Tag: 2010 Elections

Tuesday morning, at least a dozen Democrats looked in the mirror and saw the next U.S. senator from Colorado. Trouble is, all but one of them were seeing things. With the announcement the state's senior senator is President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be the next secretary of interior, it falls on Gov. Bill Ritter to name Sen. Ken Salazar's replacement. Within hours of news leaking that Salazar would give up his Senate seat, the names of prominent — and not-so-prominent — Democrats emerged. Some are serious contenders, some would be top picks under different circumstances, and a few, like Academy Award hopefuls, are happy just to be nominated.

Republicans are lining up for the chance to mount a challenge in 2010 to whichever Democrat wins appointment to a Senate vacancy created by Sen. Ken Salazar's upcoming resignation to be secretary of the Interior. Two prominent statewide officeholders -- Attorney General John Suthers and U.S. Attorney Tom Eid -- came close to throwing their hats in the ring just hours after President-elect Barack Obama announced Salazar would, indeed, be a Cabinet nominee, The Denver Post is reporting. Add their names to a roster of the usual suspects, and the state GOP could have a rousing primary on its hands for a race thought only recently to be a steep, uphill climb.

Colorado Republicans have only a 15 percent chance of winning the Senate seat held by Democrat Ken Salazar, according to an analysis by polling analyst extraordinaire Nate Silver of the FiveThirtyEight Web site. Weighing approval ratings and the state's political climate, Silver pegs Colorado as the 12th most likely seat to switch parties in the 2010 Senate elections, but after a handful of hotly contested races at the top, turnover chances drop like a stone. Overall, Silver predicts Democrats should pick up between one and three seats out of 37 contested races in the next election.

So what's democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar going to do with the $400,000 he reportedly pocketed at his first fund raising event of the 2010 re-election campaign to add to the $1.8 million bucks already in the bank? Buy some voter love if a tepid new DailyKos/Research 2000 poll matchup against ex-Rep. Tom Tancredo and Jon Elway is any indicator. The survey shows Salazar up by double digits in both cases but still hovering dangerously close to the magic 50 percent of 'aye' votes for an incumbent.

Despite sweeping electoral victories and dramatic shifts in party registration, Colorado hasn't really shifted allegiance to the ruling Democrats, pollster Floyd Ciruli told a gathering of the state's county commissioners Wednesday. "People are saying, 'Go ahead, we'll give you a year or two.' And then they might pull the franchise if it doesn't work out," Ciruli told a gathering of Colorado Counties, Inc., according to Politics West's John Ingold.

While Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar's prospects for a cabinet position dim — he says he's not interested — Hispanic legal advocates says it's time the U.S. Supreme Court included a Hispanic justice, and the Democratic congressman's name makes the short list. “What more unifying appointment could there be than a Hispanic justice?” former Hispanic National Bar Association President Carlos Ortiz asks the Legal Times' Tony Mauro. "It’s not just the right thing to do, but we deserve it. I can’t imagine that the next appointment will go to someone other than a Hispanic.”

Democrats stand to increase the party's majority in the Senate in the next election, Politico reported Wednesday, pointing to several vulnerable Republican-held seats and a lack of serious challengers to incumbent Democrats, including Colorado's Sen. Ken Salazar. While Colorado tops the political news site's list of 10 "races to watch," Salazar's prospects are bright because "the GOP talent pool is shallow," Politico's Josh Kraushaar wrote.

Did he or didn't he? The local conservative blog Rocky Mountain Right reports retiring Congressman Tom Tancredo told a Republican group last week he intends to run for governor in 2010. Tancredo's spokesman told PolitickerCO.com on Sunday night that his boss was joking, but the blog stands by the report and insists the "Tancredo candidacy is no joke."