Colorado 2020 U.S. House Redistricting Discussion

[Torie]

[Torie]

I'd like to note to everyone that there's empty mountains, rivers, lakes, parks, and reservoirs between Douglas and Jefferson counties, it's not like they're all that cohesive with each other.

I think I only count two roads directly connecting them, both with bridges at the border.

When has any one let a little thing like communities of interest and geography get in the way of gerrymandering?

Yeah but some people are connecting Douglas and Jefferson in fair maps. Three things need to happen in any fair Denver configuration.

1. Douglas and Jefferson should never, ever be connected.

2. Gilpin and Clear Creek go with Jefferson--not the Western Slope.

3. DIA gets put in with Adams and Arapahoe, not the rest of Denver.

Life is a series of choices, and what seems a sine qua non to one, is not to another. It is not as if these suburbs are all that dissimilar, although admittedly all things being equal connecting Douglas to the suburbs directly north would be the most desirable. But these matters when disagreement occurs are rarely equal. In this case many would want to balance that consideration against the number and severity of county and municipal chops, compactness, nesting CD's in metro areas, number of competitive seats, and proportionality, rather than view the micro-geography as you described it, as a deal killer.

Perhaps you might want to quote my post above with my map on it, and then put up yours for comparison. By the way, one thing that puzzles me, is why some of you post maps that fail to show the county lines, and when it is an issue with municipal chops of some importance, the city lines as well.  Many of these maps lacking such lines I really cannot adequately assess. The DRA affords showing such lines of course, so I hope it becomes a more popular display option.

In any event, below is a map that clearly shows the roads and county and city lines of the area. As you no doubt know, there is a big beautiful state highway (121) connecting Douglas to Jefferson, and a second (470) that just misses by about a 100 feet or something. Life is beautiful.

Enjoy your day, and thank you for your comments. If I see a map that I think is superior that someone posts (like Mr. Turner did for Michigan), my hat will be off to them. Hey, perhaps it will be yours!

[Torie]

Seems to have a lot of unnecessary splits--how about something like this?

Does not your map entail multiple additional county chops? But I understand your metrics. It's tough however to slice and dice Denver, for more abstract countervailing considerations, that I don't find that compelling, when in the final census numbers it will probably be almost precisely one CD. Ditto El Paso.

[Torie]

Below is another version that twists the CD’s counterclockwise by having the plains CD rather than the Boulder-Ft. Collins CD participate in the chop of Broomfield. It entails an extra county chop by the Douglas-southern Jefferson CD chop into Arapahoe to take in Littleton, but some might like it because it improves the connectivity of the latter CD, and improves perhaps the natural geographic and COI divisions of the Denver suburbs.

OK, I think I have beaten my Colorado drum to the point that it has no sound. Carry on, and good luck.

[Torie]

The CD I numbered 8 did the chop, to turn the clock clockwise, to cause as much of the suburbs north of the Denver CD to be in CD number 7 as possible, rather than in CD 8. Mega chops of Aurora is a deal killer for me btw. Those maps get an F in my opinion. A nasty chop of Lakewood is a C- to D map.

Unless I am lacking adequate perspicacity and imagination, your idea of losing Weld to round out the population of the plains CD will cause a nasty chop into the close in Denver suburbs, and then force one of those CD's to snake into Greeley, but again good luck in fulfilling your aspirations somehow. I suppose another idea is to put Ft. Collins with the west Colorado CD and see how that looks, but I am not very fond of that idea, when crossing the Continental Divide in such a major way is not otherwise necessary. Other than Pueblo which is aleady in the plains CD, Greeley is the  best facsimile of a major "cow town" in the state, and the most divorced from the Denver metro area it seems to me.

Oh, and thank you for your kind words.

[Torie]

Unless I am lacking adequate perspicacity and imagination, your idea of losing Weld to round out the population of the plains CD will cause a nasty chop into the close in Denver suburbs, and then force one of those CD's to snake into Greeley, but again good luck in fulfilling your aspirations somehow. I suppose another idea is to put Ft. Collins with the west Colorado CD and see how that looks, but I am not very fond of that idea, when crossing the divide in such a major way is not otherwise necessary. Greeley is the major best facsimile of a "cow town" in the state, and the most divorced from the Denver metro area it seems to me.

Oh this is my bad--I was a little overly vague. I saw you chopped Broomfield and suggested chopping Arapahoe or Adams instead.

If you do that, again you force more of the suburbs north of the Denver CD to be in CD 8 rather than 7, and my prime objective was to minimize that, after avoiding major chops of municipalities. This approach also caused the chop location of Jefferson to be in the most natural and clean spot. So that was my thinking.

Twisting the whole clock around Denver so that CD 7 takes in all of Broomfield causes a nasty chop of Littleton. Otherwise, I would have done what you suggest I think. The plains CD loses 27K in Broomfield, takes in 27K in one of the A counties, CD 8 moves into something that is not there (other than chopping Littleton), and CD 2 moves more north in Jefferson by 27K people (the move north in Jefferson can be done without material negative consequences, unlike the chop of Littleton as CD 8 moves west to replace the 27K that it loses from the plains CD chop into it).

[Torie]

If you lose the Littleton play entirely (that was done to improve connectivity and make Blairite happier), back you go to the map that would seem to have the most merit, taking into account your fine suggestion of where the plains CD should do its chop.

[Torie]

Given that the CO Supreme Court is unanimous Dem appointees, I do wonder if they will order some modifications to CO-08 and/or CO-03.  The legal justification would likely involve maximizing Hispanic opportunity districts.

Does the court have some legal authority to do that? The idea behind courts is to apply some legal text.  The VRA does not deal with 'opportunity" districts.