Public Comments

Comment 4 of 5 Please find attached my map COMPETITIVE URBAN DETAIL

This is comment 3 of 5. Please find attached my map COMPETITIVE

This is comment 2 of five. Attached please find my map STATUS QUO URBAN DETAIL

With the addition of an 8th congressional district, the commission has to first decide how they wish to incorporate that new district. IN my mind they can follow one of two paths: 1) try to maintain the status quo to the extent possible or 2) take this opportunity to radically change how we think about redistricting, hopefully in the name partisan competitiveness. Using a 3rd party app and 2019 estimated population numbers from the Census Bureau, I have developed two sample maps, one for each path, that you might want to consider as a starting point in either of these conversations. In each case, where counties had to be split for numeric equality, I placed the division line in a place where it can easily moved around once the actual Census data is in without disrupting the basic concept. The first map, label STATUS QUO, is roughly based on the current district, but using CD8 as a means to unify all of Douglas County into one district (the new #8) and also unify Jefferson County all in one district (#7), furthermore, the city of Aurora is also completely within CD6. This map is formed without any regard to partisan concerns and is strictly developed to reduce the number of divided counties and cities. The second map, labeled COMPETITIVE, carves the new CD8 out of the northwest portion of the state, and then forming the other 7 districts in ways to make them politically competitive to the extent possible, and still maintain the legal requirements of trying to divide counties/cities as little as possible. There are 3 areas of the state that are going to be heavily partisan no matter how you cut the districts: Denver (CD1) will be strongly Democratic, El Paso County (CD5) will be strongly Republican, and the northeast rural area of the state (CD4) will be strongly Republican. This leaves five districts to try to make as competitive as possible. I believe this map does that. In both maps, I include a blown up image of the metro area (hard to see when looking at the statewide map), and there is a fifth image which applies to both concepts. This is the area of east Denver where it meets Arapahoe County. With the addition of an 8th district, the population of Denver is now greater than one CD, therefore part of the City and County has to be added to a neighboring district. I am proposing handling that reality in the way shown in this fifth image. There are several "islands" of Arapahoe County that are completely inside the borders to the City and County of Denver, but are still part of ArapCo. The map in this fifth image shows how the draw the line by CDs1 and 6 so that all of those islands are included in CD6, which is predominantly in Arapahoe County, and also include enough of Denver to allow the remaining position of Denver to form CD1 by itself. Again, the exact blocks included and excluded from this area might need to move a little once the final Census data arrives. Thank you for your consideration! PS I just realized I can only attach one map at a time, so I will send 5 comments each with a map image, please apply the above comments to all 5. The map attached to one is the statewide map STATUS QUO

I urge you to keep Larimer and Boulder Counties together as one congressional district. These two counties have many common interests. Larimer and Boulder Counties have a high level of high tech and pharmaceutical employment jobs. These counties share many of the same cultural and revenue generating sectors. They both have a strong tourism industry, and they both have strong educational sectors in CSU and CU, with all the attendant research and high tech spin offs. They also share the same health system, University of Colorado Health. Larimer and Boulder Counties would have a population approximately 722,000 people, the desired number for a Congressional district. Districts should also be as compact as possible, which describes Larimer and Boulder Counties because they are contiguous with no intervening geographical dividing line. Larimer County is already a competitive county, another important characteristic of a Congressional District. Adding Weld to Larimer County as a Congressional District will cease to make it competitive.

