July 01, 2009 01:15 AM UTC

Sen. Isgar Gets USDA Job, Hard Fight Looms For Appointed Replacement

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• by: Colorado Pols

Confirming what was widely anticipated, from the AP wire:

Another Colorado state senator is leaving for a job with the Obama administration.

Democratic Sen. Jim Isgar of Hesperus was announced Tuesday as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s state director of rural development.

The La Plata County rancher says he will give up his Senate seat early for the post. Isgar is chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resource and Energy Committee but was ineligible to run again because of term limits…

Isgar is not announcing an exact date to leave the Senate until he finds out when his job with USDA begins.

This was going to be a hard one for Democrats to defend as an open seat in 2010, and Isgar’s departure may help give his replacement a much-needed leg up. We’ve heard that former Montrose County Commissioner Bill Patterson is interested in appointment to the seat among with a few other recognizable names. Whoever gets the nod will face the locally popular and moderate GOP Rep. Ellen Roberts in the general. Assuming the conservative wing doesn’t decide that Roberts is a Ramey Johnson-style ‘RINO’ and decide to punk her–something we have heard may indeed happen–she will present a formidable challenge, appointed ‘incumbency’ or no.