http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-campaign-2016-west-20150412-story.html#page=1 By Mark Z. Barabak
Western states rallied behind Obama in 2008, but the fight is likely to be closer in 2016
Democrats' hope of adding the West to their presidential electoral base has dissipated swiftly
When President Obama claimed the Democratic nomination en route to the White House, he planted his party flag in this Rocky Mountain capital, vowing to end Washington's dysfunction and find elusive consensus around issues such as immigration, guns and abortion.
Running as a different breed of Democrat — one more pragmatic and sensitive to the unbridled ethos of the region — Obama captured several Western states that the Republicans had won four years earlier, and came surprisingly close in two others.
Afterward, there was heady talk among Democrats of making the Mountain West a reliable part of their presidential base, safely tucking Colorado and Nevada alongside the blue bastions of California, Oregon and Washington, and turning Republican-leaning Arizona and Montana into a pair of tossup states.
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