A message from Speaker Becky Lockhart:
A lot has been made about various groups’ threats to sue the state over redistricting efforts.
Multiple groups including both Republicans and Democrats are threatening to sue if they don’t get what they want. It brings to mind the phrase that if everybody hates what you’re doing, you must be doing it right.
Redrawing Utah’s political lines is constitutionally mandated and a matter of necessity because of population growth. The Legislature will meet next week to approve maps that will be used for the next 10 years. Those maps will include 75 state House districts and 29 state Senate districts, 4 U.S. Congressional districts and 15 state school board districts.
Everyone along the political spectrum including the deceptively labeled “good government” groups want their own special gerrymander under the guise of fairness.
But despite the easy sound bites from political party hacks, radio talk show hosts and editorial boards, we don’t draw arbitrary lines. We can’t. The population deviations between districts have to be extremely small. There may be philosophical differences, but what is drawn will be legal because we are using sound principles established by both state and federal court precedent.
As a result, some Democratic-leaning districts will have to be combined. Conversely, some Republican districts – more than the Democrats, in fact — will also have to be combined. Friends from the same side of the aisle will likely have to run against each other, because in the end the numbers reign supreme. Equal representation demands that district boundaries will shift to where the people have chosen to live.
We’ve been elected as legislators to make tough decisions. We look at all sides, hear all arguments and do some serious soul-searching. And though the Legislature is constitutionally mandated to draw districts, we have involved the public at every turn.
The redistricting committee, of which I am a member, has held dozens of public meetings over the summer throughout the state. Committee members represent all geographic areas of the state, and even over-represent the ratio of Democrats in the Legislature. We’ve fielded thousands of e-mails and phone calls.
We launched an unprecedented public website — RedistrictUtah.com — that allows anyone to draw their own maps and comment on others. To date, there are nearly 300 maps drawn by legislators and the public, with more than 1,000 comments written about them. The School Board map adopted by the committee was originally submitted by Rob Horner, an interested citizen from Logan.
But even with huge public input and a thoroughly transparent process, calls continue for a so-called “independent commission” from groups who quite simply aren’t getting their way. When their arguments are not convincing, they claim we aren’t listening. This is just not true.
Aside from the fact that these groups are deceptive in their purpose, it’s a ludicrous idea that there is even such a thing as an “independent” person or commission when it comes to political lines. Everyone has a conflict. And I, for one, would rather have an elected official accountable to the people be making the decisions rather than someone who will make decisions and then disappear into the night.
It’s been disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, to hear of the planned lawsuits over a redistricting effort that is not only incomplete, but has been the most open and inclusive in Utah’s history.
The legal maneuvering comes from those who want us to break the basic laws of mathematics and the political will of the people of Utah. They think they shouldn’t have to face the same realities everyone else will. They’ve decided to attempt to achieve through the courts what cannot be attained through the duly elected representatives of the people.
It’s willful ignorance or outright self-importance on their part that they won’t acknowledge that the very demands they are making are the very things that will get us successfully sued at a cost of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
Their talk is cheap. Their threats are opportunistic. Their verbal bomb-throwing is meant to obscure the reality of a fair process.
Starting on Monday, the Legislature will be in session to debate the maps, as we’ve been elected to do. It will be heated, and there will be some from both sides of the aisle unhappy with the results. But in the end we will send good maps to the governor for his signature.
If the naysayers think they’ve got themselves a lawsuit after that, there’s really only one thing left to say:
Bring it on.
Bravo, Madame Speaker.
I am interested to see on what basis the naysayers would bring suit? Are they alleging that you are being racist, sexist, or nativist? If not, then this is only the sour grapes of the political loser.
This process is nearly the quintessence of political expression. Those who complain without a reasonable hope of providing a better alternative have been always with us. . . and will be with us always.
Speaker Lockhart, it is humorous that you cite the fact that public input was taken while simultaneously lambasting the public for having a problem with the redistricting maps that your committee approved.
There is no honor in the process you took part of. The fact that Rep. Ken Sumsion pulled his map proposal out in the 23rd hour and it was suddenly approved by the Republican supermajority spat in the face of the people of Utah. The fact that so many groups are threatening to sue is a sign that your process failed both in serving the public and in doing what is right. Yet in your twisted mind you turn the criticism into belief that it is all tacit support for what your committee ramrodded through at the last minute.
