National Political Winds Blow through Boulder-White Clouds

Even before developers threatened to drill into the Boulder-White Clouds for a giant molybedenum mine in the late-1960s, their presence injected a lasting shot of politics into the land. “It is a symbolic area, not just to environmentalists as this wonderful area, but Idaho politics in a way,” said John Freemuth, professor of political science at Boise State University. Political murmurs have since surrounded conversations about how to deal with the land. Those partisan voices have grown louder as previous efforts to make the Boulder-White Clouds into wilderness failed and groups asked President Obama to make the area into a national monument. Many agree that a Democratic president declaring a national monument in a staunch Republican state would be a zero sum game. It won’t help or hurt Idaho Democrats and any moderates endeared because of the action won’t be enough to make Idaho a swing state. But such an action’s effects could hold national significance as land conservation becomes an increasingly partisan topic, fodder for campaign speeches and election talking points. When Obama takes action will matter, he said. Obama won’t want to act before the May primary or even the November general election for fear of unseating Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. Simpson faces Bryan Smith, who many consider to be a tea party candidate, in the primary and Democrat Richard Stallings in the general. “In terms of having someone you could work with in Mike Simpson … why jeopardize a guy like that for someone you know is just going to be another polarized partisan, which this Bryan Smith is in the way I hear everything he has to say,” Freemuth said.  Many agree Republicans, on the hunt in coming mid-term elections and in 2016, will use any White House land conservation push to try to sway voters to their side. “It’s a softball,” Johnson said. Freemuth, however, doubted the effectiveness of the GOP using that tactic. “There is more support for (monuments) than there is a tool to use against the Democrats,” he said. Matt Lee-Ashley, a senior fellow for the Center for American Progress, agreed. There is “huge popular support for protected public lands and opportunities for outdoor recreation,” he said. Republicans would shoot themselves in the foot by attacking land conservation, he said, citing a recent Colorado College’s Conservation in the West poll. “The West is a major political battlefield this year, and the poll tells us Congressional candidates would be wise to consider their positions on conservation and land use issues carefully,” said Colorado College economist and State of the Rockies project faculty director Walt Hecox. According to the poll, 69 percent of voters surveyed across six western states, not including Idaho, are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports enhancing protections for some public lands...more