michael_bennet_71Several appointed Democratic senators, including Michael Bennet, who was selected by Governor Bill Ritter to fill the post of Ken Salazar when he became Interior Secretary, have “clouded, rather than clarified, the party’s electoral prospects in 2010,” writes The Washington Post, which adds that “polling suggests Bennet is in a dead heat with former lieutenant governor Jane Norton,” a Republican contender for his seat.

Several other races involving appointees are in question in other states, helping to explain why President Barack Obama is expected to visit Colorado next month to attend a campaign event for Bennet. The details are still being worked out, according to the Associated Press. Bennet attacks much of the politics surrounding his year in office as “silliness” in a new campaign video soliciting volunteers.

Meanwhile, Bennet’s wife, Susan Daggett, is already on the campaign trail, telling voters her husband will run on a platform of education, green energy, and lowering the national debt. That’s according to the Telluride Daily Planet, which quotes Daggett as saying youngsters are facing unbearable debt and will struggle for educational opportunities.

“Based on the education low-income kids in America receive, they’re not going to get very many opportunities. They’re not going to receive the same opportunities our children get, or our children’s friends get,” she told a group that included Telluride Mayor Stu Fraser and Mountain Village Town Councilman Jonathan Greenspan.