From the Colorado Connection (Chris Buckley):
A farmer and rancher from Manassa, Salazar has supported agricultural issues for years. “I used to serve on the Rio Grande Water Conservation District when we fought these big multi-million dollar corporations that were trying to dry up agriculture and move the water to the Front Range,” Salazar said. “It was then I was asked to run for the state legislature, because it was when Governor Owens wanted to run what was called Referendum A. It was a $10 billion bonding authority to build water projects, but nobody talked about where that water was going to come from. We knew for a fact it would be water that would dry up farms and would be moved to the urban areas. I’ve been a strong supporter of protecting agriculture in Colorado and it was shortly after that that my predecessor decide to retire from Congress, so I was asked to run for that seat, and we were just coming off that big referendum win where I led a bipartisan coalition of state legislators across the entire state, and we won that referendum in every single county in the state at the editorial board level, basically.”
One of his biggest accomplishments, he said, is finally helping to secure funding for the Arkansas Valley conduit. It’s a project to provide water to the lower Arkansas valley communities. President Kennedy signed the original authorization back in 1962. “What ended up happening is that was never funded. After 50 years we got that done and I’m very proud of that,” Salazar said.
More 2010 Colorado elections coverage here.