Ken Buck (third from left)

Ken Buck — one of two Republicans now competing to challenge appointed Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet next year in Colorado’s Senate race — will emphasize his background as a county district attorney and former federal prosecutor.

Buck is the top prosecutor in northern Colorado’s Weld County . And he is hoping to replicate the recent victories for major statewide office scored by former prosecutors — albeit of the Democratic variety.  

One is Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. , who appointed Bennet in January to the seat that Democrat Ken Salazar vacated to become Interior secretary in President Barack Obama’s administration. Prior to his 2006 election to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Bill Owens, Ritter was the longtime district attorney in Denver and a federal prosecutor before that.  

Salazar himself was serving his second term as Colorado’s Attorney General when he was elected in 2004 to the Senate seat Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell left open to retire.