Colorado reapportionment of state legislative districts is the responsibility of the 11-member Colorado Reapportionment Commission working this summer. Attorney Mario Nicolais, one of the commissioners, took a few minutes after Monday’s hearing to discuss the process.
“Hopefully, we’ll do it in a non-partisan fashion, or a bi-partisan fashion, that – based primarily on the law – we can get this one through the [Colorado] Supreme Court on a first go-round. That will, of course, depend on whether all the commissioners are going to follow that constitutional path and whether we can get good maps drawn in the first place.”
That commission does not have responsibility for redrawing Colorado’s seven Congressional districts. That was the task of the state legislature, which generated a lot of discussion before the session ended in May. Some of it was funny, as when Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, told attendees at a hearing that no other community wanted to join Boulder in a Congressional district.
But the comedy turned tragic when the legislature wasn’t able to actually pass a bill, kicking it to the courts.
