Hispanic Population May Impact New Colorado Districts

DENVER (AP) - Colorado's growing Hispanic population might influence how new state legislative districts are drawn this year, but whether that leads to districts dominated by Latinos is an open question.

Hispanic population growth -- 41 percent since 2000 -- is not concentrated along the Front Range, a traditional growth area, according to new data from the Census Bureau.

Hispanics also moved over the past decade to the Western Slope in search of jobs in mining and the service industry.

A panel working on the once-a-decade process of redrawing House and Senate districts to account for population changes began its work this month.

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