He said there's "a better than 50-50 likelihood" that Utah will get the new seat. If Congress doesn't agree that the state deserves a fourth seat now, Huntsman said, it could take another seven years, "a heck of a long time to be waiting."

A map unveiled by the governor last week showed the new fourth district would include the southern portion of Salt Lake County as well as six of the seven counties along the state's western border.

"Mine was only a rough-draft attempt," Huntsman said, describing it as "a very fair map."

It's not clear yet what Matheson, the lone Democrat in Utah's congressional delegation, thinks of the proposed new boundaries. Matheson's spokeswoman, Alyson Heyrend, said his opinion on the map is irrelevant.

Heyrend said Matheson would prefer to see the new districts set up and approved by an independent commission rather than by the Legislature. But Huntsman said that would take too long. "We don't have time to re-create the process, sadly," he said.

The governor, a Republican, said he wasn't trying to play politics with the redistricting. "All I'm doing is trying to argue in favor of doing what I think is in the best interests of the states," he said. "No politics; we just need a fourth district."

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