Case Study: 2006 CO-07

Rep. Ed Perlmutter

During the 2006 elections, Colorado’s 7th congressional district ranked among the most competitive House seats in the country. Ed Perlmutter hired Stanford Campaigns to look into Peggy Lamm, his Democratic primary opponent who was running on the famous name of her ex-brother-in-law, former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm.

“For months, the congressional campaigns of Democrats Peggy Lamm and Ed Perlmutter… came up with their opponent’s most damning votes then shipped their best ‘opposition research’ off to Washington, D.C., consultants, who whipped up high-impact attack ads. Perlmutter’s ads stuck. Lamm’s may have backfired.”— Rocky Mountain News, August 2, 2006

After polls showed Perlmutter lagging behind, the campaign went on the attack. We discovered during our research that Peggy Lamm had two very bad committee votes on gun control, which became the primary focus of the attacks. Thanks in part to our rapid response efforts, Peggy Lamm’s attacks found little traction, but the Perlmutter volleys resonated with voters so much that the father of one of the Columbine victims became one of Ed Perlmutter’s most visible supporters. The gun issue became the focal point of the campaign.

As the Rocky Mountain News noted, Perlmutter’s ads stuck, and he went on to win by a 15-point margin. The momentum from the primary carried over to the general election, and Ed Perlmutter easily defeated his Republican challenger.