Final Colorado Congressional redistricting map approved by commission

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission approved a final plan that will be submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court on October 1.

Eleven were in favor of the final approved plan and one person was opposed, which fulfills the constitutional requirement that the map must be approved by a supermajority of eight out of twelve.

The Colorado Supreme Court is set to issue an opinion on the map no later than November 1.

Under the new map, Congressional District 5 will no longer include Teller, Fremont, Park, and Chaffee Counties. Those counties will now be in District 7, which also includes parts of Douglas and Custer counties.

The new map also shows District 5 only includes about three-quarters of El Paso County. Pueblo County would stay in Congressional District 3, despite an early iteration of the map moving Pueblo into a new district.

The new eighth district will be in parts of Weld, Broomfield, and Arapahoe counties.

"All things considered, this looks like a fairly fair map," political analyst Josh Dunn says. "You have three safe democratic seats, three safe Republican seats, and then two seats that are more competitive, but I think in the end, you'd have to say that Democrats have an advantage in those districts."

El Paso County Democrats chairman John Mikos appreciates the work the commission did and he doesn't have an issue with the splitting of El Paso County, but he does take issue with some of the other moves made. 

"I'm a little disappointed," Mikos told KRDO. "As the committee worked to make competitive districts, it seemed to me that most of the districts that they made competitive were districts that had been previously represented by Democrats. The districts that were more heavily represented by Republicans were not as affected.

The El Paso County GOP wasn't thrilled with the map either, issuing this statement to KRDO:

With regards to the "final" congressional redistricting map, they show 4 Democrat Districts, 3 Republican Districts with the added #8 district leaning left.  This map favors Democrats which is not the commission's assignment nor legal requirement; it is to produce competitive areas throughout the state.  All existing U.S. Representatives remain in their districts and should easily win their 2022 elections.  They took the easy way out after months of hard work, which is very disappointing.

The El Paso County GOP

However, Dunn believes the committee got the new congressional districts as "fair" as they could, giving the members a high grade on his report card.

"Right now, I'd give them an 'A'," he says. "You look at all the factors that are laid out, and the constitutional amendment and I think they did as good a job as you could possibly do, weighing and balancing all of those constitutional commitments."

The state Constitution says the redistricting commission must:

• Be composed of twelve citizens.
• Have one-third of commissioners that are not affiliated with any political party.
• Have one-third of the commissioners that are affiliated with the state's largest party
• Have one-third of the commissioners that are affiliated with the state's second largest political party

Data from the 2020 census showed population growth in Colorado, leading the state to gain an eighth congressional district.

Click here to view or download the plan, as an interactive map.