Tom O’Halleran discusses campaign and what he hopes to accomplish for his district

Tom O’Halleran (D) of Congressional District 2 joins us today to talk about his campaign and what he can do for his district.

O’Halleran believes that in order for our economy to grow, we must expand the middle class and create good-paying jobs. He wants to protect Social Security from those who seek to privatize it or want to turn Medicare into a voucher system. He supports immigration reform that secures our border, keeps families together, and meets the needs of demands of our economy. He supports veteran issues and education issues.

O’Halleran is facing Republican Eli Crane, who had declined the invitation at this time.

His biggest concern

“If you live in Arizona, you have to worry about water even in rural sections of the state. It’s a serious issue right now,” O’Halleran explained. During his time in Congress, O’Halleran has created statewide conservation plans and statewide drop management plans.

What can be done

“Out of fairness for everybody, all seven basin states have to do what Arizona is doing; conserving as much water as they can, recognizing that this is a problem,” O’Halleran explained. He mentioned that California is currently not conserving water to the levels they should be.

“By 2040, we’ll lose about 10% of our water. They don’t put any water into the Colorado River, and we do,” O’Halleran said.

Reconsidering growth

The possibility to reconsider Arizona population growth was discussed, considering that it has expanded immensely.

“We always need to reconsider how we’re going to grow; this is why I did a drop management plan, a conservation plan, a statewide water plan. That should be an ongoing creative process of what we’re going to do to look into the future and not deal with crisis time after time,” he explained.

He has been discussing these water issues for about 20 years, with many initiatives being taken to bring these issues to light.