Despite the strong efforts of fighting Democrat Jay Fawcett to reach out to the netroots, including a successful trip to Yearly Kos back in June and his addition to the Netroots page on ActBlue, most do not see the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Joel Hefley in Colorado's fifth congressional district as one that is today competitive -- or one that even has the potential of becoming competitive. But a report today by Ed Sealover of the Colorado Springs Gazette sheds new light on the race and could cause the political handicappers to take a new look at this district.

Rep. Joel Hefley is seriously considering running as a writein candidate to retain his seat rather than risk handing it over to Republican nominee Doug Lamborn.

In meetings with national political consultants, Hefley and his supporters have come up with yard-sign designs and the key messages of a possible campaign, Republican Party activist Peggy Littleton said.

Hefley, who has represented the 5th Congressional District for 20 years, has been the subject of a three-week push by high-level Republicans to take this nearly unheard-of step, Littleton said Monday.

Sealover is skeptical about the possibility that a write-in effort by Hefley would positively impact Fawcett's campaign, writing, "It is unknown if Hefley's write-in campaign would increase Fawcett's chances of becoming the first Democrat elected from the district." True, there are instances where the appearance of two members of the same party does not ensure increased chances for the other party. One need only look to Connecticut, where it is clear that presence of both Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont on the ballot is clearly not helping Republican nominee Schlesinger. However, given that a) Fawcett is a significantly more credible candidate than someone like Alan Schlesinger, and b) the Democratic Party is not likely to support Hefley as the Republican Party is supporting Lieberman, it seems more likely that having both Hefley and Lamborn in the race will help Fawcett than not.

But helping Fawcett is not the same as assuring his victory, which this move clearly will not do. George W. Bush received two-thirds of the vote in CO-05 in both 2000 and 2004, so Fawcett will have to perform at least marginally better than either Al Gore or John Kerry in order to capitalize on the potentially splitting GOP base. Should Hefley indeed enter the race, Fawcett might only need 37 or 38 percent of the vote to get a ticket to Congress (though that number might be closer to 40 percent).

So at the least, this is a race we should keep an eye on for the next several hours, as the deadline for Hefley to enter the race as a write-in is 5 PM Mountain time tonight. But if Hefley does decide to run, we might want to take a second look at this contest to see if our resources might be able to help Fawcett in an efficient way and steal away this strongly Republican district.

Update [2006-8-29 12:27:46 by Jonathan Singer]: We now have a comment from the DCCC via spokesperson Kate Bedingfield: "Any time you have a candidate as unethical and radical as Doug Lamborn and his own party is coming out against him it certainly isn't good for him."

(The Fawcett campaign does not have a comment on the story, at present.)