{"id":28357,"date":"2024-04-04T09:17:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T15:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cleave-simpson-settles-into-district-6-looks-to-water-issues\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T15:17:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T15:17:36","slug":"cleave-simpson-settles-into-district-6-looks-to-water-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cleave-simpson-settles-into-district-6-looks-to-water-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleave Simpson settles into District 6, looks to water issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"State
State Sen. Cleave Simpson with his wife, Cathy, and dog. (Courtesy)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First elected to Colorado\u2019s Senate in 2020 to serve District 35, Cleave Simpson was reassigned to District 6 after redistricting in January 2023.<\/p>\n

Though a handful of communities he represents remain the same \u2013 including his hometown of Alamosa — there\u2019s a lot of new territory he now represents.<\/p>\n

District 6, like 35, is one of the largest in Colorado. It spans 14 counties and covers much of the southwest corner of the state, an area that\u2019s predominantly rural. Simpson is running for reelection in the Republican primary for the district on June 25.<\/p>\n

Vivian Smotherman is running in the Democratic primary for District 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still largely agriculture and water-driven, and those are my passions,\u201d said Simpson. \u201cI feel uniquely qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a fourth-generation farmer and rancher in the San Luis Valley, Simpson said he looks at policy through a lens of rural Colorado. To him, representing that population is paramount.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the Colorado state Senate, there\u2019s a handful of senators that represent rural areas,\u201d said Christine Arbogast, a federal affairs liaison who\u2019s worked with Simpson for nearly two decades on water-related issues. \u201cThe rural areas need strong leadership and a strong spokesperson.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to working as a state senator, Simpson works full time as the general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, a position he\u2019s held since 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing involved in water challenges across the state, you could see the writing on the wall,\u201d said Simpson. \u201cIf demand routinely exceeds our supply, you run the risk of fundamentally changing what Colorado looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Cleave Simpson of Alamosa now represents District 6.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2022, Simpson, with the help of former Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, secured $60 million to help restore the groundwater basins of the Rio Grande and the Republican River. That money goes to people \u2013 like farmers \u2013 who willingly retire their groundwater withdrawals so the aquifer can recover.<\/p>\n

Simpson said he\u2019s all for keeping water within its basin of origin and empowers communities to protect the resource; he opposes extractive proposals to drill into aquifers and pump water out of the basin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already struggling,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re already paying producers to stop producing so we can keep water in the aquifer and build a healthier aquifer system.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what the Colorado River \u2013 now part of his district — has been dealing with for the last several years, the Rio Grande Basin has been dealing with for a decade, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, I\u2019m not sure we could have a better senator. Coming from the water world, he understands it,\u201d said Steve Wolff, general manager of the Southwestern Water Conservation District.<\/p>\n

Arbogast said that just last week, Simpson and three other senators introduced a memorial to support full funding of an existing federal law that\u2019s supposed to fund states\u2019 infrastructure improvement projects.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been fully funded at the promised $35 million for the seven years since it passed, she said.<\/p>\n

The money would finance 16 projects around Colorado, namely the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project which serves the Southern Ute tribe and non-tribal farmers and ranchers in the region, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pipes are broken and deteriorated, the canals and headgate are grown over,\u201d said Arbogast. \u201cIt does not function at even 50%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Simpson is deeply involved in the water world, he makes an effort to focus on other areas, too, he said.<\/p>\n

Sponsoring the 988-suicide hotline and ultimately bringing it to District 35 was, in his eyes, one of the most important victories of his career.<\/p>\n

Lately, he\u2019s been working with the food industry, trying to encourage local food inputs and consumption via income tax credits. He\u2019s also working to improve access for out-of-state physicians\u2019 assistants to practice in Colorado and to make it easier for them to practice without a doctor\u2019s supervision.<\/p>\n

In the future, he plans to sponsor a rural economic jump-start grant program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve truly have tried hard not to focus singularly on areas that\u2019re really important to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Arbogast said he primarily wants to get things done, and to make sure rural areas see results just as much as populated areas do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen all you do is listen to the noise in the media, you\u2019d think there\u2019s no one like that out there anymore, but there are,\u201d said Arbogast. \u201cAnd he\u2019s certainly one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Cleave Simpson with his wife, Cathy, and dog. (Courtesy)cca First elected to Colorado\u2019s Senate in 2020 to serve District 35, Cleave Simpson was reassigned to District 6 after redistricting in January 2023. Though a handful of communities he represents remain the same \u2013 including his hometown of Alamosa — there\u2019s a lot of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28357"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}