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From the diaries -- kos)
Ed Perlmutter won in the primary in the Colorado 7th. According to the Denver Post, "[Peggy] Lamm conceded the race after more than half the precincts reported. Perlmutter, who now faces Republican Rick O'Donnell for the 7th congressional seat, was leading Lamm 53 to 38 after 80 percent of the precincts reported." According to various reports, "Perlmutter said Lamm was gracious in her concession phone call to him and had promised to support him."
In her concession speech, Lamm said, "I just got through calling Ed Perlmutter. He's a very tired man and he has earned this."
Permutter said:
I won for two reasons: my roots in the community and our team worked itself in a focused and energetic way. We will win in November because people want change. They've had enough of one party control. O'Donnell is just more of the same.
As reported in Colorado Springs Gazette, Permutter said:
Rick is going to be an agent of the president. We don't need that any more. It is straight up about the Iraq War. It is straight up about corruption in the Republican Congress.
Permutter received the backing of Congressman Mark Udall (CO-02) (and the next senator from Colorado) last week. Udall's endorsement came at a critical time in the campaign for Perlmutter. "Udall said he believes Perlmutter is the best candidate to help make America independent of foreign energy sources."
Fortunately for Perlmutter, despite the primary being hard fought between him and Lamm, neither camp gave fodder for the republicans to use. From the Denver Post:
Although the end of the Democratic primary came after months of bitter feuding and negative television ads, many political observers didn't think Perlmutter was politically maimed.
"There is nothing to take away from this race that indicates the Democrats will be weaker in the general election, said Amy Walter, senior editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report who analyzes the country's congressional races.
