Who To Replace Salazar? It Should Be An Improvement…

Now that Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) has been nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to be the new Secretary of the Interior -- and will certainly be confirmed based on qualifications and a favorable Democratic Senate majority -- all eyes in Colorado go to see who will replace Salazar in the 111th Congress.

Salazar was up for reelection in 2010 anyway and whoever this person may be will have to make a full run for the seat then -- this happens anyway when you're appointed to the Senate.

In my mind, it will be hard for anyone not to be an improvement over Salazar who as part of the infamous "Gang of 14" in the Senate, proved he is a Democrat who is hardly a lock to vote with the Democratic party on important issues.

Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight.com, has a good rundown today on the pool of candidates from which Colorado Governor Bill Ritter will likely make his pick.

Please go here to read the post.

As far as I'm concerned, selecting Senator Salazar's brother John, who is in his third Congressional term for Colorado would be a big mistake. A conservative Democrat, John Salazar is a member of the disgusting Blue Dog Caucus in the House -- you know, people who wake up and decide over their morning coffee whether they are a Democrat or a Republican on a given day.

Obama's new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) need to be making a few calls to Ritter to urge against that.

I lean toward Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper or Congresswoman Diana DeGette. Both would be improvements over Salazar in the area of Progressive dependability and both would be a boost toward our new president being able to move the agenda that got him elected.