republican incumbents into the same district. Barrus said his plan avoids putting any other incumbents — besides Peterson and Pitcher — together in the same districts in Weber and Davis counties.

Lending support for the Barrus plan was Rep. Stephen Handy, R-Layton.

"It leaves compatible communities together, and makes a lot of sense in how people live and work," he said. —

Four hearings next week

The Redistricting Committee has scheduled four field hearings next week:

Ephraim • June 10 at noon at the Snow College Eccles Center for Performing Arts, 300 E. Center St.

Richfield • June 10 at 6 p.m. at the Snow College Richfield Campus administration building, 800 W. 200 South

Cedar City • June 11 at 10 a.m. at the Southern Utah University Hunter Conference Center Great Hall, 351 W. University Blvd.

St. George • June 11 at 3 p.m. at the Dixie State College Eccles Fine Arts Center, 225 S. 700 East