The six-way Republican primary in CD5 (Colorado Springs) has been one of the more heated races in a long time. When Rep. Joel Hefley announced his retirement earlier this year, it opened the floodgates for potential candidates who knew that a victory in 2006 meant that they’ll essentially be in congress for life. Hefley was in congress for 20 years in this highly-Republican area, and whoever succeeds him isn’t likely to lose re-election anytime soon. Democrat Jay Fawcett awaits the Republican nominee, but the voter registration in CD5 is so overwhelmingly Republican that it would be an upset on a monumental scale if Fawcett was able to pull out a victory.

In other words, whoever wins the Republican primary today is more than likely going to be the next congressman from Colorado Springs. And that’s too bad, because it will mean that a very small minority of people will have elected a congressman who will represent hundreds of thousands of Coloradans.

It’s hard to say how many people will vote in the CD5 primary because there hasn’t been a hotly-contested race here for decades. The best guess is that less than 30,000 people will vote in total, and that’s probably a high estimate. In a six-way race, that means as few as 6,000 total votes will be enough to win. Amazing, isn’t it? One person will be elected to congress on the backs of just a few thousand people.