President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar to be Secretary of the Interior means that Democratic Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter will need to appoint someone to fill the remaining two years of Salazar’s term and run for a full term in 2010.
Democrats have fared very well in Colorado over the last three elections. Since 2004, they’ve won the Governor’s office, both U.S. Senate seats, three House seats and taken control of both chambers of the state legislature. It’s hard to find fault in a record like that. Still, Colorado is not as solidly blue as Democrats’ recent successes might suggest. Moderate and independent voters—swing voters—still determine the outcome of statewide races. Of late, these largely suburban voters have sided with Democrats, but their allegiance is far from guaranteed, meaning that the state remains competitive for both parties.
As with the pending Senate appointments in Illinois and New York, a long list of potential candidates has emerged in Colorado. The three frontrunners seem to be Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, and outgoing state House Speaker Andrew
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