Congress: Redistricting Committee Adopted “Final Congressional Map 9/29/11″

*Clap *Clap *Clap. Nice job republicans from a far it looks like a doughnut hole map, but up close it is miserably gerrymandered.

I don’t understand why this proposal is as it is.  I’d hoped that my own proposal’s logic would speak for itself (although I took time to carefully explain my reasoning, anyway) and that, even if it didn’t, then others would—and I feel pleased that so many of my fellow citizens did so.  But I have yet to see Representative Sumison explain his rationale for his own map (here on this website, at least).  I’d be very interested to understand it.

I just want to know if there were high 5′s in the room when someone came up with “have urban and rural areas represented together” as the excuss to feed people for this crap?

I don’t understand how Salt Lake City is booted out of the county.  This makes no sense at all.  How did people seriously adopt this proposal.  Wow.  At the very least the Capitol City of the State should be in the same voting district as the County.  Any why reach across to the East bench?  That is very suspect.  This is one of the worst maps I have seen and reviewed.  I hope the Governor and the rest of the members do not allow this map to be aprroved.  So disappointed.  And we wonder why our country and state are in such disarry?

I don’t think that this proposal makes nearly as much sense (geographically, at least) as some of its competitors.  I’ve been told that Utah’s state legislature will likely defer to whatever this committee recommends, because “they have spent the most time working on the issue.”  But, with enough grassroots public pressure, perhaps the state legislature and/or governor could be persuaded otherwise.

House Redistricting Committee: Are you serious? This makes makes little sense, except from a partisan conservative viewpoint. Even though I am not a fan of the urban-rural districts, there are far better pizza slice maps out there. What makes this map such an insult is that the committee pretended to listen to the public input, and then voted for a map they had planned all along.

There are many reasons why I don’t like this map.  It doesn’t even try to keep counties together, Salt Lake County will fit in two districts so there is no reason to divide it into three.  Utah County could be in one district but it is divided.  

My biggest concern is that the hole district has the some of the biggest growth cities in the State.  In only a few years it could be a unbalanced with a bigger population then the other districts if growth continues in western Salt lake County and western Utah County as it has the last decade.  Since I live in South Jordan this is a big concern for me. 

This map makes NO sense. What made them decide to go with this division? I hope the legislature votes this down. The best map by far was Garber’s.

Yes, Salt Lake County is almost large enough for two districts, especially if it includes both the western Salt Flats and the eastern Uintah Basin.  Ogden and Logan, together with rural northern Utah, is roughly large enough for one district.  Provo and St. George, together with rural southern Utah, is roughly large enough for one district.  In a strictly geographical sense, it makes more sense to me to divide Utah in this manner, as I did in my U.S. Congressional proposals, rather than to divide it as this proposal does.

What is this? did you take everything bad about all the other plans and rolled it out into one monstrous pile of ugly? There is still a do-nut hole but this is a HUGE Republican do-nut hole. All the National Parks are in one district painting a big Environmentalist target on one Representative. What is worst, you took the smallest land area county and divided it in half! This is outrageous, This has everything I am totally agents.

Why, thank you!  In a strictly geographical sense, it doesn’t make much sense to me, either.  But I note that it could be even worse.  I feel very curious to understand why its districts were created as they were.

Are you kidding me! Here in Cedar City we have to share a district with Salt Lake City? I think you could have come up with a better geographical map than this. 

At least Carl wont be representing me in this convoluted map. Im sure that he had a heavy hand in drawing this one out. 

The districts should reflect the different regions in Utah, so REPRESENTATION in ensured.  How can Salt Lake City be gerrymandered out of the metro areas of the Wasatch front?  Salt Lake City  has completely different concerns/issues than Cedar City, Blanding, Fillmore, or Ephraim.  Since when did Salt Lake become Southern Utah?  Shameful illustration of partisanship!  What a joke.

I think that it makes much more geographical sense, overall, to forge a northern district for both Ogden and Logan, a southern district for both Provo and St. George, and two central districts that split Salt Lake County, as I proposed.  I agree that Salt Lake City and St. George don’t mesh together nearly as well.

