Contact information Kyle Henley covers state government and politics and may be reached at (303)837-0613 or khenley@gazette.com

Growth will change political boundaries

5th Congressional District must shrink

By Kyle Henley/The Gazette

DENVER - Lawmakers now must focus on the geography of politics - or the politics of geography - depending on how you look at it, with Monday's release of final 2000 census numbers.

Census figures are used to determine the optimal size of congressional and state General Assembly districts so that there is equal representation among voters in the seats of power throughout the land.

With the addition of almost 1 million people in Colorado, much has changed in the past 10 years in El Paso County and across the state.

The population of the Colorado Springs metropolitan area jumped 30 percent in a decade to more than 517,000, meaning the boundaries of local state House and Senate districts stand to change dramatically.

The state's population jumped enough that it gained a seventh seat in Congress.

Now, lawmakers must begin the process of changing the physical borders of existing districts to reflect the results of the population boom.

And the stakes couldn't be higher.

"It could make the difference of who controls Congress for the next decade," said U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., who saw District 5 balloon in 10 years to become the largest district in the state, with 810,423 residents.

Because the size of a congressional district should be about 614,466 people, District 5 will have to shrink to make room for the seventh seat.

Hefley and his Republican colleagues in the House are hanging onto a nine-vote majority in the U.S. House, and Democrats and Republicans are split 50-50 in the Senate.

In Denver, Democrats have a one-vote majority in the state Senate for the first time in 40 years.

Republicans still control the state House, but the Democratic ranks are swelling.

"These kind of decisions are very important and doubly important because it is so close in Congress," said Bob Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College. "The pressure is on the local parties to do the best they can."

The processes of redistricting congressional seats and reapportioning the General Assembly are handled separately.

State lawmakers are responsible for the redistricting process, drawing up the maps that will determine where a seventh congressional seat will go and how the boundaries of the other six districts will change.

Reapportionment is handled by an 11-member panel - four members of the Legislature, three gubernatorial appointments and four appointees by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court - that shapes state House and Senate districts.

When it comes to redistricting, Hefley's massive district will see more change than any other in Colorado. The ideal size of a congressional district is now 614,466 people, which means the district will have to shrink geographically by 195,957 people.

Gov. Bill Owens figures that District 5 will lose parts of fast-growing Douglas and Arapahoe counties, areas that could be combined into a new seventh seat.

"I would expect there would be a lot of discussion around putting (the seventh seat) in the south metropolitan area" of Denver, Owens said Monday.

But the details of where a new seat will go and how the other must shrink and grow to accommodate it won't be known for months.

State House Speaker Doug Dean, R-Colorado Springs, says lawmakers' plates are too full right now to take on redistricting, and that it is an issue best left for a special session in the fall.

"Who has the extra time to draw up plans?" Dean said, noting that lawmakers this session are grappling with bills that deal with growth, transportation, education funding and more.

When it comes to reapportionment, Dean's District 18, which now has 75,562 people, will have to shrink to 66,173, the average size of a state House district, according to the census.

Dean figures he may have to give up ground to District 17 - Rep. Mark Cloer's downtown district - which has only 57,922 people. Reapportionment is going to be a nerve-racking process for Cloer, a freshman Republican who won his race in November by a little more than 100 votes.

"Basically, we are going to have to grow," Cloer said. "We are going to have to grow to the west and north."

Given the overwhelmingly Republican makeup of Colorado Springs, Cloer figures any new people in his district are likely to give him an advantage at the polls.

Loevy, however, thinks District 17 is the one place that Democrats have a chance of getting a competitive seat in GOP-dominated El Paso County. Democrats got shut out at the polls in the county in contests for state office in November.