Rocky Mountain Media Grok

Democratic Leaders Look for a Western Political Strategy

By Courtney Lowery, 12-11-06

The big news this week in Western politics is an announcement from a group of influential Democrats that they are creating an organization specifically meant to capitalize on recent Western gains. We think they could have come up with a more original (and not so ... um ... ours) name, but they're so far calling it the New West Project.

As John Aloysius Farrell reports for the Denver Post, leading the group will be New Mexico's Bill Richardson, Montana's Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Colorado governor-elect Bill Ritter and Arizona's Janet Napolitano. The point, Farrell reports, is to "secure and exploit recent Democratic gains" in the West through research and strategizing. But, Matthew Benson reports in the Arizona Republic, Napolitano says electoral votes aren't the only thing the org is looking for.

And while the non-profit group is expected to be in Denver, the president will be Washington D.C.-based Doug Sosnik, who served under Bill Clinton and most recently, worked strategy for John Kerry in 2004. This raises that question that's been bobbling about the region since the mid-term election: How long can Western gains survive when they're "exploited" for a full-blown strategy? After all, isn't this whole thing about Western Democrats being independent?

Montana-based blogger Matt Singer at Left in the West spotted that right away just by the tone of the first coverage of the group and summed it up this way, "1. Westerners don't really like D.C. 2. In order to understand an area, you need to be on the ground."

Elsewhere in Western political news this week...

• John Sarche of the Associated Press reports on the latest push from 10 Senators and Senators-elect in Western states for Denver to be the host of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
  
  
• One of the big players in all of this is New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who if you believed Fox News this week, is already running for president. But, Richardson's office says ... not so much. At least not yet. The Albuquerque Tribune reported on Thursday that Richardson's office says comments were taken "out of context" on the news station and he's still waiting until January to make the decision. In a news release, Richardson's spokesman said, "Other comments from the interview were taken out of context based on a hypothetical question that FOX News posed about the Governor’s strengths should he run for president."
  
  
• Chelsi Moy had a good story in the Great Falls Tribune this week about Montana Senator-elect Jon Tester's staff-up before the 2007 Congress convenes and all the resumes flowing into his offices. Meanwhile, the Billings Gazette's Noelle Straub profiles outgoing Sen. Conrad Burns as he packs up his office to leave after 18 years.
  
  
• One big measure to survive the waning days of the 2006 Congress was a measure Burns had championed during his campaign: a ban on drilling the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana. Sen. Max Baucus carried it through by adding the ban to a tax bill that now only awaits a signature from President George Bush.
  
  
• A lobbyist for the mining industry says beware the 2007 Congress. As Scott Sonner reports for the Associated Press this week, Dan Gerkin, the National Mining Association's senior vice president for government affairs, says the next two years will be "extremely challenging" for the industry.

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