The Denver Daily's newsstands screamed the word “radical” today to describe Senator Rollie Heath's latest bid to divide and conquer rural Colorado through his Congressional redistricting map, which as of yesterday is now in bill form. Not exactly the media treatment Heath and the rest had hoped for, no doubt.  

The map is so ridiculous and hated that it's been drawing attacks even in the liberal loony bin of the ColoradoPols comment section. It's not going to pass, but what it will do is make life very hard for a number of House Democrats.

We hear that Democrats in the House are furious over aspects of the map, as are a number of high profile Democrats who have had the guts to go on record with their frustrations. Sal Pace is certainly not a happy camper, as the map proposed by Democrats would kill his Congressional dreams in one fell swoop.

In fact, any legislator who has a constituency who reads one of the following papers must be hot under the collar with Senate Democrats: Denver Post, Denver Daily News, Fort Collins Coloradoan, Estes Park Gazette, Pueblo Chieftain, Greeley Tribune, Boulder Daily Camera (!), Durango Herald, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Glenwood Springs Post Independent, Steamboat Pilot, and the list goes on….

Actually, we wouldn't be surprised if a few of those legislators supported a Republican map to send a message up the line that clearly isn't being heard in private. 

What will be the death knell for the Dems' map is their completely ignoring the third and fourth principles they state in their own press release: maintaining communities of interest and preserving political subdivisions.

If by maintain and preserve, they mean split up, then ok. See: Western Slope, Eastern Plains, El Paso County, Larimer County, Douglas County, Arapahoe County, Jefferson County.

But don't worry, the Brandon-Mander is in, though with no chance of success. We predict that Representative Sal Pace is just as certain to vote against the Senate Dems anti-rural gerrymander as is Speaker Frank McNulty and the House GOP.