Feb. 5 vote on 4th seat?

Several GOP legislators have looked longingly at the Washington, D.C., voting rights bill, wondering what they might do if Utah got a fourth seat before the 2010 Census.

Nearly all agree that with Utah's population growth the state will get a fourth seat after the next Census. But Cannon said he doubts Utah could get a fifth House seat then. "We'd need a population something like 2.8 million" in the state, "and we won't be there" by 2010, Cannon said.

Cannon said it was clear to him that Curtis drew an earlier four-seat redistricting plan a year ago with an eye to running for that new fourth seat. The district included Curtis' Sandy home.

But the version of the D.C. voting rights bill most likely to pass, said Cannon, would give Utah an at-large seat for the first round of voting. It would then be up to the Utah Legislature to redraw a four-district map for the 2008 and 2010 elections.

"They could adopt that map that Curtis likes, or draw any other one," noted Cannon.

In getting the 60 U.S. Senate votes needed to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and other backers wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post recently saying that denying voting rights to district residents would be akin to southern Democrats in Congress stalling voting rights for African Americans in the early 1960s.

The district is mostly filled with minorities, many of them African Americans. And setting the stage for Tuesday's vote along old civil rights lines may be smart politics.

In any case, Cannon predicted that things could move pretty fast in Utah if a compromise D.C. voting rights bill passes Congress soon.

It would make sense that Feb. 5 would be picked, since Utahns are already going to the polls statewide that day to vote on presidential candidates. Thus, it wouldn't cost taxpayers another $1.3 million— the usual cost of a statewide election.

And seating a new Utah congressman shouldn't be put off until after the regular 2008 November elections, because seniority is an important House definer for years to come, said Cannon.

"I agree that if we get a fourth seat, we should hold a special election to get seniority," said Curtis.

There are still some compromises that must be worked out, including whether the U.S. House would permanently go from 435 members to 437 members after the two new congressmen are accommodated until the 2010 Census.

"I think the House would drop down to 435 members again after the Census," said Cannon. Although some national Democrats may not like that, since population shifts from eastern Democratic cities in favor of Western GOP areas could mean Democrats would be giving up one House seat to the opposition.

Still, said Cannon, there is a lot of momentum toward giving D.C. residents a vote in the U.S. House, and Utah would piggyback on that momentum.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com