A radio news item recently had a segment about the Republican Party’s dates and locations of its two primary election debates for the 2nd Congressional District. I cringed when hearing that the June 20th debate would be at Woods Cross High School. I thought that someone had either made a mistake about the location, or that the debate was being held, oddly, outside the district.
There was no way (I thought) that Woods Cross — near the southern end of Davis County — would be in the same district of most of the western side of Utah, going all the way south to St. George.
I recalled that the Legislature had grossly gerrymandered all four districts in such a way that Salt Lake County was carved up into each district so as to ensure that Democrats would not be competitive in any district for this decade (and probably beyond). But I assumed that all of Davis County was in the 1st District, together with Weber County and points north. (The 1st District is tainted by skipping southern Davis and extending into eastern Salt Lake City).
Silly me!
A quick look at a map of the districts shocked me, as the 2nd District extends to Farmington, several miles north of Woods Cross.
I looked at the rather surprising but greatly welcomed June 1st letter of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The letter advocated political diversity by calling for considering candidates of all parties and discouraging straight-party voting. Alas, there was nothing in the letter against extreme gerrymandering, although it must be prevented in order to achieve the spirit of the letter.
Let’s hope a second such letter would address the means by which to implement the first letter, particularly via fairly-drawn districts. This state can do better!
Paul Wright, West Haven
