PHOENIX: Water has emerged as a major issue in Arizona’s midterm elections, featuring prominently in campaign signs, television advertisements and debates for key US House races as the drought-hit state faces growing concerns over its water supply.
Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat seeking reelection in the November 3 midterm polls, says, “Arizona’s water is for Arizonans” in a TV commercial, claiming she fought the federal government this year for the state’s fair share of the drought-stricken Colorado River.
Right-wing group Turning Point USA hit back with street placards across Phoenix, claiming Hobbs “LOST AZ BILLIONS OF GALLONS OF WATER.”
Water has surpassed issues such as affordability, immigration and the Iran war as the most important campaign concern, underscoring how deeply worried Arizona residents have become about the drought crisis.
A survey released in September by the Center for the Future of Arizona found that long-term water supplies were, for the first time, the top concern among Arizona voters. Water had previously ranked second or third in the survey, which is now in its fifth year.
The change followed federal cuts in Colorado River supplies to Arizona in August. Water is now a central campaign issue and the focus of election advertisements.
Politicians have long left water issues to water managers or framed them as shared policy challenges requiring long-term solutions, such as the Central Arizona Project. The concrete canal, completed in the early 1990s, provides Colorado River water to millions of people in Phoenix and Tucson.
For some observers, the prominence of water in campaign messaging is unprecedented.
“This is very new. I don’t think I’ve seen candidates running for governor talking about water issues in the past,” said Sybil Francis, head of the CFA, an independent research organization.