Republicans are losing their hold on Western states

CARL P. LEUBSDORF THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Republicans are losing their hold on Western states

June 23, 2006

A top Democratic Party group is considering having presidential caucuses in one or more Western states between Iowa's caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Western governors also hope to hold a regional primary in early February 2008. And Denver has emerged as a top contender to host the next Democratic National Convention.

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Four of the region's eight states have Democratic governors, and two more could join them in November. Five of the 15 seats Democrats need to win the U.S. House are in the region, and two GOP-held Senate seats are in jeopardy. All eight states voted in 2004 for President Bush. But Democratic rival John Kerry polled at least 44 percent in four of them – New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona – and five backed Bill Clinton at least once in the 1990s.

Ryan Sager, a New York Post columnist and author of a new book on internal GOP tensions, cites three factors for the party's increasingly shaky hold on the region in the July/August edition of The Atlantic Monthly:

- Rising Hispanic population. The four states in which Kerry got at least 44 percent range from 17 percent to 42 percent Hispanic. GOP resistance to immigration reform could help Democrats even more.
- An influx of Californians. More than 400,000 Arizonans and 360,000 Nevadans were born in California, as were lesser numbers in the other states, which “are slowly taking on a left coast character as well,” Sager writes.
- The growing domination of the Republican Party by Southern religious conservatives who favor a more activist federal government than the more libertarian West. Evangelicals, he notes, constitute from 29 percent to 33 percent of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, compared with 51 percent in Texas and 46 percent in Virginia.

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060623/news_lz1e23leubsdo.html

to see if it is true here!

A minority got an extremist right winger in for a house seat. Even the GOP moderates has said they will abstain from voting for him. He wants to force women to bear children even if it's medically proven they can die.

has a lot of hunters and fishermen really pissed.throw in the tree huggers which means it doesn`t look good for the republicans

I don't understant why polls don't match up to results. (Actually, I do. It's not polls, it's the voter tally as presented by GOP hackers/same company employees.

for the 08 convention.