The Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission on balance has done its job following the legal requirements for drawing new districts. Colorado’s Front Range is an increasingly densely populated urban area of our state. There has always been a tension between Western Slope counties and the Front Range.

While there are some policy issues Summit County shares with Front Range counties, we are not an urban center. Our voice will always be drowned out by the huge difference in the population of the Front Range. Summit County has far more in common on a wide range of policy issues with our surrounding counties and the Western Slope in general such as a tourism economy, transportation, water, forest management, education and health care.

For these reasons, I support including Summit County in the 3rd Congressional District and separating us from Boulder and Jefferson counties. I support the proposed Colorado House District for Summit County. It is compact and includes the surrounding counties that have a shared interest in all the issues that support our economies and residents. The proposed Colorado Senate District shares some of the characteristics of the House District but could be improved by including Park County with Summit County.

All of Summit County’s elected officials, who are Democrats, followed all of this logic and voiced support for the state legislative districts but then somehow ignored it when lobbying that we should be part of the 2nd Congressional District with Boulder and Jefferson counties. This would seem to be a transparent attempt to find a community of interest with these counties based on a relationship with political parties, incumbents or political candidates, which is expressly disallowed in the legislation. Boulder, which dominates the 2nd Congressional District, last elected a Republican to Congress in 1972.