Sometimes we forget that art is a spiritual path and that spiritual journeys are characterized by time in the desert. -Julia Cameron

Tall and senatorial looking, Mark Udall, D – Colo.) Seemed relaxed and at home Saturday afternoon at Bent’s Fort Inn.

A small group had been gathered together by Bent County Democratic Chairman Alex Netherton when Las Animas was added at the last minute to a brief weekend swing through southeastern Colorado.

Netherton apologized for the small turnout, saying he’d only had time to send information to television and radio about the Las Animas stop.

Udall at first joked with his visitors, alluding to the current “family motto: Vote for the Udall nearest you.” That was in reference to his cousin Tom Udall, (D – N. M.) also a five-term Congressman who is running for the U. S. Senate in New Mexico.

At least one attendee was silently thinking about the carpetbagger issue. That question was answered. Mark Udall migrated into Colorado to run successfully for Congress in 1998, but he told the gathering his mother was a Colorado native and that he had returned to her roots.

He said his cousin Tom similarly had returned to his mother’s roots in New Mexico. Mark Udall’s campaign site reveals his father also had brief ties to Colorado. Mark’s father is Morris (Mo) Udall, who played for the Denver Nuggets before serving 30 years as a Congressional representative from Arizona.

His uncle Stewart, Tom’s father, was also a Congressman and was Secretary of the Interior under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

With a pedigree like that, Udall understandably brings an aura with him into any Democratic gathering whose members have a feel for the political history of the west.

And he also brings a fairly consistent battle-tested liberal perspective that goes back for generations and influences his contemporary thinking.

A campaign spokeswoman, Taylor West, told the Democrat that Udall has worked with Senator Allard on some issues, such as resolution of the environmental mess at Rocky Flats, which was turned into a wildlife refuge.

Within the Democratic Party, she said Udall’s lone challenger is a northeastern Colorado county chairman who is very cordial with the Udall campaign and who even helped organize an upcoming campaign stop. West said the man has said he is only running to call attention to some issues.

Because Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s Mormon background had played a role in the national debate, she was asked about Mark Udall’s relationship to his Mormon ancestors.

West said Mark’s grandfather had been a devout Mormon, his father had been a lapsed one and Mark has chosen to go another way.

The upcoming Senate race in Colorado should be a donnybrook, and so far the polls indicate a tight race between Udall and Republican front-runner Robert Schaefer, a former Congressman in the local Fourth District.