I have written a couple of times about the tangible ways that the Republic Party's ties to the extraction industry will start costing them votes. Things have are hitting critical mass this season. The votes are there for the taking if Democrats in the wild west court the hook and bullet crowd. This article by Rocky Mountain News Hunting and Fishing Columnist Ed Gentry from November 2, 2007 titled Real anti-hunters finally are being exposed boils it down.
The stove was searing. Sportsmen, conservation groups and Granby residents were outraged by BLM's plans to lease 31,000 acres in Grand County, including land around Hot Sulphur Springs, to gas drillers.
Last week, the agency fielded a volcanic eruption of protests over plans to develop prime elk and deer wintering habitat at the headwaters of the Colorado River. In less than a week, BLM actually heard the shouting and flinched. It withdrew all of Grand County from a lease sale scheduled for Thursday.
Can the Democrats in the Rocky Mountain West craft a message that speaks to the people. Can we tie the Republicans and the scares on our land together?
The message is simple:
Preserve Habitat.
Clean Water.
Local Jobs.
Right now, crews are being shipped in from China to work the gas wells. The gas wells are exempt from water quality laws. Elk, mule deer, pronghorns are all being displaced by the gas wells.
The good news is that many hunters and anglers finally are mad as hell and won't take it anymore. After the loss of 4 million acres of public hunting and fishing range in the West to the current drilling frenzy, some realize who the anti-hunters really are.
The most venomous anti's aren't little old vegans or gun snatchers. They are fat cats and their big-government paramours.
The angers there. Are leaders going to step up and take the lead to keep the Rocky Mountains the Rocky Mountains or are we going to sacrifice our wild places for some cheap gas? We have a fight in CD-2 and no one is making noise about this issue, and it went down in Grand County.
Ducks Unlimited actually is on big industry's hit list. That's because DU is one of dozens of sportsmen's groups that are members of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
TRCP, a conservative sportsmen's coalition, has become a leading force in the public lands conservation movement. Its rough-riding protests have convinced the once-immovable BLM to remove habitat-destructive leases in Utah, Wyoming and now in Colorado.
The extractive industries fear TRCP enough to haul out the Bush administration's old propaganda millstone: If you aren't for us, you are a traitor.
The opening is asking for someone to step up. Colorado can become true blue. The Republicans risk alienating a bedrock of their coalition with this crap. Can Democrats seize the opportunity?
