"Flyover" country is political lingo for the vast tracts of Middle America ignored by elected elites. They figure they don't need the votes; their support base is in the country's large metro areas, typically on the coasts.
Colorado has its own version of a heartland overlooked by its political ruling class. It comprises much of the surface area of the Centennial State. Though it's largely rural, it also includes significant population centers such as Grand Junction and Greeley. Spanning the state's Eastern Plains, Western Slope and San Luis Valley, the region also produces much of our food and our energy — cornerstones of Colorado's economy.
For the most part, its voters simply aren't on the radar of the state's elected leadership in Denver.
Which may help explain Gov. Jared Polis' decision earlier this month to sidestep an offer from influential West Slope civic group Club 20 to debate Republican gubernatorial hopeful Heidi Ganahl in Grand Junction in September. Former Gov. and now U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper also snubbed Club 20's debate invitation in 2020 when he was campaigning for Senate.
In fact, a political chasm seems to be widening between urban and rural Colorado, and some say it's about more than just the traditional rivalries between city slickers and country folks.
The divide is increasingly partisan. Outside ski country, rural Colorado is significantly Republican while the metro areas of the Front Range — with the notable exception of Colorado Springs — have been voting more Democratic in recent elections. Urban Democrats control the executive and legislative branches of state government and hold both U.S. Senate seats.
It wasn't always that way. Mostly notably, Colorado's three-term Democratic Gov. Roy Romer — a "Friend of Bill" Clinton and onetime chair of the Democratic National Committee — was a native son of sugar-growing Holly near the Kansas border. His family sold farm equipment, and Romer took a degree in agricultural economics from Colorado State University.
Romer's Democratic Party didn't abhor the state's pivotal oil and gas industry; even fellow Democrat Hickenlooper's first career was as a petroleum geologist. And the party didn't cast a jaundiced eye toward farming and ranching as purported causes of climate change and other environmental degradation. All that has changed.
Some of the shift is cultural — like vegan First Gentleman Marlon Reis' disdain for Colorado's signature beef — but it's also significantly economic, like the Polis administration's crusade against fossil fuels. And it all has political implications. Commentators have taken note on the opinion pages of The Gazette as well as our news affiliate Colorado Politics.
Gazette and Colorado Politics columnist Rachel Gabel, a member of a multigeneration ranch family, wrote recently of how an awkward attempt by the Governor's Office to recognize Cow Appreciation Day via social media "isn't going to win over an industry (Polis) has kicked in the teeth repeatedly. …"
Farmer and state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a Sterling Republican, chided Polis recently in Colorado Politics for skipping the upcoming Grand Junction debate. Sonnenberg wondered if "… the governor doesn't want to debate outside of Denver because he knows he has alienated even the Democrats in rural areas."
Veteran trucking industry rep and observer of Capitol politics Greg Fulton, a longtime Denverite and periodic contributor to our opinion pages, likened West Slope disenchantment with Denver to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. Fulton said "Wexit"-like sentiments have arisen "… as more progressive and urban-oriented legislation, rules and regulations have come forward."
But does anyone in state government care? Or, do they figure they don't need rural Colorado's votes, anyway?
— The Gazette (Colo. Springs) Editorial Board, July 25
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