Editing Bruce Babbitt (section)

==Political career==

===Arizona===
[[File:Billy Davis In Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt Office.jpg|left|thumb|Babbitt signing legislation in the Governor's Office in Phoenix, Arizona.]]
In the state election of November 1974, Babbitt overcame Republican incumbent N. Warner Lee to become [[Attorney General of Arizona]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 6, 1974 |title=Arizona Voting |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7054260/the_gallup_independent/ |newspaper=The Gallup Independent |location=Gallup, NM |agency=AP |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=October 16, 2016 }} {{Open access}}</ref>
[[File:Bruce Babbitt (AZ).png|150px|thumb|right|Babbitt as governor.]]
He succeeded [[Wesley Bolin]] as governor when Bolin died in office on March 4, 1978. Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor; the [[Arizona Secretary of State]], if holding office by election, stands first in line in case the governor vacates his or her post. However, [[Rose Mofford]], then secretary of state, had been appointed to her post and thus was not eligible to become governor according to the Arizona state constitution. Babbitt, as attorney general, was next in the line of succession, and thus served the balance of the term to which [[Raúl Héctor Castro]] had originally been elected in 1974. Babbitt was elected for a full four-year term later in 1978, and again in [[United States gubernatorial elections, 1982|1982]]. He did not run for a third full term in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bruce Babbitt bio, photos, oral history {{!}} AZ Historymaker |url=https://www.historicalleague.org/historymakers/bruce-babbitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313152410/https://www.historicalleague.org/historymakers/bruce-babbitt |archive-date=2023-03-13 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=www.historicalleague.org}}</ref>

In 1982, Babbitt intervened in negotiations between the Cochise County sheriff and leaders of the Christ Miracle Healing Church and Center over the release of church members whom the church was hiding from facing charges for assault.  The church, which had been implicated in bomb-making, would play a central role in the [[Miracle Valley shootout]] later that year.  In 1983, Babbitt sent the Arizona National Guard to the [[1983 Arizona copper mine strike|strike]] against the [[Phelps Dodge]] mining company in [[Morenci, Arizona]].

With the retirement of Republican [[Barry Goldwater]] from the U.S. Senate in 1986, many in Arizona expected Babbitt to oppose Representative [[John McCain]] for the seat. In a surprise press conference in 1985, Babbitt instead announced he would forgo the Senate race to concentrate on a White House bid in 1988.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-09-05 |title=Arizona Governor Won't Run in '86 - The Washington Post |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/19/arizona-governor-wont-run-in-86/2b8d461f-60ad-43d3-95d0-301ce06abc14/ |access-date=2023-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905210854/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/03/19/arizona-governor-wont-run-in-86/2b8d461f-60ad-43d3-95d0-301ce06abc14/ |archive-date=5 September 2023 }}</ref>

===National work===
In 1979, Babbitt was appointed by President [[Jimmy Carter]] to serve as a commissioner on the President's Commission on the Accident at [[Three Mile Island accident|Three Mile Island]], a six-month investigation of the March 1979 accident at a commercial nuclear power plant at Middletown, [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=J. Samuel |year=2006 |title=Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tf0AfoynG-EC&pg=PA281 |publisher=University of California Press |page=281 |isbn=9780520246836 }}</ref> Babbitt spoke at the [[1980 Democratic National Convention]], which nominated incumbent [[Jimmy Carter]] as the Democratic candidate for president.

A founding member of the [[Democratic Leadership Council]] and the chairman of the [[Democratic Governors Association]] in 1985, Babbitt sought the [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]]'s 1988 nomination for President of the United States. Among his proposals was a national sales tax to remedy the then-record budget deficits piled up during the several past administrations. He enjoyed positive press attention (called a "boomlet" in ''USA Today''), but after finishing out of the top tier of candidates in the [[Iowa caucuses]] and [[New Hampshire primary]], he dropped out of the race. In an intentional reference to [[Richard Nixon]] (who said after losing the California governorship in the [[California gubernatorial election, 1962|1962 election]] that the press "won't have [me] to kick around anymore"), Babbitt joked in his last campaign press conference that the media "won't have Bruce Babbitt to puff up anymore." ''The Washington Post'' reported that Babbitt dropped this line from the prepared text of his withdrawal speech.<ref>{{cite news|title=Babbitt's Opening Line – Almost|last=Schwartz|first=Maralee|author2=Ifill, Gwen|date=1998-02-21|newspaper=The Washington Post|pages=A12}}</ref>

===Secretary of the Interior 1993–2001===
[[File:Bruce babbitt.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Babbitt as Secretary of the Interior, 1993]]

After leading the [[League of Conservation Voters]], Babbitt served for eight years, 1993–2001, as the [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] during the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton]].  According to John D. Leshy:
:His most remembered legacies will likely be his advocacy of environmental restoration, his efforts to safeguard and build support for the ESA (the [[Endangered Species Act of 1973]]) and the biodiversity that it helps protect, and the public land conservation measures that flowered on his watch.<ref>John D. Leshy,  "The Babbitt Legacy at the Department of the Interior: A Preliminary View." ''Environmental Law'' 31 (2001): 199–227 [227]</ref>

Babbitt worked to protect scenic and historic areas of America's federal public lands. In 2000 Babbitt created the [[National Landscape Conservation System]], a collection of 15 [[U.S. National Monument]]s and 14 [[National Conservation Area]]s to be managed by the [[Bureau of Land Management]] in such a way as to keep them "healthy, open, and wild."

A major issue involved low fees charged ranchers who grazed cattle on public lands. The "animal unit month" (AUM) fee was only $1.35 and was far below the 1983 market value. The argument was that the federal government in effect was subsidizing ranchers, with a few major corporations controlling millions of acres of grazing land.  Babbitt tried to rally environmentalists and raise fees, but senators from Western states successfully blocked his proposals.<ref>Richard Lowitt, “Oklahoma's Mike Synar Confronts the Western Grazing Question, 1987–2000,” ''Nevada Historical Society Quarterly'' (2004) 47#2 pp 77–111</ref><ref>Julie Andersen Hill, "Public Lands Council v. Babbitt: Herding Ranchers Off Public Land." ''BYU Law Review'' (2000): 1273+ [https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2006&context=lawreview online].</ref>

In 1993, Babbitt was seriously considered by President Clinton to replace retiring [[United States Supreme Court]] Justice [[Byron White]]. Due to his lead on environmental issues, however, Clinton nominated [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] instead. Clinton again considered Babbitt for the high court in 1994 when [[Harry Blackmun]] announced his retirement. Babbitt was passed over again, this time in favor of [[Stephen Breyer]], due to Breyer's immense support in the U.S. Senate, primarily because he was close to Sen. [[Ted Kennedy]].<ref>Tinsley E. Yarbrough, "Clinton and the courts." in ''The Clinton Presidency'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999) pp. 43–59.</ref>

In 1998 Babbitt was the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he had lied to Congress about having denied an Indian casino license in Wisconsin in return for political donations. The controversy has been called [[Wampumgate]]. Babbitt was cleared of wrongdoing in the special prosecutor's final report on the investigation the following year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/babbitt101499.htm|title=Babbitt Cleared in Casino Probe|last=Miller|first=Bill|author2=Vise, David A.|date=1999-10-14|newspaper=The Washington Post|pages=A1|access-date=2009-01-23}}</ref>