Rate CO-07 for 2022

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Are there any good candidates like state senators or reps in the area?

Brittany Pettersen (sitting state senator) and Andy Kerr (Pettersen's term-limited predecessor and current JeffCo county commission member), both from Lakewood, both announced they would run to replace Perlmutter when Perlmutter was planning on running for gov in 2018. Both have been working on the hill for several sessions and seem pretty well connected. Pettersen outran Polis in the district in 2018.

Tammy Story was also a pretty highly sought after State Senate recruit and was featured pretty prominently as a good investment for flipping the Senate in 2018.

The district isn't great for Ds but of course the state party outran Dems in most other states. It's a well-run party and the educated JeffCo (and growing DougCo) D voter bases will stay loyal and keep showing up to polls. This district in another state would make me sweat more but I have faith in the state party.

Interesting district to look into here is HD 25 which covers much of rural JeffCo. Ds flipped it in 2018 and held it by 3 points in 2020. There isn't really any suburb that tips into the district so it's pure D strength in exurbs (e.g. Evergreen) here.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Are there any good candidates like state senators or reps in the area?

Mike Coffman could run here for the Republicans, and he'd easily be their strongest recruit, and probably the only person who could make the seat anywhere near competitive in 2022. The other significant possibility is Kevin Priola.

For the Democrats, there's a much deeper current bench. I think the strongest candidates would be Rachel Zenzinger, Naquetta Ricks, Brianna Titone, Lindsey Daughtery, and Mike Weissman. I also wouldn't be shocked if Andrew Romanoff attempted to run here as well.

Not a single one of these people live in the district lol except maybe Titone, but the incumbent congressman who has won in a swing district before does. Perlmutter is likely to run here, especially once the commission has finessed it to his liking.

One reason I rated this district Safe D even though it isn’t on paper is because the Repub bench here is v weak. They are gonna nominate some clown like Tim Neville and lose badly. It’s just what they do.

Even if they nominated someone competent, it’s not a good seat for them. DougCo is moving left fast and Jeffco is largely gone.

Feel like Van Winkle could be a more palatable (but still insane) candidate, maybe even by virtue of not being Neville. He's term-limited and there is some movement to draft him[/i] even if he's drumming it up himself.