September 15, 2008 04:03 PM UTC

Obama in Grand Jct. CO--Issues on the ground

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• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Sen. Obama will speak in Grand Junction, Colorado today, September 15, at 11 AM MT.

It will be streamed at www.nbc11news.com.  

This is Grand Junction (which Dalton Trumbo referred to as Shale City in Johnny Got His Gun), financial hub of the West Slope’s energy boom.    

Mesa County (with GJ as the county seat) and the Western Slope is not Democratic turf.  Or it didn’t use to be.

More-

(Cross-posted at DailyKos.com)  

Senator Obama is speaking at the Cross Orchards Living History Farm, where they have had to move the event out into the parking lot due to the overwhelming public interest.

With a voter registration of 37,911 Republican, 29,741 Unaffiliated, and 18,890 Democrat, Grand Junction is well known as a conservative stronghold.  The far-right Republican Janet Rowland just won her re-election primary (which pretty much ensures her win in the general).  

Rowland gained some notoriety during her run for lieutenant governor with Bob Beauprez, when she compared gay marriage to allowing people to marry sheep.  Some Coloradans have been making the comparison of Janet Rowland and Sarah Palin, but there is no doubt that Rowland remains popular in the county. (No, this is not a Palin diary).      

Beyond Mesa County, in the state as a whole Democrats have made substantial gains in the last two cycles.  Part of that success is  attributable to western Colorado.  

In 2004 voters put Democrats in charge of the state legislature, and in 2006 they elected Democratic governor Bill Ritter.  Senator Ken Salazar was elected in 2004, winning back a seat long held by Democrats Until Ben “Change Horse” Campbell switched parties.

In a small, rural town of coalminers, farmers, and (farmer-)hippies, we mostly get along but we don’t run around much in the same circles either.  Yet at the caucus I attended, all of them were there, and they overwhelming had one thing in mind–to nominate Obama. The impetus for change is here, in the mountain communities and small cities, among members of the ‘New West’ and descendants of early Coloradans, and scattered among seemingly everyone in between.  

Sen. Obama can connect with the people of western Colorado.  In addition to the main national issues, certain specific issues, like water and energy, play big on the West Slope, and  differently than on the Front Range.  

Since 2000 the conflict has been growing over encouraging energy development and avoiding poisoning our home, and it has become particularly intense this cycle–with the Udall-Schaffer race, Roan Plateau and a state rule-making in the news, and a couple of ballot measures.  

In 2004 western Colorado voted mostly for Bush and favored Pete Coors in the Salazar-Coors senate match up. But in 2004, when John Salazar won the 3rd CD (after Scott McInnis retired and went to work as a lobbyist, for oil and gas companies among others), natural resource issues were a driving factor.  

Salazar’s opponent, Greg Walcher, carried too much baggage as a proponent of a badly failed 2002 ballot measure, Referendum A, that was widely seen in Colorado as a Front Range water grab, and for his draconian management as Gov. Bill Owen’s Department of Natural Resources.    

2004 was also the year that Amendment 37 passed, setting a mandate for 10% renewable energy in the state by 2015.  And in 2006 the results from the Western Slope were mixed in the race for governor, although Ritter carried several, until then, reliable Republican counties.  

In 2006, Rep. Salazar was returned on a comfortable margin and he is expected to soundly win his race against an unknown and uninspiring candidate, Wayne “Who?” Wolf-a former Delta County commissioner.    

While on the Western Slope, Sen. Obama should touch on the issues that really resonate in western Colorado, what Sen. Salazar called “the Land, the Water, the People” because those are things that unite many of us out here, across many ideological lines.  Obama should talk about the need for a new energy economy, even as we ensure that we do it right and safeguard some special places altogether, protecting our traditions of hunting, fishing, and public recreation.  

Broadly speaking, Colorado is a diverse place in terms of geography, local issues, and economics–from the Plains to the Four Corners region, from the Western Slope to the Front Range, including Colorado Springs-home to Doug Lamborn, Doug Bruce and James Dobson. But on the Western Slope–and probably across the state–Obama can connect to a basic populism, cherished independence, and common sense and fairness.

And while Obama should talk about hope and working together, and the critical national issues we all face together, he should also highlight the particular issues western Coloradans care about, because we can help win the state.  Grand Junction presents the perfect location to talk up a new energy economy and would be an ideal place for Sen. Obama to talk about his public lands legacy.

A strong showing on the West Slope–even short of a win–can really help ensure the margins in the suburbs of Denver, where everyone agrees the swing votes are decided.

A lot of folks in western Colorado get that things are heading badly off course, and that a few well-connected people and powerful corporations are doing well, but that everyday people find life an increasing struggle.  Sen. Obama’s speech tomorrow presents an ideal opportunity for the campaign to really put Colorado, and the election, over the top.