Breaking: Colorado Could Fill Its Vacant Senate Seat Promptly!
Here's a rarity these day: A Senate vacancy that might actually get filled in a speedy and orderly fashion, without any public acrimony.
We refer here to the seat of Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, who is expected to be announced as Barack Obama's Secretary of the Interior. We asked Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Dem Gov. Bill Ritter, when an appointment could be made to the seat.
"If there is an official announcement, if this does occur, then it would be as quick as possible," Dreyer told us.
Salazar had been leading potential GOP challengers in the polls going into his 2010 re-election campaign, but there's an ample supply of other choices for the Dems in this newly-blue state: Reps. John Salazar (Ken's brother), Ed Perlmutter and Diana Degette; Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper; Denver school superintendent Michael Bennet, and quite a few more.
Dreyer was unable to elaborate further on any timeframe, but "as quick as possible" sounds better than what's going on in Illinois and New York -- and hopefully it'll be much less of a train wreck.
C'mon Eric, they all say it'll be as quickly as possible. The only reason any of this is news is because of Blago and a dearth of other news. If we didn't have this stuff to talk about we'd have Tweety declaring "lefties consider Salazar at Interior the last straw" or some such garbage. Then he'd probably have Larry Johnson on to call Obama a traitor as proof.
December 16, 2008 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd cut Nuh Yawk some slack.
Hillary can't be replaced until she resigns, and she said that was gonna wait 'til after she was confirmed as SoS.
Meanwhile, it's hard to imagine Patterson not working this situation behind the scenes. I mean, Ritter is in the same boat. It's easy for him to say he's gonna act quickly, but he doesn't actually have a pick yet, now does he?
Patterson has a head start. At least now it's gotten to the name-floating and position-jockeying stage.
December 16, 2008 9:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hope he picks Denver's Mayor.
We haven't had a Hickenlooper in the Senate since 1971, and America has gone to hell in that time.
Of course, if the lefties try to block his choice, we could read the headline Libs Nix Hick's Pick.
I'm a kidder, you know.
December 17, 2008 2:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Andrew Romanoff is the best choice. He is the outgoing Speaker of the House and is well respected on both sides of the aisle. It will be nice to not to have to vote for Salazar in 2010. He will be good as Secretary of the Interior, but he was (from my point of view) a closet Republican. You can take a look at his voting record -- not to good.
December 17, 2008 8:41 AM | Reply | Permalink