Here’s why Ariz. needs Jon Kyl to remain in Senate
Gov. Doug Ducey needs to convince Sen. Jon Kyl to stay on the job until 2020 and not step down in January, as Kyl hinted at doing when first appointed to fill the seat of the late Sen. John McCain.
The one-word reason?
Water.
The man knows water.
And if you’ve read the important work done in recent months by Arizona Republic reporters like Brandon Loomis and Ian Davis, along with the commentary and analysis by columnist Joanna Allhands — and you should have — you know Arizona is on the verge of a water crisis.
Currently, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado are working on what is called the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan.
I’m not going to try to explain that to you, because ... I can’t.
That’s the deal with water policy. It’s really complicated. That’s why you didn’t hear Gov. Doug Ducey or his opponent, David Garcia, talking about it.
As Nick Fouriezos of McClatchy wrote in an article recently, “Water becomes an issue not of partisan belief, but of competency.”
He’s right. It’s not for amateurs.
And he added, “For nearly two decades, Jon Kyl, a former Arizona water attorney, served as guardian of the state’s water needs from his Senate perch.”
There are other concerns you might have about Kyl, of course.
If Kyl stays on, you might wonder if he will he fall in line with President Donald Trump, as he did with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yes. Of course he will.
But if Kyl were to leave, it’s likely Ducey, to take his place, would appoint a Republican who also would fall in line with Trump. Only that person wouldn’t have Kyl’s expertise on the one issue that Arizonans literally can’t live without.
Water.
McCain once said, "There is no smarter man in America on water issues than Sen. Jon Kyl, and that is the issue of the 21st century.”
There is a Kyl Center for Water Policy as Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute. The policy wonks know a policy wonk when they see one. Ducey is aware of all this.
He’s probably getting a lot of pressure to ease Kyl out of McCain’s old job in order to insert a politician who could build some momentum as a sitting U.S. senator before the 2020 election.
Instead, Ducey should be begging Kyl to stay. It’s going to take a while for newly elected Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and the rest of the delegation to build up their knowledge of water issues. Assuming they ever do.
It would also be really helpful to have a person with Kyl’s expertise helping state lawmakers as they look forward and contemplate the implications of the three-state water deal.
In August, when Ducey appointed Kyl to fill McCain’s seat, he said of Kyl, “His expertise on water and natural-resource issues will be very beneficial to our state as we face new challenges in those areas. Now is not the time for on-the-job training.”
If he was right about that at the time (and he was), then he would be right to keep Kyl on the job for the next two years.
Like the man said, water is not an issue of partisan belief, but of competency.