You are wrong about keeping the base open for political purposes. The DOD did not have all the facts when putting Ellsworth on the closing list. If you had listened to C-Span this morning, you would have heard how it would cost MORE money to close the base and send the planes to Dyess AFB in Texas than leave them at Ellsworth.
But the commission found that closing Ellsworth wouldn't save any money over 20 years, and that it actually would cost nearly $20 million to move the planes to the Texas base. The Pentagon had projected saving $1.8 billion over two decades with the closure.
Hoping that the good luck spills over to Cannon. Unfettered air space for training, excellent weather, no urban encroachment -- those are the military reasons to keep it open. Economic-wise, Clovis would lose 1/3 of its jobs and just become another dusty west Texas town. Further down the road, water will be an issue for farming due to dewatering of the local aquifer for irrigation.