Lawmakers avoid race in discussions of redistricting

Paper: Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT)

Date: April 6, 2006

Five years ago, Utah lawmakers were told not to talk about voters' race. When state representatives and senators again start carving up legislative districts five years from now, they might not be able to avoid the topic.

In white bread Utah, race usually isn't an issue when drawing the lines that distinguish one lawmaker's district from another. But with the state's minority populations growing, that could change.

As national redistricting experts wrapped up a conference in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, the issue looms large locally.

"Race is inherently part of the redistricting process," said Debo Adegbile, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's associate director of litigation. "It's a little bit artificial to act as if one is ignoring race considerations when drawing district lines."

But that's kind of what Utah lawmakers tried to do in 2001 when they started redrawing 104 legislative districts. Spooked by several court cases, state attorneys advised legislators to avoid the topic altogether for fear such discussions could spark a challenge.

Since then, Utah's minority population has grown dramatically. Between 2000 and 2004, the state's Latino population grew from 201,559 to 249,091, a 24 percent increase.

Salt Lake City Democratic Rep. Duane Bourdeaux already has one of the most diverse legislative districts in the state, where slightly more than one-third of residents counted by the 2000 Census were not white. Five years ago, he protested when lawmakers originally redrew his district, cutting out the historic center - and many minority voters - of Rose Park. In the end, legislators drew a peninsula into his district between Redwood Road and Interstate 215, shifting many new neighborhoods into Bountiful Republican Rep. Ann Hardy's district.

Bourdeaux, who is not running for re-election, says whoever replaces him will have to be vigilant protecting the core of the district. "My number one goal was not to chop up the heart of Rose Park, and I was satisfied," Bourdeaux said. "You have to look at the demographics of a very diverse district. Let's not shy away."

At the redistricting conference hosted by the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, voter advocates from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship to the Brookings Institute met at the University of Utah and Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake City to discuss solutions to redistricting excesses.

Anita Earls, director of advocacy for the University of North Carolina's Center for Civil Rights, says many state legislatures were shortsightedly told to avoid the topic five years ago.

"The theory is you can't be sued for having a discriminatory racial intent if you aren't really considering race. That's a simplistic legal analysis," Earls said. Legislators redrawing districts "know where minority populations live. They're conscious of race."

While Utah lawmakers may have been aware, although silent, about the race of voters in particular districts, legislative attorney John Fellows says the state is unlikely to face the legal challenges raised in states like Texas and North Carolina with histories of discrimination. North Carolina's redistricting maps were rejected as discriminatory by judges in the 1990s. Texas minority groups have claimed their rights were violated by that state's latest redistricting; the case is still pending.

Besides Bourdeaux, who is African American, several Latino lawmakers have been elected, including Democratic Reps. Ross Romero of Salt Lake City and Mark Wheatley of Murray.

"Utah voters have been good about sending minorities to the Legislature," Fellows said. "That history may mean [race] won't be as significant in Utah legislative redistricting as it might be in other states."

Author: Rebecca Walsh The Salt Lake Tribune

Section: Local Politics