Two years ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must have felt on top of the world. He stood at the helm of a Democratically controlled Congress, and he and his state had just helped put a Democrat in the White House. Reid and his cohorts immediately set to work: They scotched the plan to bury […]
Politics
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
New Mexico: Wolves, wilderness, drilling and Latinos
“Nothing is more attractive to a wolf than the sound of a crying baby,” said then-Rep. Steve Pearce, R, during a 2007 debate over one of his bills, which sought to kill funding for the federal Mexican wolf reintroduction program in southern New Mexico, Pearce’s district. More recently, Pearce expressed his views of land protection […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Oregon: Tea Party limbo
It’s hard to imagine, in these Tea Party times, a guy with a political history like John Kitzhaber’s having a chance to win a major elected office. As a Democratic state senator in the ’80s, he authored Oregon’s government-funded health plan; later, as governor from 1995 to 2003, he expanded the plan, got more funding […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Utah: A Sagebrush Rebel headed for D.C.
Utah’s most important election this year was held in the springtime, when angry right-wingers overthrew three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett in the Republican primary. Mike Lee, a lawyer who pushes high-profile Sagebrush Rebel cases, is now the Republican candidate for Senate. And given Utah’s history, Lee will almost certainly crush Democrat Sam Granato to win […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Washington: Tea Party limbo #2
Washington is a coffee-drinking state; Starbucks is only one of the many java peddlers rooted in Seattle. Tea, however, at least of the political sort, is not catching on. So the fact that some of this year’s races appear to be ramped up on caffeine can probably be blamed on roasted, ground-up beans. HCN’s Guide […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Wyoming: A popular governor gets mysterious
Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal isn’t running for a third term, despite his belief that he could successfully challenge Wyoming’s term-limits law in court and translate his high approval ratings into another win in the ballot boxes. And he’s apparently decided that it’s no longer crucial to have a Democrat in the governor’s office as a […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Arizona: Obama’s curse?
Is President Obama to blame for the Democrats’ troubles? In the West as a whole, maybe. In Arizona? Definitely. When Obama picked Arizona Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano to run his Homeland Security Department, he inadvertently surrendered the state to an ultra-conservative agenda. The Republican Legislature forged ahead with bills closing state parks and selling off […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Idaho: How a Democrat wins in the Northern Rockies
When the votes are counted election night, it might surprise some national pundits if Idaho’s 1st Congressional District goes blue. But Democrat Walt Minnick was a pretty good bet when he wrested the seat from 14 years of Republican ownership in 2008. And since then, Minnick has positioned himself to appeal even more to Idaho’s […]
Posted inRange
Western states seem typical in new study
When it comes to economic performance and financial management, states in the West are fairly typical. Or so says a study whose results were recently published on the Atlantic magazine’s website. Factors considered ranged from violent crime rates and median income to employment trends. To quote from the article, “well-run states have a great deal […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2010: Dancing with Climate Change
Frack forward
Wyoming’s fed-bucking approach to environmental policy
Posted inRange
Can politicians overcome bias?
Editor’s note: David Zetland, a water economist who recently finished a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley offers an insider’s perspective into water politics and economics. We will be cross-posting occasional posts and content from his blog, Aguanomics, here on the Range. Can politicians overcome bias? I don’t know, but the ones in […]
Posted inRange
Do Indian Country voters have the president’s back?
By any objective measure Barack Obama has been the most engaged and effective president on American Indian issues since at least since Richard Nixon. You could even make the case that Obama is better than Nixon because there has been so much successful legislation and Executive Branch action in less than two years. A quick […]
Posted inGoat
Telemocracy #4
As if you needed more evidence. It is now undeniably clear: John Hickenlooper is Satan, and hates America. As I mentioned in the first installment of Telemocracy, the negative campaign ad is a proud American tradition. Since John Hickenlooper – Denver mayor and current Democratic candidate for governor of Colorado – apparently has no respect for the American Way, […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
What was and what is
Joan Kane’s work aims to bridge the gap between past and present
Posted inHeard Around the West
Unseemly business
IDAHOFor a long time, a southern Idaho farmer didn’t know it, but there was another crop growing in his cornfields — 300 marijuana plants, valued at $628,000. Azcentral.com says the plants were grown from seed and later transplanted to the farmer’s field, apparently a not uncommon practice. OREGONDon’t even think about selling lemonade in Multnomah […]
Posted inWotr
I liked it better when being born here was enough
If the 14th Amendment is repealed, how do we know we’re citizens at all?
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
Daniel Orozco is out of the office
Orozco’s darkly funny short stories flirt with the macabre
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
Road warrior
Ted Conover talks about the West, wanderlust and the ethics of travel
Posted inGoat
Deconstructing Lisa
It’s official: The Tea Party toppled Lisa Murkowski. On Tuesday, the Alaska incumbent conceded the state’s Republican U.S. Senate primary to staunch anti-government challenger Joe Miller, the state’s newest overnight political sensation. (Take note, Harry Reid.) Murkowski was the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Her loss will shake-up that important […]
Posted inRange
The role of higher education
Recently, the New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote “We should be able to….establish a set of concrete understandings about what government should and shouldn’t do. We should be able to have a grounded conversation based on principles 95 percent of Americans support.” Instead, as former congressman (and now Chairman of the National Endowment on […]