Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups unveiled a contentious Senate redistricting map at the Republican Organizing Convention over the weekend, proposing to spread Summit County residents into three different districts, separating Park City, Kimball Junction and Silver Creek.
Summit County currently falls into two Senate Districts, District 19 currently represented by Allen Christensen (R-Ogden), district includes portions of Morgan County, Weber County and the East Side of Summit County. District 26, represented by Kevin Van Tassell (R-Vernal), which encompasses Daggett, Uintah, Duchesne, Wasatch Counties and the West side of Summit County.
Spreading Summit County votes into three different districts is an attempt for Waddoups to hurt his opponents, according to Summit County Republican Chair Henry Glasheen. “They are gerrymandering and moving Park City around to gain political advantage,” Glasheen said.
The map is just one proposal, along with many others, that have been presented, but according to Glasheen it does carry more weight than other plans due to Waddoups’ position in the state Senate.
Summit County Democratic Party Chair Glenn Wright called the new map “ridiculous,” saying it was a “blatant example of gerrymandering and showed Waddoups personal animosity toward Summit County.”
“This redistricting plan would be bad because Summit County residents wouldn’t have a local we could talk to, especially the mostly-Democratic West Side,” Wright said.
Waddoups “1% plan,” would position Park City in District 26 along with the more rural areas mentioned above. Jeremy Ranch and a portion of Kimball Junction would be placed into District 8 along with a portion of Salt Lake City. The East Side of the county would remain in District 25, which would stretch all the way north to the Idaho border.
“It’s like playing Dominoes, once you start changing one district, everyone else in the state has to respond,” said State Representative Mel Brown (R-Coalville). Brown is also on the redistricting committee. “We can talk about community interest, not dividing cities, not dividing counties, but 90 percent of the redistricting lines are based on population only,” he said.
According to Brown, one of the worst scenarios for a county is to be redistricted in a way that makes it so no representatives that serve them are from that county.
But from his perspective, Wright suspects that a map like the one submitted by Waddoups, which divides numerous districts irrationally, was done as both a negotiating tool and way to help political partners.
“Waddoups’ map is protecting the Republican incumbents and making it so that Summit County will not get much of an audience in the Senate,” Wright said.
Wright’s local Republican counterpart agrees. “With three Senate races in one county, the people will not be held accountable and Summit County will be politically irrelevant,” said Glasheen. “From Deer Valley down to Summit Park there is pretty much one unified thought process, why should they be in two separate districts?”
But according to Brown, “Tooele County is split into four different senate seats and it has served them well.”
As redistricting meetings continue throughout the state, Wright advises residents to stand up for a fair map and show their disapproval for gerrymandering.
“Residents need to raise holy hell if they don’t want their districts to end up like this,” said Glasheen.
Summit County residents will be able to voice their opinions on July 26 at 6 p.m. at Park City High School.
To see the proposed map go to: www.redistrictutah.com/maps/senate-1-percent