McCain sparks water rights blowup

Arizona Sen. John McCain’s call for renegotiating how much water some Western states can pull from the Colorado River has a set off quite a stir in Colorado, an up-for-grabs swing state that next week plays host to the Democratic National Convention.

“Over my cold, dead, political carcass,” said Republican Bob Schaffer, who is running against Democratic Rep. Mark Udall to replace retiring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, offering a sentiment widely shared in Colorado and across ideological lines.


In the arid West, water is an explosive issue. Political fortunes have been lost because of it, and ranchers occasionally shot and killed. As a local saying has it, “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting.”

McCain, a proud Westerner, triggered the latest round of fighting when he told The Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain last Friday that “the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties” — which was widely understood in Colorado as a process that would end up redistributing more of the river’s “liquid gold” downstream.

The Republican was forced to backtrack Wednesday, writing a letter to Allard saying, “Let me be clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the compact.”

But the issue is not likely to go away soon. Democrats Udall, Gov. Bill Ritter and Sen. Ken Salazar are expected to blast McCain in a press conference today. In an interview Wednesday, Salazar said McCain’s remarks showed that he didn’t understand the issue’s importance. “There’s nothing more fundamental to the West than water.”

That line of attack could be particularly effective against the Arizona senator because Coloradans are sensitive to attempts by their downstream neighbors — Arizona, Nevada and California — to take more water.

The 86-year-old water compact says that Arizona, Nevada and California can take 7.5 million acre feet of water from the river annually. The rest is split among Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. The four up-river states worry that the more populous southerly trio would use a renegotiation to quench its ever-increasing thirst at their expense.

“You kind of scratch your head and think, ‘Isn’t this guy from the West? Shouldn’t he know about this [stuff],” said Colorado State University political science professor John Straayer.

The misstep demonstrates how difficult navigating the West can be, even for a native son. As McCain was reminded, the West can be just as territorial as the East is provincial.

“He’s been educated by the lower-basin states. He’s not been educated by upper-basin states. And once he gets that education, he will no longer make those remarks. I guarantee it,” said former Colorado Republican state Sen. Norma Anderson, who recalled her then-husband being threatened with a shotgun during a water dispute years ago.

Though Colorado Democrats are seeking to exploit McCain’s comments locally, Anderson predicted the remark may help the Republican in the population-booming and water-parched swing state of Nevada.

Even if Colorado Democrats do take the comments for a ride, state Republicans don’t seem too worried that it’ll leave any permanent scars.

“My first response was ouch,” said GOP political consultant Katy Atkinson. “I don’t think it’s enough of an issue to swing the state against him.”

McCain will have plenty of time between now and November to explain his position to rural Coloradans, who are a friendly audience, said Sean Duffy, who served in the administrations of then-Govs. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Bill Owens of Colorado.

Besides, Duffy questioned whether Democratic Sen. Barack Obama even understands the issue of rural water rights.

“This is a group of people that didn’t get rural Pennsylvania. I don’t think they’re going to get rural Colorado,” he said.

Former Gov. Dick Lamm, an Obama supporter, said that while water generally is “a get-your-gun issue,” he doesn’t think average Coloradoans know about the agreement McCain suggested renegotiating. “I don’t think, in the scheme of things, it’s going to hurt him.”

If anything, it should be a lesson to McCain not to stray off message, Lamm said. It may have been fine to ad lib while campaigning in Arizona — in fact, his remarks would be unlikely to raise eyebrows there — but a presidential candidate has to be more disciplined.

Eric Sondermann, an unaffiliated Colorado political analyst, predicted that local issues like water, oil shale and gun rights will have more impact on statewide races than on the presidential contest.

“I don’t think serious-minded people are saying this would be reflective of water policy in a McCain administration,” he said.

Still, the Colorado Democratic Party said it will likely pound the Republican with ads portraying him as a water thief in the hopes of making the Republican seem, well, all wet.