WASHINGTON — Sen. Ken Salazar this week will meet with Pueblo Community College students, stop by the Rocking W Cheese plant in Olathe, visit a Durango hospital, tour a Fort Morgan plant that turns methane into energy and meet with Denver business leaders.
Congress is out for the week, and the Democrat is barnstorming the state to roll out plans he’s tailored to guide his work in 10 “regions” across Colorado.
“Every community and every county in my state is just as important as another,” Salazar said. “Jefferson County and Denver and El Paso County with half a million people are just as important as San Juan County and Hinsdale County and Mineral County, all of which have about 500 people.”
The first-term lawmaker each year writes a detailed plan for the initiatives he wants to drive at the federal and local levels.
Salazar carved up the state into 10 regions, essentially divided by major transportation routes. For each of those areas, he then wrote lists of priorities.
Some are broad in scope, such as working for affordable health care in rural areas and passing a farm bill benefiting the state’s agrarian areas. Others are provincial, like supporting the San Luis Valley Boys and Girls Clubs and helping Eckley with projects providing clean water.
“In each region, what I’ve tried to do is reflect the priorities of that region,” Salazar said.
The regional goals are united by overarching themes: backing the state’s agricultural economy, protecting land and water, promoting renewable energy, bringing federal dollars back to Colorado and community safety.
Salazar will ask community leaders and voters whether the goals are on track with their priorities and what else they want to see in the plan.
Such tours by elected officials work in terms of learning about local needs, and also have a political payoff, said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University.
“It gives the different communities the sense that you care about them and are paying attention to them,” Straayer said.
There are limits, Straayer added, to how many of the goals a lawmaker can complete.
“When you get back to Washington, you’re one of 100 (senators),” Straayer said.
Salazar said he thinks it’s a realistic plan.
Goals from previous plans that were accomplished, Salazar said, include keeping regional farm service agency offices open and working for language in the farm bill providing funding for growers of fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and nursery crops.
