I decided to try redistricting in my home state of Colorado a while back, and after many many tries, I was able to put this together. I know its been done, but mine is a little different.
I used the 2007 estimates to put it together, since the 1st, 7th, 3rd, and 2nd won’t have enough people as they are to remain intact anyway.
This map is assuming democrats continue to control both houses and the governor’s mansion, luckily its not likely that we lose any of the three.
My first goal was also making Markey safe, she’s a great representative, especially for such a traditionally red district, so wanted to pull her district out of the swingiest territory. Second was changing the 3rd enough so that Obama would have won it, just shoring up Salazar some and keeping it really swingy, preventing most Colorado Republicans from winning there because they have moved so far to the right.
With the 7th and 1st I wanted to make them more compact and make the 7th just safe no matter what, and wanted to dillute the blueness of the 2nd for the benefit of the 3rd.
And then I tried to pack as many Republicans into the 5th and 6th as possible.
First the new 2nd would consist of all of Boulder county, retaining its center, Gilpin county, Broomfield county, the city of Thornton in Adams county, and the northern and western parts of Jefferson county that are not in the 7th. On the western slope it would pull in Grand, Jackson, Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco, and Garfield counties. All of those except for Routt are generally red, and this would take those voters out of the 3rd, but the new 2nd would still be very blue with Obama getting about 63.6% of the vote.
The new 3rd would retain its traditional base in Pueblo and the San Luis valley, and unfortunately I could not take out Mesa county, (the best suggestion I’ve gotten is to just let Utah have it) so I just tried bringing in other blue areas instead. The counties added to the 3rd are: Clear Creek, Eagle, Summit, Lake, Baca, Crowley, the rest of Otero and most of Bent county. Some of these are the eastern plains red areas but small enough or they vote for Democrats often enough to not make much difference. In the new 3rd, Obama would have barely beaten mcCain with just 50.3% of the vote.
The new 4th is probably the most drastic change, and goes from a narrow Obama loss to a solid Obama win. By losing all the rural plains counties as well as eastern Weld county, there is only the increasingly blue Larimer county and the bluing southwest Weld county, including Greeley. What is added here is all of Adams county except for Commerce City, Westminster, and Thornton. The result is a district where Obama received 54.4% of the vote.
The new 1st and the new 7th are interesting, I had heard of an idea back in 2000 of splitting the city and coutny of Denver, so in this map I did that (to the best of my ability). So the new 7th would contain all parts of Jefferson county that were in the old 7th with the addition of Westminster, the west side of Denver (including downtown), and the Adams county portion of Westminster. The new 1st would contain the east side of Denver (including DeGette’s neighborhood), Commerce City, Aurora in Arapahoe coutny, Englewood, Cherry Hills Village, Glendale, and Littleton in Arapahoe county. So the new 1st looks a little funky, but no more so than the city and county of Denver does anyway, and the new 7th is much more compact. In the new 1st Obama received 68% of the vote and in the new 7th he received 64% of the vote.
The new 6th is much more republican and so out of our reach for the time being, but a 5-2 split was easier to protect than an attempt at a 6-1 split. So the new 6th contains the rest of Arapahoe county, the rest of Jefferson county, and then Douglas county, Elbert county, and all the rest of the eastern plains counties, including eastern Weld county, and northeast Bent county. In the new 6th Obama managed to get only 41.9% of the vote.
And the new 5th is almost identical to the old 5th, containing the counties of El Paso, Teller, Park, Chaffee, Fremont, and Custer. Obama recieved 40.1% of the vote here.
So that’s what I came up with, with 3 solid blue districts, one leaning blue, one swing, and 2 solid red.
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Here’s my stab at a map:
District 1: Since it has to grow, make it grow south into Centennial, Highlands Ranch, maybe Parker, etc. as far as population will allow. Lord knows it can absorb the blow.
District 2: Take out liberal Boulder county suburbs like Niwot and Nederland (also Gunbarrel and, maybe, Louisville and Lafayette). Exchange for some of Salazar’s territory, such as Jackson and Routt counties.
District 3: Keep as is, but the western section of State Sen. District 4, including Leadville and Fairplay (probably Woodland Park, too).
District 4: Rather than try to shore up Salazar, who is young and can win in that district easily, I suggest splitting the 2nd to shore up Markey. . As it stands, the 4th takes in only the barest northeast corner of Boulder County, including only Longmont. Let’s give it at least the eastern half, including Lafayette and Louisville (maybe even Broomfield). If we don’t mind small appendages on districts, we can even include Lyons to Boulder’s north and the “People’s Republic of Nederland” to its west (I once saw a road cleanup sign on behalf of Furious Howard Brown and the Mountain Wiccans” outside of Nederland).
District 5: Shrink in size considerably. The bulk of this district should be coterminous with downtown Colorado Springs, with Colorado College, Bijou St., and the business district as its center. Draw it out west to encompass Old Colorado City and Manitou. In light of the GOP’s military failings and our recent surge there, also go south towards Fort Carson. DO NOT in any way head north of Woodmen Avenue along I-25, nor to the Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family, or the Black Forest (exceedingly beautiful area, scary people).
District 6: This is where life gets REALLY fun. Let’s draw “The Beast”. Start in the most GOP sections of Parker and meander down I-25, taking in the most GOP-heavy areas of Douglas County. Continue into El Paso County and take in everything that isn’t in the 5th (Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family, Eastern El Paso County). Take in Elbert County, as well, if you can. The district will look like a combination of State SD 4, 9, 10, and 12, minus the sparsely populated western chunk of the 4th. Drop part of Arapahoe County into the 1st to dispose of Coffman. Lamborn lives in this district.
District 7: This is a status quo district that, if it has to expand, just needs a few more Denver suburbs to eat.