Public Comments

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback to the Joint Commission. My family and I reside in Routt County, and I addressed this commission in July at the last revision of the maps. At that time, I voiced my support for the proposed boundaries as those boundaries clearly preserved communities of interest and kept the Western Slope intact. What’s happened in the approximately 6 weeks since then? The latest revision to the maps does anything but preserve communities of interest or keep the Western Slope intact. In fact, the proposed revisions appear to do exactly the opposite. Why would an independent, non-partisan commission be so blatant about disregarding its own rules? What tradeoffs were evaluated and then discarded in favor of the current proposed boundaries? And how did each member of the commission vote on those tradeoffs? Transparency is key to building public trust. You talk about the importance of “communities of interest,” but the growing urban populations of Boulder and Larimer counties have entirely different interests and economic drivers than those of largely rural Routt, Moffat, Jackson, Grand, Rio Blanco, and Garfield counties. What makes you think that the people of Boulder, Broomfield, Lafayette, and Louisville overwhelmingly share the same interests, values, and desires of those in Steamboat, Craig, Meeker, or Rifle? They don’t. Views on transportation, energy, jobs, health care, and water rights are so starkly different between the Front Range and the Western Slope that an alien observing us from space would quickly come to the same conclusion. Why does the Joint Commission not see this? The current proposed boundary revisions reek of partisan gerrymandering, plain and simple. These revisions silence the voices of rural Coloradans and they seek to concentrate power in the Front Range. I do not support the proposed boundaries in any way. The previous iteration of the maps was much more inclusive and representative of the diverse voices of Colorado. Please return the maps to the prevision revision as was presented to the public in late July. Thank you.

Northwest Colorado is predominately agricultural land with the exception of Steamboat and Winter Park ski. Livestock, hunting, fishing, recreation and sightseeing are the businesses that unite our community. Even energy production still exists. Concerns are already vividly apparent with the Boulder-backed, forced introduction of wolves initiative narrowly passing by metro voters. That introduction to be solely conducted in the Northwest corner of the state. Of course, most of the voters occupying and making a living in district 2 were against this forced introduction. Wolves alone tell the future of D2 with this redistricting, when the large land mass is ruled by metro voters who have nothing to lose by deciding what needs a special interest group may have. There's already been an attempt to disable animal agriculture by way of the proposed pause act, which originated and is backed by the Boulder culture. Vast geographic diversity, wildlife diversity, economic diversity, race and gender diversity all exist and thrive in our small towns across Northwest Colorado. Our citizens make well managed, heart felt commitments for them and their families to grow and prosper in a sometimes harsh climate. Features we don't have are I-25, uncontrolled growth of sprawling, resource consuming, air polluting, over-crowded subdivisions and big box stores. Here, we also don't have several million internal combustion engines - all running at the same time all the time. Not "one or more substantial interests" exist or will exist between metro Boulder along with the North I-25 corridor and the rest of Northwest Colorado. Ski areas, with their transitional populations, seem to match metro principals. So if you're goal is balance, there it is. Rural Boulder and Larimer counties' interests are similar to the rest of the district 2 in some respects. I serve on the local Colorado First Conservation District board and am the director for the Yampa, White and North Platt Watershed serving the Colorado Association of Conservation Districts, CACD. I'm part of a third generation ranch family in Moffat County near Craig. I attended the redistricting discussion held in Craig and felt at the conclusion, the commission would do their best to guarantee rural representation. Adding the city of Boulder to D2 is tantamount to voter suppression of rural populations. .

I am strongly opposed to the current redistricting map. I am a Rio Blanco county resident on the western slope. The north west corner of Colorado has far different views and interests than Boulder and Larimer county. With the current map, Boulder and Larimer counties will dictate policy for the northwest corner due to their larger populations. The west slope counties need to be in their own district to fairly represent themselves.

Thanks to whomever redrew this map. In my opinion I think it truly reflects the correct way the map should be. Thank you for keeping Park County together as I feel it represents it as an honest split of 50/50 . Thanks to all involved. I think you did an awesome job on this map.

I live in rural colorado between two town, Meeker and Rangely in RIo Blanco County. Boulder area does not represent me as far as topography, industry, population, interests, or concerns

The current proposed re districting is not considering the needs of western Colorado. It will divert all decision making to the Boulder and the front range which does not reflect the values and life style of the western slope. Boundaries need to provide a voice FOR western Colorado, and consistent with lifestyles in western Colorado. We should not to be conformed to communities that do not live and work here.

