November 10, 2010 10:27 PM UTC

The Debut of The 2012 Big Line

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• by: Colorado Pols

Barring something strange happening, the 2012 election cycle will be the first since 2000 that Colorado has not had an election for either U.S. Senate or Governor. That’s bad news for TV stations in Colorado, and it makes The Big Line a little less interesting.

Fortunately for political junkies, we have redistricting! There are a lot of congressional seats that could look a lot different in 2012, which makes it tough to try to predict what might happen in the jockeying for position. Come 2012, will Democrats be more or less interested in challenging incumbents in CD-3 or CD-4? Could CD-2 become just competitive enough that a Republican might consider challenging incumbent Rep. Jared Polis?

Because of the uncertainty surrounding redistricting, for the first time in the history of The Big Line we’ve included all 7 of Colorado’s congressional districts. There’s little chance that all 7 will be competitive in 2012, but until the boundaries are re-drawn, it’s hard to say which among those 7 will be the ones to watch.