Dear Commissioners, Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comments on the first nonpartisan redistricting commission. My name is Pamela Paulien. I was born in Boulder Colorado, live in Denver Colorado, and work in Arapahoe County, Colorado. I went to public schools in Denver and graduated from CU Boulder. I am a divorced mother of two daughters. I have experienced first hand the economic burden of being a “Female Head of Household” and also seen the impact of this on other women around me in Colorado. There are slightly fewer women in Colorado than men, yet across the US when looking women make up a greater share of Female headed households. “US CENSUS of 2010 Family households maintained by a female householder with no spouse present numbered 15.3 million, more than twice the number main- tained by a male householder with no spouse present (5.8 million).” https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-14.pdf In the many years that Colorado has been a state women have been treated as unequal under the law, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there is a structural bias against women and female headed households. A glaring example is that Colorado has never funded the state's EIC earned income credit for Colorado taxes. Because women have not been seen as distinctly different from men in the political process it has allowed women’s needs to go unmet and then become disadvantaged over time. Such as the failure to institute child care subsidies has led to the high cost of raising families and the likelihood of women to have to step into and out of the workforce (which we just saw in the pandemic) and to work in feminised industries that don’t provide much in job security and benefits leaving women’s ability to build wealth and have a secure retirement income diminished. Women need job flexibility but pay a steep price for it. The gender pay gap goes unaddressed. Women’s bodily autonomy is under constant threat as groups try to strip away the right to abortion. Lack of overt representation also leaves children’s needs unaddressed as women play the largest role in raising kids, maintaining the home across the board, and in providing care for aging parents. Viewing women as a community of interest would forefront policies related to economic fairness and development, affordable housing, K-12 education and local school districts, affordability in higher education, job flexibility, universal basic income, affordable healthcare, food and nutrition, as well as environmental issues around clean air, water and land use. Addressing women's interests would help the whole state. Geographically women are in every district across the state, while “Female Head of Households” are more prevalent in urban areas. (US Census Grid) It is important to make sure that you create districts where the percentage of female householders is properly considered and balanced across all eight congressional districts by using the census category “Female Headed Households” as an overlay. It is even more important that this be considered in the state legislative districts where rural and urban economics are drastically unequal. (As a map, I refer to the US Census Grid for Female Headed Households with Children under 18 Years of Age (%) which I request be used as a part of your process.) It is said that if you aren’t at the table you are on the menu. As a common interest group women deserve to be fairly represented in all Congressional districts and legislative districts across the state. In the twenty years that I have spent raising my daughters alone I have seen how economically disadvantaged my peers and their children are because women have been invisible in the political process up until now. I have spoken to older women who feel they failed in life as they face uncomfortable and precarious retirements after successfully raising families when it is the political system that failed them. Commissioners, I ask you to please take this census category “Female Headed Households'' seriously in your work for the people of Colorado by making sure that the districts you draw have a balanced amount of female headed households across the state. Thank you again for doing the work of all Coloradoans in a non-partisan process. Yours, Pamela Paulien

I urge you to keep Larimer and Boulder Counties together as one congressional district. These two counties have many common interests. Larimer and Boulder Counties have a high level of high tech and pharmaceutical employment jobs. These counties share many of the same cultural and revenue generating sectors. They both have a strong tourism industry, and they both have strong educational sectors in CSU and CU, with all the attendant research and high tech spin offs. They also share the same health system, University of Colorado Health. Larimer and Boulder Counties would have a population approximately 722,000 people, the desired number for a Congressional district. Districts should also be as compact as possible, which describes Larimer and Boulder Counties because they are contiguous with no intervening geographical dividing line. Larimer County is already a competitive county, another important characteristic of a Congressional District. Adding Weld to Larimer County as a Congressional District will cease to make it competitive. Thank you, Lonie Beck

To the Redistricting Committee: Thank you for taking the time to serve on Colorado’s Redistricting Committee. My request is that you keep House District 26 the same as it is now. We live in Steamboat Springs. Routt and Eagle counties, along with Pitkin and Summit counties are very similar, with major ski resorts. We are a resort community with similar issues of housing and affordability for essential workers that are so important to our economy. We are also very respectful of environmental issues and water rights. It is important to keep communities with similar interests together so that residents of Colorado can be properly represented on the state and federal level. Thank you. Also, for CD3, its WAY too big. It's rural vs. ski towns.

Southern Colorado is different from the rest of Colorado in several aspects. This land was once part of Mexico and continues to have a strong Latino cultural influence. There are three major river basins that drain the south 1/3 of the state and the agriculture fostered by those rivers was the basis for the local economy long before Colorado was a state. As a result the community of interest here is based on long standing family ties. Even the steel mill culture of Pueblo dates back many generations. While the rest of Colorado has high tech and resort communities, Southern Colorado sees itself as the traditional Colorado family based culture. A proposal has been made to create a new Congressional District across the southern most counties. I support that proposal in that it will provide legislative leadership to the people of this region who often feel like afterthoughts to the needs of the northern part of the state. This proposal was designed to be balanced between Republican and Democratic voters -- which I feel will lead more competition and hence more attention to the needs of this part of the state. Thank you for your attention and service.

