Colorado State Representative Lois Court represents the affluent, educated House District 6, home to doctors, lawyers, and lobbyists in east-central Denver. Although she points out that people are often uninformed about state government, she knows that she must keep up with considerable demand from her constituents regarding policy concerns. This requires a large investment of time learning about topics such as capital punishment and civil unions and responding to any constituents who weigh in on those and other issues. As the size of her e-mail inbox shows, her constituents are monitoring her policy behavior.

Rep. Court, a Democrat, follows a straightforward plan for representing the policy concerns of her district, which is about 47% Democrat, 22% Republican, and 31% unaffiliated: she tries to vote the way the majority of constituents from whom she hears wants her to vote. Since she was elected in 2008, she has followed the principle of being guided by a primary obligation to the people in her district. She does not take money from political action committees and does not typically respond to requests from people outside of her district. At times this has led to tension with outside organizations that might be willing to donate to her campaigns.

Instead, Rep. Court sees herself as her district's delegate. During the 2013 session, the legislature voted on a series of gun safety bills. She received about 7,500 e-mails and phone calls from around the state telling her how to vote, with the majority of them urging her to vote against the bills. However, the communications from within her district indicated about 2-to-1 support for the gun safety measures. Thus, the choice for Rep. Court was clear. As a delegate for her constituents, she followed through with what the majority in the district (from whom she had heard) wanted.