Well, look what HE's doing to US now...

[jimrtex]

Theoretical entitlements:
Weld 180, 2 seats
Boulder 291, 3 seats (notice I'm using 2000 figures, before Broomfield County was created)
Adams 363, 4 seats
Jefferson 527, 5 seats

The Census Bureau estimates include a restatement of the April 2000 census figures to the current boundaries.

This gives:
Adams 348
Boulder 269
Broomfield 39
Jefferson 525
Weld 180

This makes your proposed pairing of Adams and Denver more reasonable (or you could keep them separate and give Adams 3 very large districts).  Boulder and Broomfield would be paired for 3 districts.   No adjustment to Weld or Jefferson is needed.

I have redone the outstate areas to take better account of things like mountain ranges and economic links.  Also, you left out Alamosa.

COLORADO NORTH WEST
Moffat, Routt, Jackson, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Pitkin 99K
(note that only all-year route out of Aspen is down the Roaring Fork Valley to Glenwood Springs.  A large share of Aspen ski workers live in Garfield County because Aspen is too expensive)
CENTRAL ROCKIES
Gilpin, Clear Creek, Summit, Eagle, Park, Grand 106K
(Added Grand, dropped Lake)
GRAND JUNCTION
Mesa 117K
COLORADO SOUTH WEST
Gunnison, Chaffee, Delta, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel, Hinsdale, Montezuma, Dolores 112K
(not real happy about including Montezuma, but otherwise next district would be over).
SAN JUANS & SAN LUIS VALLEY
San Juan, La Plata, Archuleta, Mineral, Rio Grande, Conejos, Costilla, Alamosa, Saguache 101K
UPPER ARKANSAS
Teller, Fremont, Chaffee, Custer, Lake 94K
PUEBLO
Pueblo CCD of Pueblo County. 107K
LOWER ARKANSAS & SANGRE DE CRISTO
Remainder of Pueblo County; Huerfano, Las Animas, Otero, Baca, Bent, Kiowa, Prowers. 110K
LOWER PLATTE & HIGH PLAINS
Logan, Segwick, Phillips, Yuma, Washington, Kit Carson, Cheyenne, Lincoln, Elbert, Morgan. 113K.

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If Broomfield is paired with Boulder County, then the former Adams County part of Broomfield would probably bring the Broomfield, Lafayette, & Louisville seat up to size without taking out areas nearer to Boulder.  This would then give you a Boulder (city) and mountains seat, and a Longmont seat, including Niwot if needed.

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6 if separate from Adams.  Neighborhoods are too small.    Maybe two west of the Platte (NW and SW), then C, NE, S (or E depending on C) and SE.

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If you were pairing Denver and Adams, I would look at pairing Aurora with Denver.  Aurora is isolated from the rest of the populated area north of Denver.  In any case, I suspect Aurora is the largest city in the Brighton & Commerce City district.

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Probably Littleton-Englewood, Centennial, and the 3 Aurora seats (South, Souther, and Southest).

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Wheat Ridge goes somewhere.  It probably makes most sense to have one western (foothills) seat, and stack the other four, north to south.  This would mean dividing Lakewood North and South.  But maybe this ends up with too much north of Lakewood, and not enough south?

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The first would be Highlands Ranch.  The town of Sedalia would fit better with Castle Rock.

[jimrtex]

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The first would be Highlands Ranch.  The town of Sedalia would fit better with Castle Rock.

So basically, split Sedalia CCD, move Sedalia city (and perhaps some adjoining territory) into Parker & Castle Rock, and rename seats? Okay, fine. Should be slightly more balanced.

Probably Highlands Ranch (unincorporated) and Lone Tree (city) would be pretty close to enough.   The CCD in Colorado don't have any purpose other than for the census, and were defined when Douglas County was rural (population 3,500 in 1950).   Sedalia is a very old town which hasn't seen much growth at all.  Highlands Ranch was a ranch on the edge of the metropolitan area that was opened up to development in the past 20 years or so.

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Pulls out Colorado Year Book.  "Lower Arkansas Region".   Same counties as I included.  "Lower Platte" is the name of a high school sports conference in the area.  When you hold your hearing in Sterling, I bet the local folks agree.

[jimrtex]

ANADARKO
Grady, Caddo, Wash**ta, Kiowa counties. 98K

Is this like Sc**nthorpe, or related to Custer?

I'd name it Chickasha in any case.

[jimrtex]

...leaving 4,012 mio in the remaining 213 counties for 35 seats and part of 8. I've checked whether any of the +1 counties might be combined with other major counties, and will probably combine Galveston and Brazoria (492K, 5 seats, leaving 36+7) and Bell and Williamson (488K, 5 seats, leaving 35+6).

