Public Comments

"Broomfield is one community of interest that should NOT be divided."

To the Colorado Congressional Redistricting Commission: As the Commission moves closer to a final decision on a map, I know that you are actively considering Greeley, not just treating it as a population center that is to be used for balancing population among districts (thank you!!). I'd like to reinforce the need to include Greeley in the new 8th Congressional District. The current voting age population in Greeley is, based on official election records kept by the County Clerk, 81,553 people. Of that number, 35.3% are Hispanic. That reflects 28,778 Hispanic voters in the City of Greeley. This bloc of voters shares significant federal public policy concerns with Hispanic voters in Adams County (and the CD 8 drawn in Staff Draft #2). These communities are united in their transition from an agricultural and rural history to an urban-oriented, growth-oriented economy as some of the fastest growing areas in the state. Many Hispanic workers in this region face dangerous working conditions, challenges receiving adequate health care, and roadblocks in their path to economic opportunity. Residents in this community face environmental issues associated with oil and gas drilling and refinery operations that impact their lives, health and prosperity. These are exactly the kinds of issues that a congressperson would address to meet the needs of his or her constituents. The Greeley Hispanic Community will never be heard or given political weight by Congressional candidates if the City is thrown into CD 4 in order to meet population requirements because the Commission fine-tunes Denver suburban districts to meet some other priority. Furthermore, white voters in CD4 have and will continue to vote for their own interests, which are not aligned with the Hispanic community in Greeley. There are clear differences in the industries and priorities of voters in the eastern plains and voters in a fast-growing Adams/Weld region. I'm asking that the Commission, which seems so close to ensuring our community is protected, follow through on the plans that include Greeley with the new 8th Congressional district. Thank you for your consideration in this most urgent issue.

As a Broomfield resident of over 40 years, it's vital that you don't divide us!!

Custer County is a small, rural, agricultural County with approximately 5,000 residents. Our interests are much more aligned with District 3, whose counties are similar to ours. The proposal to move Custer to District 7 is a bad one. District 7 has cities such as Canon, Salida, Buena Vista...even Broomfield which is, basically, part of Denver. Please leave our County in District 3.

September 20, 2021 Dear Commissioners, I would like to thank you for your continuing work on this important, difficult, and exhausting task. Should the next decade of congressional representation in Colorado not include truly rural representation, the results will be devastating not just to the rural communities but to us all. Food costs are soaring today. Without rural representation, farmers and ranchers may be unable to produce affordable food for our citizens – especially the poor and underserved members of our communities. Staff Map Two gives an extremely high likelihood that elected representatives in CD3 and CD4 will come from population dense areas leaving rural Colorado with no seat at the table in Washington D.C. Rural Colorado must be a part of the conversations and legislation addressing global warming, water policy, energy policy, farming, and wildlife management. I write to you today as a member of the Colorado agricultural community. My family ranches and operates a mixed animal veterinary hospital in Otero County. I represent only myself and the friends and neighbors from my area and across the state. The Colorado ag community is a unique community. We, the over 200,000 employed members of the Colorado ag industry, contribute nearly 47 Billion Dollars into the Colorado economy. Our products include cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, hay, corn, oats, sunflowers, melons, dairy, wheat, vegetables, fruits and more. Our issues are your issues. Food insecurity, meat packing issues due to covid and interactions with the WTO are federal issues. Wildlife management, federal grazing leases, the Bureau of Land management - these are federal issues. The 30x30 plan, ag labor legislation, oil and gas issues, tax policy, and rural broadband -these too are issues that demand rural representation in D.C. Rural Colorado is a community of interest. The issues facing rural Colorado don’t directly impact most of (99%) the population – the effects are indirect; therefore, these rural communities must have rural representation to better serve the 99%. State and federal issues effect food production which in turn effects cost and availability to consumers. The ag community takes pride in providing Coloradoans with safe, nutritious and affordable food. Without a seat at the table, we the food producers, have little or no voice in policy decisions that affect our ability to feed our citizens. Food costs will rise and the poor and low-income families we all want to protect will be hardest hit. Rural towns are shrinking. This can stop. If rural Colorado fails, all Coloradoans lose. It is critical for rural Congressional districts be truly rural and that Front Range communities are not significantly included within these areas. The initial Preliminary Congressional Staff Map addressed the need to keep rural Colorado rural and it recognized the differences in the western slope and eastern plains. Staff Map Two has Boulder and Fort Collins thrown in with Routt County. Routt County should be with the other rural western slope counties in CD3. Just as important, Otero, Crowley and Las Animas Counties should be in CD4 with the edges of the I-25 front range communities minimized within CD4. Should the next decade of congressional representation not include truly rural representation for Colorado, the results will be devastating. You, the Colorado Independent Congressional Redistricting Board can give Colorado rural representation in our nation’s capital. Please keep working! Sincerely, Trish Leone

