Colorado school chief gets Senate seat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Bennet, head of the Denver public school system, was named to replace Sen. Ken Salazar, the Colorado Democrat who is leaving the Senate to become secretary of the interior in the Obama administration, Colorado's governor said on Saturday.

Bennet, 44, a lawyer who has served as superintendent of Denver's schools since 2005, will serve the remaining two years of Salazar's term, Colorado's Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter said in a statement on his web site.

President-elect Barack Obama in a statement hailed Bennet as "one of the nation's leading education reformers" and said he would bring fresh ideas to Washington.

In 2010, Bennet and anyone else interested in holding the seat would have to run for a full, six-year term.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert; editing by Patricia Zengerle)