How Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn — and his colleague, Sen. Jim Inhofe — run roughshod over the West
Politics
Posted inRange
Colorado Democrats shouldn’t celebrate too much
Although Democrats held on to the Colorado governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat in this year’s election , that may have been more of a fluke than a validation at the polls. The first fluke was the gubernatorial race . On the Republican side, early favorite Scott McInnis (former state legislator and six-term congressman) […]
Posted inGoat
Mer-cow-ski?
The Anchorage Daily News has been gamely reporting on the Great Alaska Senate Race Write-in Campaign Spelling Snafu with updates on challenges to poorly-penned appellations inscribed in the blank space on the state’s ballots, mostly in favor of write-in Senate candidate Lisa Murkowsi. Huffpo riffed on the many misspellings, and we thought we’d jump into […]
Posted inNovember 8, 2010: Dr. No
Oklahoma vs. the West
This dispute includes drilling, wilderness, guns and climate change
Posted inNovember 8, 2010: Dr. No
The dark side of Indian law
In his new book, In the Courts of the Conqueror, Walter Echo-Hawk discusses the 10 worst Indian law cases ever decided.
Posted inGoat
The morning after
The Tea Party didn’t take the West Tuesday night. Power did shift to the right, as it did nationwide, but not dramatically. In New Mexico, Republican Steve Pearce took his House seat back from Harry Teague, but the state’s other two Democratic congressional incumbents held on. The GOP gained two seats in the House in […]
Posted inRange
California state parks funding measure fails
Dominated by the Sierra Club, California’s “Environmental Establishment” operates politically largely as a subsidiary of the Democratic Party. This fact plays heavily in what sorts of environmental initiatives this establishment chooses to put on the California ballot. This year, the state’s environmental establishment put Proposition 21 on the ballot. It proposed a surcharge on vehicle […]
Posted inRange
We, the American people, are united by our divisions
All election night the message was about how the people have spoken with a clear voice and returned Republicans to power. In Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul called it the “Tea Party tidal wave.” Or the soon-to-be Speaker of the House, John Boehner, said “it’s clear tonight who the real winners are, that’s the American […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
‘The last word is action’
Boulder clean-energy activist sees declining coal supply as a boon
Posted inRange
Denver mayor accused of trashing rural residents
The Colorado governor’s race took another twist last week with the front-runner and Democratic candidate, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, getting accused of “trashing” rural residents. The accusation came from his principal challenger, former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo, who entered the race in August as the nominee of the American Constitution Party. The Republican candidate, Dan […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
How I ran for a U.S. Senate seat, and what I learned
Investigative reporter John Dougherty writes about his surprising Arizona campaign
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
California: Dope, eBay, pollution and moonbeams
California’s ballot is sizzling hot. Top of the list is Proposition 23, which would emasculate or kill California’s pace-setting 2006 climate change law, Assembly Bill 32. That law takes a multi-pronged approach, including statewide cap-and-trade and more rooftop solar, to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Prop. 23 would put […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Colorado: The West’s true swing state
Congressman John Salazar has a tough job. His constituents are scattered across a huge swath of Colorado’s rural Western Slope, over a political and demographic spectrum that ranges from oil and gas roughnecks in conservative Grand Junction to creative-class telecommuters in liberal Telluride. But most of Salazar’s constituents lie somewhere in between and share a […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Lynch-mob politics
It’s not the Old West — it’s our guide to this year’s Western elections
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Montana: Utility regs and clean energy up for grabs
When Democrat Dennis McDonald first decided to try to knock Denny Rehberg out of Montana’s sole seat in the House of Representatives, his chances appeared good. Montana’s Democrats had been on a roll since 2004, winning a Senate seat, the governor’s mansion and four other statewide offices. McDonald has a background in ranching — an […]
Posted inOctober 25, 2010: Lynch-Mob Politics
Nevada: A hairy ride for Harry
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 […]
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 […]