The Steamboat Pilot & Today

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama made a surprise appearance Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center, where all eyes were on the nominee, portrayed over the crowd on a giant screen. Photo by Mike Lawrence

DNC 2008

Stay tuned to www.steamboatpilot.com throughout the week for extended coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Pilot & Today City Editor Mike Lawrence and reporter Brandon Gee are covering the convention from Denver. They will report on issues pertinent to Northwest Colorado, touch base with Colorado Democratic leaders and chronicle Denver’s convention buzz in articles, photos and audio interviews.

Denver — Jayne Bilberry of Montrose said rural issues such as water rights and ranchland preservation inspired her campaign to become a delegate at the Dem­ocratic Nation­al Convention.

And even though a Wed­nes­­­day meeting of the Rural Coun­cil of the Democratic National Commit­tee was sparsely attended, Bilberry said she was excited just to hear a conversation about agricultural concerns.

“I’m pleased that we’re being acknowledged,” said Bilberry, chairwoman of the Montrose County Democratic Party. Her Western Slope community is deeply embedded in agricultural economies, which are facing rising costs of production and materials along with high land values that in some locations, including Routt County, have led to a shrinking quantity of ranchland.

Denise King, chairwoman of the Rural Council, said Wednesday that Democrats in Colorado and across the country need to “show the facts” to rural voters and spread the message that a Barack Obama presidency would support rural America.

Western Democratic politicians already are carrying that torch.

In a conference call last week, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, a rancher from the San Luis Valley, said the nation’s farms and rural communities have been “ignored by the White House for the past seven years.” Salazar said U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has “opposed every single Farm Bill for the past 15 years.”

Montana Gov. Brian Sch­weitzer echoed that sentiment Wednesday.

“John McCain voted against the Farm Bill, he’s voted against solar energy, voted against wind power, he’s voted against biofuels — those are all important to rural America,” Schweitzer said after an appearance in downtown Denver. “He’s not the kind of guy that people in rural America are going to embrace. We need somebody in rural America that’ll support farmers and ranchers, that’ll support alternative energy, and he never has and probably never will.”

McCain’s policies say that’ if elected, the Arizona senator would take measures including opening foreign markets to American farmers and funding federal research into higher-yield, drought-resistant crops to conserve resources while increasing production.

“As president, John McCain will base our farm policy on the common good, with policies that help our small farmers to succeed, and our rural communities to survive and flourish once again,” reads a McCain policy page on the Web. “McCain opposes providing billions to subsidize large commercial farms — those farms with an average income of $200,000, and an average net worth of $2 million — while American workers and taxpayers struggle to buy food due to rising prices.”

King said Democrats need to push a message to rural Amer­ica of expanding agricultural research and trade, promoting alternative energy industries as a source of rural economic development, and increasing funds for rural infrastructure improvements.

The stakes are high, said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobacher of Minnesota, a member of the Senate Agriculture Commit­tee.

“We want to make sure we preserve our ranchlands,” Klobacher said. “We’re already dependent on foreign countries for oil — we don’t want to be dependent for food.”