By Michael Doyle, McClatchy News Service

California Republicans are spreading out their bets in their annual effort to steer more water to the state’s farmers.

In the absence of negotiations, such tactics matter most right now.

Framed by a hearing Tuesday, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives will vote this week on whether to retain farmer-friendly California water provisions in an Interior Department funding bill for the fiscal year that begins in October. Whether this vehicle succeeds where others have failed will probably be known only after the November elections.

“We’ve got to start working together to help our farmers, and our fish,” said the canal authority’s general manager, Jeffrey P. Sutton, adding that “in this California drought, everyone has suffered.”

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