I think that it makes much more geographical sense, overall, to forge a northern district for both Ogden and Logan, a southern district for both Provo and St. George, and two central districts that split Salt Lake County, as I proposed.  I agree that Salt Lake City and St. George don’t mesh together nearly as well.

Some of us did, I suppose—but, obviously, no such maps made their final cut.

What a joke! You guys really have no shame, do you? You make it hard for us moderate GOPers to defend such brazen partisanship. 

Really!?

Sumsion 06 was the worst of the six plans last week.   This one is better, but still gerrymandered and strange for no apparent reason.  Everything looks like it is designed to have no democrat in congress.  San Juan with South Davis County rather than Moab?  Give me a break!

This is HORRIBLE!  Way to keep those blinder’s on

Since this is the map the committee has adopted, I have posted my own map with better municipal divisions in Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah counties.  Though the deviations are less than .01%, but not 1 person as the was adopted.

What did you expect? They did exactly the same thing 10 years ago, when they created a bizarre district for the 2nd Congressional Seat that combined half of Salt Lake City with the bottom half of the state. Of course they’re going to try it again – they’re not going to face any repercussions from it.

I can’t see the citizens of St. George and So. UT going for this map.  It could totally disenfranchise them in elections.

“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” ~Doctrine and Covenants 121:39

Sumison 6 barely showed up before the meeting last Wednesday.  Then this altered Sumison map barely shows up yesterday.  Now it will be carved in stone on Friday.  A week and half…. So, after 6 months of public comment, about 20 meetings across the state, it comes down to a map that most people wouldn’t even use to wipe their &$$ with.  The public is the ultimate loser.  I am getting so sick of everyone on that damn committee trying to justify everything as “well it comports to one man one vote”.  Really?  If it didn’t you would be sued so quit pretending like you are doing anyone a favor holding to a stupid standard that was never in question to begin with. 

It is now and always has been about communities of interest… and those communities are going to be pissed.  Salt Lake City does not want a guy who gives standing ovations to child molesters like Dave Clark did last year to represent them in Congress.  He doesn’t have OUR VALUES, but what he does have is enough votes to win our seat.  If you ask the people of Salt Lake County if they think it was a good idea to make every woman who has a flipping miscarriage a suspect in a 2nd degree felony manslaughter case, they would probably tell you it is a bad idea.  Yet, the genius who made that law, Carl Wimmer, had a district custom carved out for him to represent us in Congress?  Thinking that a miscarriage is the same as murder is not part of OUR VALUES.  Both Wimmer and Clark have very hard line views which are not compatible with the personal, spiritual, or collective needs of Utah.  However, because of how this map is drawn they will be elected and you know it, and that is why you drew the map like this.  Throw a bone to Carl, and get Clark out of your hair.

Don’t even get me started on how this map conveniently splits all the counties which don’t have LDS majorities into different districts.  While that seems like a good idea to you now, this decade is going to see the first time in Utah history where those who are LDS will not be in the majority of the population.  By 2031, they will no longer hold a voting majority either.  How are they going to remember you?  Will they remember that you respected them, that you allowed them representation?  Or will they be thinking about they were marginalized?  Do unto others as they would do unto you.  Is that how you want to spend your golden years, marginalized?

The Republican Party and Democratic Party are not so different.  All either party does is complain about Jim Matheson.  If you get rid of him though, all you are doing is putting the spot light on yourself.  Something tells me that at the end of the day, you don’t want that.  This is a bad map and deep down you know it.

How do you people sleep at night? We the people have about had enough of this gerrymandering. We need a recall vote in Utah. I live in Sandy and am NOT happy.

Centerville, Bountiful, Cottonwood Heights and Murray are all in four different congressional districts.  That’s just one of the few things about this map that makes absolutely no sense.  Salt Lake City has very little in common with St. George. Moab and Sandy don’t share common interests.  The citizens of Utah have been screaming about keeping their communities together and this map completely disregards that.  Anyone who is an ethical lawmaker,  Democrat or Republican, would draw logical maps without regard to incumbents or political affiliation — apparently we don’t have many of those in this state.

