Democrat - Colorado
702 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
DC Phone: 202-224-5852
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Michael Bennet, the junior Senator from Colorado, has served most recently as the Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools. As a dedicated public servant with comprehensive experience as a businessman, Michael has a proven record of facing tough tasks at critical times. As Superintendent, Michael worked to improve student achievement and classroom performance, while also overseeing a halt to years of budgetary cuts in the Denver Public Schools. While serving as Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Michael was credited with leading the way on balancing a historic budget deficit. Prior to his service to the city, Michael was a Managing Director at the Anschutz Investment Company, where he managed the restructuring of over $3 billion in corporate debt. Representing Colorado as our state's next U.S. Senator, Michael will use his understanding and leadership on complex financial and economic issues to be a voice for Colorado's working families.
Almost four years ago, Michael inherited a School District whose achievement rates were flat and, where, for year after year, budgets were cut. With the help of Denver Public Schools' principals and teachers, Michael has turned this around. Achievement and graduation rates are up, with Denver's kids growing faster than all the kids in the state on every single test at every single grade level with the exception of one math test.

Bill Ritter, Jr. was elected as Colorado's 41^st governor in 2006 -- the first Colorado-born governor in more than 35 years. Gov. Ritter has quickly established Colorado as a national leader in renewable energy by creating a New Energy Economy, doubling the state's renewable energy portfolio and attracting a number of major manufacturing and research companies to Colorado.

Regent Ludwig, a Democrat, was elected to serve in one of two at-large positions on the University of Colorado Board of Regents in 2006.   Regent Ludwig attended Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs , Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill , California , and graduated in 1993 from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with “High Distinction.”

Cary Kennedy moved to Colorado when she was seven years old. She graduated from Manual High School (Denver) in 1986 and from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, in 1990.

Contact Information:

Westminster Office
8601 Turnpike Drive #206
Westminster, CO 80031
Phone: (303) 650-7820
Fax: (303) 650-7827

Washington D.C. Office
501 Cannon HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2161
Fax: (202) 226-7840

Official Biography

Congressman Jared Polis of Boulder was elected to Congress in 2008 and represents the Second Congressional District of Colorado. Polis is a standing member of the House Science and Technology Committee, and serves on the House Rules Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee and Subcommittees on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness, and Healthy Families and Communities. He is also the freshman member of the House Democratic Steering Committee and Vice Chairman and Whip of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. To date, he is the first openly gay male elected to Congress. 

A Boulder native, born to parents active in the 1960s peace movement, Congressman Polis believes we need to build upon the legacy and idealism of our parents and is working in Congress to pragmatically to create a peaceful, prosperous, and safe world for generations to come. 

While attending Princeton University, Polis co-founded his first company, American Information Systems, and has since launched several successful business ventures, including: bluemountainarts.com, Proflowers.com and other online start-ups; a chain of movie theaters that screen first-run Hollywood films dubbed or subtitled in Spanish, including Cinema Latino in Aurora, CO; and most recently, Open Ocean Aquaculture.  He has been named an “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst and Young and one of America’s “Top Ten Young Entrepreneurs” by Success Magazine.

After his early and successful start in the business sector, Polis quickly came to realize and value the important role education plays in our economy.  He feels that education is the only meaningful, long-term stimulus initiative we can make to invest in and reinvigorate the American economy.

With this in mind, he ran for and won a seat on the Colorado State Board of Education in 2000 and served as the youngest Chairman in the history of the Board. During his six-year tenure, Polis strongly advocated school reform and enhancing educational opportunities. He played an instrumental role in the passage of Amendment 23 to improve state funding for public schools in Colorado. 

Also in 2000, Polis founded the Jared Polis Foundation to improve and expand access to education by awarding micro-grants to teachers and schools that have shown outstanding commitment to their community in education. The Foundation’s Community Computer Connection program refurbishes and donates more than 3,500 computers a year to schools and non-profit organizations that serve disadvantaged students.

Polis has also founded two innovative charter schools to help meet the needs of Colorado’s underserved students. In 2004, seeing the difficulty faced by older immigrant youth in mainstream public schools, he established and served as the superintendent of the New America School.  Today, the New America School operates four campuses in Colorado and planned campus in New Mexico to extend the benefits of English literacy and a high school liberal arts education to all students. In the fall of 2005 he co-founded the Academy of Urban Learning to address the challenges faced by teens who struggle with homelessness or unstable living conditions. 

Polis serves on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Conservation Voters, the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, and the Anti-Defamation League. He has served as Vice-Chairman of the Colorado Commission for High School Improvement and Chairman of the National Association of State Boards of Education’s Commission on Financial and Investor Literacy.

2990 Shadow Creek Drive, #308
Boulder, CO 80303
303-877-1361
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A Democrat, he was elected in 2008 to the CU Board of Regents to represent Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District. The son of immigrant parents from Eritrea, in northeast Africa, Neguse has spent most of his life in Colorado.

He graduated summa cum laude from CU-Boulder in 2005 with dual bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science. As CU-Boulder student body president and chair of the Intercampus Student Forum, he became a voice for nearly 54,000 students in the CU system before state agencies, the Colorado Legislature and the CU Board of Regents.

Neguse co-founded and directed the Fund Our Future Campaign, a grassroots effort aimed at increasing state funding for public higher education. Recognized widely for his efforts, Neguse became first CU student to be bestowed with an "emeritus" standing by the Board of Regents. Following his graduation, he served as the assistant to former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, Rep. Andrew Romanoff.

He also has worked in the Boulder City Manager’s Office, and as an extern in Gov. Bill Ritter’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Currently a third-year graduate student at the CU Law School, he is a commissioner on the Boulder Housing Authority, appointed by the Boulder City Council, and is serving a three-year term on the CU Alumni Board of Directors.

Neguse bio from: www.colorado.gov/government/elected officials