Press & Latest News

Mormon voters recalled Pearce over 'character,' not immigration
Politico
11/11/11
The recall of Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce, a Republican who crafted the state’s immigration law, SB 1070, was one of the biggest headlines out of Election Day Tuesday night. A post-election survey in Pearce’s district found a major erosion among two groups who have typically supported the lawmaker: Mormon (or LDS) voters, and conservatives in general. The survey, conducted by Project New West with Myers Research, found that Pearce won LDS voters by a 16-point margin – which is “a lot of erosion” from his previous support in that group, said Andrew Myers of Myers Research.

New Colorado poll: President Obama more popular than GOP challengers
Denver Post
10/25/11
Project New West’s poll, which was conducted late last month, also shows that the Republican electorate in the state appears dissatisfied with the current field. The poll from Project New West follows its successful two-day summit in Las Vegas of about 400 Western Democratic leaders and activists. “At this point in the presidential race, President Obama is running against himself,” Project New West president Jill Hanauer said today. “At the same time, the Republican field is not reaching a majority of Coloradans due to their extreme views in very centrist state where voters vote for the person not the party and the policy vision, not a political ideology.”

Democrats plan major Vegas summit featuring Brokaw, Turner and elected officials on eve of GOP presidential debate
Las Vegas Sun
9/15/11
On the eve of the CNN/Western Republican Leadership Conference presidential debate in Las Vegas next month, a national Democratic-aligned group will convene a summit here, presumably to try to frame issues before the GOP White House contenders take the stage at The Venetian. Project New West will sponsor the event, which will features politicians led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and luminaries such as Ted Turner, Tom Brokaw and Zappos chief Tony Hseih. The World Market Center event will take place Oct. 16-17, thus ending one day before the debate. It seems the New West Summit is designed to try to define Western issues in the gateway to the West for the 2012 presidential race right before the debate. The Intermountain West was critical to the Democrats in 2008 and surely will be again. The group will release polling data from the Western states as well as feature discussions of job creation, energy, tourism and education--as well as the West's evolving political environment.

Politicians follow voter drift to western states
Associated Press
10/4/2011
LAS VEGAS — Rapid population growth in the West means Colorado, Montana, Nevada and New Mexico could be major battleground states during the 2012 elections, according to a new report compiled by western Democratic strategists. "Twenty years ago, this was not a competitive region electorally," said Jill Hanauer, president of Project New West, a Denver-based research group organizing western Democrats. "The Democrats, at least, absolutely see the West as critical for their long-term competitiveness." The group is heading to Nevada to host a conference on how to appeal to the new voters who are driving the West's changing demographics. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was scheduled to open the two-day Project New West conference Oct. 16 in Las Vegas.

Presidential primary poll in NV shows Romney and Cain close, rest far behind
Las Vegas Sun
10/14/11
Frontrunner Mitt Romney has 31 percent and Herman Cain, who announced today he is boycotting the state’s caucus, has 26 percent of Nevada’s GOP electorate in a poll taken a few weeks ago for Project New West, a Democratic Party-aligned think tank holding a summit in Las Vegas before next week’s GOP debate

Reid: Hispanics playing bigger political role in Nevada, West
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
10/16/2011
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said Sunday he owes his job to Latinos, the West's growing political power who could be key to future Democratic victories and the re-election of President Barack Obama. "I would not be the majority leader in the United States Senate today, but for the Hispanics in Nevada," said Reid, who won a tough 2010 re-election thanks in part to strong Latino turnout. Reid was speaking to the Project New West Summit, a two-day meeting in Las Vegas of about 400 Western Democratic leaders and activists that continues today.

Powerful Western Democrats meeting in Vegas
The Denver Post
10/16/2011
The most powerful Democrats in the Intermountain West are converging on Las Vegas today for a three-day summit of the American West — a conference that ends the day before the Republican presidential debate in the same town. The event's organizers, who say the event was planned long before the Republican debate, consider the timing a happy coincidence. With all of the nation's political press gathering in Vegas for the GOP showdown, the summit could give them a national stage. The West is an increasingly important political battleground, and Democrats hope to show they are better suited to appeal to their base as well as the ever-important independent-minded voter, said Jill Hanauer, president of the Colorado-based Project New West.

