Washington – Sen. Ken Salazar has chosen one of his former deputies from his term as Colorado attorney general to be his new state director.
Deputy Attorney General Renny Fagan will replace Salazar’s current state director, Jim Carpenter, who is leaving to become chief of staff to Gov.-elect Bill Ritter.
“I am thrilled to once again have him as part of my team,” Salazar, D-Colo., said in a statement.
The state director oversees constituent services and manages Salazar’s eight Colorado offices.
Fagan joined the attorney general’s office under Salazar and served as deputy attorney general for the Business and Licensing Section. He stayed after Salazar left and served under Salazar’s replacement, Republican John Suthers.
Before that, Fagan served under Gov. Roy Romer. Fagan was executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue. Before that, he was a Democratic state representative from El Paso County.
Fagan’s tenure atop the Revenue Department came under fire from statehouse Republicans for his handling of a new computer system to handle income-tax claims. A state audit found that Fagan’s agency got in over its head in managing the computer revamp, costing state taxpayers $10 million.
An administrative law judge found that the department demoted an employee who had raised the concerns.
Ray Powers, then-Senate president, blamed Fagan for the problem. Fagan called the finger-pointing “sandlot politics.”
As deputy attorney general, Fagan served as advocate for the state’s school-voucher law and defended Gov. Bill Owens’ power to spend certain kinds of federal money, rather than the legislature.
Fagan was also mentioned in 2002 as a possible candidate for the congressional seat recently won by Democrat Ed Perlmutter.
Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.
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