Democratic 3rd District Congressional candidate Sal Pace is not surprised that the Colorado Supreme Court decided this morning to uphold Denver District Judge Robert Hyatt’s ruling in favor of a new congressional map for the state drawn by Democrats and designed to increase electoral competitiveness.
The latest dispatch from the frontlines of the voter wars crisscrossing the country this year comes from Phoenix. The Arizona supreme court ruled that political lightning-rod Governor Jan Brewer failed to justify ousting Colleen Mathis as chair of the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission. The court reinstated Matthis.
Several members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have testified in Denver District Court this week about the ongoing redistricting process challenged by both Republicans and Democrats after the state legislature failed to come up with a plan last session.
Colorado Sixth District Congressman Mike Coffman is making national headlines for trotting out a Glenn Beck-style Obama conspiracy theory on Denver talk radio. He said the president is secretly working to grant citizenship to millions of undocumented residents who will return the favor by voting for Obama next November. That’s great radio except, as Colorado media watchdogger Jason Salzman points out, illegal residents can’t become citizens until they’re legal residents, and none of that could happen for any of them by anywhere close to Election Day. More than that, the theory dovetailed with a bill Coffman recently sponsored to strip languages other than English from voter ballots, the two taken together making Coffman seem provocatively anti-Latino. The “undocumented resident voter” theory isn’t the only out-there bit Coffman has delivered lately. His handlers might have pulled in the reins after the loose nuggets he tossed out at a GOP fundraiser in Denver last week.
Update: Dems release map that would sacrifice ground in CD4 to make CD3 and CD6 more competitive (see image below).
The battle in Colorado over the shape of next decade’s congressional districts continues. State Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio fired off a response to the latest proposed map released by state Republicans. Democrats want to draw more competitive districts. Republicans want to effectively retain existing districts. Democrats argue that competition will result in greater lawmaker responsiveness and less partisanship. Republicans say they are seeking to avoid disruption and retain communities of interest.
After months of intense talks and partisan attempts to rearrange the congressional districts by Republicans and Democrats, the Colorado General Assembly’s redistricting attempt failed to produce a map. The Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee killed an amended Republican map, moving the battle out of the Legislature–at least for now.
DENVER– It’s closing time. The swing-state Colorado legislature has one day left in the regular session this year for Republicans and Democrats to come together and deliver a congressional redistricting plan to the governor. The Republican-controlled House managed to pass its version onto the Senate this morning and, after a stop-and-start filibuster that stretched into the wee hours last night, the Democratic-controlled Senate today moved its version forward for a final reading.
Redistricting happens every 10 years. It’s the law. It’s never pretty and it is seldom fair, but it always gets done. Last time, it took years and years before the U.S. Supreme Court finally said enough is enough. Will Colorado go down that road again this year? No one knows. Democrats and Republicans will either compromise or they can carry their briefcases from the Capitol to the Court House. It is up to them.
Democrats and Republicans held hearings on dueling redistricting maps at the Capitol Thursday while party leadership negotiated with the governor to find a solution to partisan gridlock.
The battle of the maps continues under the Capitol dome as Democrats released a new redistricting map today that they said is a compromise that is still open to change as the deadline quickly approaches for the General Assembly to provide the state with new lines of congressional representation.
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