By Jim Tankersley
Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), a Western Latino with deep grounding in water and land issues, is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Interior Department.
Two senior Democrats said Obama will name Salazar to the post, rounding out the energy and environmental policy team announced on Monday in a Chicago press conference.
Salazar's family helped settle what is now New Mexico in the 1500s. He was raised on a ranch in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and grew up to become an attorney with expertise in water law. He led Colorado's Department of Natural Resources and was state attorney general before winning a vacant Senate seat in 2004 and entering Congress in the same freshman class as Obama, the former junior senator from Illinois.
The Colorado senator campaigned vigorously for Obama in the swing mountain state this fall, with Salazar barnstorming rural areas in a recreational vehicle on a multi-day tour, preaching alternative energy development and its potential to revitalize rural economies.
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