April 16, 2011 07:57 PM UTC

Mike Coffman Responds To Bipartisan Screwing...Badly

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• by: Colorado Pols

There’s a lot of misinformation today about the status of Rep. Mike Coffman’s residence, and how his district may be affected by redistricting maps from both parties that were made public for the first time yesterday. AP misreported, just as one example:

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman said Friday he was upset after Democrats drew up six maps that all take his home in Aurora out of the 6th Congressional District. [Pols emphasis]

Coffman could still run for re-election next year if he doesn’t live in the new district, but he said it would divide local communities he served for the past four years. Coffman won his first election by 60 percent and last November he won by 66 percent, and he’s going for his third term next year.

Here’s the problem: the assertion that Democratic maps have taken Coffman’s Aurora home “out of the 6th Congressional District” is, as you can see below on the actual proposed map, flatly untrue. Coffman’s current residence is on East Hampden in Aurora, and according to his voter registration on file, located in Arapahoe County precinct 421. We’ve asked our sources to triple-check for us, and they confirm that Arapahoe County precinct 421 remains in the 6th Congressional District in all six of the Democratic “City Integrity” maps.

Detail from “City Integrity 5”

But that’s not the best part. Apparently, both of GOP Rep. Dave Balmer’s proposed maps actually move Coffman’s Aurora address out of CD-6, and into CD-7! So it’s not Democrats who “penciled Coffman’s home out of his district” at all! That would be his fellow Republicans.

Detail from “Balmer 2”

Now, Lynn Bartels of the Denver newspaper seems to be the only reporter who took note of a critical detail in all of this: Coffman mentioned to Bartels that he is “planning” to move to Greenwood Village! So, if that’s right, Coffman wants a redistricting map drawn to accomodate some future residence, not the one presently registered with the Secretary of State.

Which–to put it mildly–makes it a little tough to share Coffman’s outrage.

To summarize: Coffman is not being truthful about the disposition of his current residence to the extent that it was misreported around the state today, and in truth wants district lines drawn to cater to his future personal living choices. News reports say Democrats want to move his Aurora home out of CD-6, when in fact that is a Republican proposal. And, this is the not-so-funny part, Coffman really foolishly thumbed his nose at all of Aurora, who he might well be called on to represent, in whole or in part, based on both Democratic and Republican proposed maps.

We think it’s safe to say, Coffman is not reacting to this situation very productively.