Mining for campaign gold in the Mountain West
by Michael Welles Shapiro , Michael Joe and Matthew Rusling
Jun 08, 2007
WASHINGTON--With their eyes on 2008, would-be presidential candidates are tapping into the financial resources of the Mountain West like never before.
In the first three months of 2007, primary campaign contributions from eight Mountain West states – Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada,. Utah and Wyoming – already amount to more than half of all the primary donations given in the 2003-2004 cycle.
The trend can be explained by the earlier than ever presidential campaign season,, by the number of states in the region choosing to move their primaries forward and by candidates from both parties with strong western roots, according to Anthony Corrado Jr., a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine.
But the contributions, $12.2 million combined for both parties, also reflect the strategic importance of the Mountain states – similar to Ohio and Florida in past elections – and the West’s emerging reputation as a battleground region.
Shifts in the population of the region are partly responsible for the political shake up. A Census Bureau report describes “substantive migration” from California – much of it from traditionally liberal coastal counties – to other western states in the 1990s and early this decade, according to the Census Bureau.
In a region where Kerry was swept in 2000 and Gore won a single state in 2000 – New Mexico – people are starting to pay attention.
“Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada are now seen as states that are in play in the election,” Corrado said.
And being “in play” has translated to more campaign visits, more fundraising events and more influence.
“From the beginning I really felt that the pathway to the presidency was through the West,” said Elbra Wedgeworth, President of the Denver 2008 Host Committee.
The Democratic National Convention in Denver, set for August of next year, , will be the second national convention for either party to be held in a Mountain state and the first one in a century. In 1908 Denver hosted the convention that nominated William Jennings Bryan the Democratic candidate. The convention promises to boost regional contributions even more.
The change from past election cycles is like night and day according to Wedgeworth: “They used to call us fly-over country,” referring to presidential candidates bypassing the Mountain states as they campaigned.
Corrado said “It was generally the case that candidates would have gone to Chicago or Texas and then skipped straight over to California, but now they’re stopping to hold fundraisers in Las Vegas and the rest of the region.”
Both parties are raising more money in the mountain region.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., have collected impressive sums from their home states in the Southwest, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a top-tier candidate who is a Mormon, has raised record amounts from heavily Mormon states Utah and Idaho, and Rep. Tom Tancredo, D-Colo., calls the Mountain region his home.
Democrats are especially eager to discuss their resurgence in the region generally.
“I think [the West has] been ignored and written off, honestly,” said Celinda Lake a Democratic pollster and Montana native. “But now there’s a consciousness that it’s shifting Democratic and it can be the swing region in the country.”
Lake points to a string of statewide victories for Democrats throughout the region, but emphasizes the recent gubernatorial contests. In 2002, all eight governors in the region were Republicans. Today five Western governors’ mansions house Democrats – Richardson, Bill Ritter of Colorado, Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming, Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Janet Napolitano of Arizona.
According Lake, any Democratic president would be likely to draw on that group for their Cabinet.
Brian Darling, director of Senate relations at the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation acknowledged that the region – following national trends – had strayed from its traditional conservative leanings. But Darling felt that certain “Western values,” such as gun rights, tended to favor Republicans in the long term.
Lake sees the change as more than a flash in the pan, with Western Democrats carving out a lasting identity.
“The emergence of a tremendous corps of leaders has really redefined the Democratic Party out there. Now when people get attacked for being Clinton-Kennedy Democrats in the West they say ‘no, I’m a Schweitzer Democrat, I’m a Napolitano Democrat.’ ”
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=37931&print=1
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