All semblance of polite interaction between the political parties has disappeared here. Accusations of double-dealing are flying right and left. Public officials are openly charging each other with ruthlessness, hypocrisy and deceit.
What’s at fault? The most bitterly contested congressional redistricting in this state’s history, and one with national implications.
Colorado is one of two states–the other is Texas–where Republicans have tried this year to tilt the balance of power in Congress through unprecedented redistricting maneuvers. They flopped in Texas after 51 Democratic lawmakers fled the state in an extraordinary and ultimately successful bid to derail the Republicans’ plans.
But the Republicans succeeded in Colorado, where venom now drips from political discourse, lawsuits are blooming like roses and the Grand Old Party can’t hide a sense of “gotcha” triumph.
“This is the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent,” said Chris Gates, chairman of Colorado’s Democratic Party. “If [Republicans] can get away with [what they’ve done] in Colorado, they’ll try to get away with it wherever they can.”
What happened, experts say, is an unprecedented decision by a state legislature to redraw its political map between census counts, even though a perfectly legal redistricting plan had been approved by a court.
This raises the specter nationally that political gamesmanship over redistricting could reach new heights, with political parties jockeying to overturn plans previously put into place once they come into power, experts suggested.
But the Republicans’ victory in Colorado may not last. Colorado’s attorney general and highest Democratic officeholder, Ken Salazar, has sued the secretary of state to prevent the plan from going into effect. The Colorado Supreme Court accepted the case on a day’s notice.
New legislation redrawing political boundaries in the state “is contrary to the [state] constitutional provision that allows for congressional redistricting only once after each census,” Salazar said in a statement. “My duty to the people of Colorado is to protect their rights under our state constitution.”
Donetta Davidson, the Republican secretary of state, has filed a countersuit, charging that Colorado’s top lawyer is obligated to serve her agency, not haul it into court. The motion and the novel legal questions it raises remain open.
GOP: `It’s our responsibility’
In Colorado and Texas, bitterly divided legislatures had failed to enact plans to redraw congressional districts, as required by law, after the 2000 census. In both cases, state courts then drew up redistricting plans used in the 2002 elections. Those elections swept Republicans into control at both Statehouses.
Then GOP lawmakers started redrawing political maps in private, and coming up with legal arguments against the courts’ plans.
More Top Picks Best Area Rug
Redistricting needed to be done yet again in both states because Republicans decided that neither legislature had fulfilled its obligation to come up with a plan.
“The [state] constitution says redistricting is supposed to be a legislative matter, and it’s our responsibility, not the court’s, to do it,” said Colorado state Sen. Doug Lamborn, a Republican.
Court-drawn political maps are commonly used when a legislature can’t agree on how to redistrict. And though states have revised redistricting plans many times in the past, they have done so only when a previously legislated plan or court-ordered plan was found to be illegal.
In Texas, Democrats found a way to foil the Republican plan to redraw the political map by fleeing to Oklahoma this month, leaving the state House without the quorum needed to consider a redistricting measure.
Seven Texas congressional seats were expected to swing Republican instead of Democrat under the GOP proposal, giving the Republicans a more comfortable majority in Washington, where they hold a 229-205 advantage over Democrats in the House.
But in Colorado, Republicans were cannier. Asked several times this spring by their Democratic colleagues whether they were drafting redistricting legislation, GOP leaders denied it. “Yes, we were planning on it, but no, we weren’t drafting legislation when they asked,” said Colorado Senate President John Andrews.
“We knew they would hate the idea,” he added, defending this splitting of hairs. “We had no obligation to issue press releases or show our hand of cards to people playing at the poker table. We didn’t have to play nicey-nicey.”
Democrats cry foul
The Republicans flat-out lied, the Democrats’ Gates contends.
In fact, Andrews said, Democrats should have had an idea something was up as soon as March in the U.S. House. There, Democrat Mark Udall came across Republicans Joel Hefley and Marilyn Musgrave reviewing what appeared to be a redistricting map on the House floor.
“We’d given plenty of indication this was something we planned to do. They were asleep at the switch. All these claims of shocked naivete just aren’t convincing,” Andrews said.
“Democrats want to elect Democrats. Republicans want to elect Republicans,” he said. “Frankly, it’s the American way.”
The Colorado Republicans pushed through redistricting legislation in the last three days of the session after stifling debate, throwing out amendments and several shouting matches between lawmakers.
Republican Gov. Bill Owens signed it two days later. The new plan adds GOP voters to two swing districts, making it likely that they will elect an Republican next year and in subsequent elections.
“It was just crammed down our throats, with no respect for the rules or customs or procedures” at the Statehouse, said Democratic state Sen. Ken Gordon. “It was outrageous.”
The Democrats have no business acting holier than thou, responded Ted Halaby, chairman of Colorado’s Republican Party. Two years ago, when the legislature was debating redistricting and the Democrats controlled the Senate, they blocked efforts by the Republican House to enact legislation, he charged.
“We thought that was a naked power play,” Halaby said. If Democrats think that of his party now, “they’re getting back what they gave.”
Now, the matter rests with the courts: the Democrats have brought a suit against the General Assembly in state court, in addition to the attorney general’s lawsuit.
Amid the legal wrangling are questions surrounding the role of the White House behind the GOP maneuvers in Colorado.
The involvement of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in the Texas redistricting attempt and the subsequent effort to find the rebel Texas Democrats has added to the buzz here.
In Colorado, White House adviser Karl Rove is known to have made at least one phone call to a state Republican leader, and local party officials acknowledge consulting with national party officials in Washington earlier this spring.
Democrats are convinced that such moves add up to direction from inside the Beltway, but the local GOP said all the credit goes to homegrown plotters.
“They think we’re a bunch of hicks who needed some suit from D.C. to tell us it would be great to elect Republicans,” Andrews said. “We’re smarter than that. We thought it up on our own.”