Representing the other State of Colorado

Almost equally split between Democrats and Republicans, Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is forced to unite to fight for resources.

By Ramsey Scott

Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is conspicuous when looking at a map. The district, made up of 29 counties, takes up about half of the state of Colorado. Yet for all its massive size, when it comes to politics the communities within CD3 feel they play second fiddle to the population center of Denver and its surrounding urban communities.

And it’s that feeling of being underrepresented, whether on the state or federal level, that gives communities like Democratic Pueblo and the Republican stronghold of Grand Junction a common ground when it comes to politics. Because while the D and the R next to a candidate’s name still matters, what binds the communities of CD3 together is the fight to get the same attention as the Front Range.

In that way, CD3 is representative of a major split in the United States between rural communities and urban areas. While Denver and its surrounding communities get the most attention, whether it be in resources or representation, the communities in CD3, much like across the country, feel underrepresented and unappreciated.

Pueblo County Commissioner Terry Hart said for counties in CD3 to be able to address issues that affect everyone in the district, working together across political and ideological boundaries is essential.

The Western Slope and Pueblo might be pulling the cart in different directions when it comes to certain issues that are politically charged. But when it comes to things like payment in lieu of taxes for federal lands within county boundaries, forest health and wildfire mitigation and a wide variety of others, Hart said all the counties are trying to move the cart in the same direction.

“Sometimes our friends on the Western Slope have a different approach than we do here in Pueblo. But the interesting thing on that is we’ve always had a pretty good ability to sit down, hear each other out, find out what each other’s perspective is and try and hammer out our differences,” Hart said. “I really haven’t seen it be divisive where we’re at each other’s throats. It’s simply we’re not going to agree on everything. But we just have a good work relationship where we really can work together.”

Mesa County Commissioner Scott McInnis has a unique perspective on CD3. Between 1993 to 2004, McInnis was CD3’s representative in Washington D.C. He said while party affiliation still plays a role in the political landscape of CD3, what really binds the disparate communities of the district together is a feeling that they are treated as the stepchild to the heavily populated metro areas along the Front Range.

“We seem to always be the stepchild of the metropolitan area. There’s 80 percent of the population that’s on the other side of the state. And generally speaking, there’s a lot of people who think that the state of Colorado starts and ends at the Denver city limits, including the congressional representative over there,” McInnis said.

McInnis was quick to point out that while 80 percent of the water in the state is on the Western Slope, the Front Range has 80 percent of the population and an ever increasing demand for the water necessary for the agricultural communities of CD3 to sustain itself. That is just one of many areas of contention between the rural and urban communities of the state, and one in which the counties within CD3 feel its not gotten enough representation.

And while areas in CD3, like Aspen in Pitkin County, may be outliers in the district in terms of politics and its economy, the commonality between areas like Mesa, Pueblo and La Plata counties on issues like water usage and economic development were what bound the 3rd Congressional District together, McInnis said.

“It’s a great district to represent. It’s easy for most issues to find commonality. And the issues aren’t as much Republican versus Democrat as much as it is urban versus rural. The urban areas, whether it’s funding for highways, whether it’s funding for water storage projects, a lot of those funding issues, the lion’s share goes to the biggest lion and the biggest lion is Denver. And so you constantly have to be on your toes in this district,” McInnis said. “Your biggest challenge in this district is standing up to the metropolitan areas. That is by far your biggest challenge. It’s not the liberal politics of Aspen or the conservative politics of Rio Blanco County. It’s urban/rural. That’s your number one issue.”

Another major point of contention, both on a state and federal level, is the management of public lands. Within CD3, there are about 11 million miles of National Forest Land, three of the state’s four National Parks and 30 National wilderness Areas. And for the communities in CD3 that sit in the midst of so much public land, making sure they have a voice in how that land is managed is just another issue that binds the residents of CD3.

“Most of those controversies are not driven by internal dispute within the district. It’s driven by outside parties that know better and use the federal cover to say it belongs to all of us and create hell,” McInnis said. “They’re closing down the coal mines. There opposing any oil and gas drilling on public lands. And they completely ignore the fact that most of the school budgets out here are almost entirely funded by multiple use on federal lands.”

La Plata County Commissioner Brad Blake echoed McInnis’ sentiments on public land management. La Plata has more than 400,000 acres of public lands with more than 390,000 acres sitting in the San Juan National Forest. It’s the management of those lands, and the feeling that the voices of the locals don’t have a seat at the table when it comes to how those lands are managed, that binds many of the communities in the CD3 together.

“We seem to always be the stepchild of the metropolitan area. There’s 80 percent of the population that’s on the other side of the state. And generally speaking, there’s a lot of people who think that the state of Colorado starts and ends at the Denver city limits, including the congressional representative over there.” — Mesa County Commissioner and former Rep. Scott McInnis

Blake tied the lack of representation in those land decisions to the lack of an overall voice for rural communities both in Colorado and across the country. It was that lack of voice that helps unify the voices of CD3 on issues of common concern.

“It’s not just a state issue. It’s an issue for the United States. In all these areas you have a huge difference of opinions and ideas between those who live in big-city areas and those who live in the rural areas. Colorado is no different,” Blake said. “As rural counties (in CD3), and some are a lot more rual that La Plata County, really feel like it is not getting its voice heard as much as it should. Because the front range in Colorado is really where the population is and what their priorities are seem to really be the priority (for the state). And I think they forget that there’s a lot of issues in these rural areas that affect us.”

Hart said another reason reaching across political affiliation on issues is the district’s almost even split among its residents’ political affiliations. Out of the district’s 410,685 registered voters as of the end of August, there were 147,357 registered Republicans, 125,513 registered Democrats and 131,754 unaffiliated voters.

“The way politics have played out in the 3rd over the last number of years is it tends to be more of a middle of a road political persuasion. When it comes to those major issues, the economic development issues, the road issues, water issues and things like that, a lot of times those don’t translate into partisan issues. There are more nonpartisan or bipartisan,” Hart said.

“It’s one of the reason why we love working together. Congress is so dysfunctional right now with the heavy, sometimes angry splits between Democrats on the left and Republicans on the right. We in the 3rd have a pretty good experience working together to fight for common interests and showing Washington D.C. this is how the whole nation would like to see you function.”