So why is she such a bad candidate in general, though? Her elections should not be even remotely this close, nor should she have lost to Matheson in 2012. This is a double-digit R PVI district.
Romney skewed the districts PVI. It is not overwhelmingly Republican. Also 82% of the district is in Salt Lake County. Salt Lake County routinely elects Democrats. That even includes many parts of that district. Plus there was some desire to have one Democrat in high office in Utah.
A wave could get Love, but I think she is more entrenched now. Open seat in a Democratic wave year would be interesting though. Still, her opponent would not be able to defeat her if he/she/it can not give a good reason to vote against her or for the opponent.
Of course your party made a vicious gerrymander. It would not have been too difficult to draw a district entirely in Salt Lake County that Democrats could routinely win.
I know its a very controversial opinion I have but I think the main requirement of Congressional Districts should be that they make as much geographic sense as feasible and correspond to population requirements.
That makes sense, and that's how I feel about congressional districts as well. Maximum compactness is the ideal.
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