Reapportionment
Definition: The drawing of legislative districts for the State Senate and House of Representatives. Reapportionment occurs every ten years following the Census and is a hotly debated and contested process. Republicans are looking to draw constitutionally compliant maps which respect county lines and communities of interest. (Read the statute.) Democrats are intent on introducing "competitiveness" which would draw lines based on voter registration.
The list of articles below is from most current to oldest.
District Maps for Jeffco
You must have Google Earth installed to view the following maps.
GOOGLE EARTH HOUSE MAP (Submitted and approved in Reapportionment process)
GOOGLE EARTH SENATE MAP (Submitted and approved in Reapportionment process)
GOOGLE EARTH CONGRESSIONAL MAP (Submitted and approved in Redistricting process)
READ MORE about the process of reapportionment and redistricting under the ISSUES tab.
Partisan Power Grab Approved by Colorado Supreme Court
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2011
Greenwood Village, CO— Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call released the following statement regarding the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to approve the Democrat Majority’s new state legislative districts.
“I am incredibly disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to ignore countless hours of public testimony and rubber-stamp the Democrats’ highly partisan maps.
The reapportionment process is clearly broken; it allowed the Democrats to game the system using heavy handed tactics to run out the clock at the expense of the citizens of Colorado.”
Despite the flawed district maps, I am confident that with our winning message of economic growth and job creation, Republicans will expand our majority in the House and take back the Senate.”
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House and Senate District Maps Submitted...Again
After the Supreme Court rejected the first maps supported by the left leaning majority of the Reapportionment Commission, once again the commission submitted partisan House and Senate District maps with Chairman Carrera (U?) leading the left. Here are the new maps submitted to the court Nov 30th:
You must have Google Earth installed to view the following maps. You can type in your address to see in which district you might be should the map be approved.
GOOGLE EARTH CONGRESSIONAL MAP (Submitted and approved in Redistricting process)
The vote was drawn along party lines this time as all the Republican commissioners tried to stop the obvious "politically vindictive" nature of the latest maps. The conservative goal from the beginning has been to preserve communities of interest and follow the letter of the law. The left (including Chairman Carrera who has been their leader) has been overtly political. They repeatedly worked from a political goal backward, hoping the supreme court would turn a blind eye to the legal parameters they found inconvenient along the way.
The latest maps have constitutional issues as well but because the architects made more of an effort this time to respect county lines, they are most likely expecting that will be enough to squeak past the guidelines and get approval. There is a pressure of time now so we expect to hear a decision soon and will keep you informed.
Repportionment Maps Sent back to Commission
In a 4-2 decision on Nov 15th, the CO Supreme Court ruled against the submitted house and senate district reapportionment maps drawn by Mario Carrera, chairman of the Reapportionment Commission. Carrera was an outspoken proponent of competitive districts (designed to be roughly 1/3 Rep, 1/3 Dem and 1/3 Unaffiliated voters) even though the criterion is not mentioned in any of the statutory guidelines governing the process. He also spoke often of drawing districts to enhance representation of hispanics.
Republican members Mario Nicolais and Rob Witwer, along with many citizens who testified at the public hearings, consistently argued that the constitutional guidelines giving priority to county lines and communites of interest were being forced to take a backseat to the fabricated criteria championed by a majority of the commission members. Apparently the Supreme Court agrees.
The Commision now has until Dec 6 to submit redrawn maps.
Learn more by clicking on the Issues>Reapportionment menu item above.
Reapportionment Oral Arguments
There are numerous law suits surrounding the last minute maps submitted by the Reapportionment Commission. (Read More) Oral arguments have been scheduled for Wednesday, November 9, 2011, at 9 a.m. in the Old Supreme Court Chambers on the second floor of the State Capitol Building. The order and a number of other documents related to the court submission can be found on the Reapportionment Commission's website
Attendance is open to the public. Each argument is scheduled to last 30 minutes.
