Legislature OKs 4th district map

Some Republicans believe that minority Democrats got considerable political traction with the public after — according to the Democrats — the 2001 redistricting was seen as an unfair, highly partisan affair.

GOP legislative leaders said earlier Monday the preferred Plan L — which actually treats Democrat Matheson very well — must get a number of Democratic votes in the House and Senate, so as not to repeat the 2001 fiasco, or perhaps no plan would be adopted.

But once House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, promised them at least 13 Democratic votes, things began to move Monday afternoon.

Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, abandoned his attempt to include Morgan County into Matheson's redrawn 2nd District after he failed to get enough support in his Republican House caucus.

The suggested 2nd District, as approved Monday, really has no rural component. It is based in Salt Lake City, and stretches to include Park City and Snyderville Basin in Summit County to the east and north into Davis County, taking in North Salt Lake and part of Woods Cross. Putting Morgan County into the 2nd District would have added a rural component.

Rep. Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, co-chairman of the special redistricting committee, said at the start of the process, "we basically had a Republican plan" that had four heavily GOP districts that included both urban and rural parts. And the Democrats started with a plan that had one huge rural district and one very urban one.

In the end, said Clark, after both sides compromised greatly, they ended up with Plan L, which has, he said, three urban/rural districts and one urban district (Matheson's 2nd District.)

Utah Republicans made a big deal when recarving up the current three U.S. House seats in 2001 redistricting that all seats must have urban and rural areas — an objective pushed aside Monday to the complaint of Ferry and a few others.

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Contributing: Suzanne Struglinski

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com