Public Comments

CD 3 - Should stay intact as "Western Colorado & Rural Colorado". W Colo has NOTHING in common with Boulder & a liberal democrat congressman from Boulder would have NO interest in representing W Colo. Interests here are water, ranching, energy, tourism & maintaining our way of life. The Denver/Boulder area's only interest in W Colo is having a place to recreate & destroy life as we know it. Legislative re-districting: The attempt of the committee is to break up communities. Mesa County & Garfield County should remain intact and not be governed by Mountain Districts or Front Range who have no interest in us, except to stop energy, stop ranching, take the water to the front range. Rural means a way of life & we should be able to maintain our communities of interest & have suitable representation who live here & understand how/where we live.

I am concerned about the current new redistricting of Fort Collins House Districts (52 and 53) being drawn with an east-west border, rather than a north-south border (College Ave.) as in years past. I am concerned that this change would make Fort Collins's two house districts less representative of our overall progressive community. Additionally, school boundaries in Fort Collins tend to be more east-west than north-south and because the new districts would no longer have balanced economic demographics.

I am submitting these maps as a response to the maps that have been discussed most recently in the Legislative Commission. I am an unaffiliated voter who applied to be on the commission. This is a personal interest of mine. I am not a registered lobbyist. In the Senate Map (linked below) you will find that the map has as many competitive districts and more Hispanic influenced seats than the other maps in consideration. In the House map, you will find that the map I have provided has more competitive districts than Staff Map 2 and nearly as many Hispanic influenced seats. I believe these maps do a better job of representing communities of interest, keeping political subdivisions whole, and eliminating partisan bias. These maps were built off the CLLARO/CBLC map and Staff Map 2 to ensure that they closely meet with a lot of the priorities already discussed by the Commission and in public comment. SENATE LINK: https://davesredistricting.org/join/c1e5a3c8-b898-4318-828a-2f7e8a8aacad HOUSE LINK: https://davesredistricting.org/join/468108a3-6581-4f6f-8725-c6bb94ddb85f Thank you for the opportunity to submit these maps for consideration. Denise Whinnen DeniseWhinnen@outlook.com

First I would like to say thank you to all the members of the commission for their hard work. I only have one concern. That is that in 4 districts there is a clear majority for one party (either democrat or republican). This accurately represents the voters in those districts. The issue is that in the other 4 districts you have created "close race districts" that can swing wither way. Which may be great drama for the media but, no matter who wins in those districts up to half of the voters are not going to be represented by a candidate that represents them. Which means this system will disenfranchise over 1.4 million Colorado residents. Having clear voting districts will also allow representatives to leave the political drama behind and allow them to work together. They will be able to get back to the role of governance instead of empty politicking. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much to the members of this commission doing this most important work! I wanted to weigh in on what the latest map for HD11 looks like right now. I've been watching the process for several weeks, and generally speaking the previous state house district map, as well as the previous state senate district map for the Longmont area looked NOTHING like the previous lines (of HD11, HD12 and SD17). That was a problem because simply stated, those previous lines really worked for us since 2013. Yes, we've been lucky with great representation. Not only were there logical lines as to where the city began and ended, there were just enough nearby areas (like where our home is situated, north of 66 on N95th) that were included. We had a fair balance of all the communities of interest, and they were all represented well. So, it looks like staff took into account the concerns of residents for SD17 and HD12, and corrected the lines which now look pretty reflective of what they were previously. But now I see some of the same problems still remaining with HD11 newest lines. It makes no sense that whole neighborhoods are cut away from the city in the latest version of the map. (I'm referring to the inverted "L" shape in the NW corner, with N. 75th to the west and Hwy 66 to the north.) That's cutting a whole NW neighborhood away from the city limits of Longmont, plus it's cutting off Hygiene. The present line is splitting previously compatible, comfortable communities, that have a lot of interaction with each other. Hygiene has its own identity, so does Longmont, but Longmont shouldn't have its NW corner neighborhood split away from it, and Hygiene does not have as much in common with HD13 as it has with the present HD11 lines. Finally, there are two neighborhoods to the north of 66 that should be included in HD11. Yes, one of them is mine (north of 66 on Hover — houses on both sides of the street) and the Majestic Retreat neighborhood which is north of Hwy 66 and off of 75th. These neighborhoods do a lot of business in Longmont as well as being served by Longmont's electrical utility — we have hopes (and fingers crossed!) for Longmont stretching its current fiber optics north of 66, and these neighborhoods also reside in the St. Vrain Valley School District. I'm guessing kids in those neighborhoods take the bus to Hygiene Elementary, as I did as a young child (I live on our family farm that I also grew up on). Thank you for considering my suggestions for what look like simple, but important revisions to these lines, and thank you again for your work!

I wish to voice my disapproval ofThe Second Staff Map for Legislative Districts as it effects Fort Collins. It follows no logical plan as it zigzags through what is now HD 52 and HD 53. It appears to ignore a more culturally appropriate grouping of neighborhoods and divides the community in ways that do not reflect Fort Collins and how we actually live. The First Staff Map seems to retain the House Districts in more of the form as before, which makes more sense, by grouping together parts of the city that meaningfully belong together in terms of shared interest.

Fort Collins does not share the interests of the eastern plains. The goals and concerns of our city/county are -- and should stay -- in tune with those of Boulder, not Greeley/Weld County. We are a high-tech, university town, not an agricultural area.

Thank all of you, having the opportunity to share this process with you and as I am listening to you commissioners of how rewarding this for you, we the Colorado citizen to take part through Public Comments. I apoligize to anyone who may have been offened with taken my comments. Congratulations on a job well done, and you did Colorado Proud, by the way if you want to learn more about True Southern Colorado you may find my book, The Wets; Ajournery through True Southern Colroado on Amazon, or wait until Spring 2022 an when my new book will be out called Gateway , From True Southen ?colorado inthe the American Southwest. d Thomas McKenna

I oppose the proposed new boundaries for the Fort Collins House Districts (52 and 53), which are drawn with an east-west border, rather than a north-south border (College Ave) as in years past. My primary concern is that this change would make Fort Collins's two house districts less representative of our overall progressive community. Also because the new districts would no longer have balanced economic demographics.

Hi members of the legislative redistricting commission, I can't imagine the difficulty of creating a map for the Colorado House and Senate seats. If possible, please do change your rendition of HD9 to be shifted back south to include the area within the city and county of Denver as it currently does. I represented HD9 in the House from 2013 to 2018, and I do see the community of interest represented within current Denver boundaries that will not represented as well if the southern part of HD9 is sliced off and given to HD3. Thank you. Good luck.