Colorado gains House seat/ Census figures add up to a seventh

DENVER - Colorado will wield more clout in Washington with the election of a seventh congressional representative in 2002, a gain attributed to the state's unadulterated population boom of the last decade.

"I'm tickled pink," said Rep. Joel Hefley. "It gives us much more influence in the House."

Hefley, a Republican, represents District 5, which includes all of El Paso and Teller counties and parts of Douglas, Arapaho and Fremont counties.

Between 1990 and 2000, the nation's population jumped 13.2 percent to 281,421,906, according to census figures released Thursday. Colorado was the third fastest-growing state, with the population swelling by 30.5 percent, from 3.3 million in 1990 to 4.3 million in 2000.

The announcement was the first of what will be mounds of demographic data released this year from the 2000 Census.

State House Speaker-elect Doug Dean, R-Colorado Springs, said an additional district "will give Colorado more muscle on the national level."

While a seventh seat has been rumored, prayed for and talked about for months in Colorado's political circles, it wasn't made official until 9 a.m. Thursday, when the U.S. Census Bureau released nationwide population figures.

Adding another congressional seat means each person Coloradans send to the U.S. House will represent about 615,000 citizens. With seven seats, Colorado will have more members of the U.S. House of Representatives than North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho combined.

Beyond political clout, the increased population also means Colorado likely will see an increase in federal dollars that flow into the state.

"Many federal programs are based on population," said Gov. Bill Owens. "With a larger population comes more ability to get federal funds, which is good for Colorado." Owens said an exact dollar figure was not available yet.

Now the spotlight shifts to the Colorado General Assembly, which constitutionally must shoulder the task of subdividing the state and redrawing the current congressional districts to make room for the new seat, a deeply political process that usually degenerates into partisan bickering between Republican and Democrats.

"It is going to be very, very difficult," said state Rep. Lynn Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, wife of Joel Hefley and one of 100 state lawmakers who will have a hand in reshaping the districts.

"It is a shame this year for us that we don't control both houses because it is going to make it harder," Lynn Hefley said, referring to the fact that Democrats in November took control of the state Senate for the first time in nearly 40 years.

After the 1980 census, a federal judge decided the redistricting process because lawmakers couldn't agree.

Again, after the 1990 census, the redistricting process ended up in federal court when a Republican Legislature and the Democratic governor couldn't reach a compromise. But the judge told lawmakers to go back and work it out themselves.

Some already are predicting redistricting will once more end up in court. "If (Gov. Bill Owens) wants seven safe Republican seats, then I think the court is going to resolve the issue," said Senate President-elect Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland.

Matsunaka has called for creation of districts that are balanced demographically between Republicans and Democrats, allowing for competitive congressional races.

Owens on Thursday said he doesn't want seven seats where Republicans or Democrats can cruise to victory.

"What I would like to see are seats that are constitutionally valid, that reflect communities of interest and that are competitive wherever possible," said Owens, while acknowledging that the parties will do "everything they can to create districts that are most likely to support their candidates."

Redrawing those lines may require state lawmakers to work overtime.

Block-by-block and city-by-city demographic data from the census won't be available until March, and the Legislature is set to close May 9. That isn't enough time to settle the fight over redistricting, Dean said.

"It will be extremely difficult to get anything done this year," he said. "A redistricting committee could work through the summer and present their recommendations to a special session of the legislature in late fall."

Regardless, Senate Democrats want to try and get something done earlier.

Sen. Ed Perlmutter, D-Denver, and Senate majority leader, said he's hoping that will happen in the regular session.

"But I'm not Pollyanna-ish," he said.

He acknowledged "this may lend itself to a special session this summer ... the earlier the better for the people and the candidates."

If a special session were to finalize district boundaries by the end of 2001, potential candidates still would have enough time to run a campaign for the new seat, wherever it ends up geographically.

No matter when it is finalized, it is widely agreed that a new district would be carved from the fast-growing Denver metro area, probably Douglas, Arapaho and Jefferson counties. Joel Hefley said he might lose 200,000 constituents in his district if the new one includes his portion of Douglas County.

"Conventional wisdom is that the seat will be cut from out of the northern part of my district and part of (Rep. Bob) Schaffer's and (Rep. Tom) Tancredo's," Joel Hefley said. Schaffer represents District 4, Tancredo District 6.

