Colorado: Sen. Evan Bayh

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.