By Kate Phillips
Published: 01-05-09
Several reports now indicate that the governor of Colorado is set to announce that he’s selected Denver Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to replace Ken Salazar in the United States Senate.
Senator Salazar Democrat from Colorado is up for confirmation to be the Secretary of the Interior. His confirmation hearing is set now for early in the new session of the Senate which begins next week.
The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News are reporting that Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter may make the announcement as early as this Saturday. Several other wellknown Colorado officials had been bandied about as possible appointees including Congressman Ed Perlmutter and Denver’s mayor John Hickenlooper. Mr. Salazar’s Senate seat will be up for statewide election in 2010.
Earlier chatter had included Senator Salazar’s brother Congressman John Salazar but as the Denver papers reported earlier Democrats in the state were worried that such a move might create an easy opening for a Republican to take his Western Slope congressional district.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Michael Bennet is the brother of James Bennet editor of Atlantic Monthly magazine and former correspondent overseas and in Washington of The New York Times. Michael Bennet had been among the many officials whose names were circulated for education secretary as well. He was graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and holds a law degree from Yale University.
Education credentials run in his family. His father Douglas Bennet was president of Wesleyan University.
