Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson will not sue the state over the GOP Legislature's redrawing of his 2nd Congressional District boundaries, the freshman congressman said Monday.
"I'll put my energies into being a candidate and running a good campaign in my new district," said Matheson, D-Utah. He predicts he'll win in the new 2nd District, which now includes a big chunk of rural Utah.
And he's starting the campaign early. Matheson will appear in Cedar City, which is part of his new district, on Saturday.
While saying he was invited to the Iron County birthday celebration and his appearance is not really a campaign event, Matheson said he will visit his new southeastern and southern constituents "soon and often" over the next several months.
Over objections from minority Democratic legislators, the Republican majority last month redrew the 2nd District, pushing it out of its home-base Salt Lake County into eastern, southeastern and southern Utah. The 2nd District now only takes in the east side of Salt Lake City and less than half of its population.
The district looks like a reverse "C," and contains many more Republicans. Democrats say the district is now 57 percent Republican; Republican Party leaders say it is more like 62 percent Republican. In either case, Matheson, the lone Democrat in Utah's congressional delegation, will have a tougher re-election next year.
Deseret News graphic
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Matheson told the Deseret News last spring that if GOP lawmakers drew his district "unfairly or unconstitutionally" he would sue the state.
Some believed his threats were made to scare Republicans into being nicer to him. But Republicans did what that said they would do from the first: make all Utah U.S. House districts contain rural and urban elements, which changed the 2nd District so that it is no longer wholly in Salt Lake County.
"We never thought (Matheson) would sue. It just appeared to us to be a public-relations stunt, "a threat to get the plan to go his way," said Scott Parker, state GOP executive director.
Asked if a failed legal challenge could hurt him politically by making him appear a sore loser in the redistricting fight, Matheson said he hadn't considered that aspect. "No. It's the time it takes to raise such money" for a legal challenge, he said. "I didn't want to do it all when I didn't think I had a reasonable chance of success" in the courts.
Matheson said last week's decision by a special three-judge federal court against Utah in its lawsuit over the 2000 Census count — a count that denied Utah a fourth congressional seat — tells him he can't win a legal challenge. "I think this is pretty much decided, we're only going to have three seats next year, and I need to start running in my new district," he said.
Utah is appealing that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The federal court decision last week was on Utah's contention over the way the census was counted and had nothing to do with how the Legislature drew district boundaries. But Matheson said it showed him that the federal courts don't like to get involved in redistricting issues.
Also, Matheson said he couldn't build a successful case against the Legislature over what he still considers an unfair drawing of political districts because lawmakers used minimal criteria in redrawing U.S. House and legislative boundaries.
"But they basically had no criteria, and that makes it difficult legally" to challenge them successfully. "I just don't think I would win," said Matheson.
John Fellows, the legislative attorney who advised the Legislative Redistricting Committee this year, said he didn't tell legislators not to adopt a number of criteria. "We looked at the criteria accepted by the courts and legislators decided to go with those," said Fellows.
The only criteria adopted by the GOP-dominated committee were population variance, contiguous and compact districts. "They did go with a minimal set of criteria, but that was their decision," said Fellows.
The Utah Democratic Party is still considering a lawsuit, which could be funded by the National Democratic Committee, over legislative redistricting.
Democrats say that GOP legislators didn't consider ethnic and racial communities of interest nor least disturbance of current districts when they passed plans that eliminate at least one Democratic Senate and three Democratic House incumbents next year. Those criteria were considered in other states' redistricting.
Matheson spent $1.3 million in his 2000 election, fund raising for more than a year. He has more than $300,000 in his campaign accounts now, but he won't say what his financial goal will be next year.
"With a new district I'll have to reach a lot of new people," he said, noting that costs go up every year and so he may have to raise and spend even more.
"I already have my campaign office — located where it was in 2000 — up and running," he said.
Ironically, that office is located on 2nd West in Salt Lake City, which is now in Rep. Jim Hansen's 1st Congressional District. "Hey, we signed a lease" before the Legislature redrew his district lines, Matheson said, "and even though it is not in my new district, that's where I'll be running my campaign from."
E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com