The government shutdown is forcing Republicans and Democrats alike to balance political point-scoring with keeping up appearances at the country’s iconic national parks.
Before the National Park Service put out internal guidance Tuesday to keep the parks mostly open and staffed with skeleton crews, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah’s and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado’s administrations were both strategizing about how to keep them open. And even with the federal government’s guidance, they were working on contingency plans to prop up operations in national parks with state funds.
The scramble by Western governors to keep parks open offered an early glimpse of the disconnect between Washington’s shutdown brinkmanship and the politics surrounding the economic fallout in rural towns like Moab, Estes Park and Springdale — where a prolonged lapse could strain an electorate’s patience with lost tourism dollars, shuttered businesses and overflowing trash cans.
As Republicans and Democrats raced to pin blame for the shutdown on each other, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said Tuesday night that “it’s true politically” that a blue state like his could let Republicans take the hit for closures or a lack of staffing at national parks. But he argued there are larger motivations to keep them open.
