Sometimes, it's best to avoid making enemies. Out of nowhere, Gov. Ritter has appointed Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennett to succeed Ken Salazar in the Senate.
People are perplexed.
I have no reason to doubt that Gov. Ritter really believes that Mr. Bennett will make a good senator, and he may. But he's not a former legislator at any level, and has never held elective office. In fact, he's never run for anything. (Neither, you know, has, you know, Caroline Kennedy, you know, but at least, you know, from a political family, don't ya know.)
There's general agreement that he'll be a weaker re-election candidate than just about any of the other headline choices. I'm not sure that's true, given CoDA's ability to raise and distribute non-candidate money, and they may well feel that he'll fit right in with their "educate the idiots" agenda. But let's assume for the moment that that's correct.
Gov. Ritter hasn't just avoided picking the winner in this sweepstakes. As importantly, he's avoided picking the losers. Any of them may perceive a primary worth running and worth winning. None of them feels locked out. All of them can proceed with whatever career plans they had just after the election, so nobody's worse off. They call plausibly claim to be disappointed, but not excluded. Down, but not out.
Plus, he may well have created a second target of opportunity for Republicans looking for statewide office in two years.
Comments
There's one positive thing about Bennet that may have led to him being chosen as Senator - he's done a pretty good job of not embarrassing himself or getting involved in scandals. That's a rare thing in Democratic politicians these days.
Posted by: Alice H | January 4, 2009 2:47 PM