Redistricting in both states are done. Maine drew a relatively fair map where Michaud's district got a hair less Democratic and Pingree's district got a hair more Democratic. In Utah, they tried again to get rid of Rep. Jim Matheson (D). They scrambled his district and added their new UT-04. Matheson in the end opted to run in UT-04, which is one point less Republican than his current district, but only has 31% of his old constituents. However, a poll he released shortly after deciding to run in UT-04 showed him over 50% against all Republican candidates. His fundraising has also picked up and it seems that he will survive yet another Republican gerrymander.
For this diary, I tried to do a map of Utah that was both fair and respected communities of interest and city boundaries. For Maine, I drew a hideous Republican gerrymander.
More below the fold.
For Utah, I won't go into the leans of UT-01, 02, and 03. They're all very Republican. For them, I distributed them out in geographically logical ways. UT-01 (blue - Rep. Rob Bishop) is a nothern Utah seat that takes in Logan, Brigham City, and Ogden. UT-02 (green - Rep. Jason Chaffetz) is an eastern Utah seat that takes in Park City, Provo, and Moab. UT-03 (dark magenta - Open?) is a western Utah seat that takes in southern Salt Lake County and ventures down to St. George in the south-western corner of the state.
UT-04 (red): Rep. Jim Matheson (D)
Partisan Numbers: 55.1% Obama/41.6% McCain
This is a Salt Lake City-based district that stays completely within the couty, takes in nearby southern suburbs, and respects city limits as best as possible. As a result, you get a Democratic district. However, this will likely doom Matheson at a nominating convention unless he really pulls some strings.
Now on to Maine. Here, I tried to draw Michaud's district as Republican as possible. This of course made Pingree's district as Democratic as possible. It's also very ugly.
Michaud is still a good fit for ME-02, but now he will have to work very hard to get re-elected. And if it goes open, it will favor a Republican more often than not.