Both Colorado Luis and Western Democrat point us to an article in the Washington Post on why Democrats made such good progress in my very purple home state of Colorado this year. Then add their own thoughts on the subject, which are well worth reading.
I think the future of success for Democrats will be found in the Rocky Mountain states, which are already purple and trending bluer all the time. But the kind of pragmatic, solution-oriented work the Dems did in Colorado this year has to be key.
The fact that local Republicans suffer the same divisions we’re seeing in the national Repubs gave the Dems an opportunity as well. While the state is struggling with fiscal problems, the Republicans were busying cozying up to the religious right, who then refused to support their Senate candidate because he wasn’t of sufficiently pure moral character.
Anyway, it’s really nice to see some good Western bloggers around to tackle these issues.