McFarland was political survivor
In Arizona’s 102 years of statehood, only a dozen people have represented the state in the U.S. Senate.
Just 22 have served as governor, the same number of chief justices of the Arizona State Supreme Court. Only one person has done all three. Amazingly, he was a Democrat. Ernest William McFarland Jr. was born in 1894 and raised on a small farm in Oklahoma. After high school, he worked a series of jobs to pay for his education, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.
He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I, then earned a law degree, as well as a master’s in political science, from Stanford University.
Doctors advised McFarland, who suffered from a severe lung infection, to settle in a dry climate. Hence, Arizona.
After setting up practice in Casa Grande in 1921, the man widely known as “Mac” started climbing the political ladder, serving as assistant attorney general of Arizona, county attorney of Pinal County and a superior court judge in Pinal County.
Despite his public success, McFarland endured great tragedy in his personal life. Three children died young, followed by his wife, Clare.
But he soldiered on, expanding his knowledge of water issues and pursuing his political career. Eventually, McFarland remarried.
In 1940, McFarland won a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he joined fellow senator Carl Hayden to push a project to bring water from the Colorado River to the urban areas of Phoenix and Tucson. Although that project never got off the ground, it paved the way for the passage of the Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968, part of which created more than 330 miles of Central Arizona Project canals.
One of his proudest accomplishments was the promotion and passage of the G.I. Bill, which helped millions of veterans get a college education.
McFarland was re-elected in 1946 and became majority leader in 1950. But the unrepentant New Dealer lost his seat in 1952 to an up-and-coming Phoenix Republican named Barry Goldwater.
Down but not out, McFarland ran for governor in 1954. He won and was re-elected in 1956.
Fascinated by the nation’s newest communications medium, McFarland formed the Arizona Television Company and, in 1955, opened KTVK (now Channel 3). He often said he chose the call letters so that “TV” would be the station’s middle name. (McFarland’s stepdaughter, Jewell, and her husband, Del Lewis, retained ownership of the station until 1999.)
Another of McFarland’s accomplishments, interesting in light of later events, came in 1957, when he signed a bill creating the Arizona State Parks system.
After his bid to unseat Goldwater in 1958 failed, McFarland reinvented his career yet again, serving on the Arizona State Supreme Court from 1964 to 1970. One of the cases he heard involved the rights of Ernesto Miranda, which eventually led to the requirement that police officers inform those arrested of their rights to remain silent and have an attorney.
During his final two years on the court, McFarland served as chief justice.
In 1974, McFarland purchased the Florence courthouse, the oldest standing courthouse in Arizona, and donated it to the state.
The courthouse is now the centerpiece of McFarland State Historic Park, which holds, among a slew of documents and photographs, the Florence World War II Prisoner of War Camp exhibit.
Mac McFarland, one of Arizona’s most accomplished politicians, died in 1984.