I was expecting a plan that broke the Wasatch corridor apart–that’s unavoidable given the state’s demographics–but this is ridiculous.  I really thought that with all the solicitation of public input, this process would result in a straightforward, easy-to-justify redistricting plan.  Instead the committee gives us a plan blatantly designed with Carl Wimmer, Rob Bishop, and Jason Chaffetz in mind.  As is usually the case with the Utah state legislature, political maneuvering has again trumped common sense.  Where do I cast my vote of no confidence?

I’m a resident of downtown Salt Lake City, and I’m not happy to see the Salt Lake Valley split along 2100 South.  I have much more in common with the interests of people in West Valley City and Midvale than I do with the fine residents of St. George, Delta, Blanding, and Manti.  This looks a lot like an obvious attempt to split the Democrats in the Avenues, University and East Bench neighborhoods of Salt Lake County into a separate district from the Democrats in the west side of the county.  

This district contains all 5 of Utah’s national parks, Lake Powell, Grand Staircase, and huge tracts of National Forest and other Federal land, and it’s lumped together with the urban core of Utah’s largest city along with an international airport, the state’s flagship university, and an expanding urban transit system?  Somebody’s interests are going to get poorly served by the Congressperson elected from this district.

I should also not be surprised to see that the Democrats in Park City are split off into a third district, and the population of Democrats in Carbon County and Moab are in a fourth separate district.  Wow.  Talk about blatant.  This is what happens when the politicians get to choose their voters.

Talk to the Dems in Illinois and Maryland. 

This is simply pathetic. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You’ll see me protesting next Monday.

Mapping Fail. Please try again and keep Salt Lake County entirely out of the southern Utah congressional district. They’re needs are different than mine in Salt Lake. In fact, how hard would it be to do a real North, East, South, and  West split? Not ideal, but at least they can visit their constituents in a more logical fashion.

Looks like you Carlmandered yourselves a Carl hole.

I agree that it makes much less geographical sense than some alternatives.  I don’t understand its rationale—at least, not yet.

They might face repercussions.  It all depends upon what WE citizens do.

Those are valid critiques, Justin.  Thank you!

I’d hoped for a straightforward rational plan, as well, Aric.  I do suspect that this proposal was guided relatively more by politicians’ interests than by their constituents’ interests.  Thank you. So, what do we do now?

Thank you, VIGGOE, for seeking to make the best of things.  I hope that they will give your improvements serious consideration.

So, how ’bout we citizens work to identify a single proposal that we generally like best (although there may be exceptions) and then rally around it to fight for it?

[...] 6 finalists. One of the finalists, “Sumsion_06″, had been modified. This map, “Congress: Sumsion_06 Modified A” was discussed, and then adopted a base map for Congressional [...]

Utahns should hold Utahns to a higher ethical standard.

How does one print a copy of this map?

As a Republican, I reject this map as gerrymandering. Salt Lake
County has enough population to merit a member of congress seated
completely within its borders. Worse, District 2 combines downtown Salt
Lake City with all of Southern Utah. To access the district via the
I-15 corridor the member of Congress must pass through both the 3rd and
4th districts. We can and must do better that to conjoin distant
communities when there are much better options which have been proposed.

This map is disgusting, and it’s a pure sham that the people of Utah have to put up with the horrendous gerrymandering attempt (and likely success) on part of the Dear Party.

The point of the donut hole proposal was to keep together the urban communities, NOT to split them up however it pleases the Dear Party.

Notice that of the districts, it seems as if we have one perfectly crafted for Rob Bishop (a stated goal of the committee earlier, as Bishop apparently is “great” on energy issues, so we had to make sure that he had a perfectly crafted district). There is another district that just SCREAMS “Oh Jason! Dear Rep. Chaffetz!” And the worst of all is the grotesque take on a donut hole that looks hand-drawn by Carl Wimmer.

Strange, it looks almost as if the committee purposely did everything they could to specifically target Jim Matheson. Again! But they did everything possible to craft perfect little districts for anyone with an (R) after their name.

I’d say I’m shocked, but it would be a lie. I am disgusted and appalled though.

And if the past is any measure, the citizens will fall into one of 2 categories: those uber-conservatives that will LOVE this map, and those that will forget about it come election time.

