The New York Times had an interesting item today about western voters who would seemingly be part of the GOP base, but who are staunchly opposed to some of the energy policies they’re confronting in the region — sometimes literally in their backyard.
As a sometime carpenter, Keith Goddard has all the work he can handle in this place where new houses rise with the sun and a gas well is poked into the ground just about every other day.
But Mr. Goddard is worried sick. From his backyard here on Colorado’s West Slope, he can see the little bit of unspoiled paradise left in this valley, the high, green top of the Roan Plateau. That piece of public land is where he goes to make his living in the fall, as a hunting guide. Energy companies want to drill on it.
“It’s crazy what’s going on,” said Mr. Goddard, who has a face deeply reddened by the mountain sun.
Mr. Goddard, who says he is a political independent, has organized hunters to protest government plans for introducing gas wells into grazing areas for deer and elk. “I’m not against oil and gas development,” he said, “but when you put wells in every 20 acres, that means you’re no longer managing public lands for the public anymore.”
It’s not just Goddard. The NYT piece noted how ranchers, cowboys, small property owners, and local government leaders are chafing at the pace and scope of the Bush administration’s push for energy development.
“The word from Washington is drill, drill, drill, and now they’ve basically destroyed our ranch,” said Tweeti Blancett, a coordinator for George Bush’s presidential campaign in San Juan County, N.M. “We’ve been in a firestorm down here. A lot of Republicans are upset.”
It’s important to note that it’s not just over drilling.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October, for example, that hunters and outdoorsmen are also growing increasingly frustrated with the Republican agenda at the federal level.
Larry Dwyer, Oscar Simpson and Alan Lackey are lifelong Republicans who voted for President Bush in 2000. They agree with many of the president’s policies. But they won’t be voting for Mr. Bush this year, they say. All three are elk hunters who spend much of the year anticipating outdoors vacations in New Mexico and Colorado. They argue that the administration has bad conservation and wildlife policies that threaten what is dearest to them: public hunting grounds.
“It happens to be my biggest issue,” said the 48-year-old Mr. Dwyer recently as he and his companions rode on horseback through a valley in the Carson National Forest in New Mexico. Elk season here started Oct. 1.
The three represent a small group of hunters, fishermen and other outdoorsmen who are considering leaving their Republican roots this year.
Long term, as populations shift westward, this is the trend Dems need to be cognizant of. In 2004, nine “red” states backed Bush by smaller margins than in 2000 — seven of those nine were in the west (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming). To be sure, John Kerry was not exactly within striking distance in most of these, but my point is there’s an opportunity in this region that hasn’t existed before. Dems’ success in Montana could be the start of a broader regional trend.
Howard Dean has argued, and I agree that the West is “fertile ground” for the party. For all the talk about how Dems can and should work to regain footing in the South, the future, it seems, is out West.