A closer look at former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s record of involvement in Colorado is instructive.

With attention now focused on the party establishment’s role in tilting the outcome of competitive primaries this cycle, debate has centered on what the party’s ultimate motivation may be. Is it looking out for the interests of Democratic voters? Supporting the most electable candidate? Or is something else is at play — perhaps a mix of ideological and commercial interests operating under the veil of political pragmatism?

When he was chosen to head Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated transition team in August 2016, the Colorado Independent observed that Salazar was “about as entrenched in the Colorado Democratic establishment as one can be — a former attorney general and U.S. Senator … whom President Barack Obama appointed as secretary of the Department of Interior.” When he was considering a gubernatorial run in March 2017, the Denver Post described him as having “a fortune’s worth of contacts in Democratic politics.”

Ken Salazar is one of the most understated and unassuming political figures west of the Mississippi. He’s also one of the most powerful.

One of the most heated issues in the Colorado gubernatorial race is the future of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. Fracking is a process by which natural gas or oil is extracted from deep under the Earth’s crust, cracking through layers of rock by injecting it with a water and chemical solution or sand. Fracking is highly controversial due to the risks associated with it, which include groundwater contamination and seismic activity.

Environmentalists want a full ban on the practice, but at minimum, they want to empower local communities to shut fracking down themselves. The industry opposes both — fully aware that many of the state’s progressive enclaves would come down hard against fracking if empowered to govern the practice.

At a campaign stop at Colorado College in November 2017, former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, a leading candidate in the race for governor, told students that while she did not agree with a statewide fracking ban, she did support giving cities and localities greater regulatory control over the controversial practice.

“I believe there are places in our state that are just too special to drill,” she said.

In the months leading up to Kennedy’s college appearance, the debate surrounding the issue had become increasingly fraught, thanks to a series of deadly explosions between April and May 2017 that drew national attention and galvanized local opposition. The explosions, which left three dead and three injured, were caused by poorly maintained wells owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.

The first blast occurred in Firestone, Colorado, after two men working in the basement of their home ignited gas which, unbeknownst to them, had been leaking into the house from a nearby abandoned well via an unsealed flow line. The news sparked investigations and fierce backlash against the company, prompting a shareholder lawsuit and the voluntary shutdown of 3,000 wells.

Although Kennedy’s position wouldn’t satisfy those calling for an all-out ban, empowering localities to take action put her on the more progressive end of the conversation. But in a surprise announcement at an April 11 candidates’ forum, she told the audience that she did not support allowing localities to ban fracking outright, nor did she favor mandatory state “setbacks” requiring wells to be a certain distance away from homes and businesses.

“I don’t think we should ban the industry in this state; I don’t support shutting it down,” Kennedy explained. “I do believe that we need a regulatory environment that protects public health, safety, and welfare first, but allows for the development of the resources.”

A few weeks later, Kennedy’s explicit rejection of an all-out ban would take on a different tenor when, on May 1, she earned the coveted endorsement of Salazar.

Salazar, it turns out, is not a disinterested observer when it comes to the politics of fracking. Emails published by International Business Times and MapLight revealed that Salazar was hired as a lawyer and fixer for Anadarko after the Firestone explosion. At WilmerHale, where he remains a partner, Salazar’s focus areas are broadcast as “energy, environment, natural resources.”

Salazar has a history of supporting fossil fuel interests going back to his Senate vote for George W. Bush’s infamous 2005 energy bill, which exempts fracking from the Underground Injection Control provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act. As interior secretary, Salazar opened the Arctic for drilling and helped to implement a plan to move wild horses out of Colorado to free up land for oil and gas extraction. Upon returning to the private sector, he vocally advocated for the Keystone XL pipeline and against restrictions on fracking.

He’s been a particularly good friend to Anadarko. As a report by the International Business Times and MapLight noted, in 2010, “Salazar’s department waived environmental rules for an Anadarko offshore drilling project after the Deepwater Horizon spill even though Anadarko partially owned the well involved in that disaster.” In 2012, it approved a plan to allow the company to “develop as many as 3,600 new gas wells in eastern Utah.” This deal was celebrated as a “victory for the economy, U.S. government, and environmental groups,” the report explains, adding that “both the Bureau of Land Management and the Utah Department of Environmental Air Quality have raised concerns about air pollution from wells in the region.” Salazar is even quoted multiple times in Anadarko’s promotional materials.

Oil and gas extraction was Colorado’s largest industry in July 2017, but fracking has long been controversial in the state — particularly among Democrats. Gov. John Hickenlooper, for example, has faced frequent criticism from the left for his fossil fuel ties, and in the 2016 Colorado primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a vocal supporter of a federal fracking ban, scored a 20-point victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who refused to commit to such a policy. Sanders’s support of the ban was a significant advantage in the primary.

Kennedy’s opponent in the race for governor, Rep. Jared Polis, may similarly benefit from his anti-fracking stance. A wealthy tech entrepreneur, Polis’s financial independence from the oil and gas industry makes him unusual in Colorado. As the Denver Post reported when Polis jumped into the race:

The fight Polis probably is best known for … is his 2014 battle against hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — a process in which energy companies pump water, sand and chemicals into the ground to extract oil and gas. That year, Polis led an effort to put two initiatives on the ballot that would have imposed new restrictions on fracking, including a larger buffer between homes and rigs. The campaign had support of many environmentalists, but it terrified a number of establishment Democrats — in large part because it was seen as potentially damaging to the re-election campaigns of Hickenlooper and then-U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. The worry was that oil and gas companies would spend big to defeat Polis’ fracking measures and — as a result — more conservative voters would turn out and drag down the Democratic incumbents.

A spokesperson for Kennedy’s campaign, Deputy Campaign Manager Serena Woods, denied that Salazar’s endorsement has had an effect on Kennedy’s position, telling The Intercept that “Cary has always supported giving local communities the ability to regulate the industry as they do any other industrial operation.”

Woods went on to confirm that despite the central role that oil and gas play in the Colorado economy, the two have “never spoken about issues related to the oil and gas industry,” in the context of Salazar’s endorsement or otherwise.

Salazar’s intervention in the Colorado gubernatorial race is being repeated in Democratic congressional primaries and local races around the state. Again and again, the party kingmaker is siding with candidates who are friendly to the oil and gas industry.

At the federal level, he’s gotten behind several congressional candidates in primaries against strident fracking opponents. For example, in the congressional race for Colorado’s 2nd District, Salazar is backing Hickenlooper administration alum Joe Neguse against progressive Mark Williams, a 54-year-old Air Force veteran who vocally opposes fracking. Neguse, who secured Salazar’s endorsement when he ran for secretary of state, has also received major support from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, a law firm which boasts that its lawyers have scored several victories against localities trying to control fracking. Although his campaign website calls for closing the “Halliburton Loophole,” Williams questioned his opponent’s commitment on the issue. “That’s as far as he goes,” he told The Intercept.

Williams describes himself as “100 percent for banning fracking,” adding that he also supports a proposed 2,500-foot statewide setback initiative for oil and gas facilities — which his opponent has not weighed in on. “If the bulldozers come across the county line, and they come into the district,” Williams said, “I will be there shoulder to shoulder with the protesters.”

Salazar has also backed Jason Crow in the 6th District, running against progressive Levi Tillemann, who has called for a ban on fracking and an end to oil and gas subsidies. Crow experienced a spurt of political celebrity as the candidate that Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer was advocating for in secretly recorded audio published by The Intercept.