High Country News Vol. 20.22, Nov. 21, 1988
Total Page:16
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.._0 A Paper for People who Care about tbe West ."./ '-,., .', © DAVtD WILSOI-J'88""'~"'" Election results jjom 13 western states - . The West voted left, right and center I fyou can call a place of one million" In the absence of compelling issnes the project. The county will now.pursue Personal appeal was a quirky.factor I square miles a microcosm, then the and strong personalities on the national tourist dollars under Democratic leader- in this year's elections. In one term, rural i J West was a microcosm of the nation level, the real races in the region were ship. western Colorado and the _city of Pueblo I < in this presidential election. for county commissioner, ballot ques- Statewide, Utah voters rejected have taken Democrat Ben- Nighthorse ( Four and eight years ago, Reagan's tions, state legislatures and gubernatorial three separate tax limitation initiatives Campbell to their hearts. In the past, r anti-big government, anti-taxation, pro- and U.S. Senate seats. Western voters proposed by the far right and gave Re- , Colorado's 3rd Congressional District j individual initiative fit in perfectly with didn't just cross, but crisscrossed party publican Gov. Norman Bangerter anoth- has been an unstable seat. Now Camp- J the West's system of beliefs. But George lines, splitting tickets and producing a er term, rejecting what had seemed like bell is so popular he only had token op- I Bush struck no such responsive chords confusing mix of results. an unbeatable campaign by Democrat position. here this fall, and his election wins were Montana Republicans engineered a Ted Wilson. B UI Colorado Gov. Roy Romer I lackluster compared to the 20 to 30 per- landslide that registered high on the po- Southern Idaho's congressional seat, failed in his effort to make the state Leg- cent margins racked up Reagan. As a re- litical Richter scale. Seeking a way out once held by far right radical George islature less Republican, as voters main- sult, Bush's coattails did not exist. from under the economic black cloud of Hansen, is now firmly in the hands of tained the status quo there, although a The failure of the campaign to ad- recent years, voters elected a new set of moderate Democrat Richard Stallings. successful ballot measure may loosen up dress national issues - issues that could leaders: They installed a Republican In Nevada, the issne was the pro- that Legislature. - make Bush's presidency very difficult governor, threw the state Senate to the posed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste In Wyoming - a state that is more f from the start - extended to Western is- GOP, and most surprisingly, replaced dump, and voters purged a Reagan Re- like a Republican monarchy than a sues. When the greenhouse effect, the 'l veteran Democrat Sen. John Melcher publican from the U,S. Senate for the democracy - Sen" Malcolm Wallop's ozone layer, toxic waste dumps and a na- with untried Republican Conrad Burns. second election in a row, sending Demo- increasing isolation from Wyomingites I tional energy policy can't get a fair hear- On a smaller scale, economic back- cratic Gov. Richard Bryan instead to almost lost him a guaranteed election. ing, it is not surprising that Western is- lash struck the Republicans in western Washington, D.C., to fight off the nucle- That race was one of the closest and sues like public land management, graz- Colorado. The Democrats took over ar dragon. most surprising in the state's history. ing fees, nuclear waste dumps and water Mesa County's (Grand Junction) board Republicans in Arizona showed Personal appeal was also the decid- I policy also remain invisible. of county commissioners - a reaction to their strength, by surviving the Mecham ing factor in Nebraska Democrat Bob Bush's presidency won't rise or fall 1 the enormous debt piled up by pro-de- debacle and retaining hold of the state Kerrey's victorious quest for the state's 'on these Western issnes. But they make velopment Republicans during and after Legislature. Next door, New Mexico U.S. Senate seat. Kerrey beat a lesser- up part of the anay of issues that have the oil shale boom. Democrats won back the state Senate known Republican. {, been avoided rather than confronted over And in neighboring Grand County and increased their control of the House. The Democratic party's Nebraska Ii the past eight years. How Bush and his (Moab), Utah, voters rejected a proposed The results in the two Sun Belt states and Nevada U.S. Senate victories cancel team deal with those problems