Muckraker: Grist on Politics

While we don’t know much about the environmental stances of newly appointed Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D), we do know that the man who will fill Ken Salazar‘s seat has at least one interesting tie to the green community.

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His wife, Susan Daggett, is an environmental lawyer who formerly worked for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, where she represented environmental groups in litigation related to the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and other environmental laws.

Daggett has also worked for the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and is now an independent consultant who works with conservation groups on oil and gas development issues in the Rocky Mountain region. She is currently a member of the Denver Board of Water Commissioners, a member of the board of trustees for The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado chapter, and a member of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s Greenprint Council, which helps direct the Greenprint Denver sustainable-development initiative.

Bennet is the son of Douglas Bennet, who has served as the CEO of NPR, the president of Wesleyan University, and assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs in the Clinton administration. Michael Bennet’s brother, James Bennet, is the editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a former New York Times correspondent.