Long a Labor stronghold, the district has more recently become a very competitive seat between the two conservative parties.

In the House races, the list of the three dozen most competitive seats dwindled as voters began making up their minds in the final days.

To gain the majority, Democrats needed to win roughly three-quarters of the competitive seats, and they were winning fewer than half early today.

"It's a competitive open seat with a suburban electorate that has been trending Democratic."

Given the rigged game of Congressional gerrymandering, having three of a state's five seats so competitive is almost like politics in a different country.

That is a difficult feat if - as some predict - the number of competitive seats is fewer than three dozen, thanks largely to redistrictings.

There's no way he'd ever win any remotely competitive seat.

Stupak's retirement made the formerly safe Democratic seat more competitive.

Can a body with so little turnover and so few competitive seats be called truly democratic?

But this time around fewer incumbents are retiring, and gerrymandering has sharply reduced the supply of competitive seats.