Mountain States Feel the Neglect of Presidential Campaigns

Out here, it takes a strong sense of self not to take the repeated quadrennial snubs personally. If you happen to live in Idaho, an actual sighting of a presidential candidate is a rare event (excluding independent Alan Keyes, who stopped by recently). Ditto for Montana and Wyoming.

Utah is scarcely on the national political map, either. Oh, candidates might drop by Arizona on their way to fund-raisers in California, but never in summer. Rural Colorado and its agricultural concerns remain largely undiscovered while the manicured ski slopes of Aspen can be teeming with off-duty politicians. And until a few days ago, only one of the leading presidential candidates, George W. Bush, had even set foot in Nevada and New Mexico during his campaign.

As far as presidential campaigns go, this is the region that gets flown over, overlooked and flat-out ignored. With few electoral votes at stake, and primaries that fall late in the political season, the eight-state inter-mountain West gets short shrift.

“For much of the Rocky Mountain region, I believe people feel not only left out but disenfranchised,” said Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer, a Republican, in an interview. “The general attitude with the current administration is that the West is of little consequence. We are treated like a Third World country.”

Region’s Concerns Go Unheard

To be marginalized in political debate can have serious implications for the states in the nation’s fastest-growing region. Not only do the West’s particular issues fail to gain a national platform, but the concerns of its residents, including a significant and growing Latino population, remain unheard.

Ignoring these states--Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming--is not as politically correct a strategy as it used to be. According to a report released last month by the Denver-based Center for the New West, even as the inter-mountain West remains staunchly in the Republican column, the growth of mostly Democratic Latino voters means no state here can be taken for granted. Even so, Bush appears to have a lead right now over Vice President Al Gore.

“Voters in the West are a neglected constituency,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “Presidential candidates have a responsibility to know the entire American family.”

As in most families, some members get more attention. With a combined 40 electoral votes, the inter-mountain West is utterly trumped by the coastal colossus, California, with its 54 electoral votes.

A look at the state-by-state visits by the two presumptive presidential candidates tells the tale. Since he started his campaign through the end of May, Democrat Gore had made a total of eight visits to the region, getting to half the states. In the same time span, Gore had campaigned in early-primary Iowa 44 times. Republican Bush’s numbers soared with his swing last week through four Western states. Still, Bush’s 13 trips to these eight states since the start of his campaign paled in comparison to his 36 visits to New Hampshire.

Don’t get Western leaders started on the issue of the front-loaded primaries, which punish their region more than most. Idaho just held its presidential primary last week and Montana and New Mexico vote today. With the party nominees all but sorted out, these states see little campaigning.

To avoid future avoidance, the Western Governors Assn., with Republican Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt leading the effort, has been attempting to organize a regional super primary, with little success. And the organization is livid about being ignored by the Commission on Presidential Debates and has asked to host even a vice-presidential debate. As if to complete the circle, Denver lost its bid to host the Democratic Convention to Los Angeles.

“In the final analysis, the campaigns will do their intelligence gathering and go slug it out where they think they can get the most electoral votes,” conceded James M. Souby, executive director of the Western Governors Assn. “But we do have some distinctive issues that deserve consideration.”

Cecil Andrus, a former governor of Idaho and secretary of the Interior, is so concerned that he hosted a conference last week in Boise to outline the “Western agenda” for the next president, even if that eventual winner has never been to the state.

“In our part of the world,” Andrus wrote in last week’s Idaho Statesman, “the national candidates occasionally stop by for a photo opportunity or an airport news conference, but they rarely devote more than a passing glance at the issues that shape our quality of life and drive our economy.”

The issues of particular interest in the West are the management of public lands, the troublesome twins of growth and sprawl and, especially in the region’s economically-stagnant rural areas, job development.

Bush has been well briefed on Western issues, if his recent whirlwind swing through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada is a gauge. True, he seldom lingers, hitting two or three states in one day. But even standing on the tarmac at Albuquerque International Sunport, Bush was able to ratchet up the vocal twang and play to his audience.

“I was raised right across the border in Midland, Texas, and I’ll take great pride in carrying New Mexico come the fall,” Bush said to a clutch of cameras last week.

It was the Texas governor’s first-ever campaign trip to New Mexico, which is the most strongly Democratic of all the mountain states. He wasted no time in reminding his audience of his Western credentials.

“I’m from the West. People understand that I come from the part of the world where individual responsibility is part of the credo of the West,” he said. “People recognize that there is a role for government but there’s also a healthy disrespect for what government can do. We trust people and I trust people. I trust people to make decisions in their lives.”

Flanked by Republican governors from Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada at an event at Lake Tahoe, Nev., Bush harped on what he considers the Washington-centric view emanating from the Clinton administration. He went on to pledge to consider local views before making decisions about federal land. Such statements are all but guaranteed to provoke a robust cheer in the West, where 75% of the federal government’s real estate holdings lie.

Bush could be charged with preaching to the converted. The Center for the New West report has Bush leading in six of seven Western states. The late May poll (with a margin of error of 4 percentage points) shows the two tied in New Mexico.

Idaho Is Nation’s Most Republican State

Idaho is now the nation’s most Republican state--its Legislature is 85% GOP and the last time a Democratic presidential candidate carried the state was 1964, barely. “We have four electoral votes and they are not in play,” said Dan Popkey, political writer for the Idaho Statesman. “They have never been. I’ll bet the house that Bush wins here.”

Gore has been largely absent from the interior West, passing straight through to California. The strongly Republican states may not provide a hospitable environment, but aides say such states may prove to be more than an afterthought in a very close general election.

Of the major campaign speeches listed on Gore’s Web site, none was delivered in a Western state or addressed Western issues. The vice president did reach a landmark of sorts here, when he addressed a town hall meeting for four hours at an Albuquerque middle school. Mindful of where he was, Gore wore black cowboy boots and a bolo tie.

President Clinton surprisingly carried Arizona in 1996, but it was the first time for a Democrat since Harry Truman. Republicans are counting on a win there, but are putting in little face time with the state’s voters.

Which suits some pundits just fine.

“For me, I’m kind of glad they are flying over; I’m not thrilled with either of them,” said Arizona Republican pollster Bruce Merrill of Bush and Gore. “It’s hot in the summer and in Arizona nobody pays attention to politics until after Labor Day. Frankly, all the Arizona Republicans are on the beach in San Diego.”

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How the West Is Won

Don’t go looking for presidential candidates among the eight states of the inter-mountain West. With only 40 electoral votes at stake--California alone has 54--and a heavily Republican population, the region is anything but a battleground.

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IDAHO

Population: 1.2 million

Electoral votes: 4

No party registration

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NEVADA

Population: 1.7 million

Electoral votes: 4

% of Democrats: 41%

% of Republicans: 42%

Other: 17%

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UTAH

Population: 2.1 million

Electoral votes: 5

No party registration

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ARIZONA

Population: 4.7 million

Electoral votes: 8

% of Democrats: 40%

% of Republicans: 45%

Other: 15% *

MONTANA

Population: 880,000

Electoral votes: 3

No party registration

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WYOMING

Population: 481,000

Electoral votes: 3

% of Democrats: 30%

% of Republicans: 59%

Other: 11%

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COLORADO

Population: 4 million

Electoral votes: 8

% of Democrats: 31%

% of Republicans: 37%

Other: 34%

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NEW MEXICO

Population: 1.7 million

Electoral votes: 5

% of Democrats: 54%

% of Republicans: 33%

Other: 13%

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Note: Population figures are 1998 estimates. Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Idaho, Montana and Utah do not require voters to state a political party preference.

Source: Almanac of American Politics, 2000 ed.