DaVita CEO Thiry to lead ballot effort
Kent Thiry, the multimillionaire CEO of DaVita Inc., announced Wednesday that he would throw his weight — and presumably his wealth — behind an ongoing effort to change how Colorado draws the boundaries of statehouse and congressional seats.
His decision to join Fair Districts Colorado, which wants to transform the state’s redistricting process, comes a year after Thiry bankrolled a similar campaign — the passage of two ballot measures that gave unaffiliated voters the ability to participate in Democratic and Republican primaries.
Now Thiry, who briefly considered a Republican run for governor, wants to rewrite the rules again, even before Colorado fully understands the consequences of his last effort.
“I’m excited to engage with a group of civic leaders to help solve a pervasive flaw in the way legislative districts are created in Colorado,” Thiry said in a statement to The Denver Post.
He declined an interview request.
The goal of Fair Districts Colorado is to change how the state handles reapportionment and redistricting, the once-a-decade process to set the boundaries for congressional districts and statehouse seats.
Right now, the maps for statehouse seats are drawn by an 11-member commission appointed by the governor, legislative leaders and the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
Unaffiliated voters don’t have much say, however, and so Fair Districts Colorado wants to put a question on the 2018 ballot that would increase their representation. The group also wants to remake the way Colorado’s congressional districts are drawn.
That task currently falls on the legislature and governor, but Fair Districts Colorado would like to ask Colorado voters whether they’d prefer a commission similar to what it is proposing on the state level — with a greater voice for unaffiliated voters.
“The monopoly created by the political parties in the drawing of voting districts is unfair to Colorado voters and games the system,” Thiry said in his statement Wednesday.
Typically, redistricting has been the kind of issue that matters more to lawmakers than voters — as political careers can live or die depending on how the maps are drawn.
But the issue has gotten more attention lately, with some activists arguing that badly drawn maps — such as those favoring incumbents or one political party — can lead to uncompetitive elections and legislators who are less moderate.
Currently, Colorado’s congressional House delegation has four Republicans and three Democrats, and the statehouse is split between the two parties — with Republicans controlling the Senate, and Democrats the House.
Recent analysis by The Associated Press found, however, that Democrats in the Colorado House have benefited from a map drawn in their favor.
Nationwide, there’s a long tradition of both parties using redistricting to gain an advantage, a practice sometimes described as gerrymandering.
Curbing that process is difficult, as reform efforts sometimes can become just another way for parties to gain an edge and — as redistricting veterans often will say — it’s hard to take the politics out of politics.
“These proposals would change Colorado’s constitution and laws — they do not make districts more competitive, and they certainly don’t end gerrymandering,” said Ian Silverii, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, of the proposals by Fair Districts Colorado.