This is from the Associated Press today:
DENVER (AP) - On the campaign trail, Democrat Ken Salazar criticized President Bush, Iraq and the war on terrorism. But the soft-spoken moderate spent just as much time talking about family, faith and the spirituality of his home in Colorado's San Luis Valley.
"In talking to my mother, she always blesses me and tells me how much it is that she loves me," Salazar said, before paying homage to the love of community and hard work taught to him by his parents. "Those are the values that I will stand for."
The cowboy hat-wearing Colorado attorney general went on to beat GOP beer executive Pete Coors to win Colorado's open Senate seat last week. And his older brother, John, picked up another open seat, this one in Congress.
In a year when Republicans strengthened their grip on Congress and Bush decisively won a second term, the Salazar brothers offer a blueprint for Democrats desperate to make inroads in the nation's midsection.
The two got elected in a Republican-leaning state by playing up traditional values, faith and rural heritage while hammering home a populist message that included bashing tax cuts for the rich. Getting a boost from fellow Hispanics didn't hurt, either.
"It's a pioneering election which bodes well for the Democratic Party, the Hispanic community," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
Salazar's Senate campaign is credited with helping Democrats take control of both houses in the Colorado Legislature for the first time since 1960, and with helping shrink Bush's margin of victory here from 2000 while it grew in most other states. Bush won Colorado by more than 8 points four years ago but defeated Democrat John Kerry by less than 6 points on Nov. 2.
"It probably explains why Colorado kept hanging in there as one of the battleground states," said Christian Grose, a political science professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. Salazar "talked about his faith, his background in a way that connects with people."
Bob Loevy, political science professor at Colorado College, said he believes Democrats gained ground here because Kerry spent so much time and money in the state - another point the party should pay attention to.
"In the past, Democrats have haphazardly campaigned in Colorado, but 2004 was a completely different world," Loevy said.
Exit polls showed Bush's support among Hispanics rose nationally from 2000, while Kerry fared worse than Al Gore did four years ago. But in Colorado, the polls showed enough Republicans, moderates, Hispanics and self-described born-again Christians who voted for Bush split their ticket to send Salazar to the Senate.
Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said the results of Colorado's election underscore important regional trends: a growing number of Hispanic voters, migration from other parts of the country to the Rockies, and the importance of quality of life and environmental issues.
"The West can be virgin territory for Democrats with the right candidates with the right moderate message," said Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor. He said the next Democrat running for president will have to appeal to the West and the South to widen the party's base.
On the campaign trail, the Salazar brothers talked about their roots, dating back four centuries in New Mexico and five generations in Colorado. They said their parents promoted a strong work ethic and education; all eight children went to college after growing up without electricity and relying on a pump for water.
Ken Salazar, a Roman Catholic who once studied to be a priest, supports abortion rights and opposes a federal ban on gay marriage. But he is also a big supporter of the death penalty, traditionally a GOP tenet.
Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velazquez Institute, a Los Angeles research and advocacy organization, said he believes the Salazars bucked the GOP trend on Election Day because they "didn't concede the values terrain to Republicans."
"Colorado Democrats just found the formula that Republicans are using and put a Democratic spin on it," Gonzalez said.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041112/D86AHN180.html