WE NEED THIS GUST OF FRESH AIR

Please, Let it be Grijalva for Interior Secretary

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post and several bloggers are naming Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as a "leading contender" for Obama's pick for Secretary of the Interior. This cabinet position usually goes to a westerner, and Grijalva would be an excellent choice.

He current chairs the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and has been an outspoken advocate for protecting national parks, wilderness and wildlife habitat in the West, recently opposing the Bush Administration's plans for oil and gas leasing and coal mining in critical areas and resisting deep cuts in national park budgets.

Column: Politics

Mountain West Cities Join National Protest Against Prop 8

No matter your feelings about gay equality and marriage, the issue is firmly political. It’s the civil rights movement of our day, and can no longer be relegated to a fringe few --especially after the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, in California ten days ago.

Donors from many states gave money to help pass Prop. 8, but Idahoans donated more than $400,000 to pass it, second only to Utah in out-of-state contributions.

Several publications, including Pride Depot, are calling for a boycott of businesses on the donor list.

A national day of protest called “Join the Impact – Promote Love and Equality in Your City” on Saturday aims to bring national attention and a collective experience to people who want to claim their support for gay marriage and their objection to the California initiative.

In the Rocky Mountain West – at least in the states where New West publishes - there are 19 events scheduled for tomorrow, all at 11:30 Mountain Time, which are listed here.

Is Wyoming the Reddest State? Or Just One of the Palest?

According to the presidential election results, Wyoming and Oklahoma shared the distinction of giving the highest percentage of votes to John McCain, at 65 percent and 66 percent respectively. Wyoming recorded the lowest percentage of support in the nation, at 33 percent, for Barack Obama.

Even Wyoming's arch conservative neighbor Utah went slightly lighter on McCain, 63 percent and slightly heavier on Obama, 34 percent.

But does that make Wyoming the country's reddest state? More troubling, is there a degree of racism in the Wyoming electorate?

All Three Wyoming D.C. Spots Stay With GOP

Lummis Beats Trauner for Wyoming Congressional Seat

Bolstered by a last minute appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney, Former Wyoming treasurer Cynthia Lummis handily defeated Democrat Gary Trauner Tuesday in the most expensive U.S. House race in Wyoming history.

By 10 p.m. Tuesday with more than 98 percent of the ballots counted, Lummis held an insurmountable 20,000 vote lead, 50 percent compared 43 percent for Trauner.

Not even the 10,000 votes gained by Libertarian David Herbert, a potential spoiler, could have changed the fate of the two-time Democratic candidate.

Lummis joined GOP U.S. Senate candidates Mike Enzi, the incumbent seeking his third term, and John Barrasso, an interim appointee vying to replace the late Sen. Craig Thomas, in a clean sweep of the state’s three Congressional seats. The election marked the first time in more than a century that both Wyoming U.S. Senate seats and its single U.S. House seat have been up for grabs.

And true to recent form, all three remained in GOP hands.

The New President and the New West

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.

FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Sportsman’s Warehouse CEO Speaks Out on Cooper Firearms Controversy

Anybody who has been following the cyber-firestorm over pro-Obama statements and campaign contributions made by Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, knows that as part of the collateral damage, life has gotten hectic at Sportsman's Warehouse.

After the story broke on October 28 in USA TODAY and became the subject of my column on NewWest.Net five days later, gun owners angry with Cooper besieged Sportsman's Warehouse's 66 superstores and corporate headquarters with threats of a boycott if the company didn't stop selling Cooper's products. Then, gun owners angry with gun rights activists calling for the boycott went into those same stores threatening their own boycott if America's Premier Outfitter didn't continue selling Cooper products.

You got to feel for Sportsman's Warehouse, obviously caught in the middle of a controversy they didn't create, so I called CEO Stuart Utgaard. He was anxious to clear it up for us.

Will Herbert Play Spoiler in Wyoming House Race?

On the eve of Tuesday's general election, it appears that a Libertarian may again be poised to play the spoiler's role in 2008.

No stranger to running for office, W. David Herbert, of Riverton, ran against Michael Enzi and Kathy Karpan in 1996, competing to fill the seat of retiring Senator Alan Simpson. That means Herbert is also no stranger to defeat.

This year, too, Herbert concedes that his chances of winning outright on November 4 are "not realistic at all." Herbert says his main reason for running is "to keep my party on the ballot."

THE SCARIEST THING THAT HAPPENED ON HALLOWEEN

Gun Lobby Attack Dogs Strike Again

Something extremely scary happened last Friday on Halloween. Dan Cooper, President and Founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, resigned.

Not so scary, you say. Well, wait until you hear why. If you believe in freedom and that there's a reason why the right to free speech is the First Amendment, prepare to be terrified.

Editor's note: Links to three updates at the end of the story.--Bill Schneider

washingtonpost.com chat with newwest.net

Q & A: The West in Play

NewWest.Net editor and reporter Robert Struckman chatted live on washingtonpost.com this morning, discussing the nuances of the political changes taking place in the Rocky Mountain West.

The transcript after the jump.