Western States Get Pole Position in Presidential Race
By Ned Farquhar
Of the Journal
The presidential race is now three lanes wide. On the GOP side, Sen. John McCain should reach the finish line first. On the Democratic side, it's too close to call between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, who trails but seems to be accelerating toward the checkered flag. Around the West, Super Tuesday's results, though indecisive for Democrats, were anything but neutral or boring.
Hillary is a liberal northeastern senator, and there's a communication gap between such candidates and many in the West. The Kerry campaign did a poor job of listening to western voices four years ago, and it may have cost Kerry the election. Because Hillary has shown the ability to legislate for all of New York (not just Manhattan), and has lived in Arkansas, there's the possibility her campaign will be more open to the West than Kerry's was.
But it doesn't come naturally to candidates surrounded by Capitol Hill types, eastern media and Washington-based pollsters.
It is interesting, perhaps telling, that Hillary parked former President Bill Clinton on Gov. Bill Richardson's doorstep the last few days before Super Tuesday. The governor stayed quiet— no endorsement either way.
Richardson's political awareness goes beyond feeling or sentiment— it's reflex. Despite tremendous wooing and publicity from the Clintons, he certainly didn't jump to endorse Clinton. He might still, who knows? But for now one of the West's most influential political voices is staying uncharacteristically silent.
Obama proved his appeal across swing states, places like Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico. Though more liberal than Hillary, he lost liberal strongholds such as Massachusetts and California. He ran strong in the South and won several western states where outnumbered Democrats yearn for a voice— Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Kansas.
Voters there don't just like him; they also consider him electable and a positive influence "down the ballot" where important congressional, legislative and regulatory races can be influenced by the presidential nominee. That may explain why independent-minded Democratic leaders like Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill vocally supported him weeks before Super Tuesday.
Which brings me to the candidacy of John McCain, whose delegate count now outnumbers the other GOP candidates' combined.
At last week's GOP presidential candidates' debate, McCain's answer to a question on climate change showed both why he has a formidable chance to capture independent voters and why he drives much of the Republican base crazy. He used the kind of rhetoric you would hear from the Democratic candidates if only their debates would include something, anything, on the global energy and environment challenge.
Here are his words: "The state of California and the state of Arizona ... we Westerners care very much about our environment and we want to act. And it's no secret that I have disagreed with the Bush administration in not being more active in addressing the issue of climate change, whether it be through cap-and-trade, through tax incentives for R&D for green technologies and many other measures that I think need to be taken. ...
"The point is, young Americans care. Californians care. People all over this country care. And we have to address this issue.
"We can do it. The greatness and strength of America is in our innovative capability and our ability to develop these green technologies. ...
"And to somehow believe that it will cost more money if we unleash the innovation and entrepreneurship of America I think does not have confidence in the ability of Americans to address this issue."
He sounds like a conservative politician with conservationist tendencies.
The nation might think Iraq was a misguided debacle, and anyone who respects the nation's honorable military tradition has to question McCain's "Bomb, bomb Iran" riff on the Beach Boys a few months ago.
Yet we have to recognize a national Republican leader who celebrates America's ability to innovate and grow instead of peering out from behind a large, Detroit-based wall of fear, whispering we can't and we won't.
All the same, Hillary got almost as many votes in Arizona as did local favorite McCain, and combined with Obama, the Democrats showed surprising strength even in a heavily Republican state.
The West is going to play a central role in the '08 presidential race. Boogety, boogety, political race-car fans!
Ned Farquhar, energy/climate advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, sits on the board of Western Progress, a regional policy organization. He also served as senior policy adviser to Gov. Bill Richardson. The views expressed are his own. E-mail: inthewest@comcast.net.
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