The lone member of the Utah Legislature who is not a Republican or Democrat has thrown his own proposed map in the ring, fresh off a Utah Supreme Court decision that kept the redistricting timeline intact.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, a former Republican who joined the Utah Forward Party earlier this year, presented a map he drew to reporters at the state capitol. It’s an alternative to what other lawmakers might come up with.
The state was pushed into redistricting after an August court ruling tossed out the congressional boundaries adopted in 2021.
The Legislature has to publicly share its proposed map on Sept. 25, according to a schedule agreed upon by both sides in the redistricting lawsuit. The public will have 10 days to weigh in before the map is put to a legislative vote during a special session on Oct. 6. The groups that sued over the map can also submit a proposal. The judge will sign off on the final choice.
The Legislature has created a website where they’ll post the map and the underlying data. They’ve also created a Legislative Redistricting Committee. Some of the members helped create the 2021 map that the judge threw out. Republican Sen. Scott Sandall is one of the chairs, the same as last time.
In Thatcher’s view, the state’s most recent congressional map is “pretty gerrymandered.” The then-Republican voted against its adoption.
Thatcher’s map is one he drew when the state was last drawing boundaries. He thinks it complies with the 2018 voter-approved Better Boundaries ballot initiative known as Proposition 4. He said he focused on creating compact districts that keep counties together, while ignoring partisan voting patterns and focusing on equal population totals.
Although like the Legislature-approved map, Thatcher’s lines split Salt Lake County up between all four U.S. House districts. That was a criticism of the state’s map that was booted, since Salt Lake County is the bluest part of the state. People argued that splitting the county into four made a Democratic win unlikely.
But Thatcher believes it is necessary to split up the county due to its population size.
“If you make your hometown the center of the universe, you inappropriately, utterly disadvantage the entire rest of the state,” Thatcher said.
Thatcher said in 2021 his colleagues split up Salt Lake County based on voting patterns. He said he drew his lines in the county based on population size.
“It splits Salt Lake, but not because it's Salt Lake, because that's where the population is.” Thatcher’s map keeps 25 out of the state’s 29 counties contained to one district, but splits up the state’s four most populous counties of Salt Lake, Utah, Weber and Davis. A distinguishing factor is that four are all split down I-15.
“Most people have no idea where their municipal boundaries are,” he said. “Everyone knows where I-15 is.”
Phil Boileau with the Utah Forward Party said the party is not taking an official position on the map, but does support Thatcher presenting boundary options. He said they want to start a dialogue with the public and host forums for feedback on the map.
“We want criticism. We want constructive feedback. We want tweaks,” Boileau said.
