The Republican primary in Colorado's 4th District is getting crowded even though national Republican officials are backing the campaign of state Rep. Cory Gardner against freshman Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey.

Dean Madere, a self-described "average middle class citizen" who has been active in local conservative groups, formally kicked off his campaign Wednesday. He is the fourth Republican to announce plans to seek the district in northern and eastern Colorado that Markey won last year by beating then-Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave.

Madere's announcement came a few days after Diggs Brown, a financial adviser and military veteran, said that he would be a candidate.

Four out of every five House members who didn't side with their party on the health care bill represent districts that voted for the opposite party's presidential nominee in the 2008 election.

The party-buckers on the 220-215 vote on Saturday night included 39 Democrats who voted against the bill. Of them, 31 represent districts that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama. Republicans are targeting many of them for defeat in the 2010 election. Of the other eight, three are serving their first terms in districts in which they defeated or succeeded Republicans in the 2008 election.

Eighteen Democrats from McCain-voting districts backed the bill. Among this subset, seven-term Rep. Marion Berry of Arkansas represents the most pro-McCain district (59 percent). He's more politically secure than other "McCain Democrats" who voted for the bill, including first-term Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia and second-term Rep. Zack Space of Ohio.

The NARAL Pro-Choice America Political Action Committee has announced its first round of endorsements for the 2010 election cycle.

The pro-abortion-rights group has endorsed freshman Reps. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Betsy Markey, D-Colo., Scott Murphy, D-N.Y., and Mark Schauer, D-Mich.

Republican challengers have already filed to challenge Heinrich, Markey and Schauer, and Murphy is expected to have a tough race if local GOP leaders can find a top-notch candidate.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement that Markey and Schauer defeated anti-abortion incumbents in Colorado and Michigan, respectively, while Henrich "is likely" to face an opponent who opposes abortion rights. The PAC contributed $5,000 each to the campaigns of the four Democrats, according to the news release.

One reason Colorado Democrat Betsy Markey unseated Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave last year is that Musgrave had a reputation of being more concerned about hotbutton social issues and not the everyday economic struggles of residents of the state's 4th District.

Republican state Rep. Cory Gardner, who is probably the leading Republican challenger to Markey in the 2010 election, thinks that the 4th District, which includes vast swaths of northern and eastern Colorado, will return to its Republican roots by responding to his message of fiscal restraint and limited government.

"I am focusing on the issues - the economy, kitchen-table matters, and those things that are affecting people's everyday lives today," Gardner said Wednesday at a meeting with reporters that was organized by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the campaign arm of the House GOP.

The conservative Family Research Council's political action committee plans to target 16 congressional races in 2010. The group's president, Tony Perkins, said the PAC has a goal of raising $1 million to boost grassroots activity in targeted races.

The group wants to spend money to help favored candidates take over the seats now represented by:

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for a full term in Colorado after his appointment this year;

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Democrat who is running for re-election in Connecticut;

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican who is retiring;

Missouri Sen. Christopher S. Bond, a Republican who is retiring;

Rep. John Boccieri, a Democrat who represents Ohio's 16th District;

Massachusetts Rep. John Tierney, a favorite of the House Democratic leadership, has decided against running in the special election for the Senate seat left vacant by the Aug. 25 death of Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

"A great number of people have kindly urged me to run for the United States Senate," Tierney said in a statement released Monday morning. "I have given the matter serious consideration and determined that, at this time, I can best be of service in the U.S. House of Representatives -- continuing to work to make education more affordable and accessible, to build and strengthen our nation's workforce, to enact meaningful health care reform and to ensure we have a pragmatic foreign policy."

He continued, "These and other serious matters must be addressed in the coming weeks and months and they, along with my constituents, warrant my full attention."

Add Rep. Edward J. Markey to the list of politicians skipping a run for the late Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat.

Markey, a 17-term veteran of the House and the dean of Massachusetts' congressional delegation, cited his seniority as a the reason he chose to forego the race.

He heads the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming; the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment; and serves on the Natural Resources Committee. "I can have the greatest impact on the issues facing the people of our state through my leadership positions in the House," Markey said in a Friday afternoon statement.

He joins former Rep. Martin T. Meehan, Kennedy nephew Joseph P. Kennedy II and former Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey on the sidelines.

Colorado Rep. Jared Polis has a lot of fundraising clout for a guy with a mere seven months of House service.

The Jared Polis Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee the wealthy freshman congressman organized in May, donated $139,500 in late June to 31 Democratic campaign committees, according to a filing Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

The largest chunk of funds, $30,000, went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats that will be defending the party's 256-178 majority in the 2010 elections.

Some former senators who left Congress years ago are still keeping campaign money in motion.

Democrats Donald Riegle of Michigan and Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey and Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell are among the former senators whose fundraising reports for the second quarter of 2009 were on file Wednesday with the Senate Office of Public Records in Washington.

Riegle, who served three Senate terms and retired at the end of 1994, gave $10,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), the campaign arm of the 60 Democratic senators, and $1,000 to Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who faces a tough 2010 re-election.

Tom Perriello: NRCC's Top Target (Getty)

The National Republican Congressional Committee's advertising campaign consists mainly of low-cost radio advertisements and telephone calls against 14 Democrats, most of them from conservative-leaning districts, who helped provide the winning 219-212 margin in the June 26 vote. Eight Republicans also backed the climate change bill, which most Republicans described as a massive "national energy tax" on consumers.

A top target of the NRCC campaign is first-term Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello, who broke with most politically vulnerable Democratic freshmen in backing the bill. The NRCC is airing a television ad in Perriello's south-central Virginia district that urges viewers to "tell him he was wrong to vote for the [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi energy tax."

Colorado Democrat Jared Polis made a lot of money in online businesses prior to his election to the House in 2008. Now he's hoping to raise a lot of it for his party.

The Jared Polis Victory Fund was recently organized with the Federal Election Committee as a joint fundraising committee that will divide receipts between Polis' campaign committee and 35 other Democratic-affiliated campaign committees.

Polis' fund will distribute money to 29 House Democrats, including two dozen who were first elected in 2008 in districts that they wrested from Republican control. One of them is Betsy Markey, whose 4th District in northern and eastern Colorado abuts Polis' 2nd District in and around Boulder. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who was appointed to his seat in January and is seeking a six-year term next year, also will receive funds from the Polis committee.

Colorado Republican Cory Gardner, the minority whip in the state House, is challenging one-term Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey in the state's 4th District in northern and eastern Colorado.

Gardner, who's served in the Colorado House since 2005, told CQ Politics that he will formally announce his candidacy later Thursday. "It's time that we stopped business as usual in Washington," Gardner said, adding that federal spending during both Democratic and Republican rule has been "absolutely out of control, and it's got to stop."

"The 4th Congressional District is a conservative, common-sense Colorado district, and no one will reflect its values better than me," Gardner said.