Giving Matheson more liberal district good for GOP

A number of Utah politicians, or wanna-be politicians, are squirming in their seats these days, trying to figure out if they will run for the U.S. House next year.

More than a few are daily checking the progress of the Washington, D.C., voter-rights bill, now stalled in the U.S. House.

Utah would get a fourth seat under the bill.

If it passes, the current three House members from Utah would get new districts in the 2010 elections.

And a new fourth seat would be carved out in southern Salt Lake County, flowing southward down the west side of the state.

Current Rep. Jim Matheson's 2nd Congressional District would no longer be one of the largest geographically in the nation — but would become a more-Democratic seat, containing Salt Lake City, northern Salt Lake County and all of Summit County. Matheson is the only Democrat in Utah's congressional delegation.

Some Republicans are already grumbling that Utah — one of the reddest states in the nation — should not be giving Democrats a relatively safe U.S. House seat here.

Instead, they argue, Matheson's district should be carved up even more (maybe taking in some conservative strongholds in Davis County or even a larger chunk of Utah County) to get him out of office and make Utah's U.S. House delegation all Republican, as it was in the good ol' days of the mid-to-late 1990s.

But here are my arguments on why giving Matheson a safer Democratic seat makes good political sense for Utah Republicans, especially in the long term:

First, Matheson has convinced many of his Republican and independent constituents that he's a reasonable, moderate politician. I could throw a lot of statistics at you, but overall, Matheson has voted conservatively for a Democrat, and he gets great GOP crossover votes and dominates among independent voters.

His 2008 re-election victory was his largest.

Thus, Matheson would be tough to beat in just about any redrawn 2nd District that included large chunks of northern and eastern Salt Lake County. And it would be tough to redraw his district in a way that didn't include at least parts of those traditional 2nd District areas.

Second, putting Matheson in a more Democratic seat increases the likelihood he'll stay put in 2010 — even in 2012, if his 2nd District isn't greatly changed again after the upcoming census.