What a difference being in play makes.
In most presidential elections since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide, the Rocky Mountain West has been flyover country, considered so reliably Republican that Democrats wrote us off and Republicans took us for granted.
There were exceptions, of course. In 1992, Ross Perot’s third-party bid coaxed Bill Clinton to make a successful run for what were then Colorado’s eight electoral votes, and Bob Dole visited frequently during his 1996 campaign.
But it took Barack Obama’s “Western strategy” to turn the Rockies, especially Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, into battlegrounds. Noting changing demographics and the West’s independent streak, the Illinois senator realized that the three states totaled 19 electoral votes — just one short of longtime kingmaker Ohio. That’s enough, if added to John Kerry’s 2004 total, to win the presidency.
Beginning with the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the West has been so fiercely courted that Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have now made more than 20 combined visits to Colorado. And they’re not just working metro Denver either, but pressing the flesh in such key regional centers as Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Loveland and Fort Collins.
Whether the Western strategy pays off for Obama remains to be seen, though at the moment, he’s favored in all three states. But the campaign has certainly validated the prediction we made in a May 28 editorial that Westerners would be able to air our particular regional concerns, such as water, public lands and energy development, as well as weigh in on national and international issues like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economy.
It’s also worth noting that the statewide campaign in Colorado, along with the battles in New Mexico and Nevada, results almost solely from the Electoral College system.
That system has its critics, including, from time to time, The Denver Post. But without the “winner-take- all” rules used by 48 states (all except Nebraska and Maine), it’s hard to imagine a presidential candidate appearing in person outside of any major media market.
Grand Junction is unlikely to swing a national popular vote, but it could well decide who wins Colorado’s nine electoral votes.
The Electoral College system isn’t likely to change soon. While it lasts, it’s nice to see it finally paying off for Colorado.