Colorado Independent Congressional Redistricting Commissioners 6-3-2021 RE: San Luis Valley, Wet Mountain Valley, Huerfano Park, and Upper Arkansas Valley (Fremont, Chaffee, and Lake Counties) Areas of Common interest concerning placing these areas in the South-Central Colorado Congressional District. Commissioners: Most generally when we speak of the areas listed above, we think mountain communities and in turn we make the false tendency lump these areas into the same areas as Western Slope of upper Central Mountain locations, when the facts presented within demonstrates these areas are a vital part of South- Central Colorado. Not only these regions meet the ‘geographically integrity requirement, but these areas also complement the eastern portion of South-Central Colorado lower mountain areas (Wet Mountains) and to where Pueblo, Huerfano, Crowley, Otero, and the eastern part of Las Animas County, and as such would greatly benefit from the same representation in the United State Congress. All these locations are on the eastern side of the Continental Divide, which is a natural barrier, all these areas maintain natural resources such as vital creeks, watersheds, rivers, and the ecosystem that has created one of America’s Great National Parks- The Great Sand Dunes National Park. We have researched this thoroughly1 and these areas are all tied in together physical, environmentally, politically, and ecologically, with the main element being water, especially water that flows down the eastern part of Colorado. If anyone knows about Colorado water laws, which are tied into US Water Laws this is an extremely important distinction and whoever represents this region in Congress must be aware of the eastern slope water rights and concerns. There is certainly an area of Common Interest South-Central Colorado contains the fifth and sixth longest rivers in the United States, the Rio Grande, and the Arkansas respectively, also the Arkansas is a part of the longest river tributary system in North America (Mississippi, Missouri, Tributary system (don’t believe me – look it up on google). With all this type of federal responsibility, we want a representative that will look out for our common interests, and we do not see how breaking up this geographical coherent area to satisfy other Congressional Districts needs will serve the interest of the people who live in South-Central Colorado where these waterways flow through. We do not want our Rio Grande or Arkansas river water diverted to the Colorado River because the political affiliation for California, Arizona, and Western Slope Representatives may want to make a deal, an after a person gets elected to Congress, they are certainly expected to make deals., however are the deals in the best interest of the residents of the districts? That is the situation we are current in now, The San Luis Valley (where the Rio Grande runs from its headwater in Mineral County (eastern side) to the New Mexico State line, and Lake County (headwaters of the Arkansas River) are both is in the third Congressional District , the Upper Arkansas Valley which includes Fremont and Chaffee counties and are part of a major whitewater rafting industry are in the 5th Congressional District, and after the Arkansas River flows past Pueblo County (3rd CD) it becomes within the geographical area of the 4th Congressional District. Commissioners that is three separate Congressional Districts control the fate of these rivers and federal implication of the industries they provide. In pointing out; Political Posturing’ currently the representatives who are in districts where this water flows are all members of the same political party. , and these same representatives that control our Southern Colorado Water Ways on the Eastern side of the continental divide, could decide to sell-out our interest in favor for party politics . If the current Congressional Map were be allowed to continue we could finds grounds for a Big Conflict of Interest because it is certainly not Common Interest and would present a blatant case of ‘political posturing’ which would favor the political spectrum and not the people who live geographical coherent area that are affected by rivers and other natural resources. In reviewing the water scenario alone, we are sure that you can see why it is imperative to form a South-Central Colorado Congressional District. Other ecological and environmental concerns that exists in this region are the ecological balance that provide the existence of the Great Sand Dunes National Park which is basically sand that flows down Medrano Creek in the Sangre de Christo Mountain which straddles both the Wet Mountain Valley the San Luis Valley, this is a common interest. The San Isabel National Forest (SINF), which is located in four different locations, all within South-Central Colorado. In the northern portion of SINF, between Leadville and Salida lies in two congressional districts. The far western part of the San Isabel National Forest extends on the east side of Sangre de Christo Mountains from just south of Salida to the La Veta Pass near Mount Blanca in South Central Colorado, forming the western edge of the Wet Mountain Valley. Most of the incredibly beautiful Wet Mountain Valley is located in Custer County. On the other side of the Wet Mountain Valley, It also extends front the eastern edge of the Wet Mountains which encompass areas in Fremont, Custer, and Pueblo Counties and again is in the 3rd and the 5th Congressional Districts, which does not provide common concerns for its management. The fourth section is the eastern side of the Culebra Mountain range which is a part of the Sangre de Christos that lies in Huerfano and Las Animas counties to the New Mexico border. Again, having large natural resources being part of three Congressional Districts is not addressing common concerns and interest of South- Central Colorado. By spreading out the interests displays that South-Central Colorado interests are not being upheld by having multiple representation with varying agendas. Other places that natural resources are of vital importance is Huerfano Park which starts on the eastern slope of four fourteen-thousand peaks (Mt. Blanca, Mt Lindsey Little Bear Peak, and Ellinwood Point, and along the eastern edge of the Sangre de Christos near the Great Sand Dunes and runs south of Greenhorn Mountain to the Spanish Peaks in Huerfano County. Huerfano Park is a major watershed and housing more than one half of the tributaries in Colorado for the Arkansas River. A great deal of the water that leaves Colorado towards the Mississippi River originates in Huerfano Park. 1. Much geological, historical, and cultural research has been conducted thought most of South-Central Colorado by Thomas McKenna that is contained in his book “ The Wets: a photographic journey of Colorado Wet Mountains and of Pueblo, the True Capital of Southern Colorado”. Currently available on Amazon.com Thomas McKenna -on behalf of Citizens of True Southern Colorado