Press Releases

Johnson criticized for re-districting vote
Sabrina Henderson - Golden News
5/28/03

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About 18 of her constituents showed up for a town talk by Rep. Ramey Johnson, R-Lakewood, at the Golden Library to listen to a wrap up of the legislative session and voice their opinions on it.

Throughout the May 24 meeting Johnson stressed that she tried her best to vote in accordance with the wishes of House District 23.

“I honestly have tried to represent this district with integrity,” she said. “I gave it my best try to do what is best for the people of this district.”

But toward the end of the meeting, when it had not yet been brought up, many residents said they felt Johnson had misrepresented them in voting for redrawing the 7th Congressional District map.

A resident who introduced himself only as Mark said, “You are not representing House District 23. You were representing (presidential strategist) Karl Rove.”

He added that he believes her vote for redistricting was unconstitutional.

“The (state) Constitution doesn’t really say that you can or cannot revisit it (redistricting). I think it is unclear. And I felt it was important to take it back to the courts to be decided so that this doesn’t happen every 10 years,” Johnson said.

Several members of the audience said that redistricting happens every 10 years in conjunction with the U.S. Census, regardless of party politics. Others said that if it was her intention to find a more permanent, less partisan resolution to the redistricting problem, it should have been brought to the floor for debate and public comment much earlier in the session. In her defense, Johnson said she didn’t introduce the bill and wasn’t part of bringing it to the legislature at such a late date.

“It was underhanded, and you should have voted against it if you thought it was underhanded, not down the party line,” said an unidentified woman. “This is the very foundation of our government and you guys are screwing with it. What would you have done if it was the other way around? ... Are you saying you’ll support it two years from now if the Democrats do this?”

Johnson repeated that her hope is for redistricting not to continue coming up every few years. She said the state Constitution calls for the legislature not the courts, to redistrict, and that was what she hoped to accomplish.

Golden resident Bill Astle asked several times why Republicans didn’t vote to endorse the same map, but Johnson wouldn’t answer the question directly.

“It’s politics. I felt this was appropriate to do this now and do it right,” Johnson said.

Amber O’Conner, an aide for Congressman Bob Beauprez, R-Arvada, said he is happy with the district as it stands.

“He won it fair and square the first time, and he is happy representing the people in it (the district),” O’Conner said. “But we do support the legislature’s right to do this.”

Cheryl Seifert of Golden said the congressman should make a public statement that he doesn’t feel his district needs to be changed.

“I hope you’re hearing us today. And I hope you’ll take it back to the leadership and tell them that the public has lost faith in them because of things like ramming through redistricting,” Seifert said. She said voter turnout will continue to decline as long as people continue to feel betrayed by their representatives doing “underhanded” things like redistricting. “We want you to have more integrity than that.”

Johnson encouraged her constituents to contact her about their feelings on any piece of legislation. She said she received between 60 and 80 e-mails a day during the session, and had fallen behind in responding to all of them because she is personally replying to anyone who identified themselves as a constituent of hers.

Johnson identified the legislature’s handling of no-fault auto insurance as one of her big concerns.

“As consumers, we’ve got to be wise about this because there’s a real concern that the medical portion of this is going to get shifted over to your health care insurance costs,” she said. “But what we had was the worst of both worlds. We had no fault and the right to sue. ... So we’re back to tort, for better or worse.”

Johnson also said that she has changed her mind about term limits after spending a year in the house.

“I used to be a very strong proponent of term limits. I voted for them many times,” she said. “And I have to tell you, after being down there one session, that it is not in the best interest of Colorado.”

She said that term limits leave all of the “institutional memory” and power in the hands of the staff and the lobbyists. She also believes that term limits make it more difficult for representatives to cooperate across party lines because there’s too much turnover to give people the incentive to build relationships and work together.

When asked how she felt about the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, Johnson said she felt it will be problematic as the economy begins to grow again.

“TABOR didn’t get us into this, our falling revenues did,” she said. “But it will make it very difficult for us to grow when those revenues come back.”

She added an apology for the state’s budget crisis, saying, “there were no easy answers. I’m very sorry about all the cuts we had to make.”