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 […]
Politics
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
Arizona: Harvesting a bumper crop of bombast
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 […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Nevada: Who hates nuclear waste most?
Nevada’s two congressional districts seem a lot like Mutt and Jeff: Covering two-tenths of 1 percent of the state’s land mass but containing half its population, the 1st Congressional District encompasses Las Vegas. The other 99.8 percent of the state is the 2nd Congressional District. In a tight race for the Las Vegas seat are […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Brown air could lead to greener state politics
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Even though Republican Gov. Fife Symington is facing a trial next March for bank fraud, Arizona Republicans say they don’t anticipate a backlash in the upcoming elections. Of the six U.S. House seats now held by Republicans, only the 6th District seat is competitive. Republicans […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Moderates may gain in most conservative state
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. The Idaho Legislature – considered the most conservative assembly in the West – probably won’t change too dramatically this election. Democrats are hoping to double their seats, but even if they do, they’ll still hold barely a third of the Senate and less than half […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
A green state could return to its roots
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. With the possibility of winning another U.S. Senate seat and four out of five House seats, no other state in the West holds greater promise for Democrats than Oregon. Democrats won an early victory in the state last January, when Ron Wyden defeated Republican Gordon […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Can this man break the right’s grip on Idaho?
NAMPA, Idaho – Wearing a pressed plaid shirt and glossy cowboy boots, Walt Minnick is doing his best to fit in with the crowd at the Snake River Stampede, an annual rodeo here, 15 miles down Interstate 84 from Boise. It’s not working. “Walt Minnick, I’m running for the Senate,” the neatly groomed 54-year-old says […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Craig: Betting on Idaho’s enduring conservatism
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. For Sen. Larry Craig, who has been in politics since 1974, the recipe for success is simple: Be a Republican. After all, Idaho has boasted the most conservative state legislature in the country four years running. “He’s not popular like (Wyoming Sen.) Alan Simpson was. […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Compare the candidates
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Walter Minnick Gun Control: The Brady Bill is a good idea, along with immediate checks for criminal records of gun buyers. “I own seven guns, so I’m not against guns.” Term Limits: Elected officials should be limited to 12 years of elective and appointive office. […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
How the New West will vote is anyone’s guess
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. They moved to Boise to kayak the Payette River’s world-class rapids. They came to Salt Lake City for Wasatch powder snow, the lightest on earth. They came to Seattle for Starbucks Coffee, Mount Rainier and the cutting-edge music scene. Since the early 1990s, thousands of […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
It’s the grizzlies and the birds, stupid
CHICAGO, Ill. – “We saved Yellowstone from mining,” President Clinton intoned in his acceptance speech, which was characteristically long, detailed and completely devoid of eloquence. Clinton did not say, “Bob Dole wouldn’t have done that”; he didn’t have to. Dole had done it for him in his own acceptance speech, which was more eloquent, almost […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Politics in cyberspace
What happens when a computer whiz with a penchant for the outdoors decides to tackle politics? Brad Udall, creator of one of the first on-line political action committees, hopes he can influence the composition of the next Congress. Following in the footsteps of his father, former Arizona Rep. Morris Udall, and his uncle, former Secretary […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
The Republicans weren’t dull by a long shot
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – As you no doubt noticed, some of the reporters covering the Republican National Convention here were so bored they wanted to go home. Indeed, one of them did. Ted Koppel of ABC’s Nightline imperiously announced he was leaving before the party ended. Ted missed a good story. Come to think of […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
A green Republican makes a run
Physician Robin Silver of Phoenix is known as an uncompromising environmentalist. Most recently, he forced the federal government to list the Mexican spotted owl as “threatened,” thereby stopping logging in the Southwest (HCN, 9/4/95). He has also fought against construction of a series of telescopes on Arizona’s Mount Graham (HCN, 7/24/95). So some Republicans may […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Doomed park bill just a tool of politicos
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As a young Italian girl once noted, names can be confusing. Take the name, “Presidio.” To the many millions who speak Spanish, it’s no name at all, merely a word for prison. To San Franciscans familiar with their city’s history, it’s the name of a fort the Spaniards built in 1776 when […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
‘Takings’: Lobbyists love it, the public doesn’t
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Remember Mr. Smith proclaiming that lost causes were the only ones worth fighting for? Even without Jimmy Stewart’s comforting drawl, that sentiment strikes a chord. Who can resist the charm of the loser who does not quit, the true believer who persists despite the disapproval of the multitudes? In that light, consider […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
This was the revolution that wasn’t
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Here are two basic truths about revolutions: First, like comedy, revolutions are easy to plan, but very, very hard to pull off. Second, we don’t do them in America. Well, we started with one, and perhaps it continues. Since then there has been lots of change, most of it incremental. For this […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Santa Fe mayor’s friends now foes
When the Santa Fe activists who are organizing an overhaul of the town’s government discuss Mayor Debbie Jaramillo, they sound like initiates to a self-help group. “I spent 14 years of my life promoting her. It’s grossly sad and disappointing,” says activist Don Brayfield. “I worked with her for six years like a lapdog. I […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
GOP moves to rein in its rebels
Two years ago, Barbara Cubin, a first-time candidate for the House of Representatives, stocked sporting goods stores across Wyoming with pamphlets describing her opposition to the “Clinton-Babbitt War on the West.” In Idaho, another first-time candidate, Helen Chenoweth, held a pretend endangered salmon bake to show her scorn for the Endangered Species Act. Now, as […]