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the new west conference

Of all the changes taking place in the Mountain West, the most salient with the election less than two weeks away are the political shifts, with a few once reliably "red" Western states leaning Barack Obama's way and, perhaps more tellingly, a growing number of Democrats governing and representing them.

Which is why New York Times columnist Timothy Egan, a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner and third generation Westerner (his grandma grew up in Butte), gave tonight's keynote address at the annual New West conference.

Egan said Democrats' success in the West can largely be attributed to taking social wedge issues off the table, namely "gays, guns and God." Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer was the first Western Democrat to do that, Egan said, which has allowed him to start a political dialogue about important economic issues to which everyone can relate. [more]

new west conference preview

Two of the biggest stories in Montana this year have involved the state's (and the country's) largest private landowner, Plum Creek Timber Co., and they prove just how profoundly Plum Creek's decision making affects Montana.

On Friday morning, at the New West conference, Plum Creek CEO Rick Holley will shed light on his company's future plans. [more]

I had a telling conversation with an old friend several months ago, a devoted environmentalist who's a community college biology teacher living south of San Francisco in a pleasant small town abutting the Pacific. I don't recall how it came up, but she declared, "We've just got to get more people out of their cars." Then came a pregnant pause, followed by her admission that of course, because of where they lived and worked and their packed daily schedules, she and her husband drove themselves and their children everywhere.

I've been thinking about this lately because, well, the roads are still chock full of cars and trucks, and despite an uptick in transit and bicycle use, traffic is still congested here in metro Seattle, and metro regions nationwide. [more]

house race

Republican congressional candidate Cynthia Lummis, a devout Lutheran, said that when she was growing up in Cheyenne many of her closest friends were Mormons, and during her college years she twice considered converting, taking all the introductory lessons for membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Locked in a tight race with Jackson Hole Democrat Gary Trauner for Wyoming's sole US House seat, Lummis is hoping Wyoming's Mormon population -- constituting at least one in ten voters -- will put her over the top against a formidable opponent. [more]

watching the polls

A new poll of Montana voters shows that John McCain holds a four point lead over Barack Obama, 49 percent to 45 percent, further evidence of a swing in Obama's direction in a state that hasn't given its three electoral votes to a Democrat since 1992. McCain had a double-digit advantage less than a month ago.

Because Montana appears to be in play, Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod said after last Wednesday night's debate that Obama and his running mate Joe Biden were considering another visit to the state. [more]

From The New West Blog

Barack Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, said after last night's presidential debate that Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, were now considering visits to states such as Montana and North Dakota, once considered beyond reach, the UK's Guardian reports.

"I think it is fair to say that we are thinking of going into states we were not sure of at all earlier," said Axelrod. "Some things are opening up for us here that no one fully anticipated." [more]

house race

Barbara Cubin is winding down a seven-term run in Congress and retiring in January, after surviving a squeaker of an election in 2006 against Teton County Democrat Gary Trauner.

With the unpopular Cubin's departure, many expected Wyoming's at-large House seat to revert seamlessly to Republican hands. Ordinarily, the race is pretty much decided in the August Republican primary, an election to pick a GOP successor for a spot that hasn't been in Democratic hands for 30 years. Given the GOP's hold on the state, Wyoming's general election has been more coronation than an actual battle.

So why does it look like we have another close one on our hands? [more]

From The New West Blog

Barack Obama diffused the "media-fed" Bill Ayers moment while McCain "scuffed and huffed" during the third and final presidential debate, failing to give an "overarching reason for electing the old guy." That's more or less New York Times Western columnist Timothy Egan's assessment. He writes:

"McCain, though much better on Wednesday night than he was in the first two debates, looked pained, pickled along with his honor. Some of the reaction shots made Bob Dole at his grumpiest look botoxed into serenity by comparison." [more]

From The New West Blog

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Tuesday restored the endangered status for wolves in the Northern Rockies as part of lawsuit filed by environmentalists, and federal wildlife officials said they want to remove wolves from the endangered species list -- again -- by early 2009, Matthew Brown of the AP reports. [more]

From The New West Blog

The Montana Republican Party announced Tuesday that Executive Director Jake Eaton, who was at the center of the party's recent failed attempt to challenge the registrations of nearly 6,000 voters in the state, had left his position to pursue other interests, the AP reports.

The party said it had hired former state lawmaker Larry Grinde of Lewistown to replace Eaton. [more]

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