Bishop 'pumped up' over his House service in first term

When the Legislature redistricted the state's congressional districts and divided Salt Lake County between the three districts, it converted the primarily rural 1st District into a semi-rural, semi-urban district with sometimes competing interests. At times, "he's probably placed more priority on the rural areas," Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson said, but when needed, Bishop has been a good representative with a "very responsive and accessible" staff.

Even with those competing needs, Bishop — like Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, both R-Utah — has cooperated with city leaders when necessary. But the city, which is represented by both Bishop and Salt Lake resident Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, would be more effectively served with one congressman who was focused on their interests, Anderson said.

"We were clearly better off when the entire city was in one district," he said. "I think when Salt Lake City was sliced up, it disenfranchised the residents."

Logan Mayor Doug Thompson had similar feelings, although he felt that it was better for Cache County to have a congressman from a rural area instead of a Salt Lake City resident. Bishop has "served Logan well," he said, and will hopefully continue to represent Logan.

"If our representative was from Salt Lake City, it might be different," Thompson said. "But Bishop is from a rural area, and he treats us well."

Bishop said he does not see as much of a difference between the rural and urban constituents, since most of them come from the same political ideology. Additionally, many of the rural issues — land use, nuclear waste, wilderness — have an impact on the lives of Utahns throughout the state, not just those physically adjacent to the areas in question.

"I'm very conservative, which I'm proud of because so is my district, and so is the state," he said.

Born in Kaysville and currently residing in Brigham City — the hometown of his wife, Jeralynn — Bishop has lived his entire life in the 1st District. He's also represented the area as an elected official for a good portion of his adult life, first serving 16 years in the Utah House of Representatives. For him, politics has always been one of his primary interests, starting during his high school years, continuing as a high school teacher on the subject and never diminishing.

It's this lifetime of work within the district that he feels makes him uniquely qualified to represent it. Whether it is creating wilderness in the west desert, bringing more work to the district's military installations or keeping high-level nuclear waste off of the Skull Valley Indian Reservation, he felt that he was doing what was best for the residents of the district and the state.

"We tried to do things that were beneficial to the lives of Utahns," he said.

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