Colorado Congressional Redistricting Suit Wraps Up
DENVER (AP) - Democrats on Monday argued for big changes to Colorado's congressional districts in closing arguments to a lawsuit that has the party zeroing on the Republican stronghold represented by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman.
Republicans contend that the Democratic plan to make Coffman's 6th Congressional District more competitive creates a "ripple effect" across the state, putting Republican-heavy suburban Douglas County in an eastern plains district and placing rural Larimer County in a western, Democratic-leaning seat.
Both parties sued after the Legislature failed to agree on new congressional maps this spring to reflect population changes during the past 10 years. Other groups joined the lawsuit, including Latino groups who say they want to protect the influence of Hispanic voters.
Republicans argued that existing communities of interest should be maintained, with minimal changes, and that their map achieves that.
"The maps that we submit are based on preserving existing communities of interest," said Richard Westfall, an attorney representing Republicans. "And we take the position, your honor, that it's incumbent upon the (Democratic) plaintiffs to show something that's materially changed in the last 10 years that would warrant creating a new congressional district."
Mark Grueskin, an attorney representing Democrats, said the Republican proposal urges the judge "to do virtually nothing" and "ignore every part of what is going on in Colorado today."
"The only thing they looked at was how to minimize disruption, which tells you that the `community of interest' case that the (Republican) plaintiffs put on is ... window dressing," Grueskin said. "It's after-the-fact rationalization."
A judge is weighing several maps that can impact congressional races next year where three Democrats are challenging incumbent Republicans. The challenges are to Coffman's seat, Rep. Cory Gardner's 4th District on the eastern plains, and Rep. Scott Tipton's 3rd District in south and western Colorado.
The state's House delegation has four Republicans and three Democrats.
Under the Democratic proposal submitted before the trial, Gardner would represent Douglas County in his mostly rural district. The Democratic map would split Coffman's district evenly among both parties and unaffiliated voters. It also would put nearly all of Aurora, Colorado's third largest city, entirely in the district instead of its current split between the 6th and the 7th district, now held by Democrat Ed Perlmutter.
Democrats submitted an alternative map with some modifications Monday that leaves Highlands Ranch, the largest population center of Douglas County, in Coffman's district but still puts the rest of the county in Gardner's seat. Their modified map also puts all of Aurora in Coffman's district.
Republicans also presented another map with some changes to put all of Aurora in Perlmutter's district.
Regina Rodriguez, an attorney representing the Colorado Latino Forum and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, which joined the lawsuit, said her clients want to make sure that Latinos in the state are fairly represented, and she says neither party is doing that.
Latinos now account for one-fifth of Colorado's population, compared to 17 percent in 2000. Rodriguez said her clients' maps keep together Hispanic communities in a proposed 4th District that would include Morgan and Weld counties in northeast Colorado and the San Luis Valley and Pueblo in southern Colorado. The Latino groups' maps also draw Denver districts using population from the northern, more Hispanic suburbs, instead of the south Denver suburbs.
Rodriguez criticized both parties for what she argues is an attempt to maintain the status quo, which she says fractures Latino influence in Colorado.
"For those of us whose jobs it is to do justice, we must always strive to challenge the status quo," she said.
Denver District Judge Robert Hyatt will rule in the coming weeks.
- By Ivan Moreno, AP Writer
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