No one has officially expressed interest in running for the new seat, but competition within the parties is expected to be fierce.

"People are going to be coming out of the woodwork," Joel Hefley said. "I bet you would have a dozen people hit the streets, and it will weed itself down to six or so."

The names of popular Bronco's quarterback John Elway and state Treasurer Mike Coffman have been floated as potential candidates, though neither has publicly expressed interest.

What has happened so far

In March, 99 million Census questionnaires were sent to U.S. households. In Colorado, 70 percent of households returned a survey. The response rate was 72 percent in El Paso County, and 60 percent in Teller County.

In June, legions of "enumerators" went door-to-door to deliver 23 million questionnaires and conduct interviews at previously unrecorded residences and to households that did not return a questionnaire by mail.

As required by the U.S. Constitution, the total 2000 population of each state was delivered to the president on Thursday. Those totals, reflecting the population as of April 1, 2000, determine how many representatives to the U.S. House will be allotted to each state. Colorado gained a seventh seat, which will be occupied when the 108th Congress is sworn in in January 2003.

What's next

In March 2001, the Census Bureau will begin to release counts of the population in every state, down to the neighborhood level. Those counts also will indicate how many people in each neighborhood are adults, and how many are of Hispanic origin. State lawmakers in each state will use those counts to draw new election boundaries for both the state legislature and for the U.S. House. In Colorado, legislators will have to carve out a seventh congressional district in time for the 2002 elections.

From June through September, the bureau will release neighborhood- level information taken from the Census "short form" questionnaire that five out of six households filled out. It will provide population counts by age and sex, as well as data on home ownership and family structure.

Starting about December 2001, data collected from the "long form" questionnaire, filled out by one of every six households, will begin to be released. The data cover a wide range of topics, including household income, education, employment and housing.

How the information will be used

As far as the Constitution is concerned, the only reason to conduct the census is to reconfigure the makeup of the House. But the federal government, with the permission of Congress, also uses census results to determine how to mete out $185 billion annually for federal programs from public health care to veterans services.

The data

Census data also figures into Colorado state government programs. The Colorado Lottery disburses money for open space and parks to counties, cities and park districts based partly on census population counts. The state Constitution links the annual growth in allowable state government spending to annual census estimates of Colorado's population. Other state programs, including prison building, highway construction and services to the elderly, use census population counts and forecasts to determine how and where to put their dollars.

Other information

Where to find Census numbers and other population information:

U.S. Census Bureau: www.census.gov

Demography Section, Division of Local Government, Colorado Department of Local Affairs: www.dola.state.co.us/ demog/ datalist.htm

Colorado by the numbers

Here is a list of Colorado's population counts in each census since 1860. Colorado gained statehood Aug. 1, 1876. The figure after the state's population indicates the number of seats Colorado had in the U.S. House based on that year's census.

2000 - 4,311,882; 7

1990 - 3,294,394; 6

1980 - 2,889,735; 6

1970 - 2,209,596; 5

1960 - 1,753,947; 4

1950 - 1,325,089; 4

1940 - 1,123,296; 4

1930 - 1,035,791; 4

1920 - 939,629; 4

1910 - 799,024; 3

1900 - 539,700; 2

1890 - 413,249; 1

1880 - 194,327; 1

1870 - 39,864

1860 - 34,277

Most of Colorado's new residents who arrived during the 1990s have been imported. Nearly two of every three newcomers moved here from some other state. One of every three came via the delivery room.

Eight of every 10 Coloradans lives on the Front Range - the 10 counties from Pueblo northward to Wyoming. That means of the 4.3 million Coloradans counted in the 2000 Census, 3.5 million of them live in the urbanized Front Range corridor.

Hispanics are Colorado's largest minority group. At the start of the decade, they made up 13 percent of the state's population. By 1999, Hispanics made up 15 percent.

Asians have been the fastest-growing minority group, increasing by 62 percent between 1990 and 1999, and making up 2 percent of the state's entire population.

The African-American population in Colorado grew by 30 percent between 1990 and 1999 but still represented 4 percent of the statewide population.

The number of non-Hispanic whites, meanwhile, grew by 20 percent during the decade.

- The Gazette and news services

Copyright 2000
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