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Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson said Thursday he will run for Congress in the newly created 4th Congressional District — an area outside of where he lives, but one that is seen as more favorable to Democrats and contains large parts of his current district.

“The political boundaries of the district may be arbitrary, but the people, the communities and their priorities are real and well-known to me,” Matheson said in a statement Thursday.

Rep. Jim Matheson announced Thursday that he will jump from the 2nd District where he has served the past 10 years to the state's new district to seek re-election — a district in which he does not live.

Matheson, Utah's only Democrat in Congress, said the Utah Legislature's redrawing of congressional boundaries this fall prompted his move because the district he has known no longer exists.

"Most of us watched with disgust the political games played during the redistricting process," he said. "But lines on a map never defined my approach to this job. From the beginning, it has been my priority to be an independent voice who puts Utah first."

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, says Republican legislators managed to scatter his current voters among all of the four new congressional districts they just drew. So he says three of those districts now tempt him as targets for a possible run — including maybe challenging GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Or Matheson says he may run for governor or U.S. Senate instead.

“It’s the result of political gymnastics,” Matheson said about the new congressional map passed by the Legislature this week and awaiting the governor’s signature. “Ten years ago, we went through a similar type of activity” of Republicans trying to draw extra Republicans into his district and exclude Democrats. “So I’m not surprised by the outcome.”

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SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, reports he has raised almost $216,000 toward the 2012 elections in the second quarter of 2011. That brings his total to date to almost $491,000.

Should Matheson decide to take a shot at Orrin Hatch’s Senate seat, that puts Utah’s only congressional Democrat about $4 million behind the 35-year veteran senator. Earlier Thursday, Hatch’s campaign reported raising almost $4.5 million to date, of which almost $1.3 million came in the second quarter.

But Matheson’s 2012 campaign war chest still exceeds that of Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who’s considering challenging Hatch in the Republican primary election. Chaffetz reported raising nearly $239,000 to date, with just over $123,000 of it coming between April 1 and June 30.

The poll by Dan Jones & Associates found only 38 percent of registered voters agree that it's important to re-elect Hatch in 2012 because of his seniority. Fifty-nine percent said after 36 years, it's time for someone new.

And that someone new could be a Democrat. Utah hasn't had a Democratic U.S. senator since Hatch beat former Sen. Frank Moss in 1976.

If Utah's lone Democrat in Congress, Rep. Jim Matheson, gets in the Senate race, voters would be evenly split, according to the poll, with 47 percent favoring Hatch and 47 percent for Matheson.

Two of Utah's political heavyweights, Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson and GOP Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, said Thursday they're eyeing higher office.

Matheson, Utah's lone Democratic member of Congress, said he's looking at a bid for governor or even the U.S. Senate in addition to possibly running for a seventh term representing the 2nd District.

"I know I'm going to be running for office in Utah," Matheson said. "All three of those offices are still on the table."

Some Utahns welcomed the release Tuesday of the Pentagon’s report on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” seen as a critical tool in efforts to repeal the Clinton-era ban on openly gay military members. But at least two members of Utah’s congressional delegation don’t support overturning the policy.

Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Utah Pride Center, said the “political pingpong” on the question of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been especially difficult for those who are on active duty or have recently been discharged for being gay.

If there was any sliver of hope for moderate Democrats on a catastrophic midterm election night, it was their assumption that now, at least, the party’s leaders would have to focus on recapturing the political center. If nothing else, they reasoned, Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be forced to step aside as party leader, yielding control to Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland congressman who had been the Blue Dogs’ ally in party leadership.

A week later, that hope appears to have been woefully misguided. Ms. Pelosi defied expectation by announcing that she wanted to stay on, forcing Mr. Hoyer into a potential fight to hold onto the No. 2 spot in the party leadership. And a lot of liberals seem to have decided that the moderates were not the victims of the Democratic downfall — but rather its primary cause.

For the House Blue Dogs — Democrats who are more conservative than their party on fiscal policy and sometimes find themselves out of step with their more liberal colleagues on social issues — last week’s election was like a political Gettysburg, the carnage unfolding all around them. A caucus that comprised 54 Democrats was instantly reduced by half. The top two leaders of the Blue Dog caucus, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota and Baron P. Hill of Indiana, were among those defeated.

And in the 2nd District, Republican Morgan Philpot is now within 12 points of Utah's only Democratic member of Congress, Rep. Jim Matheson.

Still, pollster Randy Shumway said Matheson is on track to be one of the few incumbent Democrats re-elected nationwide in a mid-term election expected to turn over Congress to the GOP.

"Twelve points is a lot to make up," said Shumway, owner of Dan Jones & Associates, which also does polling for Herbert. Just two weeks ago, Philpot trailed Matheson by 26 points.

"For Jim Matheson, he's a congressman in a district that is Republican two-to-one almost, in an atmosphere that is very anti-incumbent, very anti-Democrat," Shumway said. "I actually think that's a positive situation."

Fifty-one percent of the 456 active voters surveyed in the 2nd District back Matheson and 39 percent, Philpot. The poll was conducted Monday through Thursday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percent.