Colorado could become new bellwether

DENVER, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Changes in demographics of Colorado suburbs helped move the normally reliable Republican stronghold into a competitive state for Democrats, analysts said.

Similar trends in northern Virginia and in central Florida have boosted Democratic prospects in these traditionally red states, as well, USA Today reported Monday.

"This is the middle ground of America that in another year might have been easy territory for Republicans, but there's a lot of pain out in subdivision land," said Robert Lang, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.

Economic anxiety and dissatisfaction with President George Bush's record have cost the GOP ground in suburbia critical to his election in 2004, the newspaper said.

Colorado appears ready to replace Missouri as the nation's leading bellwether state most likely to reflect the nation's leanings, analysts said.

"I said in December '06 that if you tell me (who wins) Colorado, I will know who wins the White House in 2008," political analyst Bernadette Budde of BIPAC, the Business Industry Political Action Committee, told USA Today.

Colorado has voted Democratic in a presidential race once in four decades, in 1992, when third-party candidate Ross Perot drained votes from George H.W. Bush.