The supposed “Unaffiliated” Chairman of the Reapportionment Commission, Mario Carrera, donated only to state-level Democrats in 2012, a review by Colorado Peak Politics has found.

The Reapportionment Commission was responsible for re-drawing all 65 State House districts and 35 State Senate districts based on population changes identified in the US Census. Carrera was appointed to the Commission as a supposed “Unaffiliated” member, but what became clear in the process was that Carrera was only unaffiliated on paper. In reality, he was a hyper-partisan Democrat who did their bidding in pushing through maps that redrew districts to protect Democrats and imperil Republicans.

In 2012, Carrera gave the maximum contribution of $400 to two Democrat candidates for the State Legislature in districts he himself helped create: Angela Williams and Jesse Ulibarri. How independent of him.

It became pretty clear shortly after The Denver Post‘s Curtis Hubbard wrote a mini-hagiography of Carrera that he was nothing more than a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” While leading the Reapportionment Commission as an “Unaffiliated”, Carrera decided it would be wise to attend a high-dollar Obama fundraiser, in addition to donating over $8,500 to Democrats since just 2008.

Even Governor Hickenlooper has criticized the conduct of the Democrats on the Commission, saying he was “disappointed” in their behavior and that he thought that “a little more time and a little more process would have gotten us a better result.”

While reapportionment is done and over with, its impact will live on the rest of the decade. What’s become clear in the aftermath of the 2012 election is the degree to which districts gerrymandered by Mario Carrera at the behest of high-ranking Democrats affected the outcomes. With fairly-drawn lines 2012 would have likely been a very different year for legislative Republicans.

It’s too bad The Denver Post and other media outlets spent a good portion of 2011 deceiving their readers about Carrera’s true intentions, choosing instead to blow smoke up his skirt and sell him as a true independent when he was anything but.