Can you provide a color key for your results? I wish I had the DRA color order memorized, but I don’t.
This is a very minor point, but Routt County (Steamboat Springs) is more Democratic than nearby counties and would pair well with the Boulder district rather than the primarily agricultural counties to its west. Rabbit Ears Pass connects it with the Front Range is warm weather.
I think Steamboat Springs is more naturally kept in the district that includes all of the other ski towns as well (which is potentially winnable for the Democrats as I think the strong Hispano numbers for Trump understate Democrats' strength in the area).
This map is pretty reasonable overall. I've had some fun drawing gerrymanders of Colorado, but obviously one isn't going to happen. The only question is whether with 8 districts it might be possible to create a Latino district in the Denver area, which a commission might consider.
Steamboat is in CO-03 - the town is located to the west of the name on that map, in Routt County (the one shaped like Mississippi).
IDK about the size but you could make a horseshoe-shaped district with the southeast leg West of the Platte and into Jefferson County, snaking up and around downtown and coming down to Aurora which would pack a lot of Latinos in. The question is what to do with the rest of Denver - very white and urbane (mostly wealthy too) but lumping it in with southern suburbs puts them in conflict with the most conservative voters in the area.
Is the new CO-08 predominantly Anglo white? If so, then I would guess that since it voted for Trump, and is an area of new and rapidly growing population, that it would more likely elect a Republican in the coming decade, resulting in a delegation that is evenly split. It has been my experience that an area made up of new suburbs, rapidly growing, tends to be more Republican, unless the area is dominated by minorities.
Yes - Douglas county is the most conservative of the Denver suburbs, and it's 97% white in the 2010 census. Worth noting that the southern half of Jefferson (included in the 8th in this map) is rural and also reliably Republican.
There's a crazy amount of growth there though as people get priced out of downtown or inner suburbs - you can find people living as far south as Colorado Springs and commuting into the Denver (!). I think Castle Rock could easily turn into a Denver bedroom suburb but right now the area is pretty R-friendly.
