In a surprise move Colorado Governor Bill Ritter tapped the little known Michael Bennet, superintendent of Denver Public Schools, as the U.S. Senate replacement for Interior Secretary nominee Ken Salazar. Colorado in recent months has made a lot of surprise moves of late, but this one comes from a surprise source, the status quo. Bill Ritter is an extremely accomplished politician and politicians aren’t known for bucking conventional ideas.
Michael Bennet has a resume that says, “I would like to be in politics” written all over it.
From The Rock Mountain News:
A graduate of Wesleyan University and Yale Law School, he started his career in the legal field and was counsel to the deputy U.S. Attorney General under former President Bill Clinton.
He later moved into the business world and relocated to Denver, helping the Anschutz Investment Company reorganize and turn around “distressed” companies like Regal Cinemas, United Artists, Edwards Theaters and the energy company Forcenergy.
In 2005, the Denver Board of Education plucked him from the mayor’s staff to become Denver Public Schools superintendent, and he made his name reforming the pay-for-performance plan and wrestling with budget challenges.
Many analysts and pundits seem surprised that Michael Bennet was tapped for the seat, but I’m not. I am not surprised that a political unknown was tapped at least. I couldn’t have said Bill Rittter will pick Michael Bennet even if I had pulled out both the Ouija Board and my Magic Eight Ball. That said the writing was on the walls. Colorado has already bucked what everyone said they would do during the election by not only defeating anti-abortion issues but by choosing Barrack Obama.
I believe in picking Michael Bennet, Bill Ritter not only gives a fine Democratic contender a leg up on his future political career, but is keeping faith with the Obama Change is Coming message. We shall see, there are sixteen days until inauguration this new senator will be expected to do a lot of things shortly thereafter.
