DENVER Democrats doubled down on their plan Tuesday to split Cortez and Durango into separate state House districts, meaning that Montezuma County is likely to get a new state representative Don Coram, R-Montrose.
The Colorado Reapportionment Commission abandoned its controversial plan to pair Durango and Telluride in the same state House district Tuesday. Instead, the even farther-away town of Gunnison will join Durango in House District 59.
All of Montezuma County joins Corams House District 58, centered on Montrose.
The changes still need to withstand a final review by the state Supreme Court.
As far as your representation in Southwest Colorado goes, I dont think youll see any change, Coram said.
Corams district already included the western part of Montezuma County and the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, and he said both he and Cortezs current representative, J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, will continue to work together.
But Coram was critical of the new map, especially Browns district.
Its an absolutely ridiculous map, as far as Im concerned, Coram said.
The maneuver was part of a sweeping Democratic stroke that could imperil Republican political fortunes across the state for the next decade.
The 11-person commission had been evenly balanced, with five Democrats, five Republicans and an unaffiliated chairman, Mario Carrera. But in a series of votes, Carrera sided with the Democrats on a map that makes it much harder for Republicans to win elections to the Legislature.
This is a politically vindictive map, said Mario Nicolais, a Republican member of the commission. It puts our leadership for Republicans all into districts together.
The vote means big changes for Southwest Colorados House districts. Brown will say goodbye to a trove of conservative voters in Cortez. Instead he will have to traverse Red Mountain Pass to get to his new town of Gunnison, which has more moderate to liberal voters.
Republicans had tried to float a last-minute plan that also would have created geographical challenges by pairing Archuleta County with counties to the north, beyond other treacherous passes like Wolf Creek and Slumgullion.
Several senior Republicans find themselves in districts with other Republican incumbents, and they will either have to quit or face a primary election against their allies.
House Majority Leader Amy Stephens, R-Monument, now shares a district with Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman will have to face Sen. Keith King, the GOPs go-to guy on education, in a new Colorado Springs district.
Cadman flung open a door and stormed out of the meeting after the vote.
Democrats said they were just following directions from the state Supreme Court, which rejected the commissions earlier plan on the grounds that it split too many counties.
Bob Loevy, a Colorado College professor who served on the commission as a Republican, said he was disappointed but not surprised.
Ive studied the Reapportionment Commission. One of the flaws is it comes down to who has six votes on the last day, and that is what happened again, Loevy said.
In retrospect, Loevy said, Republicans should have contented themselves with the commissions first plan, adopted on a bipartisan vote in September.
But Republicans contested the map at the Supreme Court, and they won their argument when the court overturned the map.
Its so surprising to me that the way the commission has been set up that Democrats can turn that into a total domination of the process, Loevy said.
Nicolais said Democrats ambushed Republicans by floating a decoy map last week and waiting until Sunday to file their real plan, even the deadline for maps was supposed to be last Wednesday.
Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, a Democratic commissioner, rejected the charge.
Ambush? This game is going on in public. Theres no ambush, Webb said.
Nicolais also filed a late map that rearranged the Four Corners, putting La Plata and Montezuma counties and the two Ute Indian reservations in the same district. Democrats and Carrera voted to reject that plan.
Southwest Colorados state Senate district remains the same, with the twin anchors of Durango and Montrose.
Reach Joe Hanel at joeh@cortezjournal.com.
