A plan to take redistricting duties away from state lawmakers isn’t likely to make it through the legislature this year, but the proposal’s sponsor says he has the financial backing to put it on the 2010 ballot.
The resolution, delayed in committee Tuesday, would form a multipartisan, nine-person panel to redraw political districts every 10 years.
The plan, says the sponsor, House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, is to avoid the type of three-year imbroglio that erupted during the 2001 redistricting, which was marred by midnight votes and lawsuits.
“You can never completely depoliticize it, but you can get it out of here,” said May, whose GOP colleagues largely led that redistricting fight. “Better angels will never prevail when it’s in the legislature.”
He declined to name the financial backer waiting in the wings.
But if the balance of power in the statehouse remains the same, his proposal would also wrest a much-sought power from the hands of Democrats, who now control both chambers and the mapping pen.
Rep. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, chairwoman of the committee slated to hear the bill Thursday, said the lawmakers are experts on their districts and should retain some say in how they are redrawn.
She thinks the proposal has come too late in the session for a full hearing and doesn’t believe Democrats would lead the state into as intractable a fight in 2011 as it saw in 2001.
The previous redistricting effort showed “a lack of ethics that we don’t want to see happen again,” Todd said. “But with Democrats in control, I don’t think that would happen.”
The League of Women Voters, Colorado Common Cause and former Democratic Sen. Ken Gordon all appeared in support of House Concurrent Resolution 1005, which was delayed after Todd’s committee ran out of time.
To win a ballot spot through the legislative process, the proposal would need to make it through two committees and both chambers with a two-thirds vote in four days. May says it isn’t likely.
Or, supporters can pay to petition the public.
“We are putting this on the ballot,” he said.
