The Conrad Burns-Jack Mudd face-off in this November's U.S. Senatorial election is only one of many that will help define the political contours of the changing West. Outside of Montana, environmentalists are watching several races to gauge whether the long-term trend toward environmentalism is emerging in national politics.
One key Senate race is in Arizona, the West's third-most rapidly growing state, where Democrat Dennis DeConcini is retiring. While primary votes have yet to be taken, Republican Rep. Jon Kyl, whose environmental voting record won him a zero on a scale of 0-100 from the League of Conservation Voters, is expected to face Democratic Rep. Sam Coppersmith, who last year scored 90.Wyoming, where towns such as Cheyenne have become cities during the rapid growth of the 1980s, also has a Senate race that many observers say pits old against new. With the retirement of Republican Malcolm Wallop, who scored a 6 last year, Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan is facing off against the state's sole congressman, Republican Craig Thomas.
Thomas has won a 0 rating from the League of Conservation Voters. Sullivan has sought to diversify the state's economy and raise fees on mining companies extracting minerals from state-owned lands.
For all the polling data, political change at the congressional level lags well behind the West's seismic demographic shifts, said Jim Maddy, president of the League of Conservation Voters. But Maddy and other political activists point to early indicators that the new West is starting to take hold politically: They note that some of the fastest-growing cities, including Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Flagstaff, Ariz., have begun electing some of Congress' most ardent environmentalists - Democrats Karan English of Flagstaff and Karen Shepherd of Salt Lake City. Other boom towns such as Santa Fe, N.M., and Boise are sending representatives to Washington who are much "greener" than their predecessors.