Lawmakers eye '07 vote

Lawmakers were just getting started Monday on redrawing the state's congressional districts for a possible fourth seat in the U.S. House, but that didn't stop them from thinking ahead to the next election.

That election could come as soon as mid-2007 if the lame-duck Congress decides to give Utah the additional seat before adjourning. And all three of Utah's just-re-elected U.S. House members would have to run again, as well as candidates in the new district.

"It would be a clean slate," said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, the co-chairman of a special legislative redistricting committee. "We'd have to elect four new congressional representatives."

Just how that election would be structured, though, remains to be seen. Bramble, the incoming Senate majority leader, said lawmakers would likely wait until the 2007 Legislature meets in January to figure out the special election process.

But Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, said he wanted to see candidates go through the regular nominating process at political party conventions. Committee members were told, however, that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. could speed up that process.

Buttars said after the meeting that he prefers using party conventions to select candidates because "it seems the most fair." Establishing that process now, Buttars said, "gives us an advantage of being more in control of our destiny."

The governor's office is already looking at exactly what would need to be done should Congress pass pending legislation, which would also give heavily Democratic Washington, D.C., a voting seat in the U.S. House for the first time.

"We really haven't had the opportunity to deal with the mechanics of the election," said Lisa Roskelley, a spokeswoman for the governor. "We don't have an exact proposal to put out there at this point."

Of course, there's no guarantee that Utah will get a fourth seat before the next census — in 2010. Even as the redistricting committee began sorting through proposed maps, some members questioned whether their efforts would amount to anything.

"It may be an exercise in futility," Bramble acknowledged to the committee. While the chances of action being taken are "'all over the map," he said, Utah lawmakers must move forward.

"It's incumbent on the state to pursue this and define a four-district plan, and let Washington do what they're going to do," Bramble said, adding it was accurate to assume that the Democrat-controlled Congress that takes over from the GOP in January won't take action.

Huntsman has said he'll call a special session of the Legislature to approve a map. The special session is expected to be held Dec. 1, following two days of public hearings in six cities throughout the state on Nov. 27 and 28.