Governor Herbert: Please Veto this Last Minute Messy Map

By Kelli Lundgren

Hours of closed-door Republican caucus meetings on Monday to finalize Utah's redistricting maps delivered two surprise congressional maps. The first, a completely new map never introduced to the minority party or the public until that day, with Republicans claiming it was a modified citizen’s map, a Garber map. Garber was the first to deny it looked anything like his map, stating the only commonality was Utah’s state outline. The rest of everybody only needed a visual to concur.

The second map, SB3002, introduced that day eventually passed through the House and Senate. It was presented to Democrats and the public between 7:30 and 8 p.m. It looks similar to the map the Senate passed two weeks earlier, with the House realizing any map they present to the Senate needs to be similar to the Senate approved map, or else it will go back to the drawing board. Even that Senate map was a last minute surprise map replacing the six finalist maps voted on by the Legislative Redistricting Committee.

So SB3002 is now waiting on only a signature from Governor Gary Herbert to be implemented for the next ten years. And it is a messy map.

Outside of all the other political tragedies of this map, including a blatant dilution of Democratic votes and picking voters for potential candidates, it carves up neighborhoods in Salt Lake County without thought. The only thought was to achieve a “0” or “1” person deviation to secure the map from litigation.

So now we have a messy map that actually splits the centers of some homes. I viewed close up aerial photos of the new boundaries at the Capitol today. Lines also divide quaint neighborhood streets down their centers, zigzagging all over the place, curling around captured neighborhood squares. It’s just a menagerie.

The moral to this story: if Republicans had taken four days, one month, or even the full six months they used for the public road tour, they could have fine tuned their map. They could have had time to review cuts through neighborhoods and houses. But when you surprise your audience with a brand new map at the last minute, sloppy is what happens; and sloppy could rule for the next ten years.

The new map cuts West Valley City in half, which in reality happens when you attempt to divide the most populous county in the state. The city’s Republican Mayor Mike Winder says it’s okay. He finds it beneficial to have two U.S. Congress people to go to with concerns.

I have news for Mayor Winder: his city is urban and therefore will be on the back burner. If a Republican candidate acquires either or both of the Congressional districts West Valley City resides in, his or her directive will be to focus on acquiring federal land in rural areas. Urban cities get the backside of the deal here, even though ironically I guess a congressman or woman will be from an urban area; unfortunate for rural residents.

Good congressional maps are out there. If Governor Herbert vetoes this messy map, and goes back and selects the Fred Cox/Ben McAdams map, or the King/Garber Modified map, I cannot tell you how much goodwill he would be offering to the citizens of our state. He would be choosing either a bipartisan compromise map or a citizen’s map if he selects the King/Garber map. This alone would be a magnificent move to satisfy the public.

The King/Garber map is a compromise map, not what the citizens really asked for. But I strongly believe citizens are willing to compromise. Our Republican Legislature was not.

If Governor Herbert is as smart as I think he is, he would leverage a veto and a substitute citizen map for the messy map passed by the House and Senate. This goodwill act could help regain trust by the citizenry. This goodwill could last for a very long time. I’m predicting ten years.