CSM: Once-Republican Rockies now a battleground

[Pirate Smile]

Once-Republican Rockies now a battleground

By Josh Burek | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

DENVER – Streaks of blue are turning red-state Colorado as purple as its mountain majesties.
Liberal hues began to multiply in 2004, when Democrats seized control of the general assembly for the first time in 30 years. They intensified last fall, when voters loosened TABOR, a government- spending chastity belt long extolled by fiscal conservatives. This year, Colorado's color wheel is downright dizzying, as a bill to ban public smoking heats up the legislature.

-snip-
What's going on is a flurry of victories for Democratic forces.
In 2004, despite a major voter- registration advantage for Republicans, and the popularity of President Bush, voters added two Democrats - brothers John and Ken Salazar - to its congressional delegation. That same fall, voters famous, or infamous, for parsimony approved $4.7 billion in transit funding, siding with Denver's Democratic mayor instead of the state's Republican governor. Democrats have been piling on victories ever since. Just last week, Senate Democrats passed a bill that would make driving without a seat belt a more serious crime. And this fall, Democrats have strong prospects to win back the governor's chair.

-snip-
Elsewhere in the West, a swaying

It's a tipping point that spans the Continental Divide. In 1999, every state in the region - Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona - had a Republican governor. By the end of 2006, only Utah and Idaho may have one.

-snip-
Image often trumps party loyalty

Sen. Ken Salazar (D) is a case in point. President Bush beat Sen. John Kerry (D) here by 5 percentage points in 2004, but Senator Salazar picked up enough Republican votes to win.
His triumph, though, may say less about partisan trends than about the primacy of image. "It's not always political policy that drives who's in office" in Western states, says Mr. Caldara. "It's often likability, personality, and imagery.
"Ken Salazar never wore a cowboy hat until he ran for Senate. Today, it's stapled onto his head," he adds.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0316/p01s04-uspo.html

The image issue is something Brian Schweitzer figured out as well.

[Warpy]

1. I keep telling y'all that the west is where the next wave of

progressive populism will originate, and I'm talking west of the Mississippi. It's the entrenched party conservatives on both coasts, but primarily the east coast, that haven't gotten the message.

Candidates for office need to listen to Governor Schweitzer, not ex president Clinton.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. You know what they say about great minds...

See my post below. :toast:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I've been saying that for 2 years now.

We should be forgetting about the south and moving more towards West/Southwestern issues. The regional divide in the South has been there since pre-Civil War days, and it isn't going to change any time soon.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. And DLC is pissed at Dean for fighting them there? IDIOTS

extreme idiots.

Keep it up, Dr. Dean, we are behind you.

[DBoon]

5. Increase in Hispanic voters one reason for this?

just asking.