What Reapportionment Means to the Democratic Party of Denver:

Submitted by julie_kronenberger1 on Sun, 08/28/2011 - 2:46pm

DENVER SUB-DISTRICT MAPS

Below are official Denver Election Commission Precinct Maps by House District, modified with Subdistrict and Senate District information: 

HD1  |  HD2  |  HD4  |  HD5  |  HD6  |  HD7  |  HD8  |  HD9

 Stay tuned for Subdistrict Leadership contact info and precinct maps.

 Click here for Re-District-ing news (U.S. Congressional Districts)

historical information below:

ADVANCE SHEET HEADNOTE

November 15, 2011

No. 11SA282, In re Reapportionment of the Colorado General Assembly – Original proceeding to review reapportionment of state legislative districts.  The Colorado Reapportionment Commission filed its final plan with the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday, October 3, 2011, Docket #11SA282. The entire filing is available HERE (click on Submission to the Supreme Court). 

9/27/11 Statesman Article: Compromise Reached.

9/20/11 UPDATE:  Adopted maps are available HERE (OLD).

The final plan was adopted by the Reapportionment Commission on September 20, 2011.  Click above for links to Google Earth Maps.

Denver has House Districts 1-8, including 3, and HD9 has moved up into Weld County.  Rep. Daniel Kagan's seat is now HD35, and is entirely in Arapahoe County: 

  • HD1 is in Denver and Jefferson Counties (280 people);
  • HD3 is in Denver and still has a very small portion in Arapahoe (6,700 people); and
  • HD6 has 55 people in Arapahoe County.  The rest are entirely within Denver (HD2, HD4, HD5, HD7 and HD8).

A PDF of the HD Plan statistics is available here (12 pages).  Stay tuned for more detailed maps of each District.

- - - - - - -

Denver keeps SD32, 33 and 34, and portions of SD26 and SD35 spill over into Arapahoe County, keeping five Senate Districts within our boundaries: 

  • SD26 encompasses what used to be HD3 and has a decent chunk in Denver County (22,660 out of 124,296);
  • SD32 shares the same 280 as HD1 with Jefferson County;
  • SD33 and 34 are entirely in Denver; and
  • SD35 shares 6,727 with Arapahoe County.

A PDF of the SD Plan statistics is available here (12 pages).  Stay tuned for maps and HD breakdowns.

8/31/11 UPDATE:  (OLD) maps for committee consideration available HERE

The "Google Earth" version shows full street names.

The commission will review these plans at the September 12, 2011 commission meeting and will vote on a final plan during the September 19, 2011 commission meeting.

WHAT IS REAPPORTIONMENT?  From the Chair:

You may have heard about this tricky change in our political districts called reapportionment.  Unlike congressional redistricting, which gets a lot more press these days, reapportionment has a more direct impact on the Democratic Party of Denver.  Reapportionment, like redistricting, occurs every 10 years following the U.S. Census.  In essence, it is a process by which state house and senate district lines are redrawn to ensure equal (or as close as we can get) representation of Coloradans across the state.  The process involves some tricky division calculations to take the total number of Coloradans divided by the total number of districts in each chamber (65 house and 35 senate) to arrive at a target number of Coloradans per district. 

In Denver, we learned that most of our districts would gain some population based on the calculations described above.  What this means practically is that we will only have 8 house districts in Denver (instead of 9) and only 4 senate districts in Denver (instead of 5).  It is important to remember that these districts that are "lost" do not go away, but, instead, the lines are all redrawn and those districts are now not within the city and county of Denver.  What it also means is that, while Denver seats are safely Democratic, we will need to commit to helping our neighbors in "not so safe" districts. 

If you are interested in seeing the new proposed maps or learning more about this process, we encourage you to click HERE.  Find links to the proposed maps, an outline of commentary from previous hearings, and a ton of data about the process. You can also attend the hearing regarding reapportionment:  

Wednesday August 31 at 6 pm

....attend the public commentary hearing in front of the reapportionment commission, at the State Capitol Building in the Old Supreme Court Chambers. 
 
What is the timing of all of this?  Click HERE for a helpful brochure.

So we can relax until it's over, right? 

With the lines changing, you might be thinking that this is a good time to take a break in your Democratic activities.  You may be thinking to yourself that your district lines will change so you don't need to work hard until the lines are finalized in late 2011 or early 2012.  If this is you, you are wrong. 

There is no holding pattern in the Democratic Party of Denver. 

Instead of sitting back and relaxing while we wait for the reapportionment commission to finish their job, we must continue our hard work.  We have an enormous information campaign ahead of us; to ensure that Denver Democrats know where their caucuses are and, even more important, what district and precinct they live in.  We cannot wait until January or February to start this process.  It starts now, in living rooms, coffee shops, house district meetings, and town halls across the city.
 
As you talk with your neighbors casually about the caucuses to come and the 2012 election cycle - talk to them about reapportionment; talk to them about the importance of participation in caucus to set the party platform, choose candidates, and elect Precinct Committee People (PCP); talk to them about the importance of an organized field operation of neighbors talking to neighbors (as only the Democratic Party can do though our PCP field program) and of Denverites helping our neighbors in "not so safe" districts. 
 
The Democratic Party is the only place I know of where we elect our neighbors to be neighborhood ambassadors - people who know the ins and outs of the neighborhoods better than any campaign staff person, people who know every inch of their precinct, and people who are recognized as the "vote lady" or "election guy" by neighbors.  PCPs are our representatives living in our neighborhoods who work tirelessly to ensure Democratic values are promoted across Denver.  These people are elected at caucus and you and I both know we cannot wait until next year to start recruiting these great volunteers or to start helping them do their jobs as our neighborhood ambassadors. 
 
This is an important time.  There is no holding pattern; instead, its time to get to work.

Click for FAQs

Cindy Lowery-Graber
Chair, Democratic Party of Denver
574 S. Broadway
Denver, CO 80209
chair@denverdemocrats.net