Post / Mark Harden

By Anne C. Mulkern in Washington � Ask Colorado Democratic lawmakers which issues they would push should their party gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and they insist they’re just thinking of today, they don’t want to jinx it, such talk is verboten.

Coax a little, and their aspirations come spilling out. >> MORE

There’s more bad news for Republicans in Colorado, according to the Cook Political Report. The non-partisan newsletter announced Tuesday that two House races favoring Republicans have become more competitive.

The report downgraded the race between Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Angie Paccione in Colorado’s 4th District from “lean Republican� to “tossup.� The report also changed Colorado’s 5th District race between Republican Doug Lamborn and Democrat Jay Fawcett from “Likely Republican� to “Lean Republican.�

The downgrades came on the same day that the Denver Post released a poll indicating Lamborn had opened a lead in the race, leaving much uncertainty about the outcome on election day. A Democrat has never won in the 5th district. >> MORE

Democrat Jay Fawcett, left, and Republican Doug Lamborn, right, are vying for a seat in Congress Post

By George Merritt and Karen E. Crummy – Republican Doug Lamborn has opened a lead in the surprisingly contested race for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, signaling a possible backlash to projections of a big year for Democrats.

Lamborn leads Democrat Jay Fawcett 47 percent to 40 percent in a poll of 400 likely voters conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. for The Denver Post. >> MORE

By Erin Emery in Florence - Colorado’s two U.S. senators have vowed to seek solutions to understaffing and security concerns at Supermax, home to the nation’s most dangerous criminals.

Sen. Wayne Allard visited the prison Monday, and Sen. Ken Salazar visited Saturday. Both agree that increases in staffing and security measures are needed at the prison, which holds such notorious criminals as al-Qaeda member Zacarias Moussaoui and Oklahoma bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. >> MORE

By Christopher N. Osher — One Christmas holiday about seven years ago, Rick O’Donnell’s siblings showed him up in a jump-rope skipping contest.

The next year he wowed them with his jump-roping prowess. He could skip the rope backwards, side to side and forward - skills he picked up training in a gym. >> MORE

By Christopher N. Osher — Ed Perlmutter grew up in an environment steeped in politics.

He was 6 years old when he started tagging along with his parents, Alice and Leonard, who carried campaign literature for Jefferson County Democrats. Leonard’s parents were immigrants from western Ukraine, and they took their politics seriously. >> MORE

By The Denver Post Staff - U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., endorsed Republican Rick O’Donnell in his 7th Congressional District campaign Monday.

The O’Donnell campaign sent the endorsement letter from McCain to 20,000 unaffiliated and Democratic voters in the district. >> MORE

By Kim McGuire — U.S. Department of Interior officials reversed a Fish and Wildlife Service recommendation that the Gunnison sage grouse be declared an endangered species, according to documents released Monday by four Western environmental groups.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials thought endangered-species protection should be extended to the grouse and several other species. >> MORE

By Mike McPhee — The president, the vice president and a former president all are throwing their weight into a few of Colorado’s election races as the midterm campaign enters its final week. >> MORE

By Anne C. Mulkern in Washington — Rep. Tom Tancredo has some competition as the possible presidential candidate who talks tough on illegal immigration.

Tancredo, R-Littleton, has flirted with the idea of a presidential run in 2008 to push immigration as an issue. The favored dark-horse candidate of those who oppose legal status for illegal immigrants, Tancredo told The Denver Post earlier this year that he might not need to run now that many potential candidates are talking about immigration.

Monday, a lawmaker who shares Tancredo’s views on immigration threw his hat at least near the ring. The Associated Press reported that Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., planned to announce he was considering a run for the presidency. >> MORE

Future House Majority Whip DeGette? Post

By Christa Marshall – A vote has yet to be cast in the midterm elections, but rumors continue to fly about who will fill leadership positions if the Democrats retake Congress. The latest buzz is that Rep. Diana DeGette could become House majority whip, according to the magazine The New Republic.

If she were to take on that role, DeGette would be the third-highest ranking member of the House, and in a key position to push legislation forward. It is the job of the House majority whip to rally members so they vote along party lines. >> MORE

John Kerry AP

Ed Perlmutter has added former presidential candidate John Kerry to the list of Democratic bigwigs rallying for his campaign in Colorado’s 7th congressional district.

On Monday, Kerry sent an “emergency campaign alert� seeking funds for five Democratic candidates in close races this fall, including Perlmutter, who is vying with Republican Rick O’Donnell for a seat in the House of Representatives. >> MORE

A roundup of poll results on key political races in Colorado and the West:

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Ed Perlmutter and Doug Lamborn are all ahead, but in tight races, while Rep. John Salazar appears to be cruising…
>> MORE

Mike Berger, left, who made a film called Improbable Collapse, speaks with Green Party candidate J.A. Calhoun at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Post

By Michael Riley – The standing ovation has finally died down, and Steven E. Jones, a soft-spoken physics professor, finds himself pinned against the stage by some of the enthusiastic fans who packed a University of Denver auditorium over the weekend to see him.

A man with a “Got truth?” T-shirt offers Jones a careful explanation for why the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center were operated by remote control. Another quizzes him about the size of the footprint of the Pentagon crash - too small, he says, for the Boeing 757 that “officially” smashed into it on Sept. 11, 2001.

“Can I just shake your hand?” a woman in a baggy red sweater asks Jones. “You’re doing such important work.” >> MORE

They have been meeting in the basement of Hooked on Colfax bookstore for a year, piecing together facts they have learned about what they consider to be the biggest cover-up in American history.

They believe the federal government had a hand in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

You think they’re crazy? Some of their friends think so too. >> MORE