DENVER — In a year of crushing disappointment, Colorado was a bright spot for the Democrats in 2004. Here on the front porch of the Rocky Mountains, the party gained a House seat, elected a U.S. senator and won control of the state Legislature for the first time in 44 years.
Now, more than a century after newspaperman Horace Greeley passed on his famous advice -- "Go West, young man" -- Democrats are paying new heed to those words.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 23, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 63 words Type of Material: Correction
Democrats' strategies -- An article in Monday's Section A about Democrats running for office in the West said Nevada and New Mexico had two of the four closest presidential contests in November. The article should have said that among states won by President Bush, Nevada and New Mexico gave him two of his four narrowest margins over Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.
The South is increasingly Republican. Democratic states of the East and Midwest are steadily losing electoral clout to the Sun Belt. So a number of Democrats are urging their party to emulate generations of pioneers who sought their fortune in the rugged landscape across the Great Divide.
If the party is to win back the White House, they say, Democrats must work to reverse their fortunes in New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, and build on other recent gains they achieved in the West.
"The math simply isn't there if we keep winning the same 10 states," said Chris Gates, who headed the Colorado Democratic Party during the 2004 campaign. "We need to get past ... thinking if you don't live on either coast you're a Republican."
To some extent, the focus is driven by Democrats' desperation. As Charles Cook, a Washington campaign analyst, put it: "You can't keep getting hosed in the South and the Rockies and expect to win."
But Democrats have reason for hope. In the Pacific West, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii continue to lean their way in presidential politics. In addition to the party's strong 2004 showing in the Colorado Legislature, Democrats elected a governor in Montana and took control of the House and Senate in Helena, the first time they won either chamber in a decade.
The party also now has governors in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Overall, Democrats gained 31 legislative seats across the West in 2004, but the party continued to lose ground in the South.
At the presidential level, the West accounted for six of the 10 states where Democratic nominee John F. Kerry topped Al Gore's 2000 performance.
New Mexico and Nevada -- which President Bush carried by less than 1 percentage point and 2.6 percentage points, respectively -- had two of the four tightest contests in November.
