GOLDEN Things to do at Colorado Mills shopping mall:
Stock up on school supplies at Super Target.
Catch Shark Night 3D at the 16-screen movie theater.
And, if two activist groups get their way, vote in the 3rd U.S. Congressional District.
The mall, a convenient 15-minute drive from downtown Denver, roughly marks the eastern edge of Western Slopes congressional district in a map drawn by the Colorado Latino Forum and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association, two of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit that will determine the states new congressional boundaries.
Under the Hispanic groups plan, the Western Slopes Congressman, Republican Scott Tipton of Cortez, would be drawn into the same district as Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a popular Democratic incumbent from Golden.
Meanwhile, the heavily Hispanic and Democratic areas of Pueblo and the San Luis Valley would leave the 3rd District and join the Eastern Plains.
That would mean trouble for state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, who plans to challenge Tipton in the 3rd District.
But the map is just one of at least four on the table for Denver District Judge Robert Hyatt to consider when a trial begins next month.
The Legislature is supposed to redraw the districts every 10 years to keep their populations balanced.
But when legislators failed to agree on a map this May, citizens with close ties to the Democratic or Republican parties filed the lawsuit.
The Colorado Latino Forum and Hispanic Bar Association also joined the lawsuit, along with Bill Thiebaut, Pueblos Democratic district attorney; the Republican Douglas County Board of Commissioners; and the city of Aurora and its Republican mayor, Ed Tauer.
All the parties had until Friday at the latest to get their maps submitted to Hyatt.
Except for the Latino Forums map, the plans envision only marginal changes to Tiptons Western Slope district.
Operatives for the Democratic and Republican parties drew the maps for their plaintiff allies.
Democrats would lop off the southeastern portion of the 3rd Congressional District the counties of Las Animas and Otero and add Lake and half of Eagle counties.
Republicans would extend the district east to Kansas by keeping Las Animas and Otero and adding Baca County.
Theyre both fairly similar to what the 3rd is now. They both keep the district as a competitive seat, Pace said.
And, crucially for Pace, both the Democratic and Republican plans keep Pueblo as the largest city in the district.
Pace said he cant predict what Hyatt will do.
But I think the 3rd Congressional District will remain a competitive district that includes Pueblo, he said.
The real fight for the two major parties lies in the Denver suburbs, where Democrats are targeting 6th Congressional District Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican who currently has a very safe district.
Democrats want to redraw it to make it winnable for themselves.
Because of their high Hispanic populations, Pueblo and the San Luis Valley figure heavily in how the districts must be drawn. The federal Voting Rights Act does not allow map drawers to dilute the strength of minority voters.
State law and court precedents also call on Hyatt to make districts as compact as possible, preserve city and county lines if he can and keep intact communities of interest a term whose meaning has been at the center of long debates this year.
Hyatt has scheduled a one-week trial to begin Oct. 11.
Separately from the congressional redistricting trial, a bipatrtisan group is working on new lines for Colorados state legislative districts. That panel has until Oct. 7 to submit its plan to the state Supreme Court for approval.
A lawyer for the Hispanic groups did not return a call for this article. Tiptons staff also did not respond to requests for comment.
Reach Joe Hanel at [email protected].
