Utah: Cracking Salt Lake City
Republicans say "thanks but no thanks" to Utah's independent redistricting commission.
Topline Takeaways
Republicans in the state legislature ignored proposals from a voter-supported independent redistricting commission in favor of their own map.
The new map splits Salt Lake County voters across all four districts and makes every district even safer for Republican candidates.
The new map is likely to face legal challenges alleging partisan gerrymandering but courts may choose not intervene. The judicial system has historically avoided strong rulings on the matter to avoid showing political bias toward either of the major political parties.
UPDATE: A coalition of advocacy groups and voters have filed a lawsuit in state court, challenging the new districts for partisan gerrymandering.
Who’s In Control?
In 2018, Utah voters approved Proposition 4 which established an independent commission to recommend new district maps for approval by the state legislature. While these recommendations could not be altered by the legislature (due to restrictions in Prop 4), they could still be rejected outright. That’s because the Utah Constitution specifies that the legislature holds the sole responsibility for creating new districts every ten years.
So what did the state’s Republican-controlled legislature do? They completely threw out all of the alternatives proposed by the independent commission and simply drew their own districts. Of course, many voters were incredibly angry with this decision. Below are just a sample of quotes from public comment hearings on the new districts:
“This gerrymander is technically legal, but it’s morally wrong. You are harming neighborhoods.”
“Please listen to the independent commission’s recommendations and stop playing politics.”
New District Breakdown
Utah’s congressional districts saw some significant changes as the new map cracks the coalition of urban, Democratic voters found in and around Salt Lake City. The new map slices and dices through Salt Lake County without much regard for its communities and even splits portions of the city into separate districts. The vast majority of the city sits in UT-2 as it did before but now UT-1 comes across the Wasatch Range into SLC and holds the State Capital, Salt Lake Temple and the University of Utah. (Previously, the entirety of the city sat in UT-2)
Hop into Google Streetview and check out this intersection that functions as the intersection for three of the state’s four new congressional districts. The Starbucks and auto shop on the northern blocks fall into UT-2. The southwestern block falls into UT-4 and the 7-Eleven on the southeast block falls into UT-3. This intersection sits in the middle of Millcreek, a suburb of Salt Lake City with roughly 60,000 residents. Under the new map, Millcreek voters are split amongst all four state districts as East Millcreek (less than a mile east) somehow falls into UT-1.
Katie Wright, the executive director of Better Boundaries, has been vocal about her displeasure with the process especially since the legislature’s decisions directly go against voters’ wishes.
Better Boundaries, the group behind getting Prop 4 on the ballot, is already exploring avenues for legal challenges to the new congressional district map. Wright has also already raised $50,000 for a political action committee to target and unseat local lawmakers who approved the new maps. She has been clear in her intent to create change as the independent commission ultimately didn’t meet its goals.