I would pair Ector-Midland and Ellis-Johnson.  An overwhelming part of the population of Ector and Midland are in the cities of Odessa and Midland.  If you don't pair them, you will have part of the city of Odessa in a district with a bunch of counties with small towns between them.  Pair the two and you might have to stick part of one city with its neighbor.

Pairing Ellis and Johnson and you can pick cities on either side of the county line, and avoid having to go outside the DFW metro area for the second Johnson district.

The Williamson population is concentrate along the southern edge near Austin, while the Bell population is around Temple, and Killeen/Fort Hood.
On the other hand, it may not be reak easy to find a county to go with Williamson.  Can it be given a 3rd district?

The population centers in Galveston and Brazoria are split apart except for the Houston suburbs.

Another possiblity pairing would be Jefferson-Orange.  Beaumont will be a problem for 3 small seats, but OK for 3 large seats.  You could include Port Neches-Groves-Nederland area with Orange, and then have a Beaumont seat and a Port Arthur and everything else seat.

[jimrtex]

ATHENS & TENNESSEE COLONY
Henderson county; Cayuga, Montalba - Tennessee Colony, and Frankston CCDs of Anderson county. 96K

I think most of the population of Tennessee Colony is a prison.  I'd probably just leave it as Athens.

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Bellville, Hempstead.

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I had never heard of Texas Point.  If the area were to be included in the name,
it would be Sabine Pass.   Couldn't this be in the Port Arthur seat?   There is nothing to the
SW of Port Arthur.

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I would include both Richmond and Rosenberg in the name, and skip Cinco Ranch.


It was a Fort at at a bend in the Brazos River.   I think it is the big loop north of Richmond.

Fort Bend

[jimrtex]

WHARTON & YOAKUM (bad name)
Wharton, Colorado, Lavaca. 80K

Wharton, Hallettsville, Eagle Lake

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Bastrop, La Grange, & Giddings.

La Grange is the site of the the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

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Pharr-San Juan-Alamo?

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Elsa-Edcouch

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BROWNSVILLE NORTH & SAN BENITO (or & MOUTH OF RIO GRANDE or something like that if San Benito city is in Harlingen constituency or split)

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South Padre Island

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Crawford

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Cedar Park

[jimrtex]

BEAUMONT SOUTH & TEXAS POINT
Remainder of both CCDs, remainder of Jefferson county (22K)

I had never heard of Texas Point.  If the area were to be included in the name,
it would be Sabine Pass.   Couldn't this be in the Port Arthur seat?   There is nothing to the
SW of Port Arthur.

Texas Point is the Southeastern tip of Texas, that's obviously what it's named for. It's also a NWR. It's not a town. Sabine Pass is the town nearest to it. I don't think it's the largest place in rural Jefferson county, though (I'd have to check). It's certainly not the second largest place in the constituency, that's likely to be Nederland. If I go with a place name rather than a geographical term, that's what I'd go with. If you've never heard of Texas Point, it's probably not a good name. I just liked the sound of it, I reckon.

It's not even the largest National Wildlife Reserve in the district

How about Spindletop?

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What about Brazos County?

I'd drop Cameron, so one seat should have Bryan and the other College Station.  Or you could include
Texas A&M in the name (that is the college that the station is named for).  If you do that, you probably should
name one of the Austin seats after UT.  (Both schools are pretty close to 50,000).

If I were dividing the Panhandle and South Plains, I'd probably divide them NS rather than EW, separating the
areas above and below the Caprock.  The area above the Caprock is over the Ogallala Aquifer and crops are
grown.  The area below is ranch land.

[jimrtex]

PHARR

Pharr-San Juan-Alamo?

I don't think all three are really needed. Pharr & San Juan maybe.

I was going by the name of the school district, which is normally just listed as PSJA.

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Elsa-Edcouch[/quote] But they're right next to each other...and there's a considerable part of the population over on the other side of the county (although this side has more.)[/quote]
Same here.

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Crawford[/quote] The highest pop. densities are just outside Waco. Is that Bush's Crawford? Hewitt & Crawford maybe.
[/quote]
Yes.  I don't think any of the towns are significant enough.  I'd probably go with Waco and McLennan

[jimrtex]

What's the Caprock? Could you just do it maybe? That'd be nice.

Caprock
Llano Estacado

It's pretty interesting from on top since it can be sensed but not seen.  Because the Llano is
so flat, the horizons fade away in ground haze.   But when you are 10 or so miles from the Caprock
it looks clearer because the ground drops away.

Another memorable moment was driving down off the Caprock into Post on a Friday afternoon (real
football is played on Friday night).  Outside of town a car caravan was forming, with the cars streamered
in the school colors.  I kept thinking of the valley people getting reading to attack the mountain
people.