It’s billed as establishing “a level playing field” by “fighting back against Trump’s election-rigging.” But a campaign to get voters to throw out Colorado’s independent redistricting system would do exactly the opposite.

The new political committee, Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, wants voters to amend the state constitution to let Democrats who control state government redraw Colorado’s congressional map.

Activists have devised four versions for the state’s title board to review, hoping to obtain the signatures for November’s ballot.

Let’s be clear: Nothing about this scheme would “level the playing field.”

Because in Colorado, the playing field is already level.

In 2018, Colorado voters resoundingly passed Amendments Y and Z, creating independent commissions to draw legislative maps. Thus, voters barred partisan politicians from carving districts behind closed doors, enshrining balance and transparency into the constitution.

Princeton University’s Gerrymandering Project gives Colorado’s map an “A” — among the fairest in the country.

Rebecca Theobald, a geography professor who leads the GeoCivics program at UCCS, told Rocky Mountain PBS that Colorado “is more of a purple state than people imagine,” and the map “represents the larger aspects of Colorado very well.”

Colorado’s congressional delegation has precisely the balance voters wanted when they passed Y and Z — four Republicans, four Democrats and two competitive districts.

The 8th District is among the most competitive in America; the 3rd isn’t far behind. The pendulum can easily swing back, as it did when Republican Gabe Evans flipped the 8th from Democrat Yadira Caraveo.

This effort isn’t organic to Colorado. It’s part of a national redistricting arms race, with Republicans flexing power in red states like Texas and Democrats retaliating in blue strongholds like California.

Colorado wasn’t meant for this. Yet prominent national Democrats — including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Attorney General Eric Holder, who chairs the National Democratic Redistrict Committee — are pushing and bankrolling the nationwide effort.

“Colorado did not choose this fight,” Holder claimed. “As Republicans pursue mid-decade gerrymanders in other states, the American people, including Coloradans, will fight back.”

Yes, let’s draft Coloradans to wage a national partisan war.

Group spokesman Curtis Hubbard insists “independent redistricting is the ideal.” But this is an emergency, you see — an extraordinary exception.

“(W)ith Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans actively working to rig Congressional elections,” Hubbard said, “Colorado must join other states in countering this unprecedented power grab.”

Au contraire, Curtis: You’re the ones pushing an unprecedented power grab — tossing out voter-approved independent redistricting, meant specifically for Colorado — to hand national Democrats three more congressional districts. This would virtually guarantee a Democratic lock on seven of Colorado’s eight districts.

They promise an “emergency measure” limited to the 2028 and 2030 elections. But Trump, the source of this alleged crisis, won’t be on the ballot.

This isn’t a “break glass” moment. This isn’t about democracy. And it sure isn’t about Colorado’s interests.

Let’s be real: This is pure gerrymandering for national partisan gain — killing an intentional, voter-approved check on partisanship to give Democrats more seats while promising it’ll be brief, just to address an immediate “crisis.”

Notably, Democratic political operative Rachel Gordon is the group’s registered agent. Among her clients are Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s campaign for attorney general and Griswold’s Leadership PAC. She’s the agent for both.

Hilltop Public Solutions is also reportedly involved. Griswold’s brother, Chris, is a partner at Hilltop — and previously served as executive director at the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State when Griswold was chair.

Griswold was first elected in 2018, when voters approved Y and Z. But she won with just 52.7% compared with 71% for the amendments — well beyond the required 55% threshold to amend the constitution and scoring 400,000 more votes than Griswold.

That hasn’t stopped her from trying to undo what voters decided.

Griswold has built her brand as an anti-Trump “resistance” hero fighting the “Big Lie.” But her record is one of hyper-partisanship and self-interest. She’s purged nonpartisan staff and installed loyal Democrats, overseen historic staff turnover (now on her 5th deputy secretary), coordinated dark money networks as head of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, and repeatedly enforced double standards in campaign finance — hammering Republicans while giving Democrats a pass.

In November, Griswold endorsed the idea of a redistricting ballot measure.

“I do not believe that we can allow MAGA to corruptly steal Congress through corrupt redistricting,” she said. “And I do think that we should pursue, on a very limited basis, redistricting to protect the right to vote and to hold our democracy together.”

Oh, the irony. Is it any wonder Griswold’s acolytes are spearheading this campaign?

For supposed heroes of democracy to demand we scrap a voter-approved system that works well — all to advance a “political emergency” hyped by the very party that benefits — is flagrantly antidemocratic.

Colorado is the last place to play Griswold’s game of “fight fire with fire.” Half of our voters are deliberately unaffiliated because they’re fed up with both parties. They’ve already chosen to cut politics out of map-making.

The playing field is level. Colorado voters made it that way, channeling the state’s independent values. This deceptive scheme to upend the playing field under the pretense of saving democracy is tribalism dressed as fairness. Coloradans should reject it.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.