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Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

The headiness of election eve (was it really only a week ago) and some apparently very bad polling gave me a little too much confidence in western voters in making last week's predictions. But elections do have consequences, and while a few key races didn't turn the way Democrats had hoped, there's a new sheriff in town who's got a very tough job ahead of him in dealing with messes in the West. [more]

From the New West blog: Economy

September 2008
Montana, 4.6%
Idaho, 5%
Colorado, 5.2%

October 2008
Idaho, 5.4%
Labor statistics show the eighth consecutive rise in unemployment, with six rural counties at over ten percent each. Double digits haven’t been seen since 1999. Also significant: every city, labor market area and county in Idaho saw a rise in unemployment in October as compared with October 2007.

Montana
The state will release its numbers on November 21. But state economist Barbara Wagner told New West this morning that Montana is “following the same trend as Idaho,” though she noted that the timber industry is hitting Idaho harder. State Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly called Montana's September rate "well within normal."

Colorado
The state will release its numbers this week, but trends in retail sales – down over $600 million last month – may be one indicator.

[more]

FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

If you've been following the Cooper Firearms story (202 comments so far), you might be wondering who was telling the truth. Did Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse cancel orders following the controversy, as I originally reported--or not, as the representatives of the mega-retailers claim.

Well, I finally tracked down Dan Cooper this morning, and we had a little chat--and the answer is: Everybody is telling the truth. [more]

Guest Opinion, Election 2008

Don’t call it a comeback.

After several newspaper reports about his death had been published, Mark Twain famously said “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.” Remember what the media said about the Idaho Republican Party this past summer? They said we were in “disarray” and hopelessly divided. They labeled us as out of touch. And they tried to overwhelm us with negative press coverage. Above all, they said Idaho Republicans had lost their edge and couldn't win. Funny thing is they forgot to check-in with the voters.

All the while, Idaho Republicans stuck to their traditional values: limited government, less spending, lower taxes and a basic respect for private property, personal liberty and the sanctity of life -- as well as a strong commitment to national security and our troops.

Nothing fancy. Nothing difficult to understand. Just time-honored, Constitutional principles that have kept our nation strong – and a lot of hard work out on the campaign trail. We believed in Idaho voters, instead of browbeating them or suggesting they were backward or behind the times, as some liberals did. [more]

Elections 2008

A Democrat winning one of four seats in the Idaho delegation surprised many in Idaho, but apparently the defeated one-term incumbent Bill Sali couldn’t bring himself to believe it until almost a day after other Republicans had moved on. Wednesday, the morning after the election, he had been present at the GOP post-election press conference, and said, “We’re going to wait until things turn out,” even though all the votes had been counted and the margin of victory more than 4,200 votes.

Almost as strange as a Congressman that ungracious in defeat was the Republican gathering the night before where Gov. Butch Otter stood on the podium with Senator-elect Jim Risch during Risch’s acceptance speech, and the full congressional delegation was either mentioned, or they spoke. Sali’s name never came up.

It’s not the first time Sali has been ignored by members of his own party, but it was the most obvious. [more]

NO CANCELED ORDERS

My special Wild Bill column on Monday covered the statements and campaign contributions made Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms in support of President-elect Barack Obama. As his statements caused a firestorm of criticism from his customers on gun websites and blogs, Cooper resigned from the company and said he was worried about the future of his company because two of his biggest retail accounts, Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse, had canceled their orders.

Which turned out to not be true. [more]

PERFECT PLACE FOR BLUE TIDE TO QUICKLY MAKE ITS MARK

On January 5, 2001, with George W. Bush's moving van parked at the back door of the White House, President Bill Clinton signed his now-infamous Roadless Rule. With a stroke of his pen and without the approval of Congress, Clinton protected almost one-third of our national forests, 58.5 million acres, from road building.

The incoming Bush administration immediately reversed the rule, but a judge rapidly reversed the reversal. Ever since, the Roadless Rule has been a tennis ball, back and forth, on and off, mired in a ridiculous succession of administrative rules and court cases, making it hard to decide who's ahead in the game. As I write this, to emphasize the folly, two judges have made opposing rulings, one spiking the Roadless Rule, one re-affirming its validity.

So I say, let's end the tennis match and make the Roadless Rule the law of the land. [more]

Election 2008: Idaho's First CD

For Idaho Democrats, Tuesday night was all about Barack Obama and Walt Minnick.

After Boise election-night gatherings went wild as Obama’s historic win was announced, Democratic candidate for Senate Larry LaRocco conceded his loss to Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, and sentiment for the hard-working stalwart and former congressman LaRocco influenced the mood.

Then the waiting began as the votes were counted for the race for the 1st Congressional District seat between businessman Walt Minnick and one-term incumbent Bill Sali, and the candidates traded places for the lead several times. It wasn’t until about 11:00 this morning that results were final. Minnick took 51% with 175,567 votes; Sali 49%, with 171,324.

Minnick formally declared victory at the Idaho Historical museum at 11:15 in front of a demanding line of cameras and reporters, and was pulled in all directions for many interviews. He and his campaign staff had been up nearly all night waiting for results, and his two younger kids, home from school today, leaned on him from time to time as he was talking.

A conservative Blue-Dog Democrat, Minnick told New West he would make "working across party lines" mean something, and had already spoken with 2nd District Congressman Mike Simpson, who won reelection to his seat. They talked briefly about working on public lands and water issues, the Boulder-White Clouds Initiative and other big projects already being undertaken by the Idaho delegation. [more]

Here in Montana, and across the Rocky Mountain West, the election of Barack Obama represents the startling culmination of social, cultural and political changes that have been underway in this region for many years. You've heard a lot of this by now: the Mountain West, increasingly populated by amenity-seeking coastal migrants and Latino immigrants, and with an independent-minded electorate that's resistant to Republican over-reaching on social issues, is no longer solid red, but rather "in play." And if the breadth of Obama's victory ultimately rendered the electoral votes of Colorado and New Mexico and Montana and Nevada superfluous, the deeper significance of the changes remain.

It certainly didn't play out the way any pundit might have predicted a couple of years ago. Obama, for starters, is hardly the "Western" candidate that many Western Democrats imagined would be the standard-bearer for the inevitable breakthrough. "You guys have a nice deal around here," Obama said in Missoula last spring, with all the wonder of a first-time tourist. He joked about going fly fishing (a river runs through it, after all!), but it's hard to picture him in waders.
[more]

From the new west blog: Election Day 2008

Some voters in Montana and Idaho have received a text message saying, "Flash: Due to very long lines, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday. Thank you. Please forward to everyone."

Of course, the polls close Tuesday night and the message is not true.

Secretaries of State for both Idaho and Montana made the announcement. Ben Ysursa, Idaho's Secretary of State, said he hopes it's someone's idea of a joke, and not an organized effort to illegally influence the outcome of the election. [more]

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