will de- toxic waste incinerator as undesirable will be critical in two years, when the out the Republican win in Montana, ,I termine, and perhaps rather quickly, the economic growth and threw out two Re- Legislatures re-draw congressional dis- fate of his administration. publican commissioners who supported tricts following the 1990 census. (Continued on page 16) UneR 2·Higb Country News - November 21, 1988 . - - . Dear friends, were fighting for the middle seat. The person near the window, Ed said, must Elections get out to open and close ranchers' cattle It is with relief that we send you this gates; neither wanted to do that. 16-page issue. High Country News has HCN's readers must be out hunting not been 16 pages since late summer, or back at work, earning money for next and while staff doesn't mind producing year's trips. As a result, the flow of visi- the extra pages, we know it is a burden tors through the office has slowed, but on readers. not stopped. Don Bachmann of Ajo, There is also the matter of following Ariz., came through to say he has found orders. At a meeting in June 1987, staff HCN in libraries around the region. But was told by the High Country Founda- because he usually arrived late in the af- tion board of directors that less is more. ternoon, librarians tended to turn out the Were the paper to permanently increase lights before he could finish an issue. So its size, the board said, it might become he stopped by to subscribe. a grab bag, with staff substituting vol- Professional archaeologists Siste ume for judgment about what ought to" O'Malia and Tim Kearns of Farmington, appear in print. N.M., stopped by to donate to the Re- This is an issue on the elections in search Fund and to pick up a few of IIIGH COUNTRY NEWS (1SSN/019115657) the West. The campaign has been univer- HCN's diminishing stock of t-shirts, The Cathy Ciarlo Is published biweekly, except for one Issue during July and one Issue during January. sally described as disgusting and ener- couple has just finished their eighth sea- by the High Country Foundation, 124 vating. As a nation. we want OUf elec- son at the "Smithsonian's Stewart's Cattle keeps a pen, a handkerchief, and the Grand Avenue, Paonia, Colorado 81428. tions to replicate 1952, when a reserved Guard excavation in Colorado's San Luis day he visited us, a plastic bag. He Second-class postage paid at Paonia, Col- orado. - and scholarly Adlai Stevenson engaged a Valley. even found a piece of popcorn in POSTMASTER: Send address changes to reserved and soldierly Dwight Eisen- The site has one of the region's best- there. His artificial leg has a very so- IIIGIl COUNTRY NEWS, Box 1090. Paonia, hower. known remains of a Paleo-Indian. bison phisticated shock absorber. He has cut co 81428. Or perhaps we want elections to be kill, dating back 10,800 years. Tim says a slit in his. sponge-like foot for wear- , Tom Bell like our butcher shops. No one entering a band of Folsom Indians apparently am- ingthongs. EdUor EfIferllus ·the meat section of a supermarket would bushed a small herd of buffalo there, and He can do everything a normal Ed Marston guess that the packages of red and yel- then camped for some time to butcher person can do except that he can't run PubUsber low material had anything to do with an the meat, process the hides and refurbish as well. And then he added, "But animal. Writer Theodore Rozak tells their weapons and t()QIkits. that's okay because I never liked run- Betsy Marston Edllor how shocked his daughter was, on enter- Isabel and Stewart Mace from As- ning in the first place!" ing a European butcher shop, to see pen, Colo., dropped in on their way to a We like Mr. Wilson, for he is a Rocky Barker hanging carcasses and to realize that cat- meeting in Durango about sustainable very open and special person. C...lg Bigler Peter carrels tle don't give beef the way dairy cows agriculture. They also went off with Bruce FarUng give milk. HCN t-shirts, One of the things missing from Pat Ford We are like Mr. Rozak's daughter- Although he didn't come to our of- Jim Stlak smaIl towns is the question, "And what RegloflRl BureaJU distraught at our glimpse of how the fice. we did run into subscriber Bill do you do for a living? " That may be world works. Every four years those of Jones at a meeting of citizens who are at- because everyone knows what everyone C.L Rawlins us who have television sets or who read tempting to raise money to put 800 acres does for a living or because it's not con- Poetry Editor the newspapers are forced to realize of currently private land at the conflu- sidered to be very important.