Republican, Democratic Leaders Converge on Las Vegas
KLAS: 8NewsNow, Las Vegas
10/17/2011
LAS VEGAS -- There are just three months until Nevadans hit the polls and vote in the Republican presidential caucus, and most of the candidates will be in town this week asking for your vote. CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference are hosting a debate Tuesday evening, and the audience will play a big role. They are going to be able to ask the candidates questions.

Strategists: West becoming more urban, diverse
Associated Press
10/17/2011
LAS VEGAS—Western states are becoming more urban and diverse, with an influx of Hispanic, Asian and young voters who tend to vote against Republican candidates, according to political strategists who spoke Monday at a Democratic conference. "The trend is worrisome if you are a Republican," Robert Lang, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said during the event. The battle to win the West is being planned in Las Vegas this week, with Republican and Democratic political consultants holding dueling strategy meetings. Republican presidential candidates will gather for a rare western state debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, an event that is intended to open the Western Republican Leadership Conference. The four-day event will include appearances by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

Western Leaders Discuss The Importance Of Jobs In The Conservation Economy
Think Progress Blog
10/18/2011
This week, progressive western thought leaders met in Las Vegas at the Project New West summit to debate what an equitable, diverse, and successful future of the West might look like. One of the biggest themes of the conversation was jobs — driving them to and keeping them in the region. Participants on panels discussed high-tech, green tech, renewable energy, and other quintessentially American jobs. Another important sector that was discussed and is critical to western growth is the conservation economy — recreation, tourism, restoration, and other mechanisms that protect landscapes while creating jobs.

The Democratic Plan to Recapture the West
The Nation
10/19/2011
From the roofless patio atop the extraordinary World Market Center, sixteen floors of swirls and triangles, pastel orange concrete mixed with shimmering glass, one can see a truly epic panorama of the American West. To the east is a Frank Gehry building, a curvaceous metal fantasy that houses a brain research center. To the south is the Las Vegas Strip, announced at its northern point by the soaring Stratosphere. Surrounding the center is the urban sprawl of Sin City. And surrounding that sprawl are the orange rock mountains. The sky, most of the time, is a brilliant blue; the air, desert dry. Such was the visual backdrop to this year's Project New West Summit, which brought together Democratic politicians and progressive advocacy groups from the Rocky Mountain West for three days of discussions, beginning October 16.

Rocky Territory
The National Journal
10/21/2011
LAS VEGAS—Like the Rocky Mountains themselves, national politics across the Mountain West since the 1980s have been shaped by the collision of tectonic forces. On one side are demographic trends that favor Democrats—rising levels of racial diversity, education, and urbanization. On the other is the ideological backlash that the party has repeatedly faced across the region, particularly from whites, when it has controlled the White House and implemented a national Democratic agenda. President Obama and the Republican presidential contenders who gathered here on Tuesday for their most voluble debate yet all have much at stake in how those competing dynamics intersect in 2012. Obama could struggle in the graying blue-collar Midwestern states that once tipped national elections. That will increase the pressure on him to defend his 2008 victories in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, which constitute part of a new arc of youthful and growing swing states emerging across the Sun Belt. Once, the Mountain West was a luxury for Democrats; now, it looks like a necessity.

How the West Was Warmed: Responding to Climate Change in the Rockies
Editor Beth Conover, Fulcrum Press 2009
Project New West's Jill Hanauer, David Winkler, Lisa Grove, Melissa Chernaik, and Andrew Myers contributed to the recently published collection of essays titled How the West Was Warmed: Responding to Climate Change in the Rockies. The PNW Research Team wrote the essay "Red, Blue and Green - The Western Political Realignment."

Dems Lose Footing In The Mountain West
National Journal
September 19, 2009