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Should lawmakers draw new congressional lines to favor rural candidates or urban ones? How many Republicans should they move from Davis County into Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson's district? How do they avoid a citizen uprising — like one this year over late, secretive moves to rewrite Utah's open records law — that could come over late, secretive changes in redistricting?

Those have been the major sticking points as in-fighting Republicans try to work out a stalemate over how to draw new congressional boundaries, according to lawmakers involved in behind-the-scenes talks. Late Thursday, several said they may have found a middle ground in a new map drawn by Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville.

They will see how well that map fares on Friday as it is presented to the joint Redistricting Committee at 9 a.m. in the Capitol. Reform groups and Democrats — who complain they are being left out of the final drawing process — plan to be on hand to protest the process.

Froerer's map gives the Senate its wish to keep all of Salt Lake City in Matheson's district and then draw boundaries to the west and south. It gives the House its wish to move more Republicans into Matheson's district. And it gives Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, his wish to keep everything north of Kaysville in his district.

"I think it's got the support of the Senate, and I feel it has support by at least the House members on the [redistricting] Committee. We'll see," Froerer said.

Attempts to draw new congressional boundaries came to a screeching halt late Tuesday when Senate and House Republicans — and current and potential members of Congress — argued over competing plans. A special session of the Legislature was recessed until Oct. 17 to allow time to seek compromise.

At the core of discussions have been two competing ideas backed by Senate and House Republicans.

The Senate earlier this week passed the same congressional plan that the Redistricting Committee had earlier endorsed after a long series of hearings. The plan cuts Salt Lake County into three slices, joining two of them with vast rural areas. The third, in western Salt Lake County, would be combined with western, rural Utah County. A fourth district would be in northern Utah.

Republicans say such a "pizza slice" plan would ensure that all of Utah's members of Congress would represent both rural and urban issues. Democrats say it is a ploy to dilute their votes in Democratic Salt Lake County to improve odds that Republicans would win all the congressional seats.

The House floated a different plan, which had not been endorsed by the committee. Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, the House chairman of the committee, said it came in response to concerns by Gov. Gary Herbert that the new 4th Congressional District in the Senate plan did not have enough rural area.

So the House plan, drawn by Rep. Don Ipson, R-St. George, added several rural counties to that district. It also cut Salt Lake County into four slices. And it completely redrew the 2nd Congressional District into what most lawmakers say is a much more Republican district than Matheson has now.

In Matheson's district, the Senate-backed plan would keep Salt Lake City whole, add Bountiful, go west to Tooele County and then southward to include most of southern Utah in sort of a "C" shape. The House-favored map would split Salt Lake City. The eastern third where Matheson lives would then go eastward to the Uinta Basin and then south to southern Utah in a backwards "C."

Numerous concerns emerged as the two plans battled — including that late changes proposed by the House had not been vetted fully in public hearings and could ignite public backlash akin to the furor that followed the rushed passage of HB477 this year. Public uproar forced lawmakers to repeal that bill, which revised open records law.

"What they [the House] are talking about isn't a modification. It's a complete rewrite," said Senate President Michael Waddoups.

Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said that among senators, "I think there was a sentiment that if we're going to look at a new map it has to go back through a public process."

Democrats say pushing the House proposal makes a mockery of the months of hearings to gather public input.

"This is corrupt," said Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis. "To be in there conniving … after the legislative process we've had is wrong. It's un-American."

Froerer said his compromise addresses such concerns with a map that is closer to the original committee-passed plan. Also, it will receive a public hearing on Friday and have time for public debate before lawmakers convene.

Another major stumbling block has been how the competing plans would affect urban and rural candidates and the partisan make-up of the districts.

Lawmakers interviewed said the Senate-passed plan would favor an urban candidate in the 2nd District, and that the House plan would favor a rural candidate — such as state Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, the former House speaker who said this week that he is "very, very involved in the exploratory stages" of a congressional bid.

Numerous legislators have said privately that the House appeared to be trying to help Clark. Several said that rivalries or animosities he has with some senators also hurt the chances of the House proposal.

Clark said he prefers the Ipson map because it would help ensure that southern Utah and rural parts of the state have a shot at electing a congressman, but not necessarily him.

"Everyone wants to have their voice heard, and in Southern Utah we feel like it's a difficult time being heard with such a large portion of the district in the Salt Lake Valley," Clark said

Froerer said his plan compromises by keeping Salt Lake City whole in Matheson's district and drawing its lines to the west and south, as the Senate wants. Others say that as the House has wanted, the plan would add more Davis County Republicans to Matheson's district. It also keeps Democratic-leaning east-side Salt Lake County areas such as Holladay and most of Millcreek out of that district and puts them in Bishop's district.

How to divide Davis County has been a major sticking point. Its legislators wanted to hold it together as much as possible, but putting more rural areas into the 2nd and new 4th districts led to raiding much of it to equalize populations.

Froerer said his map satisfies the major concerns by keeping everything north of Kaysville in Bishop's 1st District. Bishop had told lawmakers that too much of his district was disappearing and that he wanted to continue to represent areas like Kaysville, where many workers at Hill Air Force Base — a key part of his district — reside.

What's next

The Legislature's Redistricting Committee is scheduled to meet Friday at 9 a.m. in Room 445 of the Capitol to discuss options to resolve a stalemate over new congressional boundaries. The full Legislature is scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on Oct. 17 to address the issue.