Colorado: Michael Bennet

Sleeves rolled up, jacket off, Colorado's newest senator walks before a few dozen Democrats at a recent meet-and-greet and waves off the microphone he's offered with a smile.

The Democrat rattles off a brief stump speech without notes, talking up President Barack Obama's stimulus plan and plans to reform education and health care. Then he switches gears and tells a funny anecdote about running into a fellow member of Congress from Colorado in the laundry room of his Washington apartment building.

The crowd laughs—then peppers Bennet with questions, not all of them friendly, for more than two hours.

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.

Perhaps the moment you've all been waiting for--given Scott McInnis' track record of expressing 'interest' in running for everything, from the U.S. Senate to Mesa County dogcatcher, we'll only fully believe it when the Secretary of State gets the papers. But no question there's intense jockeying going on behind the scenes in the GOP right now, as the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:
The battle for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 could be a Western Slope affair, pitting former Congressman Scott McInnis against his onetime aide, Josh Penry.

McInnis, who retired from Congress in 2004 after six terms representing the 3rd District, is interested in the job, as is Penry, now the minority leader in the state Senate.

Colorado freshman Sen. and Deputy Whip Mark Udall is a pivotal figure in the intended Obama revolution, according to a profile fronting today’s Congressional Quarterly. Udall’s tall-order task is to help Obama succeed where Ronald Reagan failed by getting the record-breaking number of majority party newcomers in the senate to support the president’s agenda without alienating the moderate voters who elected them.

The list of newcomers Udall is tasked with wrangling includes two fellow Democrats — the other senator from Colorado, Michael Bennet, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s replacement; and Udall’s first cousin, Tom, from New Mexico.

Although Mark Begich of Alaska is the only freshman Democrat from a state that voted for Republican John McCain in November, five of the new Democratic senators were elected in states carried by George W.