The Mountain States are where the anti-regulatory Sagebrush Rebellion was born. Where the Marlboro Man became an icon. The home of long vistas and independent outlooks. For years, the region was reliably Republican.
Not now.
Starting in 2004, and with new momentum last week, the West’s independent streak has revealed itself in a swing toward Democrats. What was red, in the palette of political punditry, has become increasingly blue.
The Democrats in these eight states – Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – find their comfort zones in the middle of the road. Increasingly, so do voters.
Many of the most prominent Western Democrats go their own way, some opposing abortion or supporting gun rights – views that don’t always mesh with party leaders in Washington. Yet one of their own – Harry Reid – is the party leadership among Senate Democrats.
Easterners “might as well be on another planet, compared to the Western Democrats,” retired Boise State professor James B. Weatherby recently told The Boston Globe.
“The rough outline of a new Democratic ideology – pragmatic, culturally conservative, libertarian – has begun to emerge in the Mountain West,” writes political journalist Thomas Edsall in the New Republic.
For the moment, Democrats are one big, happy family, embracing the broad coalition of 2006. Policy tensions could easily test this unity as the party exercises its newly won power.
In the Mountain States this past Tuesday, Democrats gained at least three spots in Congress, and outgained the GOP for seats in state legislatures.
Colorado joined five nearby states whose Democratic governors have replaced Republicans.
Three years ago, Republicans held a 7-2 advantage in the Colorado congressional delegation. They lost two of those seats in 2004 and another on Tuesday. A Denver Democrat, Diana DeGette, will succeed a Colorado Springs Republican, Joel Hefley, as the state’s ranking member.
Term limits haven’t done the GOP any favors in the legislature, with Democrats claiming a number of seats vacated by veteran Republicans. “And they did that to themselves,” says political scientist Bob Loevy of Colorado College, noting that the political right loves term limits.
The West has strayed from the GOP before. In 1964, when Barry Goldwater was the party’s presidential nominee, much of the West turned away from the conservative Arizonan. In 1974, it happened again after the Watergate scandal drove Richard Nixon from office. In Colorado, Democrats won the state House and the governorship; it was the first of Dick Lamm’s three terms.
But Republicans have largely dominated in the West in the years since.
This year, Western Democrats had more wins than losses. Here’s where this land of blue skies and red sunsets now is positioned politically:
Five of the eight states – Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana and Wyoming – have Democratic governors (as does neighboring Kansas). In every case, they succeeded Republicans.
Arizona’s delegation in the U.S. House went from 6-2 GOP to a 4-4 tie. Colorado shifted from 4-3 GOP (5-2 in 2002) to 4-3 for the Democrats. There was a chance that seats long held by Republicans in New Mexico and Wyoming could switch, too. Even if they didn’t, the very closeness of the races showed a changing mood.
The Mountain States’ 16 U.S. Senate seats went from 12-4 in the Republicans’ favor to 11-5. That one change, from Republican Conrad Burns to Democrat Jon Tester, was crucial to shifting the control of the Senate.
Colorado didn’t have a U.S. Senate race, but overall it showed the most pronounced shift toward the blue end of the spectrum. Not only did the governor’s office and the U.S. House delegation shift sides, but at least five Democrats replaced Republicans in the state legislature; Democrats handily increased the majorities they won two years ago.
Republicans won two statewide offices, attorney general and secretary of state, but Democrat Cary Kennedy was elected state treasurer.
In the midst of these advances, Denver is pressing its bid to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention, with New York City as the alternative. Denver must satisfy some labor union requirements, but DeGette told The Associated Press that selecting a Colorado convention “will demonstrate that our party is serious about reaching out to people off the East Coast and California.”
The West didn’t hesitate to join other states that approved an increase in the minimum wage – Coloradans went with voters in Arizona, Montana and Nevada in giving their OK.
But it wasn’t entirely a night of “Leftward Ho!” Ballot issues in the Mountain States were a checkerboard of red and blue. Colorado and Idaho conservatively approved bans on same-sex marriage, but Arizona became the first state to reject such a prohibition. Attempts to legalize marijuana were on the ballots in Colorado, Nevada and South Dakota. All three failed, redly.
On the blue side, Colorado voters rejected a couple of ideas that appeal to small-government conservatives: those term limits on judges and easier rules for petitioning onto the ballot.
Today, Democrats in the Mountain States are celebrating as they haven’t celebrated for decades. The political cycle continues to turn their way, although who knows how long it will last.
“You’ve got a blue state,” says Loevy, “at least for now.”
