Washington Post: Democrats backed a commission to draw fair House lines in Colorado. Now they worry they gave up their power.

Washington Post: Democrats backed a commission to draw fair House lines in Colorado. Now they worry they gave up their power.

Amanda Gonzalez, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a group that helped draft the amendments that created the independent commission, also filed a brief opposing the new congressional map on the grounds it reduced Latinos’ electoral influence and doesn’t accurately reflect the state. Still, Gonzalez said she believes the commission is “the most fair and transparent way of creating maps.” “At the end of the day all Coloradans want is a process they can trust, they want to understand what is going on … this independent commission process got us closer to that,” she said.

When Colorado Democrats joined the state’s Republicans to support an independent commission to redraw political district lines, many of them celebrated it as a rare bipartisan victory in the name of fairness and good governance.

But now that the first-time commission has finished its work, the result is what some other Democrats had feared: a map that they say is overly generous to Republicans. Rather than adding an additional Democratic seat — which many leaders in that party argue is justified based on an influx of left-leaning voters and traditionally pro-Democratic Latinos — the commission has carved out a new, competitive district while largely preserving the current districts held by four Democrats and three Republicans. …

Amanda Gonzalez, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a group that helped draft the amendments that created the independent commission, also filed a brief opposing the new congressional map on the grounds it reduced Latinos’ electoral influence and doesn’t accurately reflect the state.

Still, Gonzalez said she believes the commission is “the most fair and transparent way of creating maps.”

“At the end of the day all Coloradans want is a process they can trust, they want to understand what is going on … this independent commission process got us closer to that,” she said.