Image supplied, Utah Legislative Redistricting Committee

SALT LAKE CITY — The new 1st District U.S. House boundaries as proposed by the Utah Legislative Redistricting Committee expand into eastern Salt Lake City and incorporate more of Davis County, including about half of Farmington.

Hill Air Force Base remains in the district, as well as Weber County, including Ogden, and the rest of Northern Utah. Removed, though, is the swath east of Salt Lake City that encompasses Park City, Vernal, Duchesne and the Uintah Basin, which become part of the 3rd District under the proposed change.

The proposed redrawing — required to reflect the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau headcount and the state’s shifting population — remains focus of intense scrutiny and debate.

The proposed new district maps for the U.S. House, Utah House, Utah Senate and Utah Board of Education were to be debated Monday by the members of the redistricting committee, with the public also allowed to offer comment. A special legislative session is set for Tuesday when the full Utah Senate and Utah House will formally take up redrawing of the varied political districts, a once-every-10-years exercise.

Already, though, there’s been plenty of input. The co-chairs of the redistricting committee, Utah Sen. Scott Sandall and Utah Rep. Paul Ray, released the varied proposals late Friday afternoon and since then, many people have offered comments, most of them sharply critical.

Image supplied, Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office

Each of the online maps allows the public to offer feedback, and the proposed redrawing of the four U.S. House districts had garnered 794 comments as of early Monday afternoon. The proposed redrawing of the Utah House districts mustered 333 comments. In both cases, the comments were overwhelmingly negative.

Significantly, Salt Lake County is divvied four ways, a portion in each of the four U.S. House districts. That’s prompted criticism from some who see the proposal as a way to dilute the Democratic leanings in the county, the state’s most populous.

“This map completely disregards the separate identities and neighborhoods of every Utahn and is designed to oppress and indemnify this state’s great citizens who happen to reside in Salt Lake City,” Andrew James Somers said in one of the 794 online comments. He was offering input on the 1st District U.S. House map.

Sandall, though, said in a statement on releasing the maps Friday evening that the reconfiguration is designed to include both urban and rural areas in each district.

“Rural Utah is the reason there is food, water and energy in urban areas of the state. We are one Utah and believe both urban and rural interests should be represented in Washington, D.C., by the entire federal delegation,” Sandall said.

Following is more on the plan for the 1st District, the district that encompasses Ogden and Weber County, now served by U.S. Rep. Blake Moore.

It includes the Utah State Capitol, part of downtown Salt Lake City, The Avenues section of the capital, the University of Utah campus and the East Bench area of Salt Lake City. The current 1st District map doesn’t include any part of Salt Lake City, only extending as far south as the Farmington area in Davis County.

Moore, the Republican who currently represents the 1st District, lives in Salt Lake City, though it isn’t in the district under the current configuration. Federal law doesn’t require residency in the U.S. House district a representative serves, though Moore grew up in Ogden and has roots in the area.

However, under the proposed change, Moore could potentially become a 1st District resident. He doesn’t include his home address in his official filings with state or federal election officials, but according to the Salt Lake Tribune, he lives in the East Bench area of the capital, and the East Bench is included in the proposed new 1st District map.

Moore didn’t respond to a query on the residency question, but in a tweet offered thanks to the officials who have aided in the redistricting process. The Utah Independent Redistricting Commission, or UIRC, also put forward a series of proposed redistricting changes, which the Utah Legislative Redistricting Committee factored in putting forward its recommendations.

“I support the state legislature’s efforts to date and I am confident they will finalize the process appropriately, with a positive outcome for our state and country. As I have observed this process play out, and contrary to some public and media commentary, our state legislature appears heavily focused on communities of interest,” Moore wrote online.

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, who represents the 2nd District, remains within that district’s boundaries, but barely. Stewart is from Farmington, and the more northern portion of the city becomes part of the 1st District, cutting close to his home in the eastern part of the city.

Notwithstanding Moore’s praise, others were more critical of the legislative redistricting committee’s work.

“By pinwheeling Salt Lake County, lawmakers in the Republican supermajority are seeking to ensure that all four of Utah’s congressmembers will have no ability to truly serve their constituents,” the Utah Democratic Party said in a statement. “How could they, when West Valley is expected to have the same issues as Callao and St. George, when the (University of Utah) is grouped in with Brigham City, when Holladay is made to share a representative with Moab?”

The Alliance for a Better Utah, a progressive nonprofit group, issued a statement Monday signed by a long list of business and community leaders calling on lawmakers to abide by recommendations put forward by the UIRC, not the group of lawmakers.

“Throughout the state, Utahns are watching for the self-serving, backroom politics of prior redistricting cycles. We ask lawmakers and Gov. (Spencer) Cox to instead respect the will of the people by adopting the fair, balanced and transparent recommendations of the commission,” said the statement.

Newsletter