Salazar Could Win Republican Senate Seat in Colorado Race

Democrats could have a chance at seizing a crucial Republican U.S. Senate seat in Colorado in a neck-and-neck battle pitting a brewing magnate against a Hispanic from humble origins. The two, Republican brewing magnate Peter Coors and Democratic state Attorney General Ken Salazar, are vying for the Senate seat of Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who made a surprise retirement announcement in March. Campbell, the only American Indian in the Senate, was considered a shoo-in for re-election but his sudden retirement gave the Democrats a shot at picking up a seat from Republicans, who barely control the Senate with 51 out of 100 seats. Most polls show the race is now a toss-up. After Campbell decided not to run again, both parties started scrambling for a candidate. Coors, a political neophyte, stepped in and ended up beating a former congressman in the Republican primary. Salazar is the first Hispanic elected to statewide office in Colorado. He is now the only Democrat holding statewide office in Colorado, which has turned increasingly conservative in the last decade and is considered a toss up in the presidential race between President Bush and Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry. Salazar 49, a fifth generation Coloradan, was born in the San Luis Valley, a generally poor part of the state, where he worked as a farmer, a rancher and a lawyer specializing in water rights cases. To keep it in the family, his brother John is running as the Democratic candidate for Colorado's third congressional district. [more]