McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer
A lone rafter floats on Lynx Lake in the Prescott National Forest near Prescott, Ariz. The land exchange will expand the forest. (By Les Stukenberg -- The Daily Courier)
By Matthew Mosk Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 9, 2008; Page A01
PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development,****a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].****
- DESERT DEAL: McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer * Questions Submitted to the McCain Campaign Wednesday * Letter from Frank Ruskin (PDF) * Documents Related to the Land Exchange Hearings * Candidate Profile: John McCain
Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the*** rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.***
When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.
The Audubon Society described the exchange as the largest in Arizona history. The swap involved more than 55,000 acres of land in all, including rare expanses of desert woodland and pronghorn antelope habitat. The deal had support from many local officials and the Arizona Republic newspaper for its expansion of the Prescott National Forest. But it brought an outcry from some Arizona environmentalists when it was proposed in 2002, partly because it went through Congress rather than a process that allowed more ****citizen input.****
Although the bill called for the two parcels to be of equal value, a federal forestry official told a congressional committee that he was concerned that "the public would not receive fair value" for its land. A formal appraisal has not yet begun. A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre.
In an interview, Betts said there is**** "absolutely no" connection between his contributions to McCain's presidential bids and the deal involving rancher Fred Ruskin and the Yavapai Ranch Limited Partnership.**** While his company's possible involvement was discussed casually before the bill's passage, Betts said SunCor did not sign on to the project until afterward. "At no time during the consideration of this legislation was there any involvement by officials of SunCor," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in a written response to questions [read the campaign's full answers].
**Betts is among a string of donors who have benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps.**In 1994, the senator helped a lobbyist for land developer Del Webb Corp. pursue an exchange in the Las Vegas area, according to the Center for Public Integrity. McCain sponsored two bills, in 1991 and
1994, sought by donor Donald R. Diamond that yielded the developer ****thousands of acres in trade for national parkland.****In the late 1990s, McCain promoted a deal in Arizona's ***Tonto National Forest ***involving property part-owned by Great American Life Insurance, a company run by billionaire Carl H. Lindner Jr., a prolific contributor to national political parties and presidential candidates.
With the federal government owning vast stretches of Arizona land, and with pressure to meet increasing housing demands, McCain now views land swaps as beneficial, Rogers said. "He certainly recognizes that there have been well-documented abuses of legislative land exchanges, but ****every land exchange bill introduced by Senator McCain has been written with the highest regard for the public interest."****
As McCain positions himself as a champion of environmental causes, observers of the Yavapai Ranch swap say it shows a paradox in the senator's positions. At times, he has fought to protect the delicate desert ecosystem.*** *But when wildlife concerns have thwarted development, his loyalties have shifted****
***"When the public trust intersects with private interests, basically, he has favored land development . . . in every case," said Rob Smith, director of the Sierra Club's Arizona affiliate.****McCain also has been critical of government's "revolving door," which allows former government officials to position themselves as influential lobbyists. Rogers said that ****McCain does not recall being lobbied by his former staff members on the land swap and that "no lobbyist influenced Senator McCain on this issue."****
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