Ritter names chief of staff, two other posts

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Gov.-elect Bill Ritter will hire Jim Carpenter, a longtime Democratic operative and the architect of Sen. Ken Salazar’s 2004 election victory, as his new chief of staff, his office announced today.

Ritter also will hire Mary Kay Hogan as legislative liaison and Trey Rogers as chief legal counsel.

"I’m pleased that these three extremely talented individuals have agreed to join the new administration," Ritter said in a statement. "We’re putting together a dynamic team that will work tirelessly to fulfill the Colorado Promise and to solve real problems for people and businesses all across Colorado.

"This trio will form the backbone of an administration that will be committed to making Colorado a leader in education, health care, jobs and renewable energy."

Salazar praised the hiring of Carpenter.

"This is joyous news about Jim Carpenter. I believe he is the architect for the new direction of the American West. Bill Ritter will be well-served by hiring him," Salazar said in a written statement. "I congratulate them both and I can not think of anyone better for the Governor’s Chief-of-Staff."

Carpenter currently serves as state director for Salazar, who, like Ritter, has tried to stake out centrist positions to win in a demographically diverse state where Republicans still outnumber Democrats.

"I am honored and gratified that Gov.-elect Ritter has invited me to serve as his chief of staff," Carpenter said in a statement. "I appreciate his confidence and I look forward to doing my part to help fulfill the Colorado Promise."

In 2004, Carpenter served as Salazar’s campaign director and helped engineer a comfortable victory over Republican beer magnate Pete Coors, even in a year when Republican President George Bush easily carried the state.

"For Ken’s campaign, we worked hard to put together an urgan-suburban rural coalition," Carpenter told the Rocky Mountain News in 2005. "In politics, you go where the numbers are."

After the 2004 victory for Salazar, Campaigns & Elections magazine named Carpenter one of its "Movers & Shakers," and Carpenter took the job as Salazar’s top representative back in Colorado.

He was no newcomer to state politics, having managed former Sen. Tim Wirth’s campaign 12 years earlier. A native of Granby, he also had worked as a spokesman to former Gov. Roy Romer, and he later was a spokesman for National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

Pollster Floyd Ciruli said the choice of Carpenter could be seen as a message about the direction he hopes to take the governor’s office.

"I’d say it signals that Ritter comes out of the same centered, middle position of the party (as Salazar) and he is looking for similar kinds of advice and viewpoints," Ciruli said. "As you know, that can make a difference."

"He has to have people around him who have very good skills about staying around the center," Ciruli said. "This is a tough state for Democrats. They have to have the skills that Romer had and Salazar has."

In his statement, Salazar praised Carpenter as an "invaluable" adviser.

"For two years, Jim Carpenter’s wisdom, insight and energy have helped me as a United States Senator," Salazar said. "Jim’s steady hand leading my state office as we have fought for Colorado in the Senate, has been invaluable. Jim Carpenter will always be one of my closest friends and trusted advisors. I and my staff will truly miss him."

Hogan, the new legislative liaison, has been lobbying the Colorado Legislature since 1999. Prior to forming the firm of Aponte Hogan and Busam with fellow lobbyist Ruth Aponte, she served as a staff attorney with the Colorado Legislature's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services, where she worked on tax, transportation and land use legislation.

Trey Rogers, the new chief legal counsel, is a partner with Rothgerber Johnson and Lyons. He has been with the law firm since 1997. He also has eight years of experience as a political and nonprofit fundraiser and fundraising consultant in Colorado, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C.

Salazar announced he has hired Colorado Deputy Attorney General Renny Fagan to replace Carpenter as his state director.

Fagan had worked with Salazar in the Colorado Attorney General's office as a deputy overseeing state services. Fagan, a former state Representative from El Paso County, also had once served in Gov. Roy Romer's administration as executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue.