John Kerry

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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Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is running for re-election in 2008 and today he has sent out a fundraising appeal to supporters– except it’s not for himself. It’s for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Udall of Colorado, Tom Allen of Maine, and Jeff Merkely of Oregon.  read more »