Huntsman, Ritter Demand Feds’ Attention

By Richard Martin, 7-23-08

	Caption: Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. addresses a crowd about a new policy report Tuesday in Denver. Photo by Dave Anderson.

It was surprising to see Govs. Bill Ritter and Jon Huntsman show up yesterday in downtown Denver. Usually it takes a natural disaster or a major fundraising opportunity to get two Western governors, of two separate parties, together in the same room. But Colorado’s Ritter and Huntsman, of Utah, showed up at a press briefing at the offices of a big Denver law firm yesterday to mark the debut of … a new policy report.

Produced by the Metropolitan Policy Program of the centrist Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., the report is titled “Mountain Megas: America’s Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper.” Typically such book-length productions point out the obvious in excruciating statistical detail, and in that sense this no one’s no different: it focuses on five urban areas of explosive growth in the Intermountain West, saying that Arizona, Colorado, Nevad, New Mexico and Utah “are experiencing some of the fastest population growth and economic and demographic transition anywhere in the country.”

That’s not news. The reason the two governors came to herald this report is contained in the subtitle—the “Federal Partnership” part.

Leaders in the “megapolitan” areas of the West – defined as Colorado’s Front Range, Arizona’s “Sun Corridor” (Phoenix-Tucson), the Wasatch Front of Utah, Greater Vegas, and Northern New Mexico – “cannot go it alone,” the report states.

“Western leaders require at least at times, and on certain crucial, mega-scaled issues, a steady, supportive partner in the federal government.”

That’s pretty inarguable. Luckily the governors, speaking to an audience of Denver city officials (including Mayor John Hickenlooper, who also spoke), policy wonks, and journalists, were more blunt.

Huntsman, a moderate Republican who was elected on a platform of economic development and moving beyond Utah’s traditional right-wing religious politics, and the progressive Democrat Ritter were not shy about hammering our national leaders for their fecklessness and inaction.

”We can’t be the redheaded stepchild anymore,” when it comes to federal programs and legislative attention, Ritter stated. “We have to be viewed as an area of so much importance going forward.”

The “mega-scaled issues” outlined by the Brookings work, which is actually part of a larger urban-centered project called the “Blueprint for American Prosperity,” include shifting toward renewable energy, immigration reform, population growth, water scarcity, education, and transportation and infrastructure.

“We face some unique challenges that can’t be resolved without meaningful engagement with the federal government,” added Huntsman. “We can’t do it without federal help and assistance.”

That sounds like the usual gubernatorial spare-changing, politicians jostling for a better spot at the federal trough. But it’s also true that regional politicians, including the Western Governors Association, have been demanding something else that’s in short supply in Washington on serious long-term issues like immigration and global climate change: leadership.

“The world looking to America” on global climate change, asserted Ritter. “They’re waiting for next the president to be a leader on this issue, so that India and China will follow our lead in achieving global greenhouse gas reductions.”

The Brookings report will shortly be gathering dust on Senate staffers’ shelves. But like Huntsman and Ritter’s joint appearance, it’s another signal (along with, oh, that convention thing next month) of the growing economic and political clout of the West – and maybe a hopeful sign of bipartisan consensus on the mega-issues it faces.