{"id":22416,"date":"2025-05-01T18:15:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-inside-story-of-how-michael-bennet-was-appointed-to-represent-colorado-in-the-u-s-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:13:53","slug":"the-inside-story-of-how-michael-bennet-was-appointed-to-represent-colorado-in-the-u-s-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-inside-story-of-how-michael-bennet-was-appointed-to-represent-colorado-in-the-u-s-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"The inside story of how Michael Bennet was appointed to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., celebrates with his wife and children after winning the Democratic primary in August 2010. Bennet has been talked about as a potential presidential candidate in 2020, but a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer could derail those plans. He is expected to have surgery and make a formal announcement later this spring.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

If U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is successful in his bid to become Colorado\u2019s next governor, the Democrat says he\u2019ll handpick his successor in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

A lot must happen before then: Bennet would have to beat Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and then win the general election. Then he would have to resign from the Senate to become governor. That would give him the power to pick the person to serve out the remainder of his Senate term, which ends in early 2029.<\/p>\n

However, all of those hurdles haven\u2019t stopped the palace intrigue. Nor has it stopped the jockeying for Bennet\u2019s seat among Colorado\u2019s top Democrats.<\/p>\n

Bennet was the last person appointed to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy in Colorado. That happened in 2009 when then-Gov. Bill Ritter selected Bennet to fill the seat vacated by Ken Salazar, who was tapped by President Barack Obama to be interior secretary.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun recently sat down with Ritter and Jim Carpenter, who was Ritter\u2019s chief of staff at the time, to hear the inside story of Bennet\u2019s selection, which shaped the trajectory of Colorado politics.<\/p>\n

\u2018What makes the best U.S. senator?\u2019<\/div>\n

Bennet, who at the time was superintendent of Denver Public Schools, was one of more than a dozen people angling for the Senate appointment. That he had never held \u2013 let alone run for \u2013 elected office was going against him. In his favor was the personal relationship he had built with Ritter.<\/p>\n

Ritter worked with Bennet when Ritter was Denver\u2019s district attorney and Bennet was then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper\u2019s chief of staff. The budget for the Denver District Attorney\u2019s Office is controlled by the city, so the two were effectively colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really good to work with,\u201d Ritter said.<\/p>\n

Then, when Ritter launched his 2005 gubernatorial campaign, Bennet served as an education adviser.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the person I looked to most to talk about education and education policy,\u201d Ritter said.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter delivers opening remarks at the Democratic Party assembly in Broomfield on May 22, 2010. (Ed Andrieski\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One night, Ritter, still a gubernatorial candidate, was attending a Democratic organizing meeting at South High School in Denver when he heard Bennet was upstairs defending a school closure at a tense community gathering. Ritter stood in the back and listened. He was impressed with how Bennet handled himself in a tricky situation.<\/p>\n

Bennet was officially on Ritter\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2008, when Salazar was picked to lead the Interior Department. Ritter wanted Bennet, hot off being a finalist to be Obama\u2019s education secretary, in the replacement mix.<\/p>\n

Also seeking the appointment were Hickenlooper, then-Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette and then-U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter.<\/p>\n

Ritter said he called Colorado\u2019s former U.S. senators to help him decide whom to appoint to fill Salazar\u2019s seat. That included Republicans Bill Armstrong and Hank Brown and Democrats Tim Wirth and Gary Hart.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018What makes the best U.S. senator?\u2019\u201d Ritter said his question was. \u201cIt was intellect that mattered a lot for those senators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet checked that box in his interview with Ritter.<\/p>\n

\"Air
Air Force One is visible as President Joe Biden, center, speaks with by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., left, and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, right, as he arrives at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs on May 31, 2023. (Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cHe was very comfortable talking about the Middle East, very comfortable talking about foreign policy and foreign relations,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cHe had this ability to talk about this wide swath of issues that senators have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early January 2009, Ritter announced that Bennet was his guy. The reaction was mixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that we didn\u2019t know is whether he could win an election,\u201d Ritter said, \u201cand we had to kind of take that as an article of faith that he would be able to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rod Blagojevich, Barack Obama, the FBI<\/div>\n

About the time Salazar was tapped to lead the Interior Department, then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested for a pay-to-play scheme around his power to appoint someone to fill the Senate seat vacated by Obama when he was elected president.<\/p>\n

The scandal served as Ritter\u2019s backdrop for the process of replacing Salazar.<\/p>\n

Ritter said Obama called him during the appointment process.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis message was, \u2018you pick whoever you want,\u2019\u201d Ritter said. \u201cHe never suggested that there was a candidate that he preferred, probably imagining that the FBI could be listening to that phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Illinois
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaks with news reporters on Oct. 24, 2006, in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo\/Seth Perlman\/Associated Press file)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Seth Perlman, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But even if Obama wasn\u2019t putting his thumb on the scale, others were trying to.<\/p>\n

Ritter said his close friends and confidants were the target of an influence campaign. Meanwhile, a group of prominent women pushed him to appoint the first woman from Colorado to the Senate.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee tried to weigh in, too, because Salazar\u2019s seat was up for grabs in 2010 and at the time Colorado was still very much a swing state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had polled it and they had their favorites,\u201d Ritter said of the DSCC. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna actually talk about who their favorites were, but Bennet was not on their radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the DSCC hadn\u2019t even included Bennet\u2019s name in the poll.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet speaks at his gubernatorial campaign launch at City Park in Denver on April 11. (Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cChuck Schumer was not very happy with the pick when I made it,\u201d Ritter said of the Senate Democratic leader. \u201cBut Michael had to run in 2010, and Schumer called me in October and said, \u2018I\u2019m sorry. You were exactly right. This guy has a chance to be the best U.S. senator there is.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet beat Republican Ken Buck in 2010 and has won reelection two times since.<\/p>\n

Ritter\u2019s experience may have influenced his decision<\/div>\n

Ritter said his own experience being appointed Denver\u2019s district attorney in 1993 by then-Gov. Roy Romer was in the back of his mind as he made the Senate pick.<\/p>\n

Ritter, a 36-year-old prosecutor with no political ties, was the dark-horse candidate among three people, including Beth McCann and Andy Loewi, seeking the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical wisdom said Gov. Roy Romer had only two real choices for the Denver district attorney\u2019s job,\u201d the Rocky Mountain News<\/em> wrote at the time, referring to McCann, who was then Denver\u2019s public safety director, and Loewi, a politically connected attorney.<\/p>\n

Romer chose Ritter. McCann went on to be a state representative and then was elected Denver\u2019s district attorney in 2016. Loewi died in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cRomer made sure of one thing in picking Bill Ritter as Denver\u2019s next district attorney. No one is going to accuse him of playing political games with the appointment,\u201d the Rocky Mountain News<\/em> wrote.<\/p>\n

The question now is whether Bennet, should he win Colorado\u2019s gubernatorial race next year, will make a similar dark-horse pick.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Ritter shares details of why he selected a school superintendent for the job<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,233,28,1565,1126,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-michael-bennet","tag-politics-general","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77704,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416\/revisions\/77704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22416"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}