Alan Greenblatt is a GOVERNING correspondent.
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Who's Best for the Salazar Seat?
Colorado has been a funny place in Democratic politics. It was pretty Republican just a few years ago, but now the Democrats have everything -- the governorship, both legislative chambers and both U.S. Senate seats.
That makes the Senate seat being opened up by Ken Salazar's appointment to the Obama Cabinet especially worth having, because there's not a lot of room for advancement among Democrats these days.
Recent polling suggests that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper would be the best bet for the Dems to hold onto the seat. I also suspect that outgoing state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff would like this gig. Both of them have been talked of as "should have beens" in the state in regards to the governorship -- won by Bill Ritter just a couple of years ago, meaning he has six more years on the job before he's term limited out.
Then there's the senator's brother, John Salazar, who is a member of Congress. Nepotism seems to be in fashion in filling Senate seats these days, so I wouldn't want to rule him out.
But I'll be rooting for one of the other two guys I just mentioned. And I'm not sure how Hickenlooper, for all his real gifts, would take temperamentally to a stodgy legislative institution like the U.S. Senate.
GOVERNING Politics is the place for news and analysis on campaigns and elections. If there's a ballot measure in California, a legislative election in Alabama, a mayoral election in Anchorage or a governor's race in Rhode Island, GOVERNING Politics probably is writing about it. We love everything about state and local politics, from polls and campaign ads to policy debates and demographic trends.
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