Al Gore

Former Vice President Al Gore and MoveOn.org are teaming up to raise money for Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Mark Udall.

In a fundraising e-mail sent to MoveOn.org members Thursday, Gore said Udall "has one of the highest lifetime scores in Congress from the League of Conservation Voters.

Gore said that Udall's Republican opponent, Bob Schaffer, "is a former congressman turned oil executive who makes oil deals in Iraq."

Udall was one of several U.S. Senate candidates Al Gore mentioned in the e-mail as supporting the environment and clean energy.

The fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention will be called to order at 5:00 PM EST on Thursday, with a theme of "Change You Can Believe In."

The final day's events will take place at INVESCO Field at Mile High, where over 70,000 people are expected to attend.

Featured speakers will include Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), former Vermont Gov. and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean (D), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D), former Vice President Al Gore (D) and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D).

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential nominee, is scheduled to address the convention at 10 p.m. EST.

The full schedule is below.

The recently created 7th Congressional District was drawn to be a very competitive district -- and some considered it the most competitive in the country -- but this year's race appears to be anything but competitive.

In 2000, Vice President Gore narrowly carried the district over George W. Bush by 49.8 percent to 48.9 percent. In 2002, Bob Beauprez (R-Arvada) won the seat by just 121 votes, representing a miniscule 0.07 percent margin. U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) won the district by 51.4 percent to 48.2 percent over President Bush.

Republicans held the district since 2002 but lost control in 2006 when Beauprez vacated the seat to run for governor. That year, Democrat Ed Perlmutter of Aurora defeated Republican Rick O'Donnell by 54 - 37 percent.

Recent trends suggest the district is becoming more Democratic. The percentage of voters registered as Democrats increased from 33.5 percent in 2004 to 34.0 percent in 2007, while Republican registration dropped from 31.8 percent to 30.5 percent during the same period.

Now it appears that Republicans have all but given up on trying to win back the district. Perlmutter's Republican challenger, John Lerew, has raised under $6,000 so far and had under $3,000 in cash on hand as of the end of the 2nd quarter.

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