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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's only Democrat in Congress has signed on to legislation that would give the state a fourth House seat.
Representative Jim Matheson is satisfied it will be a statewide district for now and not another opportunity for Republican gerrymandering.
The bill also authorizes the first seat for heavily Democratic District of Columbia, which has 600-thousand residents but no vote in Congress.
GOP-dominated Utah, which barely missed getting another seat after the 2000 Census, was added to the bill for political balance.
Matheson says the latest version of the bill was acceptable to him because it would create an at-large congressional seat in the state instead of allowing Utah lawmakers to immediately carve up districts again.
Legislators won't get that chance until after the 2010 census.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
