Split by politics: The experience of one mountain town
The partisan division in national politics in recent years has also come to define much of local politics. Candidates up and down the ballot regularly tap into fears that their opponents threaten the way people live their lives.
The partisan division in national politics in recent years has also come to define much of local politics. Candidates up and down the ballot regularly tap into fears that their opponents threaten the way people live their lives.
In Colorado, that political schism has split one rural country in half. KUNC's Lucas Brady Woods reports for the Mountain West News Bureau.
More Idaho matters right now, the partisan division in national politics in recent years has also come to define much of local politics. Candidates up and down the ballot regularly tap into fears that their opponents threaten the way people live their lives. And in Colorado, that political schism has spilled at one rural county in half. KUNC's Lucas Brady Woods reports for the Mountain West News Bureau. On a warm Saturday afternoon in August, families in cowboy hats and boots reandered between food trucks and livestock auctions at the Grand County Fairgrounds in Kremlin. The Middle Park Fair in Rodeo is like a lot of other county fairs across Colorado, a place for the local community to gather and celebrate. Bifelong local resident Janet Engel leads the fair's organizing committee. For her, the fair also represents a darker side to the community. This is the west end of the county, which is the farmers, the ranchers, the agricultural end of the county, and there is a huge divide between east and west in this county. Engel is a Democrat from the eastern end of Grand County known for upscale ski resorts like Winter Park and its liberal political leanings. She says that makes her job on the fair board more difficult. Everybody else on the board is Republican, so I walk a really fine line there. Grand County has a population of less than 16,000 people. The county's top election official, Clerk and Recorder Joni Morse, says it's a microcosm of the political divisions playing out across Colorado and the rest of the U.S. this election season. You know, that's the struggle in Grand County right now politically. You've got a growing population on the one hand, you know, who wants to see some modernization. And you've got people who have lived here for generations who don't necessarily want to see all that change. She says the tension isn't new, but it's being exacerbated by changes in the community. It's just the same all struggles and it's maybe just becoming a bigger and bigger deal here. The number of registered voters in the county has increased steadily over the last decade. That increase has been almost completely among unaffiliated voters who now make up the majority of voters in the county. Registered Democrats only increased minimally and Republicans actually decreased over the last 10 years. Local candidates on both sides are trying to lower the political temperature and focus on issues like the cost of housing, health care and child care. Back at the fair, Republican County Commissioner Merritt Linky disavowed negative rhetoric in his reelection campaign. I'm not going to do that negative campaign. I just think that that's so important on the local level. You're going to see these people at the grocery store. You're going to see them at the close office. Not everyone sees it that way, though. Republican voter Chuck Alexander has lived in Grand County for more than six decades. He blames many of the county's issues on the newcomers who have moved into the county. The crowd from the east has moved to the middle part area and basically, Rambi is not what it ought to be. Alexander also says these political divisions represent an existential fight over the direction of the country all the way down to the level of Grand County. If we put the Republican Party in there now, it would be a chance of saving this country. So if we don't, we're done. Across the fairgrounds, Angles says she hoped the county fair could help bridge the local divide when she originally signed on to run it. Instead, partisan politics have made it worse. How can we come together as a nation when we have this division? I worry about our future. But with Republican and Democratic candidates on the state and national levels continuing to paint the election in such stark terms, there's little hope that the division will end anytime soon. Lucas Brady Woods, KUNC. Thanks so much for listening to Idaho Matters. Boise State Public Radio and Idaho Matters are members of the NPR Network. It's an independent coalition of public media podcasters. You can find more shows on the network wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jamaka Dett. We'll see you tomorrow. The candidates for November are set between now and election day. A campaign season unfolding faster. Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion. Ben Inney in recent history. Make America great again. Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics Podcast.
