The unlikely pairing of swank sub urban Douglas County with tumbleweed-strewn towns across the Eastern Plains has Republicans crying foul over a Democratic plan for new congressional boundaries.
The Democrats’ map moves Douglas County from a mostly metro congressional district into a district that stretches from Wyoming to New Mexico on Colorado’s eastern border.
The map pairs Colorado’s fastest-growing county with rural counties that saw population declines.
“I looked at the map and I wondered, ‘Who’s speaking for me?’ ” said Lance Ingalls, attorney for Douglas County.
House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said putting Douglas with rural counties is an “unusual alignment.”
And the Douglas County Board of Commissioners isn’t happy with the map either.
“It proposes that Douglas County would be entirely segregated and separated from the Denver metropolitan area,” members said in a statement. “Every community with similar interests to those of the citizens of Douglas County in the areas of economic development, water and transportation interests has been ignored.”
Douglas County hasn’t decided whether to file its own map, Ingalls said, or wait until a redistricting trial in October to protest the proposal.
Republicans and Democrats filed suit after the 2011 legislature was unable to reach an agreement on new congressional boundaries. They must be redrawn every decade to reflect population shifts.
Both parties had to produce maps by Monday.
GOP attorney Richard Westfall questioned why Democrats took Larimer County out of the 4th District and substituted Douglas County.
Democratic attorney Scott Martinez said Larimer and Douglas have the same percentages of rural versus urban in their counties.
“And our map is the only map that keeps the Eastern Plains whole,” he said.
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com
