WASHINGTON –Betsy Markey is about to enter Congress as a Democrat representing a conservative district that has been in Republican hands since 1972.

Maintaining the seat, as the Democrat conceded to reporters here today, is going to take some work.

“I need to listen to my constituents. I need to vote my district, my country, my conscience, and I need to keep in touch with [my constituents], to be honest about why I voted the way I voted, and to stay in touch, to listen, and solicit their feedback,” Markey said.

It’s been less than two weeks since Markey, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Denver), ousted U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Collins) in a bitterly fought contest, but Republicans are already lining up to challenge her in 2010. State Sen. Greg Brophy (R-Wray), Weld District Attorney Ken Buck, and Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) have all indicated an interested in running for the seat, which spans the Fort Collins area.

“The 4th Congressional District is a conservative district that will no longer be represented by a conservative,” Gardner told the Associated Press over the weekend.

On Nov. 4, Markey topped Musgrave with a commanding 56 percent of the vote. Markey had an assist from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which spent $1.1 million targeting Musgrave. Markey also had some help from Musgrave herself, whose outspoken conservatism on social issues put her at odds with the district. The results were in some ways a departure from the district’s voting patterns in previous cycles. George Bush carried the district with 50,000 vote pluralities in 2000 and 2004, though David Wasserman, who monitors House races for the non-partisan Cook Political Report, has estimated that this cycle Republicans carried the district on the presidential level with just a 2,000 vote plurality.

Standing on the third floor of the Cannon House Office Building, where newly-elected congressmen were gathered for a freshman orientation session on Monday, Markey suggested that in order to keep her votes in line with the views of her district she might have to distance herself on some issues from the Obama White House.

“I may have an issue with some of [the] policies that come from this administration. And…if I don’t agree then I will vote against it.”  

She expressed confidence that Obama and the Democratic leadership wouldn’t move quickly to push through legislation that appealed to the left flank of the party, saying, “I think this is an administration that will govern from the middle.”