The battle for Colorado's most rural congressional district

Kirk Johnson reports in today's New York Times on the race for Colorado's 3d Congressional district, where three-term incumbent John Salazar is defending against Republican Scott Tipton. The dateline is Creede, Colorado, population 377, the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Mineral County. An excerpt follows:

In Colorado’s huge and mostly rural Third Congressional District, it was a final-push weekend of consolidating support. Both candidates focused on giving their backers a nudge of resolve — a stiffening of the spine, an inspiration to vote and a rationale for doing so. The far-flung district and the small towns in it made the effort a geographic scramble, with appearances by both men in tiny communities hundreds of miles apart, courting a handful of votes that both sides said could decide the election.

The district’s political culture is prickly and unpredictable — Republican on paper, wildly libertarian in spirit, with pockets of Hispanic voters who lean Democratic.