There has been an ongoing discussion here at eyesonobama.com about Barack Obama's electability against John McCain vs. Hillary Clinton's.

The conclusion that I have reached and that others like jwilkes have reached as well is that while Clinton does well in the traditional Democratic strongholds, Obama will also win in those areas, but he will add to his Electoral Vote total by introducing new Democratic territory to the Electoral Map.

Yesterday jwilkes discussed the Democrat's need to make a connection with voters in the south.  He cited some interesting statistics about population growth in the south in the near future and argued that if the Democrats choose to ignore this they will end up losing more and more Electoral votes below the Mason-Dixon with each passing census. 

Jwilkes is absolutely right.

In addition to the south, however, Democrats not only need to win in the West, but they are being handed a golden opportunity to do so this year; so as a supplement to jwilkes' southern strategy, today's post will outline the need for a Democratic strategy in the Mountain West.    

Much like the population increase in the south, the Mountain West is exploding with growth.  The three fastest growing states in the nation are Nevada, Idaho and Arizona.  Utah comes in fifth and the suburbs surrounding western cities like Denver and Albuquerque are spreading like the wild fires which threatens them every summer.

This rapid growth also happens to be taking place in urban areas.  Urban people, who are likely to lean Left, are invading the Rocky Mountain cities in search of cheaper living with a constantly increasing standard of living.

Large portions of these new residents/voters are of Latino descent.  In the 2004 election, the Latino vote broke 60/40 for John Kerry, a substantial margin for the Democrats.  In states like Arizona and Colorado where Latinos make up 17% and 12% of voters respectively, that big split has the potential to make some deep cuts into the Republican stranglehold over The West.

The GOP's current intramural battle to see who can become the king of anti-immigration will surely tilt these numbers even further in the Democrats direction.

This huge chunk of the nation trending Urban Latino seemingly couldn't get any better for the Democrats, but there is, in fact, more.

Another piece of the pie in the Interior West's boom is being supplied by one of the bluest of the blue places in the nation, California.  A whopping 18% of Nevada's population was born in California.  New Mexico, Idaho, Montana and Colorado also have had a respectable influx of new Californians. 

The blue paint from the West Coast is spilling over into the interior.

2004 did not produce any new Mountain West Electoral Votes, but 2008 looks like it will when Barack Obama becomes the nominee.

Obama currently leads McCain in statewide polls in Colorado and New Mexico.  He also keeps it close in North Dakota, Montana and Nevada.  Additionally and miraculously Obama puts Nebraska and Texas into play as well.  In fact, at least one of Nebraska's five Electoral Votes looks like it will be cast for Obama (Nebraska and Maine are the only two states which can split their Electoral Votes). 

Arizona, by the way, would likely be added to the list of states in play if the Republicans nominated anyone other than the Senior Senator from that state, John McCain.

The only above state in which Clinton is competitive is New Mexico, a state that Al Gore won in 2000 and John Kerry lost by a mere 6,000 votes in 2004.

The Obama Campaign can not ignore these opportunities in The West. 

Gov. Schweitzer in Montana, Gov. Freudenthal in Wyoming and Gov. Ritter in Colorado have proved the potential for Democratic success in these states.

Aided by Howard Dean's 50-state strategy and books like Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas" Democrats are learning to make connections with the voters out West.  Efforts by people like Gov. Schweitzer and Gov. Sebelius in Kansas have also helped greatly.

The Democrats need to win outside their traditional territories.  As I have discussed many times before Hillary Clinton is not capable of doing that and relying on Florida and Ohio has not been working very well.  The only way for the Democrats to reach the magic 270 number is through the southern strategy and the western strategy. 

Between the jwilkes plan and the Stonecipher plan things are looking up.