GOP gerrymanders the country, then tries to lock Colorado's door

It sounds fair. Read the fine print.

On its face, Initiative 256 sounds reasonable: no map should "purposefully favor one political party." Who could argue with that? But the measure doesn't stop there. Legal review of the actual text — not just the campaign slogans behind it — shows that standard could be used to challenge almost any future change to Colorado's congressional map, for almost any reason, at almost any time.

Here's the problem: nearly every possible map has some partisan effect on someone. That's just math. Which means a standard this broad doesn't really ban favoritism — it hands anyone who wants to block a map a ready-made lawsuit. Add in Initiative 256's requirement that any change first clear three separate public hearings, and you get a process that looks like reform but functions like a lock: once Colorado's map is set, it stays set. No matter how the state grows. No matter what happens anywhere else.

The double standard

Here's the part 256's backers won't put on a mailer: while Colorado is being asked to lock its map in place for good, no such rule applies anywhere else. Not in Texas. Not in Missouri. Not in Ohio, North Carolina, or the other states where national Republicans spent 2025 redrawing lines mid-decade to grab more seats in Washington. Those states can redraw whenever it's convenient for them. Under 256, Colorado couldn't — not next year, not in response to anything, not ever — without risking years of litigation first.

That's not a fairness rule. That's Colorado being asked to unilaterally disarm while everyone else keeps their weapons loaded. And Initiative 256 isn't some grassroots idea that sprang up organically — it's being pushed and financially backed in significant part by national partisan operatives and out-of-state groups who benefit from exactly this kind of one-sided rule: their states keep redrawing, Colorado stays frozen.

The national playbook, state by state

Redistricting is supposed to happen once a decade, after the census, so maps reflect where people actually live. In 2025, Republican-controlled legislatures broke from that norm and began redrawing congressional maps mid-decade — with one purpose: manufacture more safe Republican seats before voters in 2026 ever get a say. This is what "flexibility" actually looks like when one side has it and the other doesn't.

Why this matters here

Coloradans should decide Colorado's maps — not a ballot measure bankrolled by the same national network that's been redrawing the rest of the country in its own favor. Initiative 256 asks Colorado to give up flexibility that every other state still has, under the banner of "fairness," while offering no such deal to Texas, Missouri, or anyone else. If it passes, Colorado sits still. Everyone else keeps moving.

We'll be straight with you: national politics is only getting more aggressive on redistricting, in both directions. Whatever you think Colorado should do about that going forward, that decision belongs to Colorado voters — not to a single ballot measure, funded by out-of-state interests, that takes the choice off the table permanently.