Brief by Central Staff
Oikutucs – October 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Central Colorado’s political situation is in a state of flux. We can start with congressional redistricting. In the 1990s, our area was all in the Third Congressional District, which covered the Western Slope, the San Luis Valley, and the Arkansas Valley down to Pueblo.
After the 2000 census, population growth meant Colorado got a new congressional seat. The legislature couldn’t agree on the new district lines, so it went to court, and Chaffee and Lake counties were put in the Fifth District with Colorado Springs.
Then at the end of the 2003 session, the Republican legislature pushed through new districts, which would put Chaffee and Lake back in the Third. However, there were a couple of legal issues to settle — such as having 14 clerks each read two pages of the 28-page bill all at once, and drawing district boundaries more than once a decade.
So Attorney General Ken Salazar sued the legislature on the grounds that the 2003 redistricting was a violation of state law. And the Colorado Supreme Court heard the arguments in early September, but as of press time, no decision had been rendered. Thus no one is sure what congressional district Chaffee and Lake counties will be in for the 2004 election.
As for the Third District, Scott McInnis, a Grand Junction Republican who has represented the Third since 1993, has announced that he will not seek re-election next year.
When running in 1992, McInnis promised to obey self-imposed term limits, and serve only three terms, but he reneged on that promise in 1998 and continued to run. Recently, he has been coy about his plans, but says he intends to remain active. So maybe he’ll run for governor in 2006 (incumbent Republican Bill Owens is term-limited) or U.S. Senate in 2004 (that seat is currently held by fellow Republican Ben Campbell of Ignacio, who hasn’t announced whether he will seek another term).
With McInnis stepping aside, the Third has no incumbent, and even though McInnis had no trouble getting re-elected five times, political observers say the Third is a competitive district that a Democrat could win.
One likely Republican candidate is State Sen. Ken Chlouber of Leadville, who hits his term limit next year in the senate, and who ran for the First District congressional seat in 2002.
“I’m in this up to my big silver belt buckle,” Chlouber told the Rocky Mountain News.
But it could be a tough election for Chlouber, who’s listed as a supporter of Referendum A on this year’s ballot, — which would use the state’s credit to fund up to $2 billion in water projects. McInnis, and most of his rural and Western Slope constituents are firmly against it, so Chlouber would have a lot of explaining to do in the Third — and his Leadville home might not even be in the district, depending on how the state supreme court rules.
That wouldn’t necessarily preclude a run, though, since the U.S. Constitution requires only that Congressmen reside in the state they represent, not the specific congressional district.
Democrat Curtis Imrie of Buena Vista ran against McInnis in 2000 (and against Chlouber for a state house seat in 1994, and for the Fifth District congressional seat in 2002). “It’s about time that McInnis honored his term-limit pledge,” Imrie joked.
Imrie didn’t know whether he was up for another congressional run, “but now there’s a good chance of electing someone who cares about the people of Colorado, rather than advancing up his party’s career ladder by dancing to the tune of Karl Rove and this regressive White House.”