Final House and Senate District Maps
The Reapportionment Commission has voted on maps and sent them to the Colorado Supreme Court for a constitutionality review. If approved, the court has until December 15th to file them with the Secretary of State. However, the commission submitted the maps ahead of schedule so it will likely be a November filing if approved.
After much ado and rounds of public hearings to discuss the preliminary maps, in the end Chairman Carrera (the only U in the group and a huge proponent of "competitive" districts and pronounced hispanic representation) simply drew his own new, undebated House District map and presented it for a vote. The only two dissenting votes were from Jefferson County Republicans Mario Nicolais and Rob Witwer. We thank both of them for standing up to the rest of the commission and fighting for fair maps throughout the process. They represented justice for Jeffco and the entire state of Colorado.
As it stands, Jeffco will not receive the 7 house seats the population guidelines call for. Instead we will have 5 seats and share two districts with other counties. House District 38 (Littleton) will be dominated by Arapahoe county and we will share House District 26 with Clear Creek, Gilpin and Park counties. HD 38 is solidly Republican while the Ds and Us dominate in HD 26. Here's a breakdown of HD 26:
| Party: | Rep | Dem | Unaffiliated | Minority Parties |
| # Voters | 13,181 | 14,312 |
14,012 |
302 |
| Percentage: | 31.53% | 34.23% | 33.52% | 0.72% |
As to the Senate Map, Jeffco residents fought hard and won the battle to have 3 full districts! Thank you to everyone who participated in the public hearings and took the time to make a difference. SD 19 is extremely competitive (number of registered voters is split almost equally among Rs, Ds, and Us) but at least the district is winnable and will be represented by a resident of Jeffco. (We will be mounting a major campaign to fire Democrat Senator Evie Hudak in 2012 and are looking for an army of volunteers to help!)
We will dominate Senate District 16 with this breakdown:
Jefferson County 112,743
Boulder County 13,305
Clear Creek County 9,088
Gilpin County 5,441
This district is also competitive with a slight R advantage and is definitely winnable.
While the results could have been much worse, Jeffco Republicans realize the importance of building our base with the best candidates we can find and winning every race so we are not the underdogs in the next round.
Original (Rejected) House and Senate District Maps Submitted
The Reapportionment Commission has voted on maps and sent them to the Colorado Supreme Court for a constitutionality review. If approved, the court has until December 15th to file them with the Secretary of State. However, the commission submitted the maps ahead of schedule so it will likely be a November filing if approved.
HOUSE MAP (Jeffco on page 13)
SENATE MAP (Jeffco on page 9)
After much ado and rounds of public hearings to discuss the preliminary maps, in the end Chairman Carrera (the only U in the group and a huge proponent of "competitive" districts and pronounced hispanic representation) simply drew his own new, undebated House District map and presented it for a vote. The only two dissenting votes were from Jefferson County Republicans Mario Nicolais and Rob Witwer. We thank both of them for standing up to the rest of the commission and fighting for fair maps throughout the process. They represented justice for Jeffco and the entire state of Colorado.
As it stands, Jeffco will not receive the 7 house seats the population guidelines call for. Instead we will have 5 seats and share two districts with other counties. House District 38 (Littleton) will be dominated by Arapahoe county and we will share House District 26 with Clear Creek, Gilpin and Park counties. HD 38 is solidly Republican while the Ds and Us dominate in HD 26. Here's a breakdown:
| Party: | Rep | Dem | Unaffiliated | Minority Parties |
| # Voters | 13,181 | 14,312 |
14,012 |
302 |
| Percentage: | 31.53% | 34.23% | 33.52% | 0.72% |
As to the Senate Map, Jeffco residents fought hard and won the battle to have 3 full districts! Thank you to everyone who participated in the public hearings and took the time to make a difference. SD 19 is extremely competitive (number of registered voters is split almost equally among Rs, Ds, and Us) but at least the district is winnable and will be represented by a resident of Jeffco.
We will dominate Senate District 16 with this breakdown:
Jefferson County 112,743
Boulder County 13,305
Clear Creek County 9,088
Gilpin County 5,441
This district is also competitive with a slight R advantage and is definitely winnable.
