Contentious final hearing of Utah’s legislative redistricting committee, no vote on maps

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The second and final hearing of the Utah legislative redistricting committee’s court-ordered process to draw new congressional lines got somewhat contentious on Wednesday as Republicans and Democrats sparred over how to test partisan fairness and accused each other’s redistricting expert of bias.

After a three-hour meeting and a five-hour one on Monday, no maps were voted on, and neither was a bill to introduce a partisan bias test to their court-ordered anti-gerrymandering redistricting criteria known as Proposition 4.

The Republican House chair, Candice Pierucci (R-Salt Lake County) said that the maps will be voted on October 6th, just hours before a full legislative vote during a planned special legislative session.

“We’re giving the public multiple options to comment on,” wrote Pierucci on X. The Judge was not saying only one map had to be adopted by the committee, but that the legislature could only consider and adopt a map available for public comment for 10 days.”

The third district court judge, Dianna Gibson, ordered the legislature “to publish their proposed map” on September 25, but did not specify whether lawmakers could release multiple maps.

During the meeting, lawmakers reviewed the pros and cons, city and county splits, and requirements of Proposition 4 for each of the five maps released by the Republicans and one new map from the two Democrats on the committee.

Meeting gets contentious

The meeting got heated at times as Republicans and Democrats both accused each other of bringing in partisan experts.

The sparring started when Rep. Doug Owens (D-Salt Lake County) argued that a test to address partisan fairness called the Partisan Bias Test that’s being pushed by the GOP-led committee isn’t a fair test.

Owens said that they had Utah’s current congressional maps analyzed under that test, and it passed as fair under the partisan bias test despite often being criticized as gerrymandered.

“What we are saying, is there is a process in place which does not fairly assess whether we are punishing a party,” said Owens.

He also alleged that democrats were not able to see the data that the Republicans’ expert, Sean Trende, used when drawing the maps and accused him of using partisan data, something forbidden by Prop 4.

“We suspect there was a data set incorporated into the test that Doctor Trende applied, and we are unable to verify,” said Owens. It’s as if we’re told to buy a car, and we can’t lift the hood and look.”

That seemed to enrage the committee’s Senate chair, Scott Sandall (R-Box Elder County).

“You just demeaned us to the audience, to the public,” he clapped back. “I will not have that. You called us, somehow hiding or lying about everything that we’ve presented to say that these maps were not developed with any political data. You just misrepresented that, and that’s out of order.”

Owens backtracked on his accusation a bit, saying that he had a “suspicion” but didn’t think any committee members were aware of it.

“I think there’s been a formulation of a test that looks like it’s mathematically specifically representative,” Owen clarified.

Democrats present their map

The contention continued as Democrats brought in their expert, Daniel Magleby.

Republicans grilled Magleby not only about the Democrats’ map that split 13 of Utah’s cities, but also about his prior tweets where he said the current congressional map was “straight out of the authoritarian playbook.”

“Now, Dr. Magleby, I think a lot of Utahn’s are going to find that language inflammatory,” said Rep. Cal Roberts (R-Salt Lake County), especially against the backdrop of our current political environment.”

“Do you think this legislature is authoritarian?” he asked.

After a bit of prodding and a few interruptions,.Magley explained that the purpose of the maps was to give fair representation.

“I have high hopes you will do well by the people of Utah, giving them a map that represents their interests in Washington,” Magleby said.

The grilling continued as Roberts read other Magleby tweets in full and asked Democrats if they were okay with the optics of an expert, “that read like a left-wing activist?”

Rep. Luz Escamilla (D-Salt Lake County) said she was not concerned with those optics and argued that Democrats were not given access to the Republicans’ expert, so they hired Magleby.

“Dr. Trende looks to me very suspicious, like Dr. Magleby looks for you. But they are experts in their areas,” she said.

She also explained that they gave the Republicans less than 24 hours to review the Democrat’s map because they were trying to get this data.

After the grilling of Magleby continued, tensions were eventually calmed as the committee continued to dissect the democrats’ maps.

The committee then heard public comments and ultimately made no decisions but explained that they would vote on October 6, after a 10-day public comment period.

That is also the day that the plaintiffs in Utah’s redistricting lawsuit are ordered to submit their version of maps to the courts for an evidentiary hearing.

The court has said they will determine whether Prop 4 was followed during a hearing scheduled for October 23-24, and if it’s deemed the maps violate Prop 4, the plaintiffs maps could be selected.