Matheson backs labor chief for party leader

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is running in 2006, for example, backs the re-election of state GOP chairman Joe Cannon this year.

Matheson was asked if he believes he should have a major say in who the next Democratic state chairman is.

"Yes, I do," said Matheson, who added that Democrats throughout the West often contact him to ask how he can hold office in conservative, Republican-dominated Utah.

"You take stands that reflect what the people in your district want," said Matheson, who added he plans to seek re-election next year, win, and hold the seat for elections to come.

On other topics:

• Matheson said the federal high-level nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada, "is about dead" — both because of cost overruns and severe problems after it was recently learned that some scientists falsified site testing data.

"I heard in a telephone call today that Yucca will cost $58 billion" to complete. "That is a lot of money" that the debt-ridden federal government may not want to spend, said Matheson.

• While there is still a chance that Congress might vote to give Utah another U.S. House seat and give Washington, D.C., a voting House member as well, Matheson said the longer such a "balancing" debate continues, the less likely a vote is before the 2010 Census.

"I support temporarily expanding the House from 435 members to 437 members," he said, and a bill to do that has been reintroduced in the House. "It's ridiculous that the people of the district don't have a vote in Congress."

The political problem, said Matheson, is that after the 2010 Census, Washington, D.C., would still have one member, who would undoubtedly be a Democrat. Because of its growing population, Utah would keep the fourth seat, which would likely be a Republican.

But when the total number of House members dropped back to 435, who can say if that other "lost" seat would be a Republican or not "It only temporarily would be one more Democrat (from D.C.) and one more Republican (from Utah)," Matheson explained.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com