Public Comments

We on the Western Slope have nothing in common with Boulder County and do not wish to have them inflicted upon us. This is Gerrymandering in it's worst form.

Thank you for all of your efforts in being fair to all in Colorado. We appreciate you keeping Park whole and making the district fair with a 50/50 split of Republican and Democratic voters. Our democracy depends on making everyone’s vote count.

I live in Eastern Adams county, I do not want the metro community's speaking for rural Colorado, Eastern Colorado and Western Colorado don't think like the front range along the mountains. Please don't let our representatives all be from the front range !!

The redistricting of Fort Collins and Larimer county into district 2 is and abhorrent gerrymandering attempt. Having a representative attempt to serve and represent two vastly different demographics in Estes Park/Fort Collins vs Weld/Beca is laughable. Thinking that these two areas have similar problem is farcical. This feels like a blatant attempt to dilute the vote of Larimer county rather than make meaningful change.

Carol Ward, Routt County 34 years, not the City of Steamboat. First I want to state that I am a Colorado native having been born in Durango and raised there through 6th grade, and gone to college at Fort Lewis and married and lived in Durango throughout the 70's. I have also lived in Montrose, and Glenwood Springs on Western Slope so I am familiar with people all over this side of the state. I am opposed to the latest plan presented for redistricting. I thought the June 23 preliminary map was reasonable and I could also get behind the Club 20 map which is also a well though out map but I CANNOT support this one which is total a slap in the face. WHY? Power would be consolidated in Boulder and Larimer counties as respect to voting due to a tremendous difference in populations of at least 4.5 to 1. So why vote? Boulder will simply impose its will on the Western Counties. Routt County, as well as Moffatt, Jackson, Grand, Garfield, Rio Blanco counties, are mainly rural areas that have little in common with the front range counties of Boulder and Larimer. Farming and Ranching feed you. Tourism is nice but doesn't produce actual food. We have a farming and ranching can do mentality, a leave us alone and we will get the job done mentality. Water is a huge issue these days and there is nothing more that the front range wants than to divert our water to the front range. Our water is needed for agriculture on the west slope as well as recreation and safe drinking water. This is a leave us and our water alone mentality! The front range thinks they know what is good for Colorado as a whole by doing things like reintroducing wolves,on the West Slope, over the objections of the West Slope ranchers, not putting them in Boulder or Larimer County. It has been the front range that has pushed for the closing of our mines and power plants as well as less drilling for gas and oil by pushing their highly subsidized “green energy” irregardless of the cost to the average person. We are losing huge tax revenues derived from these activities which will be difficult if not impossible to replace. The cost to individuals due to higher natural gas & electric prices is skyrocketing. The cost of transportation has risen dramatically and hurts lower income residents who travel long distances to get to and from work, the doctor, grocery shopping. I don't think people on the Front Range have any true idea how much this affects individual families even more on the West Slope. We already pay a much higher price on gas and drive longer distances. We need representation that understands our realities and our economies and I simply don't think this redistricting plan does that. It is yet another slap in the face of those who live on the West Slope. Mesa County

I do not think Fort Collins shares interests with the Eastern Plains. They are focused on agriculture and oil/gas; we have the university, culture, tourism, and intellectual enterprises. Our economies are very different. We have urban issues (such as homelessness, congestion, etc) while they do not. I do not think a congressperson could represent both sides well.

Comments 9-10-21 Congressional Commission Members and Redistricting Staff, good morning. My name is Karen Tonso and Iive in CD7 Arvada, Jeffco. Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak today, and for your service in this important task. I’d like to focus on three things: the current map and how it relates to previous comments about Arvada and Jeffco where I live, the division of Summit County, and the next redistricting map. As it currently stands, the Arvada and Jeffco portions of the CD7 map in today’s First Staff Plan is commendable. At our last feedback session at Red Rocks Community College, many Jeffco residents asked that the county be kept together in one Congressional District. And we brought concerns about the lack interconnections with communities to Jeffco’s Northeast primarily in Adams County, and those south and east in Douglas County. These comments were a particularly strong thread among Arvadans and Westminster residents of Jeffco, but also were voiced by those in Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, and Golden. In addition, we spoke about the ways in which Jeffco serves as the Gateway to the Rockies west of Metro Denver, which has implications for the infrastructure represented in I-70 and US-285, as well as judicial, hospital, tourism, and commerce issues. Combining Jeffco with counties to our west and southwest, along both of those major roadways, recognizes the importance of those links. That Jeffco is together in the new map tells me that we were heard by the Commission and its staff. Thank you. Thus, in my opinion, as proposed CD7 represents a diverse block, is contiguous, connects communities of interest, and is politically competitive. However, in this map of CD7, Summit County has been split. I recall that they made a plea to keep their county together and to connect it to communities of interest in West Metro Denver, that is to Jeffco. But the Summit County dividing line appears to cut through neighborhoods, which seems unnecessary in a mountain area. I urge you to again seek and listen to their feedback on that part of the CD7 boundary, and to the extent possible to reunite their county. In next steps, updates to census numbers are surely coming and will be taken into consideration. But I also hope that in the upcoming refinement, boundaries will see relatively minor adjustments. The adjustments I envision relate to places in the current map that have rather irregular boundaries: such as around Lochbuie, Windsor, Ft. Collins, and Eagle County, to name a few. I urge you to continue to listen to those residents, and to the extent possible to smooth out boundaries and eliminate big bulges, while preserving electoral merits. Overall, based solely on the First Staff Plan as compared to the prior map, issues on which I presumed we would all be commenting, thank you for listening, for acting on the concerns of residents, and for working to balance communities of interest with competitiveness, while simultaneously creating contiguous districts. On the downside, in today’s Zoom session, I was surprised to find that Commissioner Coleman (I believe) had asked for a particular map and that some members of the public had access to it and were commenting on it. I have no idea what is in that map, nor what I might make of it, since it is not publicly available on the Commission’s website. But, this circumstance seemed to allow some to jump ahead of others in commenting on some secret map. As such I wondered about issues like transparency, fairness, and circumventing equal access to the Commission’s work. Commissioner Moore’s comment that the map would be released later today (Sept 10) did very little to assuage my concerns. Instead, I wondered if anything I might say about the First Staff Plan mattered, since having this “Coleman” map in play suggested that the Commission might have already moved on based on testimony earlier in the week. I realize that there is limited time for these efforts, but I cannot recommend that the Commission or its members move ahead to a “next” map without first listening to all of those who sign up to testify on the “current” map.

