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The West Is 'New Frontier' For Presidential Race

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Jul 7, 2008 6:51 pm US/Mountain

The West Is 'New Frontier' For Presidential Race

Reporting
Mike Hooker

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama, l, and Sen. John McCain.
Justin Sullivan, Robert Spencer/Getty Images

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The West has become a "new frontier" for presidential candidates. Never has Colorado mattered more than now, and that means the state will be seeing a lot more of both candidates.

John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University, says at least through the Democratic National Convention next month, Colorado is likely to keep getting a lot of attention. He says it's also important that Colorado has a growing block of independent-minded voters that both campaigns want to win over.

Barack Obama campaigned in Colorado Springs on July 2.

"I want to send a strong signal to the people of Colorado that whether you're a Democrat, Republican, Independent, this is a critical election," Obama said at the time.

Two days later John McCain said he was coming to Denver for the town hall meeting held Monday where he referenced Colorado's Crocs shoe company.

"Building barriers to Crocs or any American companies to foreign markets will have a devastating effect," McCain said.

But hours before McCain took the stage Obama's campaign grabbed headlines announcing that Invesco Field at Mile High is where he will make his acceptance speech, not at the Pepsi Center, which is hosting the Democratic National Convention.

"Denver is in the center of the West," Straayer said.

Straayer says Democrats see the Mountain West as a place to make up for voters they've lost in the south.

"The Democrats for a long time have needed a counterbalance to the south and the Mountain West has been moving slowly but surely in the democratic direction," he said.

Straayer said the convention is a big reason Colorado is getting so much political attention from both parties.

"The media is focused on it; the Colorado media, the national media, the international media; so we're bullseye," he said. "It's a great place for a candidate to get on camera."

There's also McCain's western connection as a senator from Arizona. Straayer says Colorado is the way to reach an important block of western electoral votes from Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

"That's 19 votes that could more than counterbalance a Michigan, almost counterbalance an Ohio or a Pennsylvania," he said.

Straayer said after the convention next month the state will probably see less of the candidates, but Colorado can still expect some of the attention, certainly much more than seen in past presidential races.

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