After Tough Year, Salazar Brand May Be Tarnished

Rep. John Salazar's defeat earlier this month sends a rancher and a farmer back to a rural Colorado district -- and calls into question the future of a once-popular political brand. Salazar's defeat caps a difficult year for the politically powerful family. His younger brother, Ken Salazar -- a former Colorado senator and state attorney general -- has been the target of harsh criticism from all corners for his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as secretary of the Interior Department. This election cycle, outside groups spent a few million dollars trying to defeat John Salazar, who had won his two previous re-election campaigns with relative ease. During the race Salazar said he felt like those groups were trying to send a message through him to Washington -- in part, perhaps, because of his brother's position in the Obama administration. Recapping Colorado's electoral outcomes, The Denver Post declared "the Salazar Brand" an election night loser. "With Ken Salazar gone from the U.S. Senate and John Salazar ousted from Congress, their political dynasty is diminishing," the paper wrote. And while political watches on both sides of the aisle said that the Salazar brand has been diminished, they lay the blame less on the elder's loss than on the Interior secretary's absence from the state...more