Located strategically between the powerful cities of Boston and New York, Connecticut is a state, its tourism Web site proudly boasts, that is "Full of Surprises"-- a motto that is certainly ringing true in the pitched political battle to represent the newly drawn 5th Congressional District.

Like other states across the country, Connecticut fell victim to the redistricting knife after the 2000 census, which revealed that its population had only grown by 3.6 percent since 1990. A bipartisan committee remapped the six congressional districts to five, essentially combining the large 6th district in the northwest corner of the state with the 5th district, its more narrow but sprawling neighbor to the south.

The newly drawn 5th district contains roughly half of the voters from each of the original districts, and led two seasoned incumbents to face each other in the race for its House seat: Democrat Jim Maloney of the 5th district and Republican Nancy Johnson of the 6th. Voters in the original districts could be unpredictable when they arrived at the polls and tended to favor moderate candidates. The new district appears to have a slight Democratic lean, but, true to the region's history, the largest group of voters in the new 5th -- some 42 percent -- is independent.

In candidate debates thus far, the concerns of voters in the new 5th have fallen in line with many of those around the country, including the prescription drug debate, education funding, economic development, social security and the war on terrorism.

Like many of its New England neighbors, Connecticut prides itself on a rich colonial history and a tradition of political independence. Originally explored by the Dutch, many of the first permanent settlements in the small state were part of a large migration of English Puritans to the region in the early 17th century.

A leader in the Revolutionary War effort, Connecticut's colonial history is as varied as its geography, which consists of both the eastern beaches of the Long Island Sound and the stony hills of Litchfield in the west. These elements have created a $4 billion-a-year tourism business buoyed by the words of former resident Mark Twain, who once said of Hartford, "You don't know what real beauty is until you have been here."

Connecticut's early economy was based on the usual staples of agriculture and trade, but due the state's small size - it's the second smallest state in New England -- the ambitious Yankees turned their attention to the profitable venture of manufacturing. The state went on to become an industrial and manufacturing center as well as the "Insurance State" due to the large number of insurance companies that have headquarters there.

Although some of the Connecticut's signature industries have fallen on hard times, such as the once booming, but now defunct, brass production industry in Waterbury, the state still has the highest per capita income in all of New England. Its manufacturing base today includes transportation equipment, skilled metalwork, electronics and plastics.

The ensuing mix of white- and blue-collar workers supporting the state's manufacturing industry has left politicians with a diverse group of constituents to court, in addition to affluent part-time residents seeking refuge from nearby New York City. As the Almanac for American Politics describes it, "Here are exquisite Yankee towns like Washington and Kent, prosperous once in the post-Revolutionary era...now the 'anti-Hamptons,' a country-home mecca for ultra-rich New Yorkers seeking to avoid the glitz of Southampton and Easthampton."

--By Maureen Hoch, Online NewsHour