Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez made the case for the state taking over management of federal lands during a debate with Gov. John Hickenlooper Aug, 30 in Grand Junction. (William Woody, Special to The Denver Post.
It’s not that unusual for candidates to expouse views contrary to what polls say the public wants. Gov. John Hickenlooper, for instance, switched from a supporter to an opponent of the death penalty before this year’s re-election campaign. A Denver Post poll earlier this month indicated Coloradans support capital punishment about 2-to-1.
Thursday Bob Beauprez found himself on the wrong side of public opinion. At the Aug. 30 debate with Hickenlooper in Grand Junction, the Republican nominee said the state should consider taking control of federal lands within its border. Hickenlooper opposes it, saying the costs just to maintain the property would top $200 million a year. A poll released by the nonpartisan Center for American Progress found a majority of voters in eight Western states, including Colorado. oppose the idea because of the cost to their states.
The center used a bipartisan polling team that this month surveyed 1,600 voters — 200 in each of the eight states — and found 59 percent said having states absorb the cost of managing public lands was unfair to taxpayers in the respective states. about 35 percent support state control.
“The overwhelming majority of Westerners view the national forests and other public lands they use as American places that are a shared inheritance and a shared responsibility,” stated David Metz, president of FM3 Research, one of the firms that conducted the survey. “Rather than supporting land transfer proposals, voters say their top priorities are to ensure public lands are protected for future generations and that the rangers and land managers have the resources they need to do their jobs.”
Leaders in several states are considering a push for control over land managed by federal agencies, including national parks and leased grazing lands. Beauprez called it a “fight we have to wage. If you believe in state sovereignty, if you believe in the way this republic is supposed to work, we do need to stand up and push back on the federal government and I’ll push back,” Beauprez said in Grand Junction, adding “This is supposed to be Colorado’s land, not the federal government’s.”
The approval ratings for federal agencies that manage land varied widely in the survey. The Bureau of Land Management was at the bottom with a 14 percent approval rate and the National Park System was the highest at 60 percent.
“Whatap more, 94 percent of respondents’ said that their last visit to national public lands was a positive experience,” the Center for American Progress stated in releasing the results.
More about the survey .
