Colorado: Bennet

The Democrat holds town hall-style meetings Tuesday in Steamboat Springs, Hayden, Craig and Meeker. The tour ends with a late-afternoon meeting in Glenwood Springs.

Bennet was to tour the Western Slope earlier this month, but the trip was canceled because of a spring snowstorm. Congress is on a two-week spring break around Easter.

Bennet says he'll talk about the stimulus, plus his job so far in the Senate.

WASHINGTON — In one of her earliest appearances before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Gale Norton, President George W. Bush's first interior secretary, proclaimed in 2001 the need to "explore the entire smorgasbord of different options" when it came to domestic energy production.

But what was actually on the buffet was telling: Drilling off the coast of Florida, coal extraction in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah and exploring for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Now fast forward eight years, to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's first appearance before the same Senate committee last week.

He laid out maps that showed wind-energy potential across the West; talked about tapping geothermal energy underlying states including Idaho and Colorado; and evoked the vision of a high-tech "super- electron highway" that will connect "renewable-energy zones" on public lands to homes in California or New Jersey.

Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet announced today in a joint press release that they are now officially part of a moderate working group/coalition/thingy called "The Moderate Dems Working Group." According to the announcement:
The Moderate Dems Working Group will meet every other Tuesday before the Democratic Caucus lunch to discuss legislative strategies and ideas. The Moderate Dems held their second meeting Tuesday to focus on the upcoming budget negotiations and the importance of passing a fiscally responsible spending plan in the Senate.

Leading the new group are Democratic Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Carper of Delaware and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.

Gov. Bill Ritter heads to Pueblo today for the first time since the tongue-lashing he received in January, in part over his pick for the U.S. Senate.

Ritter will speak tonight at the Pueblo County Democrats' annual St. Patrick's Day Dinner.

And on Saturday he has two events in Pueblo, a bill signing and a job fair for a wind tower plant scheduled to open later this year.

"It is essential on Gov. Ritter's part to be there," said Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo. "I think the governor has heard loud and clear the cries of Pueblo Democrats."

Ritter's spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said Pueblo is important to the governor.