Ken Salazar

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Ken Salazar
Junior Senator, Colorado
In office 2005–Present
Preceded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2011)
Born	March 2, 1955 Alamosa, Colorado
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Hope Salazar
Religion	Roman Catholic

Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American politician, rancher, and environmentalist from the U.S. state of Colorado. Salazar, a Democrat, served as state Attorney General before winning a U.S. Senate seat in the 2004 Senate elections. He has been a member of the U.S. Senate since January 2005. He and Mel Martinez are the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since 1977. They were joined by Bob Menendez in January 2006.

[edit] Early Life and Family

Senator Ken Salazar was born in the town of Alamosa and grew up near the town of Manassa, Colorado in the San Luis Valley area of south-central Colorado to Mexican-American parents. Senator Salazar can trace his ancestry all the way back from before his family's arrival in North America to 12th Century Spain.

Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in Conejos County, graduating in 1973. He later attended Colorado College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1977, and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. Later Salazar was awarded honorary degrees (Doctor of Laws) from Colorado College (1993) and the University of Denver (1999).

After graduating Salazar had a private law practice. In 1986 he became chief legal counsel to then Governor Roy Romer; in 1990 Romer appointed him to his cabinet as Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

[edit] U.S. Senator

In 1994, Salazar returned to private practice. In 1998, he was elected state attorney general; he was reelected to this position in 2002. In 2004, he declared his candidacy the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Salazar considers himself a moderate and has at times taken positions which are in disagreement with the base of his party -- for a number of years he opposed gay adoption. After easily defeating Mike Miles in the Democratic primary, Salazar narrowly defeated beer executive Pete Coors of the Coors Brewing Company to win. His elder brother John also had an electoral victory in 2004, winning a race for the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's third congressional district.

2004 campaign logo. Salazar's slogan was "fighting for Colorado's land, water, and people."

He took office on January 4, 2005. Salazar and his wife Hope have two daughters, Andrea and Melinda. He is a Roman Catholic.

Soon after arriving in the Senate Salazar generated controversy within his party by introducing Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales and sitting by his side during Gonzales' confirmation hearings.

On May 23, 2005, Salazar was one of fourteen moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Salazar has been feuding with Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based conservative religious group of national stature, over his stance on judicial nominees.

In August of 2006 Ken Salazar supported fellow Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman in his primary race against Ned Lamont in Connecticut. Ned Lamont, running primarily as an anti-war candidate, won the primary. Salazar's continued support of Lieberman, who sucessfully ran as an independent against Lamont, has rankled the anti-war wing of the Democratic party.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Senate website
• Official campaign website