Several prominent Coloradans praised Gale Norton’s performance in her five years as secretary of the interior, calling it a difficult job.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who followed Norton as Colorado attorney general, praised her work, despite some disagreements.
“We could not have gotten the Animas-La Plata water project underway without her leadership,” Salazar said, adding that Norton worked hard “to make sure the federal government worked closely with local governments and their concerns about public lands.”
“I disagreed with the budget priorities of her department. But we should all be thankful that she’s given of her life and her time for the public interest,” he said.
Added Norton’s good friend and fellow Republican Gov. Bill Owens: “I can well understand her desire to step out of the public spotlight. Her leadership (on) state and national issues will be missed.”
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said he was surprised when Norton called him Friday to tell him she was leaving office.
“Being a Cabinet secretary is extremely demanding, and it takes a strong commitment for anyone to stick it out as long as Gale has,” Allard said. “She has served her country faithfully and well.”
Denver lawyer Norm Brownstein, whose firm Norton joined in 1999 after serving as attorney general, said he spoke with Norton on Friday morning before she announced her departure.
“I think there comes a point in a job like that where it’s time to move on,” he said. “I think she’s reached that point. She did a great job and served the president well. She said she and her husband want to take two or three months off, then decide what to do. I hope she comes back to Colorado.”
Chips Barry, manager of Denver’s water department for 15 years and former executive director of the state Department of Natural Resources from 1988 to 1991, praised Norton for her work on water issues.
“She had a good understanding of Western water issues and exercised some wisdom on the Colorado River Compact,” he said.
Former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, now president of the University of Colorado, called Norton “brilliant” at getting seven states to agree on how to conserve water from the Colorado River. “In her five years, she brought people together and got agreement and cooperation where none thought it was possible,” he said.
Patty Limerick, a history professor and director of CU’s Center of the American West, gave perspective to Norton’s job, having interviewed every living interior secretary since 1961 save three brief interim appointees.
“The position is exceedingly difficult because of conflicting demands, like the dam builders versus the Park Service. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican because everyone soon feels betrayed. The honeymoon lasts about a minute and a half,” she said.
Will Shafroth, executive director of the nonprofit Colorado Conservation Trust, called it an impossible job.
“Gale understood and appreciated the value of working with landowners on a cooperative basis toward conservation,” he said.
But an opposing view came from Norton’s former employer, the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation, where Norton worked under former Interior Secretary James Watt.
“She brought honesty and integrity to a tough job,” said William Perry Pendley, president of the foundation. “But there’s a lot of disappointment at the end of the day, such as failing to reverse Clinton’s national monuments program and for closing the public out of many lands that were considered sacred to American Indians.”
Staff writers Mark P. Couch, Electa Draper, Erin Emery, Nancy Lofholm, Anne C. Mulkern and Mike Soraghan contributed to this report.
