Public Comments

The latest map of the congressional districts is terrible. As a West Slope Farmer/Rancher, my concern is, this proposal will result in our congressional representatives in the nominal West Slope, Eastern Plains and San Luis Valley areas coming from large urban areas such as Boulder, Ft. Collins, Denver and Colorado Springs. The first map released June 23rd, with the Western Slope Counties together makes much more sense. I am old enough to remember when Western Slope counties were represented by urban Eastern Slope people and our water and agricultural communities suffered greatly. I have read that the biggest reason for the new maps is to increase Hispanic representation. We've been electing Hispanics to state, regional, and national office for a long time therefor the idea to so radically change the congressional districts to increase Hispanic representation is unnecessary. I hereby encourage the redistricting committee to use the first proposed map with the 3rd CD covering the Western Slope and the Eastern Plains with the San Luis Valley as the 4th CD.

The preliminrary Plan as presented in June was a wonderfully considered and designed redistrictin of Colorado. It paired communities all like minded with uniform needs and wants. The Colorado Front Range has little to no interests with the rural parts of the State. The Moore map reflected that is a very even handed and democratic way to give us (them) fair representation. In upcming Staff Maps I urge you to reject the First Plan as it looks like a gerrymandered version. Go back to the Moore version. Thankyou

Whoa! Fort Collins is very different from the Eastern plains and if one of the goals of the Commission is to preserve whole communities of interest and whole political subdivisions, such as counties, cities, and towns, this proposed redistricting makes a huge error. The map in fact moves the county seat into a different Congressional District than the rest of the county. Fort Collins is an urban area. It is home to high tech companies, a tier one research university, and a robust Multi Modal Transportation system that includes transit, EV infrastructure, and Bus Rapid Transit. We would have very little in common with neighbors to the East, and especially those in the extreme Southeast Corner of our state. Fort Collins is over 300 miles away from Campo in Baca county, and our needs as communities are so very different. In Larimer County we are focused on issues like wildfire mitigation, watershed restoration, multi-modal connections, climate action, equity and diversity, and dealing with urban issues like homelessness, high population growth, ozone nonattainment, and air quality issues. We have much more in common with counties like Boulder County. These are very different economies and orientations. Fort Collins in no way would represent the population center of such a rural, agricultural district. Please learn more about the areas you are trying to group together. Thank you.

Keep Fort Collins in Larimer County. Diminish the size of Weld County and severely diminish the size of Lauren Boebert’s district to minimize the harm she can continue to do. Enlarge Joe Neguese’s consituency.

I strongly support keeping the western slope/south central Colorado as one congressional unit. From Moffat County to Archuleta, La Plata and Montezuma Counties, as well as keeping the San Luis Valley in one District. We need to maintain a western slope/south central Colorado oriented District to enhance our agricultural communities of interest. I also support a goal of two rural seats, one as a west slope/south central community of interest and one concentrating on agriculture and energy production. We definitely need to ensure the voices of the many people living in vast stretches of rural western and south central Colorado are heard.

Colorado Redistricting Commission Second hearing September 9, 2021 I want to thank you for your time and dedication to designing fair voting districts. Based on the newest map I have concluded that you have listened to our concerns from the first listening session. In these times of questioning our governments it gives me great confidence and satisfaction that you folks are listening to the citizens of Colorado. My name is John Spezia. I have lived in Steamboat Springs since 1973, 48 years. When I moved here for job at a local summer ranch the ski area was just beginning to find its footing. The main drivers of our rural social-economic community were ranching, cattle, the power plant and mining of gas, oil and coal. Tourism, protecting our natural resources and outdoor recreation were very low on our priority list. We were very much like all the other rural agriculture counties in western Colorado. 48 years later, tourism, protecting our natural resources, skiing, outdoor recreation, an urban setting and our social-economic environment has changed drastically. Today, in contrast to these other western slope counties we have a Climate Action Plan, we are protecting our natural resources to attract visitors, we have an economy that primarily relies on year round tourism, we have a different set of economic drivers that include skiing, biking, hiking and water sports and lastly we will have little to no extraction economy in the very near future. The new map does a great job in achieving fairness in voting and representation: 1-It gives western Colorado two different voices by being split into a north and south part as was many years ago. 2-It combines rural and urban centers within a district which forces the representative to listen to all sides when making decisions and running for office. 3-It combines Boulder, Larimer, Grand, Jackson and parts of Eagle counties into one district to meet their common interests: affordable housing, climate action plans, tourism, and environmental concerns. 4-It is contiguous so there are similar common needs of the district shared by all of the above counties. 5-It looks to the future as extraction economies fade and are replaced by tourist, ranching and environmental economics. Thank you for your time and consideration, John Spezia Box 772255 Steamboat Springs Colorado,80477

The preliminary map ( Moore) of June represented a very appropriate division of political entities and offered significant opportunites for competitive elections for the next 10 years. The First Staff Plan vacates that vision by combining the populus and heavily partison Counties of Boulder and Larimer to compete for interests in Colorado's rural North and North west. Those front range communities have few shared interests with the rural areas, except to dominate them politically. By dismissing the Preliminary Plan, it should shame the Committtee for bowing to partisan politics. It may be their undoing at the Supreme Court level. Respectfully submitted. GT

Thank you to the Commission for all of their hard work on this monumental task.I live in south east Fort Collins. My concerns for CO House and Senate are you have taken a chunk out of my area in the south east and put us with HD 58 not 60. House senate 3 and not 4 We are an area of newer subdivisions in Fort Collins You need to keep our area as Fort Collins. Clearer, more detailed maps would be very helpful to those living in border or cut out areas. On the newly proposed Congressional map, Fort Collins is very different from the Eastern Plains. To achieve the commission’s goal of preserving common interests in counties,cities and towns it does not make sense to move our county seat to a different congressional area. We are a front range urban area with a high tech district and a large university and transit system. Our concerns of climate action, ozone, wildfire mitigation,air quality, alleviating urban homelessness are not the same as the Weld County,Eastern Plains and Southeast corner of the state. These area are more rural and agricultural. We have much more in common with Boulder County. Thank you for your consideration.

As a resident of Grand County, I can say that we DO NOT want to be redistricted into District 3. I do not want Lauren Boebert representing my couny.

It makes more sense for mountain communities like Eagle County, Summit County, Pitkin, etc. be all in one district. Splitting communities is really not good. I live in Eagle County and having our county split makes holding elections harder and more expensive. Keeping counties hold should be a priority when forming the new districts. I also agree that community interests and shared goals should also be considered when drawing district lines. I do understand the need to mix both rural and urban, but it should be done with some common element between these very different communities. I want to thank the commission for their hard work and appreciate the complexity of the task. Annie Goodman Edward Colorado