Colorado: Illinois

Not bad for a guy who became Colorado's Senior Senator shortly after being sworn in as a freshman. From Congressional Quarterly (subscription required):
Mark Udall of Colorado spent a decade in the House slowly inching up the House leadership ladder. Now, just nine weeks into his Senate career, he's working from a post where he can influence his party's agenda on Capitol Hill.

As a newly minted deputy whip, Udall is charged with building close ties between Democratic leaders and a gaggle of senators just like him - the freshmen who will be crucial to so much of President Obama's legislative success.

In the session's first two months, Udall has helped align every one of the 11 new Democrats behind two of the first big-ticket items on Obama's agenda: the $787 billion economic stimulus package and the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Since November, when voters passed Colorado’s controversial Amendment 54, and the last day of December, when it became law, 54’s expanding implications have slowly come into focus, spurring heated arguments for and against it.

As a high-powered lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the amendment wends its way to court, detractors and supporters are pleading their cases in the court of public opinion, underlining the fact that the showdown over 54 is just the latest skirmish in a larger battle over the evolution of lawmaking at the ballot box instead of at the Legislature.

Critics of Amendment 54, including the attorneys who filed the suit against it last month, say its sprawling reach is a product of the sloppy approach its authors took in drafting it and of the inadequacies of the ballot-initiative process to make laws.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle — who kicked off the Obama administration’s campaign to “bring meaningful health reform”to all Americans at a conference in Denver two months ago — withdrew as the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services Tuesday afternoon as criticism mounted over his late payment of more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest. Daschle stepped down less than 24 hours after delivering a plaintive apology and winning a ringing endorsement from President Barack Obama, who said Monday night he was “absolutely” standing by his choice to head HHS and steer a massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Even as we learn embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich considered appointing Oprah Winfrey to fill Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat — Oprah was glad she wasn’t on her treadmill when she heard the news — and New York Gov. David Paterson raised the ire of the Kennedy clan by finally naming an obscure, upstate congresswoman to take Hillary Clinton’s place, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold plans to introduce a constitutional amendment that would require U.S. Senate vacancies be filled by special elections instead of gubernatorial appointments. Feingold, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, released the following statement Sunday:

“The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end.