Public Comments

It has come to my attention that the town of Jamestown, Colorado is under consideration for redistricting from CD 2 represented by Joe Neguese to CD 3 represented by Laura Boebert. I find this to be unacceptable for many reasons: 1) The most important reason is that no matter the representative, the needs and issues on the Front Range are vastly different than concerns on the Western slope; 2) I find Ms. Boebert's interests and philosophies have nothing in common with the majority of residents of Jamestown, Co; 3) Ms. Boebert is a toxic voice in Congress spouting her conspiracy theories and supporting the big lie of election fraud, which did not happen. Separating Jamestown from the whole of Boulder County is unreasonable and offensive to those of us who have lived here for nearly 50 years and paid taxes to support our local governments. I do not want Ms. Boebert speaking on behalf of any of us on the Front Range. Please retain Jamestown, Co in CD 2. Thank you, Dr. Nancy Loving, Jamestown, Co

I believe our redistricting demands no less than substantially equal state legislative representation for all citizens. We should honor the intent of the law, "the Equal Protection Clause. I am asking that you keep communities of interest together, ones that are historically kept together. Example: Make Delta County a whole district including Surface Creek and Mesa County. Perhaps Glenwood county be put in with Aspen, move Rifle and Silt to be with Northwest district. Thank you for your time.

Bipartisan teams doing the districting doesn't mean districts have to be bipartisan as well. Geography matters when it comes to political views, birds of a feather flock together. The current ideas I've been seeing look to make sure there's a 50/50 split amongst voters along party lines. One of the reasons I CHOSE to live where I do is because of the political leanings. If I wanted gerrymandering (no matter the intent), I'd move back east.

As a resident of Boulder County, I share some of the concerns of other commenters about how the county is currently split in the commission's draft map, but I am proposing a slightly different solution. There are a few sections of Western Boulder County included in district 3 which is primarily made up of the Western slope. I do believe that Western Boulder County is different from Eastern Boulder County, which is obviously far more urban. Additionally, as a mountain community, we do have some shared interests with the Western Slope such as tourism and environmental concerns. Thus, overall, I do think it could be sensible to split off Western Boulder County and include it district 3. However, this draft map is not a sensible split because it sections off only a few stray towns. If the county is to be split, everything west of the city of Boulder should be included in district 3 in order to keep these alike communities together. Additionally, I think it would make sense to also include all of Gilpin County and Western Larimer County (everything west of Fort Collins) in district 3. This would essentially consolidate many of the non-urban Eastern Slope communities (which I think constitute a "community of interest") into district 3. The collective population of these areas would be nearly 80,000 so this region would carry some influence in the district and thus should receive attention from candidates and representatives (I know one commenter raised a concern that townhalls would not be hosted in this area under the current split since there would be such a small population). One benefit of this adjustment is that it would make district 3 more competitive. Given that one goal of the commission is to draw as many competitive districts as possible, this is a plus. I have mocked up a map that shows what this split might look like. I also adjusted other districts to maintain roughly equal population, taking into account other comments from this portal (e.g. moving Castle Rock to district 4; adding Greeley to district 8). Here is the map: https://davesredistricting.org/join/2cf97cc5-383e-4c6c-94ce-6eb6a482be15

I don't usually get too worked up about political stuff. But, the Boulder Co. mountains do not fit in a Western Slope congressional district. I was absolutely shocked to see this proposal that makes us part of the 3rd district. For good or bad our daily lives here are tied to Boulder. Our K12 school district here is based in Boulder (Boulder Valley School District BVSD). Our county services are all provided from Boulder. Many people who live in Ward, Nederland, Jamestown, Allenspark, and other more rural mountain areas in the western part of the county work down in the flatlands to the east (i.e. Boulder). My family and I live near Ward along Peak to Peak Highway. My kids go to BVSD schools. Both my husband and I work in Boulder. We are cutoff from the Western Slope here. I appreciate the hard work of the commission but looking at the preliminary map it feels like we were just arbitrarily sliced off from Boulder and the rest of the 2nd district. Aren't counties supposed to be kept as whole as possible in this process? I love every corner of our state but we just have such little in common with the Western Slope in our day-to-day lives here. If we wanted to participate in a town hall meeting with our congressperson we might have to drive for 7 hours or more to get to a place like Durango. This makes no sense at all! We might not be a big population center here in the mountains but I implore the commission not to isolate us. Please keep us together with Boulder.

