Bellwether: The word is derived from the shepherd s practice of placing a bell around the neck of a sheep that leads the flock. In politics it describes a smallish geographic region that tends to reflect the voting trends of a larger region.
The 2000 Census gave Colorado an extra seat in Congress and, unwittingly, a chance for the new district to play the role of bellwether in the 2006 midterm elections.
Pundits have shined the spotlight on Colorado’s 7th Congressional District since spring, interested not so much in the mudslinging between candidates vying for the House seat vacated by Republican Bob Beauprez as in what the race says about politics in the rest of the nation.
“It ends up, in terms of voting outcomes, right in the middle because it represents a wide range, critically, ideologically, demographically and all the rest,” says Kenneth Bickers, a University of Colorado political science professor. “The middle voter in that district looks a lot like the country as a whole.”
A Denver District Court judge drew the boundaries in 2002 to create a district that was perfectly balanced among Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated voters.
Beyond the voter registration rolls, everything else seemed up for grabs.
The vast district – about 85 miles from its eastern edge on the Adams County line west to the foothills of Golden – loops in old suburbs and new communities, heavy industrial businesses and cutting-edge technology research groups.
The old Wonderbread factory, where the scent of baking spongecake wafts over Interstate 25 during rush hour, is within sniffing distance of the artisan Rudi’s Organic Bakery. Crude oil is refined into auto fuel a few blocks from a station that sells biodiesel. On the east end of the district, families that have ranched for generations struggle for financial survival, while on the other families new to Colorado find their place in the hip new urbanist community of Belmar.
The district is educated, though not overly so (57 percent have a college degree or better). It is neither too old nor too young (27 percent are under the age of 18; 10 percent are 65 or older).
The district is mobile, about 10 percent moved there from outside their home county or state in the past year. Most people in the 7th were born in the U.S.; 14 percent came from another country. About 23 percent speak a language other than English at home, typically Spanish.
“The 7th Congressional District represents a kind of cross section of America,” Bickers says.- Dana Coffield
