Ever since Ben McAdams conceded defeat in the 4th District House of Representatives race, I have been hearing people ask what he did wrong, what he should have done that he didn’t, etc., to win the election.
He might have done some things wrong. No one is perfect, especially in an election. I didn’t like the negative sparring that the national organizations added to the conversations, but both parties played that game.
But while the negative sparring might have influenced the election, that was not the real reason McAdams lost. He lost the election because of the way our Republican dominated Legislature gerrymandered the House districts to favor Republican candidates about ten years ago. I was involved in the redistricting process then. There was a lot of public input, and several plans were presented and approved by the public. Then our Legislature pretty much ignored those suggested plans and implemented its own plan, which those of us who were involved could see definitely met the definition of gerrymandering.
Our state Legislature’s gerrymandered districts clearly favor the Republican party candidates in all four districts, even though in Salt Lake County, with approximately 40% of the state’s population, the Democrats are nearly equal to the Republicans. It totally doesn’t make sense that while about 50% of Utah residents are not Republicans, it is so difficult for the “others” to elect even a quarter of our four U.S. representatives.
In 2018 the residents of our state, in hopes of reducing gerrymandering, passed an initiative which would require the creation of an independent redistricting commission for the next redistricting, which will take place after the next census. But the current district boundaries are the same gerrymandered ones adopted about ten years ago.
It was kind of a miracle that Ben defeated Mia Love in 2018.
Fred Ash, Sandy