Fast action by Utah could bring 4th House seat soon

By Suzanne StruglinskiDeseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — Utah's timing in approving the boundaries of a new fourth congressional district may determine whether the District of Columbia will get a vote in Congress before the end of this session, voting rights advocates say. A pending bill ties voting rights for the district to a new fourth seat for Utah as a way to balance the likely political persuasion of each potential new seat. The district's House seat would likely go to a Democrat while Utah's would likely go to a Republican. The District of Columbia now has a delegate to the House that can only vote in committee and not on the House floor. The bill's supporters have been working with lawmakers to ensure it will go through before the end of this session of Congress, said Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, an advocacy group that supports voting rights for the district. "We are 100 percent focused on the lame-duck session," Zherka said. "All of this grinds to a halt if Utah doesn't redistrict in the next couple of weeks."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., said last week he would be calling a special session soon. On Tuesday, he is expected to meet with state legislative leaders to decide "how we proceed," the governor's spokesman, Mike Mower, said. "This isn't something we're doing just in a vacuum. There are a lot of moving parts to the process," Mower said. "What we're hearing out of Washington is there's a lot of general agreement this plan has bipartisan support back there." Mower said the governor still expects to call a special session and believes there's "a high probability" Congress would act on the new seat before the session ends. And, Mower said, the governor still believes Congress won't deal with the issue until Utah finalizes a proposal. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., did not like the original version of the bill that proposed an at-large seat for Utah. Instead, he wanted the state to sign-off on new districts before the bill would go forward. Sensenbrenner has not shown any signs of backing off his position that Utah should draw district boundaries rather than have an at-large seat. But Sensenbrenner will no longer be the committee chairman in the next session of Congress. The House Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, supports a vote for the district and understands that Utah wants the fourth seat it feels it missed from the last census. He said at a hearing in September that the constitution allows Congress to allow Utah to have an at-large seat. Conyers is likely to take over the committee now that the Democrats are in control. The committee staff said the bill is not on schedule for this week and does not appear to be on next week's either, although that one has not been finalized. Congress is expected to recess just before Thanksgiving and then come back for a few days in December, although the exact details of that session have not been worked out yet. Zherka said there is a "real shot of getting up and out in December" as long as the required redistricting is done soon. "A bunch of things in the pipeline get pushed through in the end," he said, even major pieces of legislation like this one. "We are not talking about anything people are unfamiliar with." Zherka said pushing the bill to the next Congress would just put everything back at square one, and create additional hurdles. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is a co-sponsor of the bill that has the at-large provision for Utah. She supports voting rights for the District of Columbia but needs to see what the final bill looks like. "Mrs. Pelosi would have to see any changes to the legislation before she could comment," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill. "On this issue the devil is very much in the details."
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com