Carl Hayden - Senate

Senate

During Hayden's first run for the Senate in 1926, he based his campaign on his record of defending Arizona's interests in the water rights dispute with California. To this effort his campaign poster was composed of editorial headlines from California newspapers decrying Hayden's effectiveness at preventing passage of the Swing-Johnson Bill authorizing construction of Boulder Dam. The campaign saw allegations of misconduct raised with incumbent Ralph H. Cameron claiming Hayden had used a slush fund received from out-of-state interests. An inquiry led by Senator William H. King was begun several days before the election and found no evidence of wrongdoing. "Senator Cameron's ‘slush fund’ charges proved to be a boomerang which added considerably to my majority" observed Hayden after the election.

Upon Hayden's election to the Senate, he received what Senator Thomas J. Walsh called "choice committee assignments", including a seat on the Appropriations Committee. As a result of his seat on the Appropriations Committee, much of Hayden's efforts in the Senate were shifted away from policy making functions and toward control, allocation, and oversight of the financial funds used to implement legislated policy. Other committee assignments that would help shape his Senate career included Interior and Insular Affairs, Post Office and Post Roads, Rules and Administration, and the United States Congress Joint Committee on Printing.