November 11, 2011 08:11 AM UTC

Judge Rules in Favor of Democratic Maps in Redistricting

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• by: Colorado Pols

FRIDAY UPDATE #2: FOX 31’s Eli Stokols updates:

Senate President Brandon Shaffer’s campaign tells FOX31 Denver he’s not abandoning his Congressional bid even though the newly re-drawn Congressional district boundaries have made his uphill climb even steeper…

“From day one, he’s announced he’s running in C.D. 4,” said campaign manager Craig Hughes. “He’s still running in District 4.”

Hughes acknowledged that some of the proposed maps that weren’t adopted would have been friendlier to Shaffer; but, he said the voter registration breakdown in the 4th has always been tough for Democrats.

“You’d always want a map that makes an election easier than harder,” Hughes said. “But this is less about where the lines fall than about the disgust people have with a Congress that has a nine percent approval rating.”

On the newly-created marquee battleground of CD-6, Stokols continues:

State Rep. Joe Miklosi is the only declared Democratic candidate in C.D. 6, and is putting together a serious campaign, already having filled top staff positions.

But there are whispers that former statehouse Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who lost a 2010 primary challenge to fellow Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, could make a run for Congress…Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, has also been mentioned as a potential challenger to Coffman.

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FRIDAY UPDATE:

Metro-area detail

Metro-area detail 2–for high resolution click here

The AP’s Ivan Moreno reports via the Durango Herald:

The GOP stronghold held by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman could be up for grabs after a Denver district judge sided Thursday with Democrats in their proposed redrawing of congressional lines.

Judge Robert Hyatt’s ruling makes Coffman’s suburban Denver district more Democratic by incorporating all of Aurora, the state’s third-largest city…

Both parties filed lawsuits after the state Legislature failed to agree on new district lines this spring to reflect population changes since 2010. The process was an acrimonious one, with both parties accusing each other of being unwilling to compromise.

Republican state Sen. Greg Brophy, who was on the legislative panel to redraw districts, said the Democrats got their wish with the judge’s decision.

“That means that all the disingenuous behavior by the Democrats in the Legislature paid off for them. They had no intention of negotiating with us. … They intended all along to go to court,” he said.

Adds the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone:

In other parts of the state, key changes in the map that was approved include Larimer County’s split from the 4th Congressional District to land in the 2nd Congressional District with Boulder. Democrats told the court that the presence of research universities in both, the prevalence of bark beetles and unifying Rocky Mountain National Park into a single congressional district warranted the change.

The new 4th Congressional District includes the residence of Colorado Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, who is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner of Yuma. The original Democratic map displaced Shaffer into the 2nd…

“Despite the serious flaws in the court map, this plan still provides a clear opportunity for Republicans to maintain our Congressional delegation,” [Colorado GOP chairman Ryan Call] said.

The biggest development here is the sweeping change to Rep. Mike Coffman’s 6th District–the district always slated for the biggest changes due to population growth in this area needing to be redistributed. The decision by Judge Robert Hyatt yesterday is nonetheless close to the worst-case scenario for Coffman, and we have to note that the biggest political problems facing Coffman in this district are relatively recent and entirely of his own doing. Coffman’s attacks on bilingual ballots, strident rhetoric about major cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and other recent hard-right positions represent very serious liabilities in a competitive district. On the other hand, he’s raising lots of money, and if this is the district he’ll be running in, he’ll need it.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s CD-7 loses much of its reach into the plains, becoming a much more west-suburban focused district. If anything, this district becomes easier for Perlmutter to hold because of his unshakable ties to suburban Jefferson County–always the heart of his personal constituency. This map doesn’t make things any easier for Senate President Brandon Shaffer’s CD-4 bid, but everything we hear about his campaign suggests they have been working with expectation of a district that continues to lean GOP, as it does today, from the beginning.

The relatively minor tweaks to Rep. Scott Tipton’s CD-3 represent a challenge for Rep. Sal Pace’s bid to unseat what is generally considered to be one of the nation’s most vulnerable freshmen. We think he would have preferred a few more preferential shifts, but the district is still very competitive. It will be interesting to see whether this race or the race to unseat the now-vulnerable Mike Coffman in CD-6 garners the most attention next year.

As of this writing, we haven’t heard if the GOP intends to appeal today’s ruling, but the comments of chairman Ryan Call in several papers suggest they may not see a justifiable risk/benefit. It may be the case that getting to work now on a plan to defend their incumbents on this map is preferable to an unlikely gamble for a better deal in the state Supreme Court.

Bottom line: after an exhaustive legislative and legal process, battlegrounds aplenty for the coming decade. Not as partisans but strictly as political bloggers, and lovers of a good fight on general principles, we couldn’t be more pleased. Original post follows.

Much more to come. Suffice to say, this is a bad evening for Mike Coffman.