Within the Yin and Yang of the ebb and flow of political discourse, there are sometimes interesting constitutional issues that cause one to sit up,take notice and ask a few questions.
Such is the case of the recent actions of the Utah legislature in creating the proposed 4th congressional district boundaries in anticipation of an additional seat in the House of Representatives for one of the reddest of Republican states.
Crossover with me into the promised land....
As one of the fastest growing states according to the Census Bureau, Utah is in line for a new congressional district.
The LDS owned Deseret News reports:
"I believe it is an uphill battle, but Utah is not standing in the way," said Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will "absolutely" sign the new four-seat law, his spokesman, Mike Mower, said.
Should Congress not act this week, Utah leaders said the state will still be ready with a better four-seat option when — or if — Congress gives the state another seat before the 2010 census.
Wikipedia documents:
The current size of the United States House of Representatives is 435, as it has been since 1910, a number fixed by the Reapportionment Act of 1929 and the Apportionment Act of 1941 (with the exception of 1959 to 1962 when there were 437 seats to accommodate the admission of Hawaii and Alaska to the United States). There are an additional five "delegates", or Resident Commissioners, in the House of Representatives. They represent the District of Columbia and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The Northern Mariana Islands do not currently elect any sort of representative to Congress...
The legislature of Utah has proposed that congress admit Washington D.C. and the 4th district of Utah as the 436th and 437th seats to the House of Reps. It has the backing of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democratic delegate who represents the District of Columbia in the House,
[she] said giving up on the bill is not an option and Monday's action by the Utah Legislature will help push the bill along.
"Utah has shown that the state wants this vote this week as much as D.C. does," Norton said. "My Republican and Democratic congressional allies and D.C. residents alike are further energized to do what it takes as Utah passes the baton to us to run this race to the finish line and pass this bill before Congress adjourns this week."
This is significant in light of Louisianna losing 220,000 residents in the 2006 Census Bureau estimates from Hurricane Katrina. It means that instead of disenfranchising the victims and black voting blocks of Louisianna, by traditional reapportionment a la Tom Delay, Utah has opted to enfranchise the citizens and voters of the Disrtict of Columbia with a voice and a seat in the House of Representatives.
The first question is raised... is this a repeat of the politics of the Missouri compromise of 1820 when a slave state (Missouri) and a free state (Maine) were admitted into the Union?
The highly partisan politics of bitterly divided national issues like slavery and race were the precursors to the civil war. Should Utah and Washington DC be negotiating representation in a Democrat for Republican redistricting reminiscent of the slave state/ free state reappotionaments of yore?
Utah Governor Huntsman has said that if the Utah/D.C. bill doesn't pass next week, "Utah is out of business" because the Democratic-controlled Congress will just try to give D.C. a voting seat and forget about Utah's additional seat, which would likely elect a GOP congressman.
But Matheson says "that's jumping prematurely — many Democrats are on record as supporting (the Utah/D.C. bill), and it is crafted on a careful compromise" of both parties getting one more seat in the closely divided U.S. House.
From Delegate Norton's website:
"I recognize that yesterday's decision by the House Republican leadership against consideration of the bill during the lame duck appeared to be final, but the gavel has not fallen and the letter from the Utah Senators and Lieberman renews our hope."
The letter was addressed to Frist and Reid, rather than to the House leadership because the normal protocol of each body of Congress is to direct requests for consideration to their own houses. Norton also noted that Hatch is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, and Lieberman, the Ranking Member and incoming Chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, with jurisdiction over D.C. matters.
If ever there were chances to produce historic bipartisan legislative measures dear to the hearts of progressives everywhere; it is the fair representation of disenfranchised voters in the first 100 hours of legislative issues. As Florida, Georgia, Texas, Nevada and Arizona demand congressional Census reapportionment from mainly Democratic seats in the Northeast, perhaps a precedent for Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands could balance out the highly partisan drama that gripped Texas and the Nation by a band of thugs in the 109th congress.