Sen. Ken Salazar (D) Elected 2004, 1st term up 2010
Born:	March 2, 1955, Alamosa
Home:	Denver
Education:	CO College, B.A. 1977; U. of MI, J.D. 1981
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Hope)
Elected  Office:	CO Atty. Gen., 1998-2004.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., Exec. Dir., CO Nat. Resources Dept., 1990-94; Chairman, Rio Grande Compact Comm., 1995-98.
DC Office	702 HSOB20510, 202-224-5852; Fax: 202-228-5036; Web site: salazar.senate.gov
State Offices	Colorado Springs, 719-328-1100; Denver, 303-455-7600; Durango, 970-259-1710; Fort Collins, 970-224-2200; Grand Junction, 970-241-6631; Pueblo, 719-542-7550.
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Ken Salazar was elected to the Senate in 2004, the first Democratic senator elected in Colorado since 1992. Salazar grew up in Conejos County, in the San Luis Valley in south central Colorado, on a 217-acre ranch and farm owned by his family since 1850. He was one of eight children; the family spoke Spanish at home, though Ken was fluent in English thanks to his three older brothers--one of whom, John Salazar, was elected to the House in 2004. The San Luis Valley is one of the oldest parts of Colorado, settled by Spanish-speaking people who came north from New Mexico; it has also been one of the poorest, and the Salazars did not have electricity when Ken was growing up. He spent two of his teen years in a Catholic seminary, but decided not to become a priest. Instead, he graduated from Colorado College and the University of Michigan Law School. Then he moved to Denver and practiced law. But when he was married in 1985, the wedding was at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Conejos, the oldest church in Colorado.

In 1987, as he was on the brink of making partner in his Denver law firm, Salazar was asked by incoming Governor Roy Romer to be his chief legal counsel, and accepted. He developed knowledge of water law--always important in Colorado politics--and negotiated a compromise between the Southern Utes and EPA in an air pollution case. In 1990 Romer appointed him head of the state Department of Natural Resources. With a Republican state legislator he drafted Amendment 8, which, after voters approved it in 1990, created the Great Outdoors Colorado program using lottery proceeds for parks and land preservation. In 1994 he resigned and joined a Denver law firm; Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, then still a Democrat, recommended him for a post in the Bureau of Land Management, but he evidently wasn't interested. In 1998, when Attorney General Gale Norton--now Interior Secretary--was barred from running because of term limits, Salazar ran for attorney general. It was a Republican year and he was expected to lose to Colorado Springs District Attorney John Suthers. But he won by a 50%-47% margin, making him the first Hispanic elected to statewide office in Colorado. After the Columbine massacre in April 1999 he worked with Republican Governor Bill Owens on a youth violence summit and for a ballot measure on gun shows; he pushed for release of investigation documents. He supported Owens on vouchers and flexibility in spending federal funds; some Democrats grumbled that he wasn't partisan enough.

In 2002 Salazar was reelected 58%-38%, even as Owens was winning by a wider margin. In 2003 he opposed Owens and the Republicans on congressional redistricting, and prevailed in the Colorado Supreme Court. He also opposed Owens's Referendum A, for $2 billion in bonds for water storage facilities, which was defeated 67%-33% and lost in all 64 counties. In late 2003 and early 2004 it was widely assumed that Salazar would run for governor in 2006; with his moderate record and his talents as a conciliator he seemed a strong candidate.

No one at that time expected him to run against Campbell, whose Senate seat was up in 2004 and who seemed determined to run for a third term. Indeed Democrats struggled to come up with a candidate against Campbell; former Senator Gary Hart and Congressman Mark Udall decided they weren't interested. Campbell was distinctive as the only Native American in the Senate, only the eighth to serve in Congress; he was the sponsor of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 and the Indian Tribal Regulatory and Development commission in 2000 and chief congressional backer of the National Museum of the American Indian, and appeared in full headdress at the opening ceremonies on the Mall in September 2004. Campbell had been elected to the House from rural Colorado in 1986 and to the Senate as a Democrat in 1992 and, tired of attacks from Denver and Boulder liberals, switched to the Republican Party in March 1995. With his distinctive flair and moderate voting record, he seemed likely to win again in 2004. But in February 2004 stories appeared suggesting a kickback scheme involving one of his top aides, and in March he suddenly announced he was retiring for health reasons.

Campbell's retirement set off a scramble for his seat. The strongest candidate seemed to be Governor Bill Owens but on March 9 he announced he would not run. The next day Democratic Congressman Mark Udall and former Republican Congressman Bob Schaffer announced they were running. Also in was Democrat Rutt Bridges, a software millionaire and geophysicist who originated Colorado's popular do-not-call registry in 2001. Then on March 10, Salazar announced that he was running. He was accompanied by former Governor Dick Lamm and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper--and by Udall and Bridges, who announced that they were no longer running and were supporting Salazar. On the Republican side, Schaffer thought he had the support of high-ranking party officials, including Owens. But many Republicans believed that with his strong conservative record on cultural issues and his base far from metro Denver, Schaffer would be hard to sell statewide. They encouraged Pete Coors, chairman of the Coors brewing company and a longtime backer of Republican and conservative causes, to run; when Coors became a candidate, Schaffer's campaign reacted angrily. What had looked like a race with a strong Republican nominee and a fractious Democratic primary became, within a few days, a race with a strong Democratic nominee and a fractious Republican primary. Actually, Salazar did have a primary opponent, former Army Ranger and State Department officer Mike Miles, who backed universal health care and said he would "de-Halliburton" Iraq. Miles's leftish views won him a majority at the activist-filled Democratic state convention but Salazar won the August primary 73%-27%.

