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“Western Democrats have found success recasting environmentalism as a
defense of threatened water supplies, fishing spots and hunting
grounds. As a result, the party may hold the advantage this fall in
the region’s key Congressional races. The simultaneous rise of
Western energy production and the Western Democrat is no coincidence.”
“Republicans created a monster for themselves,” said Rick Ridder, a
Colorado-based Democratic consultant. “They put public policy in
direct conflict with their base voters.”
“…industry workers upbraided officials for considering rules that
could slow gas drilling along the Colorado-New Mexico border.
Century-old antigovernment emotions are now aimed at state regulators
– and much of the vitriol comes from working-class Democrats.”
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NYTimes
Drilling for Defeat?
By DAVID SIROTA
Published: May 18, 2008
Nearly two decades ago, Republicans won the West by linking Democrats
to environmentalists, who supposedly cared more for the spotted owl
and other favored species than they did for the jobs of loggers or
miners. But now, as a boom in natural-gas drilling reshapes the
region, Western Democrats have found success recasting
environmentalism as a defense of threatened water supplies, fishing
spots and hunting grounds. As a result, the party may hold the
advantage this fall in the region’s key Congressional races. The
simultaneous rise of Western energy production and the Western
Democrat is no coincidence.
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