Obama picks Salazar as Interior secretary
The Colorado senator is an attorney with expertise in water law. He and Obama entered the Senate together in 2004.
Reporting from Washington — Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), a Latino with deep knowledge of water and land issues, is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Interior Department.
Two senior Democrats said Obama will name Salazar to the post, rounding out the energy and environmental policy team announced Monday in a Chicago news conference.
Salazar's family helped settle what is now New Mexico in the 1500s. He was raised on a ranch in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado and became an attorney with expertise in water law. He led Colorado's Department of Natural Resources and was state attorney general before winning a vacant Senate seat in 2004 and entering Congress in the same freshman class as Obama.
Interior secretary: An article in Tuesday's Section A about President-elect Barack Obama's plan to select Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as Interior secretary said Karen Schambach, the California coordinator for the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, supported Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) for the position. She supported Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
The Colorado senator campaigned vigorously for Obama in the swing state this fall, with Salazar barnstorming rural areas in a recreational vehicle, preaching alternative energy development and its potential to revitalize rural economies.
Tankersley is a writer in our Washington bureau.
jtankersley@tribune.com
