District 7 was designed to be a classic swing district, with roughly equal populations of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. District 7 contains northern section of Jefferson County, including the towns of Lakewood, Golden, and Arvada. The other heavy population center is located in Aurora, with the remainder located in other parts of Adams County. Large parts of this district are experiencing high growth as new subdivisions are filling in around the extension of E-470. In Aurora, the Fitzsimmons site is being redeveloped into the University of Colorado Health Science Center, a billion dollar project to create a new campus from their old location in downtown Denver. Rep. Ed Perlmutter won in 2006, after Republican Bob Beauprez left the seat to run for Governor. The seat was designed a swing district, with no blowout elections and hotly contested races during each election.