Secession In Northern Colorado Being Fueled By Big Oil?

Cory Gardner is a very right-wing backbencher from eastern Colorado. He found himself in Congress after the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010 swept away a confused and worthless Blue Dog, Betsy Markey, her Democratic base refusing to come out to vote for her after she ignored them and voted with the Republicans over and over again. A Tancredo-disciple, Gardner is probably best known in his state as an anti-immigrant fanatic and a virulent racist and bigot. He was reelected last November 59-37%. Now there is a movement in 8 of the counties in his district trying to secede from Colorado. He won each of those counties last year:

Kit Carson- 79%
Logan- 72%
Morgan- 67%
Phillips- 76%
Sedgwick- 72%
Washington- 87%
Weld- 55%
Yuma- 84%

Most of these are tiny counties. Gardner's 72% landslide in Sedgwick, for example, amounted to 925 votes. His 76% win in Phillips was 1,662 votes. Only one county of the 8 has a sizable population, Weld, which includes northern Denver suburbs. Gardner won there 59,576 (55%) to 42,514 (40%). Over a quarter million people live there. Less than 1% of the folks are African-American and the only minority group with more than 1% are Hispanics-- 27%. It's one of America's richest agricultural counties-- and the richest outside of California. It is the center of Colorado's cattle, grain, sugar beets and dairy industries. Obama, who beat Romney 51-47% statewide, lost all 8 of these counties and Weld was the only one where he got to 40%-- 42% to be precise. Obama only won 18% of the vote in Washington County. I'm surprised they only want to secede from Colorado and not from the U.S. The movement's leaders say they want out because they oppose regulation of the oil and gas industries (and guns). Do you wonder who's paying for the movement?

long may it wave

“We really feel in northern and northeastern Colorado that we are ignored-- citizens’ concerns are ignored, and we truly feel disenfranchised,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway told CBS4.

Conway said the new laws don’t support the interests of the northern part of the state, which is rich in agricultural history. Conway said that’s why he and others are proposing to break away from Colorado to form a new state.

“This is not a stunt. This is a very serious deliberative discussion that’s going on,” he said. “There’s a real feeling that a lot of folks who come from the urban areas don’t appreciate the contribution that many Coloradans contribute.”

Parts of Nebraska are also apparently interested in joining in on what would be a new state. Conway says five of the current 50 states were created through a similar process. He says the proposal is “likely” to end up on a Colorado ballot this fall.

“The whole purpose of doing this is to preserve an agricultural way of life and to protect the energy sector, that we feel is very much under assault,” Conway said.

Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican Congressman from Yuma, told The Coloradoan in Fort Collins he’s not sure how he’d vote on such a measure, but he says he understands why the measure is being floated at this time. He says Democratic leaders controlling the state Legislature and the governor’s office have not been listening to their constituents in rural parts of the state.

Gardner may see himself as a potential governor of the 51st state, which has about 6% of Colorado's population (333,000 people, give or take). He says "the people of rural Colorado are mad, and they have every right to be. The governor and his Democrat colleagues in the statehouse have assaulted our way of life, and I don't blame these people one bit for feeling attacked and unrepresented by the leaders of our state."