September 10, 2021 My name is Rozanne Evans and I live on the West Slope in Ouray County. I’m writing to advocate for 2 districts on the West Slope. Why? With two West Slope Districts we get double the representation for agriculture, ranching, oil & gas production, our booming tourist industry and our public lands. We, also, have two Districts advocating for our precious Colorado River watershed. I support the September Staff Map. With some adjustments and movement of some counties the Commission can alleviate many of the concerns that have been brought up concerning the September Staff Map in testimony this week. Please consider the division of Districts as presented in the Revised LULAC map submitted by Colorado Rural Voters (CORV). The Revised LULAC map helps alleviate many of the concerns that have been brought up about the September Staff Plan Map. The Revised LULAC Map creates 2 competitive districts on the West Slope. It combines some urban and rural areas for a health mix. The urban/rural split will only get worse if we don’t learn to work together as a team. The northwest District goes from the Utah Border to Larimar County (and includes Fort Collins). The southwest district goes from Montezuma County to Las Animas County. This redistricting map does the following for the northwest district: -creates a competitive congressional district -removes Boulder -moves Mesa up to be with the other oil and gas producing counties -adds Fort Collins and Grand Junction, both large suburban university towns -combines some urban areas with rural areas -creates a public lands and tourism district -gains Eagle to make the I-70 corridor fully whole For the southwest district it: -creates a competitive congressional district -adds Chaffee County -keeps the agricultural counties of Crowley and Otero in the southern district -keeps Native American and Latino communities whole -keeps the San Luis Valley whole -adds a transportation spur on I-25 north from Pueblo -keeps the three rural agricultural counties of Crowley, Otero and Las Animas in one southern district -includes the university towns of Durango and Pueblo -combines some urban areas with rural areas In closing, please keep the concept of two West Slope districts that was presented in the September Staff Map. Two congressional districts on the West Slope give us double the representation for agriculture, ranching, oil and gas, our public lands and our tourist industry. And please consider the Revised LULAC Map. Respectfully submitted, Rozanne Evans

I love the new map of Congressional districts. Thanks for keeping Park County all in one district, I never liked having a split county. Thanks for your hard work and for taking public comments into consideration. Colorado is a great state and I am so glad that through the census we got another person to represent us in the House of Representatives.

I shared comments via zoom yesterday, but here they are written. Thank you for the opportunity to weigh in. Hello my name is Jody DesChenes- I am a Colorado native, born in Denver, raised in Aurora, moved to Fort Collins in 1982 to earn 2 degrees from CSU, and now am a property owner of one property in the city of Fort Collins and one in Fort Collins’ back yard - the foothills of Larimer County. Separating Fort Collins from Larimer County, then combining it with totally different rural counties not only to the east but all the way to the south east corner of the state seems very disjointed. The seemingly simple drive to Campo, CO from Ft Collins is over 5 1/2 hours even on a good day. Our 4th largest CO city of Fort Collins shares far more concerns with our own county and urban/suburban areas to the west and south - for example managing population growth and the ensuing development, tourism, water use and wildfire mitigation. In fact, my Larimer County property largely burned up in the high park fire, and I think anyone who was involved in that incident would agree that it was a community crisis for Fort Collins as well. Much of our literal and figurative support came from our county seat, Fort Collins. I do appreciate What must be a Herculean effort to put all of the required puzzle pieces together here, and I very much appreciate the thought given to trying to maximize the voices of our Latino & Native populations. I have seen the proposed map from Martha Coleman from Fort Collins and think it does a great job of trying to address, separate common concerns and I hope you will use it as a template to modify this current map. Lastly I am grateful that competitiveness is NOT the priority. On the surface it may sound like a worthy consideration, but in reality, it couldn’t be more problematic. i absolutely want things to be competitive in the sense that voters get a variety of qualified candidates to choose from, but I do not want it to be a traditional 2 party strategic contest - The result of that is only that one party wins and then the other half of the population in any district is disappointed, at least. The more competitive in the party sense, the more polarized. a far more effective and logical way to group districts is by common interest, therefore assuring a representative in a district who has a clear mission, and mandate. Thank you for your time on this important project and for taking so much public input!

This exercise if “independent” re districting seems to be an attempt to further disenfranchise the voters of Western Colorado. Why else would this commission try and fit very rural and red counties such as Moffat, Rio Blanco and Garfield Counties in with Boulder and under the area of anCongressman that could not point out Craig or Rangley on a map. As a member of Club 20 and a life long resident of Western Colorado this seems like another attempt from the Boulder Mafia to break up the power of the western counties and make it easier for Boulder Radicals to be elected through the state.