Twenty Years Ago This Week: An enraged Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, said she would “fight with every breath” to stop a “subversive plot by the national Republican Party” to redraw a district map more favorable to the GOP during a redistricting meeting.

“This has been a kangaroo proceeding,” Fitz-Gerald said. “Nothing that transpired in the last 12 hours that we did was real – it was all a charade. We send our children to fight in Iraq to promote democracy and yet, the GOP has resorted to the tyranny that our children are sent to fight.”

But Senate President John Andrews, R-Englewood, responded that he was simply doing what was spelled out in the Colorado constitution: redistricting the state according to the latest U.S. Census data.

“The latest congressional redistricting map,” Andrews said, “is a legal attempt to tweak the temporary map which had been mandated by a district court judge in 2002.”

The year prior’s district court judgement was the result of the General Assembly’s failure three consecutive times to come to an agreement on how to divide the state into congressional districts.

But it was the introduction of the Senate Bill 03-352 in the final three days of regular legislative session, leaving little to no time for legislative debate, that had infuriated Democratic legislators including Fitz-Gerald.

“The traditional rules and rights guaranteed by the State Constitution” would be used to stall the passage of SB 03-352 until the Senate was scheduled to adjourn at midnight on May 7, Fitz-Gerald pledged.

Senate Democrats had walked out of chambers two days previously after Sen. Andrews refused to recognize Democratic members to speak on the floor of the Senate or an opportunity to debate the business before the Senate.

“In a historic departure from accepted democratic practice and the rules of the Colorado State Senate,” Fitz-Gerald said, “Senate President John Andrews railroaded through an unconstitutional redistricting bill.”

Even in the midst of the Democratic Party strategy, though, Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, held little hope that their political dynamite would work to budge the GOP because Andrews would suspend all rules necessary to ensure the redistricting measure’s passage.

“Republicans used many underhanded tactics to thwart debate,” Groff said. “Many Senate rules were suspended, and members were not recognized to speak or debate the districting bill. The Senate President refused to allow recorded votes. It is shameful. People have fought and died for the right to vote and I am standing firm against this destruction of democracy.”

Republicans meanwhile sought to play down the whole episode.

“To hear Senate Democrats indignation,” said Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, “you might think Republicans ended the legislative session by abolishing the constitution and repealing women’s suffrage. Of course, we did neither. But we did fulfill our constitutional duty to pass a congressional redistricting map.”

Republicans, according to Hillman, who had written an opinion editorial published in The Colorado Statesman regarding the matter, had worked diligently since the census data had been published to hammer out a respectable map but that Democrats had adopted a “take our plan or we’ll take our chances in court” strategy. The matter did indeed go to court and eventually Judge John Coughlin of the Denver District Court did select a map.

Republicans regained the Senate majority in 2002 and were determined to enact a new map legislatively.

Although the Democrats complained about the timing and threatened to “bring the legislature to a grinding halt … Republicans chose not to let redistricting interfere with more urgent business like the budget or school funding,” Hillman wrote.

Hillman argued that nothing in the state constitution “says that maps must be drawn to purposefully negate the reality that Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 160,000 statewide.”

“The new map isn’t perfect,” Hillman wrote, “but it was properly enacted by the legislature and a darn sight better than the court-ordered jigsaw puzzle it replaced.”

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.