Politics News | New West Network

Introducing...

Driving past most any Western city these days is a little like watching those time-lapse films back in grade school. Empty fields become bulldozed lots become framed houses become finished homes with trucks in the driveway and new grass in the yard.

It’s a time of dramatic change in the Mountain West. And I’m excited to say that we at NewWest.Net are now launching a quarterly print magazine to help us tell the big story of growth and change in the region.

The best way to check out our magazine is to subscribe. We want to know who’s interested in The New West, so we have made the magazine available free to qualified subscribers who answer a short questionnaire.

• Click here for the questionnaire for a free subscription.
• You can also subscribe for $9.95 a year by clicking here.

We’d love to hear your input and feedback on our new venture. Comments? Criticism? Story ideas? I’d love to hear them. You can email me at . And click “more” below for the full announcement. 

Richardson Grok

Water, water, everywhere. Now share it: New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson gaffed again when he told Michigan and Wisconsin audiences that the states were awash in water that they could share with the dry west. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm's response to sharing the wealth? "Hell no." Richardson then back pedaled furiously. His press secretary told the Detroit Free Press, "Richardson believes firmly in keeping water in its basin of origin and of the rights of states to oversee water distribution," even though he's still proposing a nationwide water summit.

As the primary nears, Richardson's going on the offensive against Hilary Rodham Clinton. In an Associated Press report from Las Vegas, Richardson said Clinton is "acting like she's already won" the nomination, specifying that Clinton decided not to remove her name from the primary ballot in Michigan, despite a promise not to campaign in the state because it broke party rules in scheduling the contest before Feb. 5.  [more]

Western Politics

Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) is expected to announce his retirement today in a press conference in Albuquerque.

Recently, Domenici's health has been questionable. News accounts say he's suffering from a "progressive brain disease." The senior senator is the state's longest serving, and holds the senior Republican position on the Energy and Natural Resources and Appropriations committees. This year hasn't been so good to the senator: he, along with heir-apparent congresswoman Heather Wilson was said to have pressured former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to bring indictments in a politically charged corruption investigation of local Democrats ahead of last year's election.   [more]

Richardson Grok

Bill Richardson tried yet again to draw a distinction between himself and the other democratic presidential candidates yesterday.

Appearing before the Laborers' International Union of North America convention, Richardson told the audience that unlike his competitors, he would leave no residual troops in Iraq after his six month pullout plan had been completed. As quoted in The Swap, "The Iraqis want us out of their country, and they will not make the hard choices necessary for political reconciliation until we make it clear that we are leaving for good," he said.

Even though Richardson gaffed the name of the SEIU ending a speech recently (he thanked AFSME, one of the Service Employees International Union's chief rivals), he's still working hard for the union vote. Thehill.com notes that several of the democratic hopefuls say they will resurrect a controversial ergonomics rule that President Bush overturned in 2001.
  [more]

Richardson Grok

The latest CNN poll, released late Monday night, showed Bill Richardson has gained significant points since the June 3 debate in New Hampshire. According to CNN, the poll involved telephone interviews with 309 New Hampshire adults who plan to vote in the Democratic primary January 22, 2008. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 6 percentage points. While Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama also gained points, John Edwards has lost support. He's now at 12 percent, with Richardson close behind at 10 percent. CNN notes that Richardson may have gained support during the debate because voters perceived him as decisive. CNN also wrote that 57 percent of New Hampshire Democrats noted the war in Iraq as a key deciding point.

If that's the case, then Richardson's his strong statement on Iraq Sunday night could have won over more voters. The El Paso Times, among other newspapers, picked up the Associated Press report of Richardson's statement: "I would leave no troops in Iraq whatsoever. The difference between me and the other candidates is, they would leave troops there indefinitely, and I would not," Richardson told the report on Late Edition on CNN.
  [more]

Richardson Grok

New Mexico Bill Richardson is big as life, and we're not talking about his weight (which appears to be a fascination with the New Mexico, national press and blogger corps). We're talking about his stories. You know, those little yarns he tells over and over that somehow become perceived as truth? First there was the baseball tale: Last November he admitted that the claim that he was a pick of the Kansas City A's in 1966 was untrue. Now he's decided that he's no longer going to tell the story about Lance Corporal Aaron Austin, who was killed in action in 2004. When Richardson told the tale, he added that he met Austin's mother and had a conversation with her about her son's $11,000 death benefit, which spurred him to go to the legislature, where he lobbied for a much more generous one. But lately Richardson's decided to stop using Austin's name after Austin's mother noted she remembers no such conversation.   [more]

Richardson Grok

Bill Richardson seems to really love New Hampshire. He's been traipsing here and there visiting with locals, touting renewable energy power plants, and charming newspaper reporters and bloggers in the Live Free or Die state. Richardson visited a renewable energy plant in Portsmouth. He told seacoastonline.com that if elected, he'd want out of Iraq, and fast, and he'd work on getting all Americans health insurance. He stopped by a local house party down in Salem, Mass., where he apparently faced some tough questions from the crowd of about 50 people gathered in the home. The participants included teachers, doctors and the elderly, who peppered the presidential candidate with questions about health care policy, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the future of social security.

Richardson also appeared at the Rockingham County Clambake, where the topic was science and technology. One of his goals for the Democrats is to become the party of science and technology. Not sure what that means, exactly, but it sounds suspiciously like his entire gubernatorial tenure in New Mexico (including that little 'ol stip-o-asphalt, the New Mexico Spaceport.)  [more]

Richardson Grok

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson seems to be making good on his promise to run a very grassroots campaign. After the recent debate, Richardson was hanging out with bloggers in California. The California Majority Report writes about the western shift from red to, well, purple in its politics, and Richardson's explanation of that shift: Richardson said Western "leave me alone" libertarians feel out of place in today's Republican party. And rising support for alternative energy and the environment have given rise to new grassroots activity.. The blog also noted Richardson's unpolished speaking style and, on a positive note, his focus on ideals rather than talking points, left a favorable impression on the ten or so young people in the meeting.

On a more mainstream note, Richardson still dreams of baseball, according to Fox News, reporting on an Associated Press interview which asked 14 presidential candidates from both parties to describe their alternate lives. Richardson hearkened back to his days as a right handed pitcher for Tufts University, where he was not recruited by the Kansas City A's in 1966. He did, however, play for the Cape Cod League's Cotuit (Mass.) Kettleers in the summer of 1967.   [more]