Recent Arizona history has provided us with plenty of grimly entertaining political characters: Used-car salesman Evan Mecham’s first act on being elected governor in 1987 was refusing to sign into law Martin Luther King Day. Less than two years later, he was impeached by the state Senate. Current Gov. Fife Symington isn’t in danger of […]
Arizona: Harvesting a bumper crop of bombast
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Washington: Greens storm the suburbs
Northwest environmental activists have branched out from their natural urban habitat and invaded the bright shiny suburbs of the Pacific Northwest, looking to wake up the green vote that slept through the 1994 election. Washington state has become a national battleground since 1994, when it threw out five Democratic House members – including Speaker Tom […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Skunked Democrats hope to turn the tide
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. What happens in Washington state will reveal a lot about the difference two years can make. Democratic leaders hope to shake up the state Legislature the same way they want to win back the House of Representatives. The current state House has the worst known […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Montana: For veteran Baucus, it seems to be in the bag
In polling, a lot depends on how you ask the questions. And on how you read the answers. Max Baucus, a Democrat running for his fourth term in the U.S. Senate, points to polls that have consistently put him 10 or more points above Republican challenger Dennis Rehberg, Montana’s current lieutenant governor. But Rehberg sees […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
California: A 28-year-old talks the talk to green voters
Compared to the passionate fight to save redwoods from logging in the privately owned Headwaters grove, the campaign for California’s 1st Congressional District is a skirmish. But it has attracted national environmental groups aiming to strengthen protections for wildlife, water and woods. Their target is Republican Frank Riggs. The district ranges from the well-heeled wineries […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Montana: A scrappy Republican tries to cut down a green Democrat
Rick Hill was so far behind in the polls last winter that his two Republican primary opponents said Hill wasn’t even a contender for Montana’s one seat in the House of Representatives. So Hill tried something. He went negative. He attacked his Republican opponents, who both complained he was being nasty and unfair when he […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
A conservative legislature may move to the middle
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. When the Montana Legislature last met in 1995 (they meet every other year), the Republican majority weakened many environmental laws, including water quality regulations that protected the state’s clear streams and rivers. “They (the Republican legislature) angered every demographic group for one reason or another,” […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
A “down time” for Utah environmentalists
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. With the possible exception of Democrat Ross Anderson, Utah won’t field many surprises this November. The state’s lone Democrat, Rep. Bill Orton, is expected to hold on to his seat in the 3rd Congressional District, even though Democrats fare poorly in Utah. Polls show Orton’s […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Utah: A liberal wilderness lover may prevail
Until Enid Greene Waldholtz’s nationally televised five-hour cry-a-thon about her no-good husband Joe, Utah’s 2nd Congressional District race didn’t look to be the battleground it’s become. But when Republican Waldholtz dropped out of her re-election race because of the soap opera-like disintegration of her marriage, it opened the door for one of Utah’s most colorful […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Colorado: Environment wielded like a hammer in tight Senate race
To hear the candidates tell it, the U.S. Senate race in Colorado is between two guys named “Strickland-the-Lobbyist” and “Allard-Gingrich.” “Allard-Gingrich” votes with the Republican congressional leadership 92 percent of the time, generally to dehydrate rivers, clear-cut forests and sell public lands to private developers. “Strickland-the-Lobbyist” talks pretty green, but has been paid quite well […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Colorado’s status quo holds firm
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Other than the showdown between Strickland and Allard, most of Colorado’s congressional races are all but over, according to most analysts. The 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Pat Schroeder will likely remain in the hands of a liberal Democrat and a woman […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
San Juan County, Utah
Note: this is a sidebar to another news article titled “Navajos win another battle in war for equality.” * 5.2 million acres; 1.2 million of that is reservation land * 6,800 Navajo residents, 76 percent of them living on the reservation * 54 percent of the county population is Navajo * 60 percent of the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Navajos win another battle in war for equality
MONTEZUMA CREEK, Utah – In this hardscrabble corner of southeast Utah, where box-like government houses line the roads and Navajo hogans dot the dry dirt of the surrounding countryside, there’s little evidence of the changes creeping into San Juan County. That’s because the changes started out of sight, in courtrooms and county offices. Now the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to adjudicate
It’s fall in the Pacific Northwest, and the winter rains have already begun. For the next seven months or so, storms will pummel the state of Washington, filling every rivulet and river in the state and chasing people to stores in search of umbrellas and galoshes. But while most people worry about coping with gray […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Dear friends
Thank you, Driggs Three times a year HCN holds board meetings and potlucks with subscribers around the region. Until recently, we tended to gather in places like Sun Valley or Boulder. Those are good places, but we realized we were neglecting less well-known towns. So last winter we met in Colorado Springs, famous as home […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Rustling up votes in Indian Country
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. In late summer, Russell LaFountaine and four friends drove his 30-foot motorhome emblazoned with “Native Vote 96” over 10,000 miles of the West’s highways. Pulling into reservations, casinos and even the Democratic and Republican conventions, they spread their message: If Native Americans want change, they […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Greens prune their message to win the West’s voters
The glow from his laptop computer turns the young man’s face pale green. On the screen is a labyrinthine database: street names, women’s ages, voting records. The bearded activist says that this technology could change the outcome of many of the West’s elections. “First we took the member lists for the environmental groups in the […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
How to talk Western
Would you like to add some colorful Westernisms to your vocabulary? Look no further than Thomas L. Clark’s new book, Western Lore and Language: A Dictionary for Enthusiasts of the American West: Biscuit shooter – The camp cook for ranch operations (1890s). Bizzing – Hanging on the rear of a moving vehicle on a snow-slick […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Overworked and under-appreciated
Durango, in southern Colorado, has become a mountain biking mecca and popular stop on the Southwest tourist loop. But can you make a living there? For both newcomers and old-timers working in the town’s restaurants, bars and shops, the answer is “barely,” according to a report by two nonprofit groups, Grassroots First and the San […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Not coal alone
-Today’s power industry has nearly all of its eggs in the fossil fuel basket,” says the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies (LAW), a policy group based in Boulder, Colo. Its 19-page report, How the West Can Win: A Blueprint for a Clean & Affordable Energy Future, imagines a different scenario: a lesser but […]