Public Comments

It makes no sense to split Summit County. Over $1 billion a year is spent in tourism right here in Summit County. Tourists are linked to the Front Range. We do not have a significant agricultural industry nor is it really part of our culture, just like we don’t have oil or gas.

I am writing to voice my strong opinion on the terrible redistricting make as it is currently proposed. Lumping Boulder and Larimer county in with the Western Slope is a horrible idea. They share no common interests and their public policy concerns are polar opposite. This is a naked partisan maneuver to overwhelm the voice of the small Western Slope communities with the ultra-liberal voice of Boulder county. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

I am extremely opposed to the gerrymandering of the proposed 4th Congressional District by including the City of Ft. Collins in this District. Here are the undisputed facts regarding the City of Ft. Collins: The city has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 elections. The mayor of Ft. Collins, and 5 out of 6 city councilmembers are Democrats. The Larimer County Assessor, Clerk and Recorder, District Attorney, and Treasurer are Democrats (the only two elected Republicans are the coroner and sheriff). 55.5% of Ft. Collins residents have a bachelor's degree or higher (2010 Census). The median household income for Ft. Collins is $65,866 (2010 Census). Your constitutional mandate requires, "Preservation of communities of interest and political subdivisions. When it was necessary for nonpartisan staff to divide a county to arrive at the required congressional district population, nonpartisan staff attempted to keep communities of interest together." Your proposed 4th Congressional District map fails to comply with this congressional directive. Ft. Collins has little to no commonality or common interests with the population, economy, politics, or geography of the 4th Congressional District. You have carved-out Ft. Collins (the county seat) from the remainder of Larimer County. Your proposed 4th Congressional District map would disenfranchise the citizens of Ft. Collins as the elected representative from this District would propose and pass legislation of interest to citizens in Greeley and the eastern plains. These interests are often in conflict with those citizens of Ft. Collins. I respectfully request that you pass the original, proposed districting map and not disenfranchise approximately 150,000 Colorado residents.

This redrawn congressional map represents the fact that Summit County and its towns are blue. The county and town leaders are Democrats and they want to be in Boulder’s district and make it more difficult for Boebert to be elected. We have more in common with Eagle than any other place, yet you put us in separate districts. Garfield and other counties west have even less in common with Boulder than Summit does. That is why this is so transparently a political map. Not a good move in these divisive times.

The current map, which carves out Fort Collins to put with rural eastern Colorado, is an affront to the commissions' alleged attention to communites of interest. We have few shared interests with rural eastern Colorado. Our public policy concerns, such as Front Range transportation, are not shared with rural eastern Colorado. Geographically, we are most concerned with what happens in the nearby mountains, which is not shared with rural eastern Colorado. What the commissions should know about my community is that you have ignored the interests and concerns of Fort Collins residents by excluding us from other communities that share our interests and artificially attaching us to communities that do not. The map makes it clear that our interests are being sacrificed. As an alternative, please consider including Fort Collins with the rest of the Front Range, but drawing the district boundary straighter and more to the west. That would include those voters who choose to live on the eastern fringes of Front Range communities and share more interests with eastern Colorado.

Please do not separate Fort Collins from Loveland, etc. That makes no sense! We are all really one community at this point.

Keep Summit County as 'one community of interest'!

Douglas County is part of the Denver-metro area and should not be grouped for Congressional purposes with the eastern plains. Douglas County should be included in a district or districts within the Denver-metro area. Douglas County should not be included with the eastern plains district, such as Congressional District 4, just to meet a population/political party requirement - our needs are not the same as those on the eastern plains. Douglas County is a Denver suburb, which is urban and requires being in a district that is urban since the needs of urban people are different from the needs of those on the eastern plains, who live a more rural lifestyle. These lifestyle differences are huge - urban resident needs tend to deal with commuting/traffic, jobs, housing, and such; while in the rural areas of the eastern plains, the needs include land for farming/grazing, livestock, water rights, and such. Pulling Douglas County residents into the 4th Congressional District of Colorado, based on the latest map, would be unfair for both Douglas County residents and eastern plains residents. Douglas County should be grouped with peoples of the Denver-metro area for Congressional purposes since our needs are similar to those of other metro counties - Denver County, Jefferson County, Broomfield County, Boulder County, and metro-Arapahoe and Adams Counties. Thank you.

The changes from the Preliminary map to the First Staff Plan map just reveals nothing but pure politics from a supposedly independent commission. I live in what is currently District 4 NW Douglas County, then it looked like I was going to be in the New 7 and now I can’t tell. What is really appalling is the proposed boundaries and what you are doing to rural Colorado in 2&3. Including NW Colorado in with Boulder creating a blatant liberal heavy district taking away any voice in a conservative rural area is wrong. Why don’t you just come out say we want to make sure a conservative does not win in that area, so obvious what the intentions are putting Garfield County in 2. The population growth that creates a new district is in the metro area, concentrate on that and leave rural Colorado alone. You are going to create 7&8 the way you want it but leave 3,4 & 5 alone. I expect this from the Democrats on the Commission but not from the Republicans and UA’s if this is truly an independent commission governing on behalf of the people and their interests. Dennis Sands

The majority of Douglas County citizens have such different day-to-day concerns from those on the Eastern plains, that the major populations should not be included in that district. Essentially, it dilutes the concerns of both the suburban families and the farming families. The politics of Douglas County is shifting, and to continue to lump us in with a very different demographic would be unfair.