The latest draft of Colorado’s congressional map avoids putting the state’s current U.S. House members into the same district, while creating a sweeping district across most of the Western Slope and southern Colorado. The new 8th Congressional District in the north Denver metro region would be nearly 39% Hispanic.

The new map released Wednesday groups most of the Western Slope and southern Colorado into a single, L-shaped 3rd Congressional District. Northwest high-country counties including Routt, Jackson, Eagle, Summit and Grand are grouped with Larimer and Boulder into a proposed 2nd Congressional District. And the new districts would no longer pit Garfield County Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert against Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Lafayette.

And the proposed 7th District, now centered in the north and west metro area, would include much of Jefferson County but stretch to South Park in the central Rocky Mountains.

The map is the second to be drawn by nonpartisan staff members based on 2020 census data, and incorporates input from the public about previous drafts. Commissioners voted last week to base the latest map on one drawn by Commissioner Martha Coleman, a Democrat from Fort Collins who is a geographer.

The latest map would create three safe Democratic districts, three safe Republican districts and competitive 7th and 8th congressional districts, according to a report by nonpartisan legislative staff members.

In three districts, the Hispanic population would make up more than a quarter of the total district. The proposed new 8th Congressional District would have a Hispanic population of nearly 39%, according to a staff report.

The latest map is markedly different from two previous proposals. Here’s a look at how the districts shape up:

The political competitiveness of the districts is based on an average of election results from eight statewide races between 2016 and 2020. The percentages above represent the difference between the percent of votes cast for a Republican candidate and the percent of votes cast for a Democratic candidate.

There’s disagreement about what constitutes a “competitive district.” While the Independent Legislative Redistricting Commission views an advantage of 8.5% or lower as a competitive district, the congressional commission hasn’t defined a range.

Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, disputed the congressional commission’s formula for determining the political competitiveness of a district.

“Measuring competitiveness by focusing on strong years for one party and ignoring 2014 – which was a strong year for the other party – is simply wrong,” Carroll said in a statement. “As a result, this could very likely end up a 4-4 map after the midterms, which is in no way reflective of Colorado voters.”

Currently, four of Colorado’s seven U.S. House members are Democrats. Members of Congress don’t need to live in the district they represent.

The latest draft maps include a southern Colorado district that’s a significant departure from the current congressional districts, which divide the southern part of the state between the Western Slope and Eastern Plains. Commissioners have been drawn to the idea of a district centered on southern Colorado, but have been divided on how to make that work until Coleman made her proposal.

An earlier draft drawn by nonpartisan staff members included a southern Colorado district that would divide the Western Slope along north-south lines and include the San Luis Valley and Pueblo. The panel received feedback from southern Colorado Democratic activists who liked the map, but also vocal complaints from residents of the Western Slope who didn’t agree with dividing the region. They also opposed a 2nd District that would have drawn northwest counties in with Boulder and Larimer counties.

Carole Partin, a member of the Pueblo County Democratic Party executive committee who has run for the state House, was among the southern Colorado activists who submitted a proposal based on the state’s river basins.

She supported a previous draft, but is against the latest proposal. The L-shaped district is too sprawling and unwieldy, Partin argued, and fails to keep three of the state’s river basins in the district.

And while the district would be more than a quarter Hispanic, Partin said the new configuration would strengthen the 3rd Congressional District’s Republican advantage, and drown out areas like Pueblo.

“If you were a Republican and had a 10-point advantage, why would you even campaign in Democratic areas when you don’t need the votes?” Partin said.

Alan Philp, a lobbyist for the Republican-aligned Colorado Neighborhood Coalition, noted the latest map doesn’t address the concerns of Douglas County residents who testified against placing the populous county in the proposed 4th Congressional District with most of the Eastern Plains.

“While I’m opposed to combining large swaths of rural Colorado with Douglas County, the group that developed this map did a good job of developing a general framework that can yield consensus on the commission,” Philp said.

Coleman’s map makes several changes based on feedback the panel heard about the previous map proposal, including:

Mark Gaber, director of redistricting for the national nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, argued the draft maps fail to reflect the voting power of Hispanic residents in the southern part of the state by including them in the same district with white voters who vote very differently.

“It seems like with each map it gets worse than the previous, at least from the perspective of Latino voting strength,” said Gaber, whose group is also working with the Colorado League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The two groups dispute how redistricting staff members have interpreted the state constitution with regard to minority voters.

Congressional commissioners voted 8-4 at a meeting last week to use Coleman’s map as a starting point for the map released Wednesday. Many commissioners praised the proposal as a significant improvement, while others were frustrated and wanted more discussion of a proposal by Democratic Commissioner Simon Tafoya of Denver. His map would have created a southern district stretching border-to-border.

Commissioner Moussa Diawara, an unaffiliated voter from Colorado Springs, said he and other commissioners are interested in Tafoya’s map and didn’t want debate cut short because of the vote on Coleman’s proposal.

Others felt the commission had already spent too much time on their own proposals at the expense of the more than 130 submissions they’ve received from the public and advocacy groups.

“I can’t support a motion to direct the committee to spend more time than they’ve already spent. They still have 130 maps they’re trying to go though,” said Republican Commissioner Jason Kelly of Alamosa.

The vote on Coleman’s map doesn’t mean the commission won’t consider other maps by outside parties, including previous draft proposals. On Friday, the panel’s map analytics committee is also planning to discuss a congressional map submitted by the Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy and Research Organization.

The Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission will held a meeting to discuss the latest map at 6 p.m. Thursday. Although the commission won’t be holding anymore public hearings, people may still submit public comments online.

A third congressional map drawn by staff members may be released Sept. 23, if the commission doesn’t adopt a plan before then. The commission must adopt a map by Sept. 28 to submit to the Colorado Supreme Court by Oct. 1.

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