his Senate career, Fannin was a hard-line conservative, often voting with Senator Goldwater on the issues, including his vote against the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. As the ranking Republican on the Senate Interior Committee, he was a spokesman for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford on energy policy; he opposed new limits on strip mining and tighter reins on federal lands. He also joined conservative Democratic Senators to preserve the clause of the Taft–Hartley Act that let the states decide whether to prohibit mandatory membership for workers in unionized shops. In 1968, he became the principal sponsor behind the Central Arizona Project, which diverted water of the Colorado River to central and southern Arizona. Fannin voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but did not vote on the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court and voted against Civil Rights Act of 1968. During part of his tenure in the Senate, Fannin sat at the candy desk. He continued to live in Phoenix, Arizona, until he died of a stroke on January 13, 2002. He is buried at Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery in Phoenix. References 1907 births 2002 deaths People from Ashland, Kentucky American people of Irish descent Republican Party United States senators from Arizona Republican Party governors of Arizona Politicians from Phoenix, Arizona 20th-century American politicians Stanford University alumni University of Arizona alumni