Finally, a vote of confidence in something more rational and reasonable when it comes to redrawing legislative and congressional districts in Colorado every 10 years.
This week a bipartisan group of state lawmakers and officials from both parties announced they would go directly to Colorado voters to try and fix one of the most compelling reasons we know of doing away with the two-party political system: redistricting.
Every decade, after the U.S. Census, state legislators redraw congressional and legislative districts. The idealistic goal is to draw lines that equalize constituent load while respecting communities of interest. In reality, the redistricting process is a loathsome process where both Republicans and Democrats lie, cheat and steal in an effort to protect individual offices, partisan seats and political power. Some of the worst of these political theatrics take place in states like Texas, where Republicans there did turnabout on Democrats to redraw congressional and legislative districts to make it nearly impossible for the GOP to lose power. The histrionics and deceits that Democrats and Republicans use in Colorado and states across the nation do plenty to dispirit potential candidates and voters, who all deserve better.
Here in Colorado, the process is only slightly better because the margins in both state houses are slim, so disputed district maps regularly go to the courts for final amendments. For congressional districts, that’s worked out pretty well for Aurora and metro residents. Judges in two cases took clearly gerrymandered 6th and 7th congressional district maps and created districts that relatively reflect the communities of interest the create. And in both cases, the court created two districts that are truly competitive politically, rather than gimmes for one party or the other, such as districts in Denver and Colorado Springs.
Legislative districts, however, are another story. Some of the district lines nearly scream in pain as both parties sign off on a number of “safe” seats for each side, dividing up voters and residents like political spoils in a seething partisan war. It means that there is more than one state House and Senate district that has constituents in some of the state’s most rural and agricultural parts, and constituents in the same district in hugely urban settings.
While no system may be able to create perfect districts, changing the system of partisan committee and bickering, tipping to whatever political party happens to be in power at the time can only help.
The proposes system would create a special panel to draw districts, composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and four non-affiliated voters. The most important part? Nothing could clear the committee unless it gets at least eight votes.
Perfect? No. But on the surface, the notion sounds much better than the political free-for-all Colorado has now. It could mean that Colorado could create even more competitive districts that force candidates to appeal to all voters rather than play to a party’s base, and create these competitive districts by design rather than by default.
The measure must garner almost 100,000 signatures just to make the ballot, and the final language still must pass muster, but for now, this sounds like something that can only benefit everyone in Colorado.