Embarassing Tidbits!

By Kelli Lundgren

Here is the email message I sent to Senator Davis that the GOP is up in arms over:

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Sent October 5, 2011

Hi Senator Davis,

Where do you stand on McAdams' Compromise Map, the one with the revisions to keep Utah County cities together? Are you still wanting the donut hole map? If, say, 100 citizens showed up on Friday to suggest a better map; do you think we should try to push the fair map, the donut hole map; or McAdams if it has a better chance?

McAdams' map: http://www.redistrictutah.com/maps/congress-sen-mcadams-06-10411

Thanks for all you have done on the committee.

Kelli

Kelli Lundgren
RepresentMeUtah!
801-915-7515

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This email correspondence had nothing to do with a rally as was suggested in the Salt Lake Tribune (GOP: Democrats are hypocrites on redistricting, Dec. 10, 2011). It had to do with Represent Me Utah! preparing for an upcoming legislative redistricting committee meeting after the committee surprised citizens and reform groups with a never-before-seen U.S. Congressional Map.

Astonishingly, just a few weeks earlier, the legislative redistricting committee discarded six map finalists, selected after months of work, including one last doughnut hole map, and replaced all with the surprise map. In my message to Senator Davis, I was asking him as a committee member if he would be receptive to a "100 in-person" plea at the next public committee meeting to ask the redistricting committee to compromise, to vote for a modified "pizza slice" plan drawn by Senator McAdams. I asked a Democrat, Davis, because he had wanted a doughnut hole map previously. I asked him if a compromise map would have a "better chance" to receive a "yes" vote by committee members (Republican and Democratic). Davis' response could have been: The Democrats were sticking with a doughnut hole map proposal without compromise. But RMU needed their support on any compromise. The bigger feat for RMU was support from Republicans.

In the end, Republicans rejected the compromise map and all U.S. Congressional map submissions that met the request of the majority of citizens. (The majority of citizens, both urban and rural, favored a doughnut hole plan based on our analysis of public meetings and media polls.)

Before all this came down, RMU had endorsed House and Senate maps from Republicans Fred Cox and Wayne Harper.

Represent Me Utah! wasn't doing any dirty work for the Democrats. Contrarily, we were asking for the Democrats' help. Any help that meets the overall desire of citizens is good help, no matter which political party it comes from.

The GOP's spin on my email is certainly interesting. I'm wondering why only one? Why not list all my emails to all the Republicans and Democrats on the committee and in the legislative body? I certainly received finger cramps in the last days.

Kelli Lundgren