Congressional districting should be representative. Splitting off Fort Collins from the rest of Larimer County would tend to undermine representation for both geographic areas and populations. Fort Collins, Estes Park and Loveland have common interests and should be kept together in a single district. Moving the county seat into a congressional district that does not include the bulk of the county makes no sense. The current configuration of CD-2 permits cohesive action on common concerns and interests such as air quality, environmental protection, fire mitigation, high tech development, homelessness, public transportation, population growth and tourism. Cobbling together a new district stretching from Fort Collins across the Eastern Plains, as proposed, would serve no legitimate purpose. We respectfully request that CD-2 be left as is. Karin Bierstein and Giles Morris

I have lived in Fort Collins for 45 years. It has grown from a small town with a veterinary college into a vibrant city with a tier 1 university. The city is the county seat of Larimer county, and the hub that the county revolves around. We have a mix of small business, large business and tech companies. We have a mass transit system, art and culture, and also a thriving micro-brewing industry. Our city has expanded exponentially, with Loveland and Fort Collins growing together. Our issues are climate change, urban issues such as homelessness, transportation and the high ozone from population growth. Our politics tend to be more liberal. For the commission to carve Fort Collins out of Larimer County and attach us to an extremely rural district, one of the most conservative in the state, makes no sense. We have nothing in common with the rural eastern plains. On Ken Buck's website's home page he lists three issues for his district: livestock, agriculture, and energy (fracking). These are not our issues, this is not who we are. Your commission was supposed to keep like minded groups and areas together. I feel that not only is our city being isolated, our vote is being diluted or cancelled altogether. What you are doing will not result in a competitive district; instead, it will nullify the votes of a progressive, vibrant city. If you are doing this to even out the numbers in each district, find some other way to do it. Please leave Fort Collins in the 2nd district where we belong.

Thank you for your efforts. I realize this is not an easy process. I was disturbed to see the new Legislative Maps that were released last week. The maps split up the State in a geographic manner that is not consistent with Colorado communities of interest. It pairs Ft Collins and most of Douglas County (that have no common interests) with the Eastern Plains. It effectively silences the voice of our rural community, as any representative will have to pay attention to the population centers in their District. The Commissioners have really done a disservice to our rural communities. What do Routt and Boulder County share? In fact, they are diametrically opposed on many interests, such as the fact that one community wants to get rid of the oil/gas industry, while the other depends on it for the employment of their citizens. There is another split that is troubling. The map slices of a small portion of Highlands Ranch from the entirety of Douglas County and places us in CD-6. Our community is run by 1 community association and metro district. As it relates to the current map, we share nothing in common with CD-6, except perhaps South Metro Fire District. If this map were to stay relatively the same, the least that should happen would be to keep Highlands Ranch whole. This could be done by taking a portion of CD-1 that is in Arapahoe County and bringing that back into CD-6, which would include more of a community of interest. The initial map was very fair, very competitive and better connected communities. My suggestion is to go back to this map as your starting point; make the population centers of Douglas County whole (including Parker). Pair us back into the metro area where we belong. This could be in the CD-7 as constituted in the previous map, or by combining us with Southern and Western Arapahoe County, along with Southern and Western Jefferson County- the C-470 corridor to the Tech Center. This is where our ties are. Thank you for your time and your efforts. I look forward to seeing the correction of the latest map. Sincerely, Stu Parker