Redistricting backgrounders

Over the next couple weeks, we will publish several posts looking at Utah’s ongoing redistricting process. We’ll begin by looking closely at the 2010 U.S. Census results and discussing what they might mean for redistricting. We’ll also take a look at how Utah’s partisan balance has evolved over the past decade.

Some posts will look more at how the four U.S. House districts will need to be drawn. Other posts will look more at how the 75 Utah House districts will need to be drawn.

Things may change, but expect to see the following posts appear over the next few days. (I’ll come back and link to all the posts here as each post goes live.)

• Will Utah’s redistricting committee be biased? (We posted this a few weeks back.)
• How has Utah’s population grown since 2000? (Answer: A lot, but mostly on the Wasatch Front.)
• Which counties will gain or lose seats in the Utah legislature? (Salt Lake County loses, Utah and Davis Counties gain.)
• Could Republicans win all four U.S. House districts? (Yes, all four can be drawn with a GOP majority, but that doesn’t mean Matheson won’t keep winning.)
• Which counties have moved most to the right? (Every county but one has moved to the right since 1992; Carbon County moved a TON.)
• Will redistricting hurt Democrats in the state legislature? (Yes. Their districts have become underpopulated.)
• How will Hispanic growth affect redistricting? (Potentially, since Hispanics are increasingly concentrated in northern Salt Lake County.)
• Did the Utah Legislature really gerrymander Rep. Matheson’s district in 2001? (They may have tried, but it’s not clear they succeeded.)
• Do single member districts hurt Democrats? (Yes, a lot. But multimember districts might be even worse.)
• How badly were legislative districts gerrymandered in 2001? (or “Is there any possible district map that would give Democrats one seat in Utah County?”)
• What have we learned? (A summary of the key punchlines from each of the preceding posts.)

So keep us in your feed readers. We’ll be posting something almost every weekday for the next couple weeks.

Possibly related posts:

• Redistricting backgrounders – What have we learned?
• How badly were legislative districts gerrymandered in 2001?
• Did the legislature gerrymander Matheson’s district in 2001?