D.C. wrangling hurts Utah's 4th-seat plans

It looks more and more like Utah will not be getting a fourth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives before the 2010 Census.

As you may know, the District of Columbia and a number of national Democrats are trying to get a bill passed by Congress that gives the district its first full-fledged representation in the U.S. House.

In recent years, the delegate from the district has been able to introduce legislation and vote in committees. But, like other delegates from U.S. territories, the district representative can't vote on the House floor for final passage of any measure.

The district is overwhelmingly Democratic.

And since Congressional Republicans aren't going to just give the opposition another vote in the House — which has been closely split between the two parties in recent years — district advocates placed in their legislation another seat for Utah — which is set to get another seat after the Census anyway.

Utah would elect a Republican, very likely, and the district would elect a Democrat, and political life in the U.S. House would continue normally.

Well, that's the argument.

But when the district bill came up for final vote two weeks ago everything fell apart.

President Bush's administration issued a statement saying the bill is likely unconstitutional, and the president may veto it. That changed the internal politics, and the district bill was held by the majority Democrats. District voting advocates say all can be worked out. We'll see.

But Utah's fourth seat has just been along for the ride, as the more important issue (at least from Congress' view) is district representation.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Utah, there has been some subtle politics going on.

The bill as written would create an at-large U.S. House seat from Utah until redistricting in 2011. No Democrat has won a statewide race here since former Attorney General Jan Graham did it a decade ago. And the attorney general race is not as overly partisan as, say, the governor's contest.

In short, I don't see a Democrat winning a statewide congressional race. It would be akin to a U.S. Senate race here, and the last Democrat to win one of those was Sen. Frank Moss in 1970.