Reapportionment III
Good news citizens of Jefferson County!
Thanks to overwhelming testimony from residents of Jeffco (and the fact that Adams Co didn't throw their residents under the bus), the Reapportionment Commission is revisiting the drawing of Senate District 19!
Commissioner Atencio commented about two hours into the August 24th Adco public hearing that the commission had already heard from Jeffco and decided to revisit SD19. After a round of applause broke out, she clarified "we can't promise anything". However, as I mentioned in Reapportionment II, this commission does seem to be listening to the citizens who are taking the time to get involved.
So, once again, I'd like to thank all of you who have emailed, come to the hearings or testified. I know we are all busy, but it is important to take a minute and a deep breath, and pat yourself on the back for caring enough to make a difference. Reagan said, "If not us, who; if not now, when?" And we at the JeffcoGOP are proud to be a part of "us".
Contact the Commission (email: reapp2011@state.co.us)
Good news, citizens of Jefferson County!
Thanks to overwhelming testimony from residents of Jeffco (and the fact that Adams Co didn't throw their residents under the bus), the Reapportionment Commission is revisiting the drawing of Senate District 19!
Commissioner Atencio commented about two hours into the August 24th Adco public hearing that the commission had already heard from Jeffco and decided to revisit SD19. After a round of applause broke out, she clarified "we can't promise anything". However, as I mentioned in Reapportionment II, this commission does seem to be listening to the citizens who are taking the time to get involved.
So, once again, I'd like to thank all of you who have emailed, come to the hearings or testified. I know we are all busy, but it is important to take a minute and a deep breath, and pat yourself on the back for caring enough to make a difference. Reagan said, "If not us, who; if not now, when?" And we at the JeffcoGOP are proud to be a part of "us".
Contact the Commission (email: reapp2011@state.co.us)
Reapportionment Editorial
On Reapportionment
The Colorado Reapportionment Commission is asserting that it has a mandate to create "politically competitiveness" districts. The purpose of the Reapportionment Commission as currently chartered is to take political agendas out of the reapportionment process so as to make the process objective. Where is political competitiveness listed in the documents that define the Reapportionment Commission's mission? The Commission has no explicit mandate for political competitiveness.
The Reapportionment Commission can argue that it has an implicit mandate to be "fair." No doubt, members of the Commission would assert that a "fair" district is a competitive district, a district which is equally populated by citizens on both sides of a political divide. That notion is flawed both in theory and in practice.
We live in a Representative Republic where we choose our representatives using a democratic process. The democratic process is inherently a winner-take-all affair. All of those who do not vote for the winning side lose. Having winners and losers, by its nature, is unfair. Making districts competitive maximizes unfairness. It maximizes the number of voters on a losing side.
As a theory, the fairness argument for competitive districts ignores the fact that competitive districts maximize the number of voters who are unhappy with their representation. It also ignores the fact that it is impossible to make every district competitive, so making even one district competitive would be unfair to all of the non-competitive districts. Further, it is absurd for the members of the Commission to assert that they can determine that a district will have a competitive election before the candidates have been named.
In practice, what constitutes a viable candidate in a district is determined by the political makeup of the district. The members of the Reapportionment Commission, by replacing Constitutional mandates with personal policy preferences are making themselves the arbiters of who will and will not be viable candidates in illegally drawn districts.
It is the place of the citizens of a district to run candidates that make an election competitive. It is not the place of the members of the Reapportionment Commission to decide for a community where on the political spectrum that competition will take place. For the members of the Commission to do so is for the members of the Commission to use the reapportionment process to implement a personal political agenda.
The Commission has no implicit mandate for political competitiveness. The mandates for the Reapportionment Commission explicitly stated in our Constitution supersede any personal prejudices the members of the Commission have as to what is and is not fair.
Breaking up a community that is overwhelmingly Democrat or overwhelmingly Republican, for any reason, is to break up a community of interest, a community of shared values, a community of shared perspectives, in direct violation of the commission's mandates. By law, communities with a common demographic factor are to be preserved within a single district whenever possible. Political persuasion is a demographic factor.