I have a concern with the redistricting split of Boulder county. The splitting of Boulder County as drawn just doesn't make sense. I live within the town of Jamestown Colorado. Placing the town of Jamestown into district 3 which removes us politically from the district where we receive almost all of our services. The mapping follows the bottom of the canyon along the James Creek in district 3, yet to the north and south of the canyon it's district 2. This splits residents who feel that they are part of the Jamestown community (e.g. people living on 87J just north of Jamestown) into a separate district. The immediate surrounding national forests which we as a community use for recreation would be in district 2. "Community of Interest". II. (A) - We deal mostly with services to the east of us (city of Boulder, or Longmont) (electrical services, and telephone). Most of our services such as heating fuel, septic services, etc are from businesses to the east. II. (B) - We have a elementary school within town that is part of the Boulder Valley School District. Most of the people who commute to work do so towards the east. Our closest hospitals and other medical services are in the city of Boulder or Longmont. Any emergency evacuations would typically put us to the east. Personally from a congressional stand point I believe that the new mapping isolates the community from a representative who can understand and connect to the communities needs.

Please make every attempt to make each district equal in population, and not dilute any minority group’s influence. Please uphold your responsibility to preserve communities of interest, who share a common concern within the same district. With counties and towns, do not split them into different districts unless absolutely necessary. And also do not split communities with important shared concerns. Thank you.

I have lived in Roxborough for over 26 years and this is the first opportunity I feel I will get real representation. However, I do feel that when we are talking about state and more local representation, we should be aligned with Highlands Ranch as that is where our children attend secondary schools.

The proposed map seems pretty uncompetitive to me. My understanding of amendments y and z is that the commission is supposed to try to draw as many competitive districts as possible. That clearly isn't happening. Competition is good for democracy and a big part of the reason these redistricting reforms were passed. Please listen to the people and draw more competitive districts. I think it is possible to do so while also keeping alike communities together. Sincerely, Harold Mingle.

Dear Commission: Happy Independence Day holiday! I am a resident of Boulder County and have a deep background in GIS technologies and demographic mapping applications. I've been following congressional redistricting developments from the commission closely over the past couple weeks. It's pretty cool to be able to "get my map geek on" and create a map of my own (using Dave's Redistricting App and exported to GeoJSON format -- file attached) which adheres as closely as possible to the specifications of Amendment Y (particularly with respect to equal representation, not splitting political jurisdictions -- counties, cities, etc. -- and reflecting communities of interest). I also worked to be as responsive in my map as possible to many of the points raised in other public comments submitted to the commission thus far. I feel quite good about the result and would like to share that with you at this time. This map can also be viewed online at: https://davesredistricting.org/maps#viewmap::d45019ad-0d0e-41e1-8949-4325bd031b20 Highlights of the attached map are as follows: - Only 6 counties are split in this plan, fewer than the existing 2010 CD map (7 splits) or current CD preliminary plan (9 splits). The 6 splits are: * Teller * Adams * Arapahoe * Jefferson * Weld * Denver -- very minimally split just to necessarily shed extra population from the 1st CD - Partisan split of districts is well-representative of the state overall: * GOP districts: 2 solid (4th and 5th CDs), 2 tilt (3rd and 7th CDs) * DEM districts: 2 solid (1st and 2nd CDs), 2 lean (6th and 8th CDs) - Several cities/towns which are split between different counties are kept whole in single district -- e.g., Longmont and Erie fall across both Boulder and Weld counties and those are kept together in a CD (which is what necessitated the relatively small splitting of Weld County) - Variance in population between all 8 districts is <10 people - Sensitive to multiple ethnic/cultural, economic, and political/social communities of interest - Racial/demographic splits: * Hispanic population >20% in 3 districts (4th, 8th, and 1st CDs) * Black population >10% in 6th CD, ~10% in 1st CD * Overall minority population >30% in 2 districts (1st and 6th CDs), 25-30% in 3 additional districts (8th, 4th, and 5th CDs) - Two predominantly rural districts: * Western Slope (3rd CD -- tilt GOP) * Eastern Plains (4rd CD -- solid GOP) - New 8th CD allocated to north Denver metro-Boulder commuter crescent (northeastern Jefferson, Broomfield, and western Adams counties) and has a denser Hispanic community than other non-1st CD metro districts (i.e., denser than the 2nd, 6th, and 7th CDs) - San Luis Valley/SLV kept whole within 3rd CD - Arkansas River valley below Salida kept whole within 4rd CD - Continental Divide used as natural boundary between North-central districts (between 2nd and 3rd CDs) - CSU and CU maintained within 2nd CD (Boulder and Larimer counties are entirely within 2nd CD) Thank you for your service to our state and consideration of my submission. Sincerely, Laura J. Westerfield