Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, a new Democratic political committee, filed ballot measures this week to suspend Colorado’s independent redistricting commission — the same commission its own operatives helped build in 2018. Their stated reason: Republicans in other states drew partisan maps first. Their proposed solution: replace Colorado’s competitive congressional districts with a pre-drawn map designed to deliver a 7-1 Democratic advantage.
The commission drew the current maps in 2021. Democrats controlled the governor’s mansion and both legislative chambers at the time. Commissioners held more than 50 public meetings, reviewed thousands of comments, and produced a map the Colorado Supreme Court approved. The twelve-member panel — balanced by party — delivered a 5-3 Democratic delegation in 2022 and a 4-4 split in 2024. The system worked exactly as designed.
The group registered as a state issue committee on February 4 and filed four ballot measure versions on February 18. Each would suspend the commission for the 2028 and 2030 elections, install a new map, and revert to the commission after the 2030 census.
Spokesman Curtis Hubbard runs OnSight Public Affairs, a Democratic consulting firm. Hilltop Public Solutions, whose Colorado operation is led by Craig Hughes, one of the state’s most prominent Democratic strategists, is working on the measures. The New York Times reported the effort has backing from former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee and expects funding from House Majority PAC, which spent $256 million in the 2024 cycle. The group won’t have to disclose its own donors until May.
The proposed map reaches seven of eight congressional districts into Denver, Boulder, or their suburbs. It targets seats held by Republican Reps. Jeff Hurd, Jeff Crank, and Gabe Evans while leaving only Lauren Boebert’s Eastern Plains district in Republican hands. Colorado voters split their delegation evenly two years ago.
The group calls the suspension temporary. Two election cycles of a 7-1 advantage tell a different story. Congressional incumbents win reelection at rates above 90 percent. Candidates who build donor networks, name recognition, and constituent services over two terms don’t lose those advantages when the commission reconvenes. And the precedent — that a ballot measure can override the commission whenever the national landscape shifts — carries no expiration date.
Advance Colorado plans a legal challenge, arguing the proposals violate the state constitution’s single-subject provision. All three targeted Republican incumbents called the effort a partisan power grab.
The first line of the 2018 amendment reads: “The practice of political gerrymandering, whereby congressional districts are purposefully drawn to favor one political party or incumbent politician over another, must end.” The people who wrote those words are now asking Colorado voters to suspend them.
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