I can only hope that a single lawsuit is successful or that Gov. Herbert brings a halt to the corrupt process you were a part of. The Sumsion map is a disgrace to anyone’s eyes except for GOP insiders like you.
Shame on you.
Ah yes, our legislature has such a great recent history of doing things so publicly. HB477 come to mind for anyone?
This is a farce. Your initial premise is flawed. We aren’t concerned about every district containing vast amounts of public land. Your committee keeps going back on that, which is so clearly just an excuse to make sure all the districts have enough staunch republicans to drown out the urban voters. The people of Utah are far more concerned with fair representation than they are with party politics.
Jacob – Ashamed to be a registered republican
Madam Speaker,
With all due respect, I have to wonder if you understand the point that when everyone, on all sides, disagree with you for the exact same reason, you probably are not doing something right in regards to representing the will of the people.
Furthermore, I have never accused the legislature of drawing “arbitrary” lines – far from it. The lines presented, most notably in regards to the states congressional districts, seem meticulously designed with the blade of a surgeon to divide communities, dilute the power of the minority further, and advance the agendas of those currently in power.
It is also disingenuous to suggest that an independent commission would not be held accountable to the public. The reality is that, under the state constitution, the legislature would still have the final approval of any map suggested by any commission. The idea behind an “Independent” (a word I will concede is also misleading) is that they are at least removed from the immediate politics that inherently occurs during any legislative process.
It seems ironic that, on a blog who’s header is “Vox Populi,” you claim that the public, by way of various intermediaries such as the Democratic Party or Fair Boundaries, or Alliance for a Better Utah, or…well the list goes on, are somehow wrong for being a voice of the people. But when it comes to an issue so vital as the fair representation of the people, is it wrong to ignore the complaints of literally tens of thousands of people simply because they are nuisance?
The redistricting process is a messy one, and it is true that you will never draw a map that pleases everyone. The question is not “do the maps make everyone happy,” the question you should ask is “are the complaints legitimate?”
You have spoken at length about how the maps you have drawn are legal – and I have no doubt that they are (barring any revelations that come about during the discovery process of a lawsuit); but never once have you or any of your colleagues suggested that they are fair.
And that is the rub. You use legal fairness to justify in the eyes of many a blatant infringement on the right of the people to be fairly represented. It appears, to many, that the legislature has ignored the will of the people – the people who went out of their way to be heard – because members had already decided what the outcome would be.
Remember, in politics, perception is reality.
In closing, let me just say thank you for this post. It proves just how removed from the complaints you really have been. As you said yourself “it’s a ludicrous idea that there is even such a thing as an “independent” person or commission when it comes to political lines. Everyone has a conflict.” May I suggest that your conflict is to large to create truly fair districts?
Respectfully – Curtis Haring, Citizen
Overheated rhetoric and unnecessary name calling aside, I find your defense of Utah’s redistricting process deeply flawed.
The bottom line is that the Republican party enjoys nearly absolute political power and control in Utah. And the Utah legislature is leveraging that power to redistrict the state in a way that gives them maximum advantage. Any political party–Democratic or Republican–would do exactly the same in a similar situation.
So please don’t insult my intelligence by claiming that the current redistricting process is based on some set of lofty ideals or inviolable constitutional principles. And please stop casting aspersions on the motives of people who are advocating for a more open, transparent process.
Utah’s redistricting process has been an exercise in power politics pure and simple. And as long as Utah lacks any kind of effective political opposition to an all-powerful Republican party, we can expect more of the same–whether we like it or not.
This is humorous. The Utah democrat party is able to receive more attention by claiming gerrymandering before the process begins, yet they do not understand the ramifications of filing a lawsuit against the legal process for redistricting. If the Utah democrats file a lawsuit against the state of Utah, it will cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars that could be spent on public education. If they choose to complain about education being underfunded they can blame themselves for milking the taxpayers for frivolous lawsuits.
In closing, there is no such thing as fair boundaries. Elections have consequences, Utah had Obamacare shoved down it’s throat and guess what… we are taking it to the polls to vote Obama out in 2012. Utah elects a super-majority republican legislature and a republican governor. Blame the people of Utah for unfair boundaries, or blame the people of Utah for being Republican.