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Raúl Grijalva
The outlook
The national press and blogs are rife with alternating rumors that U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva of Tucson and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., are front-runners for the secretary of interior job.
This week, Grist.org, an environmental Web site, said the "buzz in Washington" is that Thompson and dark horse Kevin Gover, assistant interior secretary for Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1997 to 2000, are high on the list for the job.
Frank Maisano, an energy industry consultant in Washington, D.C., said Monday: "As far as I can tell, Grijalva is the guy who is in the lead. You never know, but if you do this over and over like I have, you can tell. There is a name that keeps bouncing up."

Tucson Region

130 groups push for Grijalva to fill Interior post

By Tony Davis
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.09.2008
Grass-roots environmentalist support is mushrooming for U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva to be named the next interior secretary, with about 130 groups signing a letter endorsing the Tucson Democrat.
For the most part, business-interest groups whose views often clash with those of the liberal, environmentalist Grijalva are staying silent on the Interior Department job — as are many major national environmental groups.
The letter Monday backing Grijalva came from a wide range of environmental and animal-protection groups across the country. It surfaced as President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is apparently preparing to make decisions on key environmental appointees.
Grijalva also got letters of support in the past week from Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, of which the Grijalva is a member, and from Rep. Grace Napolitano, the chairwoman of the committee's water and power subcommittee.
He also has received support from the Humane Society of the United States, the National Federation for the Blind and the Outdoor Industry Association, a trade group for businesses selling recreational equipment.
Various press accounts nationally have said Obama would announce his choices to run the Interior and Energy departments and the Environmental Protection Agency this week. Grijalva, in his only major public statement on the Interior contest, told TV interviewers Friday that the decision has been "put off" for five to 10 days.
Other often-mentioned candidates for the Interior job are U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson of California and Jay Inslee of Washington state, along with former Interior Department Solicitor John Leshy and David Hayes, a top Interior Department staffer under Bruce Babbitt, President Clinton's Interior chief.
Thompson has support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and longtime environmentalist Rep. George Miller, both California Democrats, and nearly 30 hunting and fishing groups. He is generally viewed as more politically moderate than Grijalva and more likely to vote at times against the wishes of environmental groups.
The environmentalists' letter backing Grijalva said he:
● Showed ability as a Pima County supervisor from 1989 to 2002 to bring together differing interests to reach mutually acceptable agreements.
● Pressed federal agencies to consider global warming when they approve plans and permits for activities on federal land.
● Has worked closely with American Indian communities and is intimately familiar with the Bureau of Reclamation, Interior's water-management arm.
● Because he has worked in a growing area, Tucson, he appreciates new political dynamics developing as public-lands issues move from rural to urban areas.
Signers included the national Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility; Rio Grande Restoration of northern New Mexico; the Pacific Biodiversity Institute of Winthrop, Wash.; the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center of Ashland, Ore.; and Living Rivers of Moab, Utah.
Most business groups said they didn't want to comment on a specific candidate but hope to be able to work with anyone.
The mining industry, for instance, has locked horns with Grijalva nationally and locally. Grijalva has opposed the 4,000-acre Rosemont copper mine on U.S. Forest Service land southeast of Tucson. The industry and Grijalva also have disagreed over how far to go with an overhaul of the 1872 Mining Law.
But "it's perfectly understandable that there would be an interior secretary we would have disagreements with," said Luke Popovich, a National Mining Association spokesman. "As long as whoever is interior secretary is open to analysis of the facts and consequences of an issue, that is someone we can deal with."
The National Gas Association and the American Petroleum Institute had no comment on the Interior Department post. The Arizona Cattlemen's Association said it is working with national ranching interest groups to register concerns about Grijalva with Obama's transition team.
Patrick Bray, the Arizona group's deputy director of government affairs, said: "Obviously, if he becomes it, we will have to live with him and work with him. But in his stint with Congress, we have not seen eye to eye with him on a lot of issues. He is a big wilderness fan, and we are big believers in multiple use of federal lands."
● Contact Tony Davis at 806-7746 or tdavis@azstarnet.com.
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