December 15, 2008 10:36 PM UTC

Sugarplums Dance In Politicos' Heads

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2 no longer mere speculation.

UPDATE: If Mayor John Hickenlooper shows the same indecision about wanting to be Senator that he showed about being Governor, we’re going to get pissed off. Train leaving station shortly.

In the absence of much confirmation on the many different possible career moves in the coming weeks based on forthcoming appointments from Colorado to the incoming Obama administration, we’ll just throw a couple of the more plausible scenarios out there and turn this over for comment.

If Sen. Ken Salazar is appointed Secretary of the Interior as once again appears likely, Governor Bill Ritter will appoint his successor, which may set off a second round of special election(s) or appointments. One of the strongest candidates for the job, though consistently under-mentioned, is Rep. Ed Perlmutter, who has a good working relationship with Ritter–and has the moderate, insightful approachability needed to hold Salazar’s Senate seat in 2010 and beyond.

Perlmutter’s biggest competition for the appointment will certainly come from Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff. If you were at any point wondering why Romanoff seemed standoffish or even disinterested in the Secretary of State job, you can stop wondering. Romanoff is also a very well-qualified candidate for U.S. Senator, who could make his own engaging case for re-election when the time comes.

Frankly, it isn’t an easy choice, but the dynamics that many say kept Rep. John Salazar from being appointed to head the USDA–the need to defend his battleground CD-3 seat–don’t apply so much to Perlmutter’s. CD-7 is a suburban Denver seat with many strong Democratic replacements to choose from, and the seat overall seems remarkably safe for Democrats today given that it was held by a Republican until 2006.

And if any of those Perlmutter wannabes are in office themselves, well, off we go!

Romanoff not aggressively pursuing the Secretary of State job has more or less opened the door to Rep. Bernie Buescher, who we expect will be appointed to the position. If he is, he’ll immediately go on the ’10 Big Line with very favorable odds.

And in the present climate of mind-blowing scandal around the appointment by governors of elected officials, we’re going to stop complaining about Ritter’s plodding, ad nauseum interminable committee selection process. We’ll take “boring but honest” over “felony” any day–seriously.

Still on the horizon: undersecretary and high-level staff appointments that may well claim other elected officials at the state and local level.

In all, the opportunities fascinatingly abound–the economy may be tanking, but a lucky few have serious upward mobility in their immediate future.