By law, district boundaries are not to extend outside a county's boundaries except to accommodate a population requirement. In the Denver metro area, there are five counties that have State Senate districts that extend outside of their boundaries: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, and Jefferson. Of those, Adams, Arapahoe, and Boulder counties do not need an accommodation to meet a population requirement. Only Denver and Jefferson counties need such an accommodation.
Denver and Jefferson counties combined are part of five multi-county districts. Together, they meet the population requirement for eight Senate districts without further accommodation from other counties. Respect for the law mandates there be exactly one multi-county district in the Denver metro area, shared between Denver county and Jefferson county. Because the east bank of Marsten Lake is a part of Jefferson county that is bounded on all sides by Denver county, that multi-county district should contain the Marsten Lake area.
By creating unnecessary multi-county districts in order to advance the political agenda of competitiveness, the Colorado Reapportionment Commission has abandoned the rule of law and its mandates.
Craig Jameson
Reapportionment II
August 10, 2011
The Reapportionment Commission is in its final stages of determining the new house and senate district maps. There was a public hearing for Jeffco on August 9th and it went very well. The commission was attentive and for the most part seemed genuinely interested in the public input. Much discussion centered around these main issues:
- Senate District 19 crosses county borders to pick up roughly 20,000 residents in Adams county. From comments made by Commissioner Carroll, it was intended to appear as though the purpose of this border crossing was to keep the city of Arvada from being split into three sections rather than just two. However testimony repeatedly called for the maps to be in compliance with the statute requiring county borders to take precedence over all others. In crossing the county line on our east as well as western borders, Jeffco would only have two wholly contained senate districts where we are entitled to three. There didn't seem to be any reason for Adams to lose residents to a dominating Jeffco district when the three districts wholly contained in Adams would accommodate those residents and stay within the guidelines. Evie Hudak testified that she liked SD19 calling it 'brilliant' because it connects where she lives in 'the finger' of Westminster to a bigger area of Westminster on the Adams county side and 'almost' makes the area contiguous to the northern portions of Westminster in Jeffco. Needless to say, her testimony ignored the constitutional guidelines.
- Senate District 35 is drawn around urban lowlands of Lakewood, Golden, Fairmount, Applewood and Arvada then picks up mountain communities reaching all the way into Gilpin, Clear Creek and Boulder counties. Testimony requested the district be respectful of the differing communities of interest within that district as drawn. There was no testimony in specific support of 35.
- House Districts 10 and 23 were examined in depth as to the where to draw borders that would pay deference to the various communities of interest especially as they relate to the schools in that area. Some testimony seemed to lean toward raising 10's northern boundary to 6th Avenue and moving the eastern boundary to Kipling. Other testimony from residents in that area were happy with the map as drawn so it is unclear as to whether the commission was compelled to make any changes.
- There was much talk about 'competitiveness'. This has been a buzzword from the left from the beginning of the process. The idea is that each district should come as close as possible to a three way split among Republicans, Unaffiliated and Democrats. Arnold Salazar asked his fellow commissioners directly if it was fair to consider the competitiveness of the district once all guidelines were met. Clearly this is still very much in the minds of the commission and will no doubt play a role in the final drawing of the maps.
It was very exciting that so many Republicans came out in support of the Colorado constitution. This commission has been better than the last, but there are still members that would ignore the law in favor of self interest. Their success will only be measured by how well they follow the law. Hopefully they've now realized the citizens of Jeffco are watching.
See related articles: Reapportionment.
Jeffco Reapportionment Hearing
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The Reapportionment committee will hold a public hearing for Jefferson, Adams, Boulder and Broomfield Counties. The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will include public testimony periods for Region 6 (Adams, Boulder, Broomfield, and Jefferson counties) beginning at 11:00 a.m. Meeting will be held in Old Supreme Court Chambers, State Capitol Building, 200 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO, 80218 and will be broadcast over the Internet.