Please keep Fort Collins with a democratic district and do not put us with red rural eastern Colorado. I suffered for many years when Fort Collins was in the 4th CD and felt completely unrepresented for those years. Fort Collins is quite blue these days and is generally a progressive community with much in common with Denver and Boulder and much less in common with the small rural communities of the eastern plains. We are also an environmentally active community and a college town and those interests ought to be well represented too. Thanks

To Whom It May Concern: Broomfield is one community of interest that should NOT be divided. Danielle Oldach Wildgrass

1st Staff Map - House/Senate District Comment: PLEASE, NO CONTINENTAL DIVIDE SPLITTING OF COUNTIES - at least not at the most local, STATE HOUSE level. I live in Unincorporated Larimer County and cannot believe my House District 49 includes West Slope counties in the 1st Staff map. We have NOTHING in common, especially geographically, as we seldom travel there; and, we never have day-to-day or even month-to-month communication, recreation, economic, business or educational involvement within or among the West Slope counties currently placed within HD 49. I live just 2 miles from the Loveland City boundary, and live MUCH CLOSER to HD-51 than the 250 miles to Routt County. We additionally are separated by the Rocky Mountain National Park, which requires entrance fees, and for those who can't afford travel within our "house district community" they would have a long travel time as well as fuel costs. There may be others, but I haven't noticed such an outrageous placement for a local state house district, which should demonstrate our most local and closest communities of interest. I drove our son to all four years at Berthoud High School, and I believe Berthoud should remain in HD-49. Putting Berthoud back into HD-49 would leave only minor population number adjustments to be made. You can easily see that our State Senate Districts don't jump the Divide, and our House District should not either. I previously commented about the gerrymandering that went on in 2000 and a line went way past my house in HD-51 and clear up to Carter Lake in order to put B.J. Nikkel into HD-51; and, then we were put in the unincorporated HD-49 district, even though we were much closer to HD-51. Please, let's have some degree of common sense with our House Districts, and not resort to going over the Continental Divide in order to split counties up. 2nd Staff Congressional Map Comments: I still don't prefer to have the Divide split in my Congressional District 2, but splitting the two huge population colleges, CU and CSU, at least provides a little better representation for all non-college community members. And, putting Loveland and Fort Collins in the same District demonstrates our similar community interests and day-to-day activities. The Larimer County elected official's office is in Fort Collins. General Comment: My greatest concern is that it appears very easy to split smaller communities first, while keeping large populations largely untouched. Why? Please don't say "just because it is easier with the numbers"! Smaller communities have a small voice to start with, so splitting those communities, unfairly, makes their voice even smaller.

I am against splitting up Broomfield: Article 5, Section 44.3 directs the Commissions as follows, "As much as is reasonably possible, the commission's plan must preserve whole communities of interest and whole political subdivisions, such as counties, cities, and towns." Broomfield is a "whole community of interest." Section 44 (3)(B) defines communities of interest as reflecting "Shared public policy concerns such as education, employment, environment, public health, transportation, water needs and supplies, and issues of demonstrable regional significance."

I have connections to southern Colorado and I see the communities as VASTLY different from the northern mountains. I feel there was better representation of various community needs in the map of the First staff plan. I have also seen the Tafoya and Coleman suggestions. I think my community representation would be totally fractured by those maps. These new maps seem more politically motivated.