Coors had a more difficult time. A familiar figure from his appearances in Coors beer ads, he was less than adept in debates; Schaffer flustered him by recalling his proposals to lower the drinking age and pointing out that he couldn't name the Prime Minister of Canada (Paul Martin). Schaffer supporters pointed to Coors ads showing scantily clad women and the company's sponsorship of Denver's gay PrideFest and provision of benefits for same-sex couples. "I'm not trying to be an advocate for the lifestyle, I'm trying to be in business," Coors explained. In July he announced that he was changing the company's health insurance which was paying for abortions. Just before the August primary Coors lent $400,000 of his own money to his campaign; he won the primary 61%-39%.

Up to the August primary, Salazar raised more money and Coors spent more; in the fall, the Democrats' Senate campaign committee put more money into this race than its Republican counterpart. Salazar kept distant from the Kerry campaign, avoiding joint appearances in Colorado and opposing Amendment 36, which would have split the state's nine electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote. He proclaimed himself "an independent voice for the people of Colorado" and asked the Sierra Club and other independent expenditure groups to stay out of the state. But Salazar also engaged in edgy attacks: Coors was "fronting for his drug company backers," his company was "one of Colorado's biggest polluters" and cut 900 jobs. He attacked Coors for supporting Referendum A in 2003; he favored the death penalty while Coors was opposed. Coors hit Salazar for his various stances on vouchers; Salazar hit Coors for conflicting statements on the 2002 Bush education act. Other differences were more predictable: Coors was for the Family Marriage Amendment, Salazar against; Coors backed Bush on the Iraq war (though in October he suggested he might not vote for it if he had known what we did then), while Salazar called him a "rubber stamp" for Bush in the war on terrorism. Salazar, like Kerry, would rescind the Bush tax cut on top earners; Coors ran an ad on taxes showing Salazar and Kerry together. Salazar was attacked by independent groups for acting as a lawyer for polluters and for taking money from casino interests. Their frequent debates could be fractious. Coors: "I'm a businessman; my opponent is a bureaucrat. I'm a job creator, and my opponent is a litigator." Salazar: "You know, he says we have too many lawyers in the United States Senate. Many of them--in fact, more than half--are Republicans. My point of view, Pete, is that we have too many multimillionaires in the United States Senate."

Republicans won almost all the close Senate races in 2004--but not this one. Salazar came out ahead 51%-47%--almost the same margin by which George W. Bush beat John Kerry in the state. Coors lost all of the suburban Denver counties except Douglas County; Salazar ran about even on the Western Slope, even as his brother John was winning the 3d Congressional District there. Coors ran far behind Bush in areas with large Hispanic populations. Salazar, along with Florida's Mel Martinez, became the first Hispanic in the Senate since Joseph Montoya of New Mexico lost in 1976, but he rejected the role of group tribune: "I sometimes bristle when people say I'm the first Hispanic elected statewide or I would be the first Hispanic senator in 30 years. I'm an American, and I represent all the people in the state." As a potentially pivotal vote in the new Senate, Salazar expressed cautious support for Bush on immigration, but not much on Social Security: "Replacing the guarantee of benefits through Social Security with a roll of the dice on the stock market seems like a dangerous proposition."

Salazar's actions in his first months in office were hard to predict. During the campaign he indicated he would not oppose Bush on judicial nominations but in December 2004, he suggested he would join other Democrats in filibustering appeals court nominees. He introduced Alberto Gonzales at his confirmation hearings for Attorney General and was one of only six Democrats to vote for him. In March, he called for Bush to withdraw controversial judicial nominees, including William Myers, whom he had endorsed for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004 while sitting as Colorado's attorney general. In a conference call with reporters that same month, he refused to rule out a bid for governor in 2006.

Committees

• Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry: Forestry, Conservation & Rural Revitalization; Marketing, Inspection & Product Promotion.
• Energy & Natural Resources: Energy; National Parks; Water & Power.
• Veterans' Affairs.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Ken Salazar (D)	1,081,188	51%	$9,886,551
	Pete Coors (R)	980,668	47%	$7,858,598
	Other	45,616	2%
2004 primary	Ken Salazar (D)	173,167	73%
	Mike Miles (D)	63,973	27%
1998 general	Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R)	829,370	62%	$3,045,982
	Dottie Lamm (D)	464,754	35%	$1,818,801
	Other	33,111	3%