Colorado’s Salazar leading contender for Ag Secretary?

While two Minnesotans’ names — those of Rep. Collin Peterson and, perhaps more of a longshot, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie — have been bandied about as potential agriculture secretary candidates in the Obama administration, it appears that Colorado Rep. John Salazar is the leading contender for the job, one of the several positions still awaiting a nominee by the president-elect. The choice is a “surprising” and “risky” one to the Denver Post, which reports the potato farmer and rancher only has six years of public service experience, although a wealth of agricultural know-how. An unfazed (and unnamed) Democratic strategist tells the paper: “If they make John Salazar the Cabinet secretary, he’s going to have five Obama guys around him all the time helping him do the job. His job would be the public face of agriculture.”

House ag committee chair Peterson, who reportedly told the Obama transition team he wasn’t interested in the job, showed support, if not effusively, for Salazar as USDA chief. “He shows up all the time. He pays attention. He really cares about agriculture and rural America,” Peterson said. “He does his homework.”

Update: The Washington Post has an entirely different shortlist: 1.) Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, 2.) Charles Stenholm, ag lobbyist, 3.) Dennis Wolf, Pennsylvania’s ag secretary.