Campaign Diaries

It might not come with the taint of a juicy scandal or with the glamor of Camelot, but Colorado’s Senate seat is now also up for grabs and Gov. Bill Ritter has a difficult decision ahead of him.

After a few days of mounting speculation, the field of contenders has partially sorted itself. In particular, Rep. Joe Salazar no longer appears to be the front-runner people described him as in the first hours after his brother’s appointment. His district is too conservative for Democrats to risk losing it in a spring special election.

A front-page article in today’s Denver Post explains that the two favorites are Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07). There is a clear divide between the two, as Hickenlooper has a more conservative profile and is opposed by labor while Perlmutter is considered friendly with unions. This contrast on labor is especially important given that a close vote on ENCA is looming in the Senate.

Two other top contenders are former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and former US Attorney Thomas Strickland. Romanoff has a relatively liberal profile, while Strickland is a top executive as a top health insurance company - not to mention that he has lost two Senate races in the state in 1996 and 2002.

Yet another name is Rep. Diana DeGette, who represents Denver and has perhaps the most liberal profile of all of these names. This is a problem because Bill Ritter is a conservative Democrat and it is difficult to imagine him privileging a progressive pick; this is especially in the case given that national Democrats will surely use the electability argument to insist that he not pick a more liberal option. (Mark Udall’s liberal profile demonstrated that Colorado can elect progressive Senators, however.)

DeGette also made the good point that Colorado has never had a female Senator or Governor, putting pressure on Ritter to go down that route. And of course, many Democrats would like to see a Hispanic appointment since Salazar’s departure reduces the number of Latino Senators to two. The name of former Clinton Transportation Secretary Federico Peña is circulating.

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In Illinois, meanwhile, Democrats just got their best news since the Blagojevich scandal exploded as the embattled Governor signaled yesterday that he had no plans of appointing Obama’s successor. Said Blago’s attorney, “Harry Reid said that they’re not going to accept anybody he appoints, so why would he do that?”

One of the Democrats’ biggest worries was that Blagojevich would attempt a last-minute coup by appointing a Senator (perhaps even himself), which would embarass Senate Democrats into denying that person his seat and further disgrace this entire process. Such a scenario will not occur.

This could give Democrats cover not to strip the governor of his appointment powers. That Blago exercise his prerogative at any moment was the most important reason Democrats were advocating for a special election - but they can now back off their commitment to do so without looking like they are leaving Blagojevich an opening. After all, Democrats were rapidly already stepping away from a special election vote even prior to this development.