As LL noted this morning, it seems young Jason Chaffetz of Utah is taking the lead in the House of Representatives in attempts to overturn the District's recognition of same-sex marriages.

His hometown newspapers, the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune, both published stories about his involvement today.

Here's what the latter wrote:

While Chaffetz agrees he would object to the federal government telling his hometown of Alpine to recognize or not recognize gay marriage, the freshman congressman says the District of Columbia is different because it receives federal funding as the nation's capital.

"People in Salt Lake City are paying for the operation and government in the District of Columbia," Chaffetz says. He adds that he believes Congress should vote on the issue.

Um, so, congressman, you did check whether your hometown of Alpine is receiving any federal funds, right?

LL is certain you made sure that your community received no community development block grants or police bulletproof vest money or any of that stimulus money and that none of those roads in your beautiful town were built with a portion of the federal highway trust fund, right? Because that would mean Congress should get a say over how your town is run, if LL understands you correctly. More to the point, it would follow that, LL, as a federal taxpayer, would be entitled to congressional representation he doesn't currently have.

And surely you made especially certain that your hometown fire department didn't receive, in 2006, a nearly million-dollar handout from the Department of Homeland Security in order to hire firefighters, right?

Wrong.

Flickr photo by wickenden

Jason Chaffetz, a Republican about to take Utah's 3rd district congressional seat, says he's not going to support efforts to give D.C. a vote in Congress. So says the Deseret News.

Yeah, yeah—GOP'er against District voting rights; no news there. Why should anyone care what this guy thinks?

Well, the former BYU placekicker is the first member of the Utah delegation to come out against the so-called Davis solution (after now-retired Va. Rep. Tom Davis), which seeks to appease Republican misgivings over handing Democrats an extra House vote by giving the GOP another vote in Utah, which was narrowly screwed out of an extra seat in the last reapportionment. He also replaces a fellow Republican, Chris Cannon, who had supported the Davis bill. (Chaffetz challenged Cannon from the right, running mainly on immigration and garnering George W. Bush's endorsement.)

Chaffetz proffers the constitutional excuse for opposing a congressional vote for the District: "I recognize that taxation without representation is fundamentally unfair. But what should we do? I believe it is possible to give residents of Washington, D.C., a voice without violating the Constitution," he tells the Utah paper, advocating for retrocession. "Giving Maryland an additional seat in the House of Representatives raises no Constitutional questions and gives D.C. residents the representation they seek."

Hmm. So this guy's a constitutional law scholar? A judge, maybe? At least a lawyer? History buff?

Nope. Corporate PR guy.

Flickr photo by wickenden