A lot of people are unhappy with this redistricting.  Here is what you do about it; wear out some shoe leather for your candidate before the next census, get involved in your community and don’t hold your breath.  You have to win in the theater of hearts and minds to make effective changes.  As for me, the ideas I most closely align with will be better represented by the effects of this map.  Does not mean I think it is the best way to win, but win we will.  So long Matheson, this time you are done.

I’d heard it was bad, but this really is egregious. The Republicans have neatly sliced my county into nonsensical parts to further dilute Democratic constituencies.

Sue the pants off of those gerrymandering crooks.

Where do donate to support the lawsuit?

Dumb, dumb, dumb.  I consider myself to be a moderate Repub, however after such blatant disregard for ethics, I can’t see myself voting Repub in the next election unless they change this map.  Dems do this in other states where they are in power, however that does not make it right for Utah to do it.  Ugliest political thing I’ve seen in a long time.  Be ashamed Utahans… this is a sad day for the state.

This map is NOT practical or logical. Why take a populated urban area and (politically) lump it together with far off towns in less dense rural areas? I see no reason to connect SLC with St George. Or with Delta and other small towns, for that matter. Different areas = different demographics and economics and local ordinances.
Why not give District 4 more area to its south end and return south Salt Lake to Salt Lake City?I live in downtown SLC and I want to make sure the representative I vote for will be the same representative (most of) my neighbors vote for. If I move to a nearby zip code it makes sense that I could remain with the same representative. Splitting Salt Lake County into three division does not allow such a simple, reasonable concept.

Gerrymandering is nothing new. Parties in power do it and parties out of power complain about it. Get over it. Or recruit more Democrat voters.

Wow the republicans just won’t give up the gerrymandering. It is clear to me now that we need a citizen’s referendum to remove control of district boundaries from the law makers.

[...] SALT LAKE CITY — Utah State Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis said Wednesday the party will take the state to court unless Republicans back away from a controversial new congressional map. [...]

Pure gerrymandering.  It is so blatant as to be laughable how the process has been rigged to divest Democrats of any representation in this state.  A Supreme Court case waiting to happen.

I don’t live in IL or MD, or Texas, or NY or Florida.  I live in UT.  UT is where I chose to live.  One of the reasons Ichose t live here is because I thought peopewerehonest and fair minded.
I was gerrymandered last time and it looks like again this time.  Guess I was wrong about UT.

Not a fan of my neighborhood (on the west side of i-15) being split away from the rest of Draper. 

I have never seen such gerrymandering. Now I read in the paper that most of the GOP running for congress will not even live within the district they represent. If you are going to gerrymander the map, then at least live within the district you represent. I will not vote for someone outside my district, and call to action all others to make sure that a representative is from the area they are supposed to represent. I don’t care if they used to live there, I want them there now. It’s called being accountable, you are supposed to be a representitive, not just someone running for a job.

Then move

Love it.  Good work Utah.

LOL. Democrats asked for a “Donut Hole” and there it is.  Be careful what you wish for.

I think it is a good idea to ensure that the Utah delegation is of one mind on the public lands issue and that noone could afford to overlook rural issues.

I agree with Brian.  Rural Utah gets the shaft again.  What does Eureka, or Vernon, or Tooele have in common with Salt Lake City?  Under representation, that’s what.  All the votes are in Salt Lake City and those of us who live west of the Oquirrhs will be ignored, left out, and forgotten back in Washington. This committee has no credibility.  I’m a Republican and I am ashamed of the people calling themselves Republicans that put this map together.

Keep track of the scoundrels on the committee.  Next year, vote them out of office.

perfect..bout time salt lake got the knock down and let some of the rest of the state influance the decisions.. looks to me that combining St George and salt lake works perfectly!!

I don’t think so, in fact the gerry-crans may have just (accidentally) saved Mattheson from a radical wacko like Wright knocking him out in the primary, and then letting the rest of the people vote for him in the general election. For all their cries of gerrymandering, the democrats fail to see that they would win more elections if they would put more people like Mattheson up for election.

