DENVER — The Democratic National Convention hasn't been held in Denver for a century, but when the party nominates Barack Obama here this week it will be returning to a region that is key to its hopes of winning the presidency in November.
Buoyed by their success in state and congressional races, Democrats are hoping the Rocky Mountain West can move solidly into their column during this presidential election, making up for the loss of the party's former base in the South to the Republicans.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, August 30, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 49 words Type of Material: Correction
Democratic convention: An article in Sunday's Section A about the Democratic National Convention and Western voters said the last time Democrats met in a city west of the Mississippi and east of California was their 1928 gathering in St. Louis. In fact, the 1928 convention was held in Houston.
During the primary season, the Democrats allowed Nevada to move up its caucus to January, putting its contest in the same month as the traditional kickoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire. They made a point of selecting the city considered the capital of the Rocky Mountain West for their convention to highlight a willingness to expand from their coastal bases.
Last week the party held conference calls with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) to stress the importance of the region and the need to feature Western officials at convention events.
"The road to the White House runs through the West," said Salazar, who was elected in 2004.
As recently as 2000, all eight Rocky Mountain states featured Republican governors, and their electoral votes usually went to GOP presidential candidates. Now five have Democratic chief executives. Obama has invested significant resources in many of these states and is polling even or ahead of John McCain in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, whose total of 19 electoral votes put them as a group on par with battleground states such as Ohio.
"There has been a major political realignment in the Rocky Mountain West in the last seven to eight years," said Daniel Kemmis, director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana. "It's worked its way up the ballot but has not reached the presidential level."
That's because for years, Kemmis said, the party was long willing to sacrifice Western votes to rally its supporters elsewhere.
For example, in 1996 President Clinton won plaudits from environmental groups when he designated huge swaths of southern Utah as a federally protected national monument. Outraged Utah residents, angry at what they saw as a federal intrusion on land management, ousted the Democratic congressman who represented the region.
