Utah Legislature to Vote on New Congressional Map

[Ron Burgundy]

CQPolitics - The Utah legislature will meet in special session on Monday to debate a redistricting map adding a fourth congressional seat to the state’s delegation as part of a deal to give the District of Columbia its first voting representative in Congress.

Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. planned to call the session on Thursday to satisfy a demand by House Judiciary Committee chairman, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., to move a District of Columbia-Utah voting rights bill through his committee and possibly onto the House floor. Michael Mower, Huntsman’s communications director, said the new map would likely pass both chambers of the Utah legislature quickly, be signed by the governor and then forwarded to Washington by late on Monday.

But that may not be enough to satisfy conservative critics opposed to giving the District a voting seat in Congress, which some lawmakers insist can only happen if Utah also gets a fourth seat in the House. The bill (HR 5388) would increase the size of the House to 437 members to accommodate both desires.

Rep. Thomas M. Davis (news, bio, voting record) III, R-Va., and other supporters have expressed confidence the measure can pass Congress. But GOP leadership aides say no strategy has been decided for moving the bill in the lame-duck session beginning on Dec. 4. With the session expected to last only two weeks at most, it may be now or never for the bill to make it to President Bush’s desk.

Sensenbrenner did not like the original version approved by the House Government Reform Committee on May 18, which proposed an at-large seat for Utah. Instead, he wanted the state to sign off on four specific districts before moving the bill forward. The Utah legislature’s redistricting committee recommended a new map on Wednesday dividing the state into three Republican-leaning districts and an urban Democratic-leaning district.

Sensenbrenner’s office did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment on the bill, which will have to be amended to reflect the new map. But David Marin, communications director for the Government Reform Committee, said Davis, who chairs the panel, has already talked with Sensenbrenner and Majority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, about the bill’s prospects.

Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, a group dedicated to securing full voting representation for District residents, said he expects the Judiciary Committee to discharge the bill and move it to the floor by Wednesday under a rule. Zherka added that he believes there will be an “overwhelming response” in favor of the bill once it comes to a vote in the House.

Democratic lawmakers in Congress have been relatively quiet about the bill. But District Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a driving force behind the bill, said she would rather get it passed now than have to start the whole process over again in the 110th Congress.

Rep. Jim Matheson (news, bio, voting record), the only Democrat in the Utah congressional delegation, has said he would favor a map drawn by an independent commission rather than legislators. Matheson cosponsored the original version of the bill that included a new at-large seat for Utah. But spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend said he would vote for any bill that gives Utah a fourth seat.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also was a cosponsor of the original version of the bill. But Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said she would have to study any changes to the bill before deciding whether to support it.

And even if the measure gets through the House, it still must pass the Senate.

Zherka said Utah Republican Sens. Orrin G. Hatch and Robert F. Bennett have been working to get the bill put on the schedule if it passes the House.

“It is a civil rights issue that members will want to do. . . . They can end a difficult year and get Congress off on the right foot,” Zherka said.

But for now, said Will Edgar, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the issue is “an internal House matter.”

[motivez]

Can someone explain how a Congressional seat in Utah is related to the District of Columbia finally having representation in Congress?

Are they trying to pass it on the back of the Utah seat, or is there another thing that connects the two?

I don't really think I have much of an opinion on the DC thing. I think it's somewhat silly that there are people living in a city with no representation in Congress and that should probably be fixed, but I'm sure there's some decent reasons why it's like the way it is.

[Publius]

Perhaps Utah has so few Congressman per capita that it's necessary if they're going to add a seat for D.C.?

As it is right now, there is one Congressman per roughly every 750,000 Utah residents... But that isn't too odd, Texas has one per roughly every 710,000, Cali one per roughly every 680,000...