But all the Democrats really want is a map so that they can get rid of Matheson as well. Those pesky moderate Democrats and Independents outside of Salt Lake County are the only thing that kept Claudia Wright from steamrolling him in the primary! My problem is that the Democrats don’t really want a chance to get one or two congressional seats: they want a good shot at electing a radical wacko, and who cares if in the process they allow the Republicans to elect wing-nuts in the other three districts. Although I don’t like this map very much, at least it makes two districts where there is a snowballs chance in hell of a moderate, of either party, being elected and even winning the general election.

I agree that, from a strictly geographical perspective, this proposal makes significantly less sense than some alternatives.  In my proposal, by contrast, I worked hard to keep communities connected as logically as possible, and to minimize division of counties and cities.  I suspect that this committee allowed their peers’ interests outweigh their constituents’ interests in adopting this proposal, since I have trouble finding any other explanation for why they drew these boundaries as weirdly as they did.

Both Steve Clark and I submitted proposals to do precisely this, which this committee chose to include among its six semifinalists.  I feel disappointed that they decided to adopt Representative Sumison’s proposal, instead.

These district boundaries are so gerrymandered, they are criminal.

Keep in mind, every single democrat on the committee except one voted IN FAVOR of this same exact map on Tuesday. It’s on the record.  Then someone worth more to them than their own integrity yelled at them and they switched their votes.  Weak sauce.

That’s a temporary fix to a permanent problem, Dmaxibz. If we want to truly silence people like Pbjet, there just needs to be more fear injected in our culture. Countries like China, Iran, and especially North Korea have made headway on this. Some have even abolished the outdated concept of “representation” completely, ensuring that distracting opinions don’t affect the ruling party at all. Thanks to B. Hussein Obama’s liberal agenda and even RINOs who may infect even Utah’s conservative purity I doubt we’d be able to make such progress in this state. But at least this map is a step in the right direction and that’s what’s important.

Although this is a great start for a congressional map, I’m concerned that these boundaries–as with the ones we had before–are a little bit too static. What I mean by this is that it is unprepared to deal with a large influx of liberals and democrats in any one of the districts. If the GOP loses any of its majorities and we end up with a democratic representative from Utah it’s going to be another 10 year wait before we can correct that.

Elections have consequences, and who cares what the democrats want – THEY LOST!!!

I’m thanking my lucky stars that the entire federal delegation from utah will be controlled by the GOP from now on because that’s clearly an accurate representation of our voting population.  Only good things can come from this.  Now if only Jason Chaffetz would run for president.  I feel all warm inside knowing that all of our representatives will be on the “same page” and not have to worry about wether or not our state representatives will be persuaded by all of that compromise BS going washington these days.

i love to see the libs melt down over this.  MOVE BACK to Kalifornia If you dont like it.  You all like to toss around big word like GERRYMANDERING and unethical but you have no idea of what went into this and no PROOF that any unethical behavior was involved with this process.  Now your going to waste the peoples money on a LAW SUIT?  Again, you dont like it, move.  Utah is a Conservative state and will most likely stay that way unless  more of your rotten types move in from the decaying cities and states destroyed by your Democrat liberal/socialist OBAMAarxist types.
KEEP UTAH BEAUTIFUL – Deport a DeM!

Yet Another Follish Idiot Repukelican why dont you let some more Illegal Mexicans come and take over Utah You Fool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Another thing that you can count on not changing – unethical politics in Utah.  I am a regeistered republican in Utah, and I continue to be ashamed of the Utah republican party.  Let’s not forget about HB 477 and all the other unchecked messes.

And these are the people that we elect as our leaders?

I like it, it combines conservatives and the liberals in the same district.  That way we can have governing officials that are not to biased one way or the other.  Is it better to have three strong conservatives and one strong liberal in the house, or is it better to have 4 moderate politicians in the house.  Liberals should be happy because they can have a say in making sure that the usually very conservative politicians are more moderate.  Conservatives should also be happy because they don’t have to be embarrassed by the idiots that Salt Lake picks.

DON’T GERRYMANDER! But draw a district slanted toward Democrats.

WE WANT A DOUGHNUT HOLE! Wait, no. Not THAT doughnut hole.

