Bruce likely to retain opponent - County remap keeps Lathen in District 2

Paper: Gazette, The ( Colorado Springs, CO)

Date: June 28, 2007

El Paso County Commissioner Douglas Bruce's challenger in next year's election lives dangerously close to the boundary between Bruce's District 2 and District 5.

Yet a proposed redistricting to even out county district populations, likely to be approved by the commission today, keeps Amy Lathen inside District 2, even though the rest of her street would now be a part of Commissioner Jim Bensberg's District 5.

Bruce is in Europe and will be absent from today's meeting. Although he has quarreled with other commissioners at times and been on the losing end of many votes, there's no proof that his fellow commissioners drew boundary lines with Bruce or Lathen in mind.

"Any way you draw these lines, somebody is going to be upset," Bensberg said. "I've seen proposals that draw me out of my own district, and that can't happen."

The county is required by state law to look at district lines every odd year, though it is up to commissioners whether to redraw boundaries.

Any revisions must be made by July 1.

The growth on the county's east and north sides has disproportionately bolstered Bruce's constituency.

Employees within the County Clerk and Recorder's office set out in March to put about 115,000 people in each district.

The eastern border of Bensberg's district is moving farther east, with the line hugging around Carefree Circle and then shooting straight down North Murray Boulevard.

Lathen's house, at 3021 Serendipity Circle, is just north of Carefree Circle in Bruce's district; the southern portion of Serendipity Circle is in Bensberg's district.

"I knew it was being done," said Lathen, who acknowledged she gently lobbied the commissioners to remain in District 2.

Was the new boundary merely serendipitous?

"There isn't really a good physical feature to run the line straight down," said Janice Littlefield, a graphic information system technician for the county who headed the redistricting project. "It is the only way we could get to where we were going."

The proposal was first presented to the commission in late April.

May 21, the proposal entered into a 30-day public comment period, which yielded neither comments from the public nor from the commissioners, said newly appointed County Elections Manager Liz Olson.

The only changes that were made to the proposal since it was first presented to the commission happened this week, with some precinct swaps between Commissioner Sallie Clark's District 3 and Bensberg's district.

Clark says she was concerned with keeping neighborhoods in the districts together.

"I think it is a fair distribution of the population, and I don't have any quarrels with it," Bensberg said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0232 or carlyn.mitchell@gazette.com.

Author: CARLYN RAY MITCHELL THE GAZETTE

Section: Metro

Page: METRO1