Former congressman Rob Bishop is taking his ball and going home, whining that the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission, charged with redrawing the state’s election boundaries, is biased toward urban areas. Does Bishop not know that Utah is an urban state, with more than 90% of its population living in densely populated areas? And that those areas have real problems that the federal government needs to address? If he doesn’t, what was he doing in Congress for all those years?
Under the current boundaries, Utah’s most populated area — Salt Lake County — has not been properly represented in Washington. The number one issue citizens consistently single out is our unhealthy air quality. Yet we have a representative, Chris Stewart, who doesn’t care about clean air, forsaking his constituents and consistently voting against measures to combat pollution and embrace clean energy. And let’s not get started on Burgess Owens, the Congressman from Another Reality. His performance in the halls of power is a consistent embarrassment and hardly representative of what matters in Salt Lake County.
In 2020, Salt Lake County voters rejected Stewart by almost 35 percentage points, Owens by almost 10 points. County voters also solidly rejected the man Stewart and Owens revere, Donald Trump.
Yet, we get stuck with Stewart and Owens anyway.
Rob Bishop doesn’t understand, or care, that the point of redistricting is to make elections fair and more representative of the will of the people. He simply wants to keep the status quo in power. His appointment to the commission was a mistake.
Salt Lake County voters deserve representation. Give it to us.
Terry Orme, Sandy
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