WE’RE GOING TO SUE! Even though we have no clue what map will pass, and none of the finalists hurt us that much.

LEGISLATURE CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT. Even when they do it doesn’t matter. our talking points were written months ago.

While I can see why the Dems don’t like this; though I can see the yellow district being democratic leaning (heck anything with the UofU and oowntown SLC is going to be democratic leanding).. I agree with the argument that all members of Congress from Utah should have to be concerned with rural issues. So according to the census the number of persons in each district varries by no more than 1 person. How did they pull that off?

Are you even remotely aware of what you are writing, or does it just spew out like so much of verbal diarrhea? 

Do you realize what makes those countries the way they are? SINGLE PARTY SYSTEM that’s what! 

With this map, Utah has effectively become a SINGLE PARTY STATE. But it looks like your blatant hatred toward anything liberal is blinding your judgement for anything involving even a modicum of common sense.

Do you realize that maybe, just maybe, Salt Lake needs someone who can represent Slat Lake and not half the state? Oh and you just blatantly called half of the population of Utah “idiots”; I resent that because, while my opinions apparently vary wildly from yours, I would never sink to name calling!

This map is as bad as the current situation for St. George. It leaves St. George at the mercy of Downtown Salt Lake Democrats. We need a map that is consistent with the needs of St. George and rural Southern Utah. We don’t need a Representative who will have to consider more the needs of downtown SLC, we’ve already had that for the past ten years. I urge the Governor to change this map. Incorporate more of southern Utah county and less Sale Lake county. We don’t want this pizza.

I really like the “Northern Utah” district (wish there were enough population for a Southern Utah district), but I don’t like Salt Lake County being divided so much.  I would have preferred to have one approximating Utah County, then you’d only need to divide Salt Lake County 2 ways.

[...] The recommended map can be found here. [...]

[...] committee for forwarding to the legislature next week. The feeling among Democrats is that the map (here) tends to favor Republicans. #bbpBox_118745534294007808 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; [...]

[...] of the six finalists and incorporated the worst of both Democrat and Republican wishes to a horrid combination pizza/doughnut where half of the city of Bountiful is in the same district as St. George while carving out a safe [...]

I agree that residents of St. George would generally feel more comfortable voting with those of Provo than those of SLC for their U.S. Representative.  It’s a much better fit.

This map is disgraceful, for all of the reasons already mentioned. Splitting Salt Lake is blatantly political and the people who voted on this map should be ashamed, and should provide their reasoning behind it.

I love Utah and don’t want this map to stand. I’m curious – now that the map has been “adopted,” is the redistricting process over? What can we do to see that this map doesn’t take effect?

So could have put Bountiful – Woods Cross in District 1. Summit in district 2. South Jordan – West Jordan with rural part of the state. South SL County with Utah County and Wasatch. And kept Salt Lake City with WVC, South Salt Lake, Millcreek ect. That map would have kept in mind keeping counties whole and communities in tact except Salt Lake which is too big. In Salt Lake County at least common views and contiguous cities together. The gerrymand not only isolates democrats into little ghettos in each district but also dilutes representation for true rural concerns and like minded thinking for people who live next to each other. It is a map to discourage voting.

This is deplorable. Look what they’ve done to cities such as Holladay and Midway. Let’s remind these people who they work for! There is a petition drive going at http://www.speakuputah.org with well over 2000 signatures already. Those signatures will be delivered at a rally on Monday at the capitol during the special session (11:30). Please be there, and take the time to urge your elected representatives to just vote NO!

Nice plan but there is no such thing as a moderate Utah republican politican.

I don’t care how people in these districts feel about each other, so much as  putting them together in a geographically logical fashion. A good set of districts should follow the basic laws of physics; The smallest sum of perimeters is the most efficient/best design. None of this garbage about wrapping districts around each other to tweak numbers.

[...] of the six finalists and incorporated the worst of both Democrat and Republican wishes to a horrid combination pizza/doughnut where half of the city of Bountiful is in the same district as St. George while carving out a safe [...]

This site has existed for no reason other than to provide cover (under the guise of public input) for yet another GOP gerrymander.  The above map was drawn behind closed doors to reward and punish specific politicians and constituencies.  This is shameful, but not unexpected.

