Nicolais believes it’s unrealistic to expect average Coloradans to be heavily involved with redistricting because it’s such a technical process.
“Redistricting is very, very inside baseball for a lot of people. And it’s got a lot more complexity and nuance than most of the public is willing to engage in and think about. I don’t know that it’s all that different than it was in years past. That’s just my own personal take.”
And Shipley said commissioners are open to hearing the views of political insiders.
“Because they’re not just saying, ‘people with a political bent can’t be involved in this process at all.’ Because everybody’s the public,” said Shipley. But “I think they don’t like it at all when people aren’t being honest or open or clear about who they are.”
One way politicians are trying to influence the process came to light recently with a leaked video of Republican state Republican Rep. Matt Soper talking with a handful of Republican voters earlier this year.
In the video meeting Soper went so far as to suggest arguments they might use in an upcoming public hearing to help Republican interests and potentially keep his seat safe, without explicitly saying that. The Colorado Springs Gazette first reported on his remarks.
“It’s not like I was convincing people to do something they weren’t already interested in and willing to do,” said Soper, noting that he was talking to an audience of conservative Republicans.
“They wanted to participate in redistricting. They wanted to hear what makes a community of interest.”
People who aren’t paid to represent interests before the commission don’t have to register as lobbyists, even if they come with specific political goals in mind.
‘Discrimination against experience’
Denise Torrez is a public school teacher and a Democrat from Pueblo. She’s been trying to engage average citizens in redistricting, but said it’s been tough.
“In many ways, with people in survival mode… is this really a top priority for a lot of people?” she said. “We need to make it so that it is and make it understandable so that everyday people can see how important it is. This is for all of us.”
Shipley said the commission will end up holding more than 30 hearings, and while those will impact the eventual outcome, she said the commission keeps the hearings in perspective.
“Even at our busiest meeting, where we had 60 people testify over the course of three or four hours, that’s still just 60 people from a particular community. And does it represent those people? Does having a county commissioner coming out really represent everybody in that community? And obviously we know that it doesn’t,” she said.
This year’s redistricting process is giving some Colorado Democrats pause; if voters hadn’t approved independent commissions, their party — which controls the legislature — would be in charge right now.
Nathaniel Minor/CPR NewsProminent Democratic powerbroker and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb dismisses the idea that putting regular citizens without ties to politics in charge of this process is the right way to go. Instead, he sees the commission effort as “discrimination against experience.”
“I think there were some outsiders that came in and tried to throw out phrases like, ‘let’s get the politicians out of it. Maps in the past were gerrymandered.’ And that was just a bunch of bull” said Webb, who had been involved with previous redistricting endeavors.
