CENTENNIAL, Colo.—Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle says Democrat Barack Obama can’t claim to understand the West just because he is from Hawaii.
The Republican governor appeared with former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown of Colorado to campaign in the Front Range for Republican John McCain on Tuesday.
As an island state in a tropical environment, Hawaii doesn’t have issues such as forest fires and electricity grids that cross state lines, Lingle said.
“This is just another example of Obama willing to say and do anything to win,” Lingle said.
Owens said Obama doesn’t understand the challenges Americans face and that the spending Obama supports would mean higher taxes and more debt. He said McCain, an Arizona senator, would take the country in a new direction.
But current Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, said Coloradans are hungry for the kind of change Obama would bring, including a national new energy economy.
“We need a federal partner who will protect Colorado’s mountains, forests, wildlife and water,” he said.
In a statement released by the Obama campaign, Sen. Ken Salazar said, “It is important to remember that Vice President Cheney is from Wyoming, but that doesn’t mean he has been good for the West.” Salazar has said McCain has voted against renewable energy and opposed the recent farm bill, which McCain has said was bloated and laden with pork.
Two recent polls show Obama leading McCain in Colorado.
A Suffolk University presidential poll of 600 likely Colorado voters showed Obama with 47 percent support to 43 percent for McCain. The telephone poll conducted Oct. 10-13 had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
A Quinnipiac University telephone poll of 997 randomly selected likely voters showed Obama with 52 percent support to 43 percent for McCain. The poll was conducted Oct. 3-7 and had a 3.1-point margin of error. Obama’s margin was the same when 1,088 voters were polled Oct. 8-12, after last week’s debate. The margin of error for that poll was 3 percent. The Quinnipiac polls were conducted for The Wall Street Journal and the Web site of The Washington Post.