We elected those who worked on the design of the map. Now, we can always whine and boo- like spoiled children since the map is drawn and selected by those we elected.  Complainers should run for office yourselves if you don’t like it. You’ll see how many will love you and jump for joy thanking you for your hard work on difficult problems such a the redistricting of our state!

You think that’s gerrymandering? That’s nothing. Take a look here: http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/11/10/gerrymandering-101/?singlepage=true

This doesn’t look like a map to me. It looks more like a “cave” — the verb form!

What file format is that? Could it perhaps also be posted in pdf format so that more of us to examine it more closely? Also, could we see the numbering for the districts? I’m hearing references to District 2, District 4, etc. but those aren’t clearly depicted on the map.

Good point. Democrats just simply cannot be happy in a republican state, even though it is the republican leadership that keeps our state’s economy afloat amidst the obamanation.

Complainers and whiners unite! Nothing is good enough for the democrat minority! Look, these are good boundaries, regardless of what anyone says. Yes, it can be argued that SLC is gerrymandered if you are ignorant and just look at the map. The fact is that if you divided up everything based solely on geography, then SLC and other big cities would be hugely under-represented, since most of the state is rural. That’s why you have to go off of population. The divisions made manage to have almost equal populations with a fair representation of both rural and urban in each zone. If the democrats think that they should have a single urban SLC district all their own, then they’d best have more babies because the population just doesn’t justify it.

Could they please show the district numbers on the map? The media uses these numbers, but it is unclear which areas they are talking about from this map! Thanks!

I am a different religion then the primary religion in the state and this map dilutes my vote.  Gerrymandering is illegal if it used to diminish a minority vote.

[...] state gained a fourth district through reapportionment, and the new map would slice up Salt Lake County into three parts and include Salt Lake City in a district with all of southern Utah. The full Legislature, where [...]

Here’s the brutal truth: redistricting IS a political process and partisanship is not a protected class under the law.  Deal with it. 

Disgusting. The last few years have yielded the worst republican “leaders” I’ve ever seen. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. They pick the ‘candidates’ to run for primary elections from among those that think most like themselves. And since so many in UT don’t vote, or just vote for the GOP, it has become a complete disaster. I’m so ashamed of how they simply perpetuate power and limit choices, then turn around and call it a form of ‘democracy.’

It’s not winning an election if you elect someone who votes with the enemy more than with your party.

3 months since last comments. It looks like blustering over this bad map issue is only worth a few minutes then done.  This is why the Legislature is not scared or concerned about anything they do.  In their words 2011. “the people will complain for 2 days and then go away”  and since this map doesn’t actually get voted on until January 2013, they figure everyone will forget and get over it by then.  We watch, we see exactly what this Legislature does to our laws. They are actually blatant about it, showing no remorse since they know they have moved our laws into a position that guarantees they or their ilk will ALWAYS be able to be in charge. 

One thing to do is to convince voters to NOT VOTE THE STRAIGHT TICKET PUNCH.  Is it laziness that they don’t want to go through the whole vote process and vote for EACH position seperately?  I have established myself as an Independant, becasue I ALWAYS WANT TO KEEP THE DOOR OPEN AS TO WHOM I VOTE FOR.  I am proud that I am not a declared party as it represents freedom to choose what ‘I’ feel is important.  And States that are declared as Independant, get more respect and hard hitting political acknowledgement because they are known to be the ‘surprise’ voters. 

Utah has lazy voters (the lowest national turnout), established by the apathy of the Republicans thinking they don’t have to vote because their party will win anyway. Democrats thinking, why waste their time to vote since they will lose anyway.  Dems, take note.  With so few Rep’s showing up to vote, perhaps if you came out in force you could upset the apple cart, and make those Legislators rue their own ‘Take over plan’.   But HEY!,  My prediction is that all who bluster the most, only like to Twitter and complain but not really do anything significant to make a change…….     

I don’t think they were trying to disenfranchise Southern Utah, they are trying to water down the Democratic vote of Salt Lake City by breaking it into three pieces, so that the SLC people will be out numbered by the county voters.