State legislative redistricting is a done deal, and Cortez has been traded to the 58th House District. Resort towns Durango, Telluride and Pagosa are now gathered in the 59th.
By that very limited definition of communities of interest, the new political map makes sense, but the whole concept can be oversimplified to the point of irrelevance. At some distance, interest (or economic base) is not sufficient common ground. It seems that the redistricting committees decide which communities they want to join in a district and then work to identify the shared interests.
The economies of Montrose and Cortez are alike in that each has a strong agricultural component (a trait both share with the northeast and southeast corners of the state). La Plata County grows food and fiber, though; Montezuma County has Mesa Verde, and various communities around both districts (however theyre drawn) have other economic bases.
Economic activity is not the only way of understanding communities. For example, Colorados two Indian reservations will continue to be in two different House districts. Tribal leaders have said theyre fine with that because it gives them two voices in the legislature, but its hard to argue that Native issues dont create a community of interest.
Its equally hard to claim that geography doesnt play an important role. Montezuma County residents are frequent visitors to Durango; the most likely reason for traveling to (as opposed to through) Montrose is to watch a high school sports contest. An additional 90 miles makes a great deal of difference, especially in the winter. The only way to get from here to there is to cross the mountains, either Lizard Head and the Dallas Divide (and right past Telluride, now no longer sharing a legislative district with the population centers on either side of it) or, by taking the long way around, up the Million Dollar Highway over Coal Bank, Molas, and Red Mountain passes. Those are real obstacles.
The newly drawn 58th District, unlike most of the others, has a number of oddly shaped innies and outies that testify to the difficulty of apportioning population fairly into the new districts, but the map also divides more neatly along partisan lines. The 58th will be a rock-solid Republican district, and Montezuma County Republicans are fine with that. The 59th, which for many years elected moderates whose first loyalty was to their district, not to their party bosses, has just moved to the left. In both districts, the minorities have grown smaller, and neither district has grown more competitive.
Thats where the agendas of the political parties and the citizens they purportedly represent sometimes part ways. The agenda of a political party is to maximize its own influence by creating safe districts and minimize the influence of the opposing party. Constituents, though, want to know their legislators and be known, and they are better served by someone who understands that some West Slope issues are essentially nonpartisan.
The 2011 reapportionment process hasnt served Southwest Colorado particularly well, and that points to a larger issue. As the Front Range becomes more densely populated, legislative districts in the less populated rural regions of the state must, by law, grow geographically larger. For citizen legislators to adequately represented all the residents of all the square miles that are theirs, their travel budgets must surely be raised. That isnt big government; its just common sense. New maps cannot be allowed to result in less representation. Thats the line that must be drawn.
