The Republican Party's Worst Nightmare
The interior Western states are growing more Democratic.
FOUR CORNERS, U.S.A. <br> Nov. 6, 2007 — -- Four Corners Monument: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah --
It is at this out-of-the-way tourist spot on Navajo land where Democratic dreams can be seen all at once.
If Democrats' hopes are realized in 2008 and they win Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, they pick off a total of 24 electoral votes -- more than Ohio, more than Pennsylvania.
That may have seemed a pipe dream a few years ago. But Democratic gains in the Inner Mountain states have party strategists drooling. In 2000, these eight states had not one Democratic governor among them. Today there are five.
If a Democratic presidential candidate can tap into what Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano have tapped into, the race would clearly not just come down to Ohio or Florida as it did in 2004 and 2000.
At the root of the problem for the GOP are voters such as Bob Elderkin, a hunting guide in Rifle, Colo.
A lifelong Republican, Elderkin said the party has become inflexible and plans to support Democrats in the upcoming election.
"It seems like being ultraconservative and totally business-oriented is the only option, nothing else matters," he said. "That's why I'm switching."
For decades Democrats have had problems attracting Southern voters but the party sees promise in the West partly because of its changing demographics. There's an influx of Latino voters and changing demographics that the party is looking to capitalize on, with a January Nevada caucus and its presidential nomination convention in Denver next August.
"The Republican Party out west is fundamentally different that the Republican party in the south," Thomas F. Schaller, associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, told ABC News. Aside from gun rights, Schaller said, voters are far less conservative on social issues.
Colorado's Ritter said he tries to focus on a balance between conservation and development, while emphasizing competence to voters.
