New to the Senate

COLORADO

Mark Udall (D)

Rep. Mark Udall, 58, graduates to the Senate with his cousin, Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

Since childhood in Tucson, the cousins have been close, personally and politically. They are identified as ardent environmentalists, though Mark Udall's positions softened somewhat as he campaigned amid economic turmoil. He once opposed offshore drilling for oil, for example, but shifted in August to support a comprehensive energy strategy that allows some drilling.

Still, he arrives in the Senate with a "green" record that is broad and deep, having pushed to convert the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site into a wildlife refuge and supported giving school districts funds to replace older diesel buses with alternative-fuel vehicles.

During five terms in Congress, Udall had a liberal voting record. He consistently opposed the Iraq war, rejected the construction of a U.S.-Mexico border fence and voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. He fills the seat vacated by Sen. Wayne Allard (R).

He first ran for Senate in 2004 but dropped out to support the eventual winner, Ken Salazar (D).

An accomplished mountaineer known to quote the great Western writer Wallace Stegner, Udall is the son of former congressman and presidential candidate Morris K. "Mo" Udall (D-Ariz.). He worked for two decades with Colorado Outward Bound School, which was renamed Outward Bound West in 2003.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Jeanne Shaheen (D)

Jeanne Shaheen becomes her state's first female senator after an expensive, contentious rematch with the well-respected Sen. John E. Sununu (R).