AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Colorado Democrats envisioned a new congressional district outside Denver that would give the incumbent Republican a rockier road to re-election. So far, those redistricting plans have worked better than Democrats could have hoped, with two-term Rep. Mike Coffman facing the fight of his political career.

Colorado's 6th Congressional District was once so Republican-leaning that Democrats fielded only nominal opposition. But it has shed some of its most conservative turf and picked up precincts in Aurora. The result is a district that's divided about evenly among Republicans, Democrats and independents.

The once-sleepy district has taken a turn for the dramatic, partly because of missteps by Coffman. It's also because Democrats must win the district to have a chance of winning the U.S. House.

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