After the 2000 census, Republicans fell short of controlling Colorado’s redistricting process by a single seat in the state Senate, and a state court judge selected a Democratic-drawn plan to add a “fair fight” 7th District in the northern Denver suburbs. Curiously, Democrats found themselves in the same predicament following the 2010 Census, and a lengthy and bitter stalemate in the state legislature forced courts to intervene. In November 2011, Denver district judge once again chose a Democratic plan for the sake of making the GOP-held 6th District south of Denver more “competitive.”The new map’s biggest shift was to remove nearly all of heavily Republican Douglas County from the 6th District and replace it with increasingly Latino Aurora to the north, making Republican Mike Coffman’s seat seven points less Republican. But as in 2002, the payoff for Democrats may not be immediate. It wasn’t until 2006 that Democrat Ed Perlmutter captured the 7th District created in 2002. In 2012, Coffman escaped with a 48%-46% win after Democrats failed to recruit a strong candidate, and Democrats will surely move heaven and
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