LINKS: Statute regarding Reapportionment Voting record for Region 4 maps
Senate District 16 residents: There is much discussion among Jeffco Senate District 16 residents regarding the need for a reevaluation of that district. CLICK HERE for a summary of that argument by Don Ytterberg, a one time senate candidate for SD 16. Please feel free to contact the commission staff with any questions or concerns. www.colorado.gov/reapportionment Follow them on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CoReappComm |
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| Contact : Jessika Shipley reapp2011@state.co.us |
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Congressional Redistricting 2
Unfortunately Democrats killed two bills (including their own) in the last two days before the deadline. Therefore, the legislature was unable to agree on a Congressional District map and lawsuits have been filed by both sides in Denver District Court. Here are links to some interesting redistricting videos taken during the process:
Article V Section 47
Article V Section 47 of the Colorado Constitution reads
Composition of Districts.
(1) Each district shall be as compact in area as possible and the aggregate linear distance of all district boundaries shall be as short as possible. Each district shall consist of contiguous whole general election precincts. Districts of the same house shall not overlap.
(2) Except when necessary to meet the equal population requirements of section 46, no part of one county shall be added to all or part of another county in forming districts. Within counties whose territory is contained in more than one district of the same house, the number of cities and towns whose territory is contained in more than one district of the same house shall be as small as possible. When county, city, or town boundaries are changed, adjustments, if any, in legislative districts shall be as prescribed by law.
(3) Consistent with the provisions of this section and section 46 of this article, communities of interest, including ethnic, cultural, economic, trade area, geographic, and demographic factors, shall be preserved within a single district wherever possible.
Reapportionment I
Explanation and notice of public hearing on August 9 for Jeffco:
Background: Colorado's population grew by 727,935 people in the last ten years. This means that each of our 65 house districts will need to have approximately 77,000 people in them and each of our 35 Senate districts will increase to around 143,500. Even though Jeffco's overall population increased by 1.4% to 534,543 we will now only fill 7 house districts rather than the 8 we currently occupy. Therefore we will "lose" a house district and our current borders will shift. Our senate borders will also shift but we should still be allocated to three full districts and a portion of a fourth.
The Reapportionment Commission has drawn preliminary maps for both the house and senate districts. The house district map is respectful of county, city, and communities of interest (as stipulated constitutionally). It is a good map and should fair all citizens of Jefferson County well over the next ten years. The democrats are not happy with the house map so it is anticipated that they will be filling the room to try to get it changed. If you support it as currently drawn, it would a good idea to let the commission know: Attend the Hearing or Contact the Commission
Our senate borders do not allow for fair respresentation of the citizens of Jeffco. Currently our population allows for 3.72 districts. However the commission has drawn preliminary districts to allow for only two districts to be wholly contained in Jeffco. We are allocated only 87% of Senate District 19. 13% of that district will come from Adams county east of Sheridan and south of 36. The statute governing the reapportionment process gives deference to the county borders. Therefore it is unclear as to why the commission saw fit to grab 20,000 residents of Adams county and put them in a district that could actually be wholly contained in Jeffco. Especially when Adams county has three full districts which could encompass those residents.
Portion in Adams County
There is a public hearing scheduled to allow for our input. We are asking all Republican residents of Jefferson County to look at these reapportionment maps and statistics and contact the commission or come to that hearing to express your opinions. They need to hear your opinion as to the validity of the house maps and senate maps both good and bad. Attend the Hearing or Contact the Commission
The Colorado Reapportionment Commission members are:
| Gayle Berry (R) | Dolores Atencio (D) | |
| Robert Loevy (R) | Sen Morgan Carroll (D) | |
| Mario Nicolais (R) | Rep Matt Jones (D) | |
| Steve Tool (R) | Arnold Salazar (D) | |
| Rob Witwer (R) | Wellington Webb (D) | |
| Mario Carrera (U) |
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Links:
Preliminary State Senate Boundaries 072711 (Page 12)
Preliminary State House Boundaries 072711 (Page 18)
Information on the Redistricting and Reapportionment Process