“I’m running because I believe I can make a difference, to pull Texas back from the brink, and restore our state to greatness. – Hank Gilbert

Real Eminent Domain Reform and a Stop to Selling Our Roads

Protecting private property rights has always been a priority for me. We will stop eminent domain abuse with real reform and I’ll continue to lead the fight against selling our roads to the highest bidder, burdening us with toll taxes.

Real Food Safety

Do you really know where our food comes from? I’ll fight for country of origin labeling for all food products and increase the number of inspectors at TDA to ensure that the food we all consume is safe and clean.

Real Weights & Measures Oversight

The TDA controls accuracy certifications of everything in Texas that scans, measures or weighs, whether it’s checking U.P.C scanners at the grocery store or the pumps where you buy your gasoline. As your Commissioner of Agriculture, I will make sure that inspections are increased and those who would cheat Texans are prosecuted.

Real Texas Agriculture Marketing and Promotion

Agriculture is the second largest industry in Texas. I will fight to open new opportunities to sell Texas agriculture products in Texas, throughout the US, and internationally in markets where it makes sense. I won’t pander to the large agribusinesses as Todd Staples does, I’ll work for all Texans who want to market their agricultural products.

Working to Bring Bioenergy Jobs to Texas

There is absolutely no excuse for the lack of support from the TDA for bioenergy production in this state. As Commissioner of Agriculture, I will be a tireless advocate for building a real, strong and stable bioenergy sector in this state. Join me! With your support we will send Todd Staples back to his appraisal business in November!

Click the player below to listen.

Download audio file (krld020310.mp3)

“Today I’m at the Capitol to testify before the Joint Committee Hearing on Transportation and Funding Alternatives.

“I plan to speak about the transportation funding plan I released last fall, key points of which were endorsed by legislators and editorial boards from all over the state.

“I intend to tell the Committee that we can solve the transportation crisis in this state, in a fiscally responsible way, without having to sell off our roads to private and foreign companies or incur crushing debt. The Todd Staples sponsored HB 3588 got us into this mess and I’d like to help lead us out. Once again, I’m here and Todd Staples isn’t.

“Real reform is never easy, and in the case of TXDOT it’s proven to be especially difficult. Rick Perry’s TTC is in a coma because I put it there with help from a majority in the Legislature during the last Special Session. Now it’s time to kill it and protect us from abusive eminent domain practices. This is too important to leave to politics as usual. Texans just can’t afford to pay 20 cents a mile, lose their property rights or see free roads turned to tolls as they’re sold off. I hope my plan can provide some leadership where it is sorely lacking on this issue.”

Friday night in El Paso I was honored to speak at the Statewide Tejano Hall of Fame dinner. I told the crowd there exactly what I’m writing now, that every Texan I’ve met since September, regardless of party affiliation, is hungry for real leadership. They’re hungry for a return to common sense government in Austin that doesn’t give our tax dollars away to companies that promise jobs for Texans and then fail to deliver. Real leadership that doesn’t waste years in office only to wake up during an election year and actually start doing the job. Real leadership that understands the challenges we face and isn’t going to shy away from them or make excuses.

I am one of those people. Just like each and every one on this list, I get up every morning and earn a living. I decided to run because Texas deserves better. And just so we’re clear, I AM BETTER than Todd Staples.

I wanted to give y’all quick update on new endorsements. I had an incredibly successful Thursday in Travis County where I was honored to receive the endorsement of Representative Eddie Rodriguez. Rep. Rodriguez has, like many of the other Senators and Representatives that have endorsed me, been a key player in the fight against some of TXDOT’s more disastrous plans for our roads. I’m thankful to him for the faith he’s placed in myself and my campaign!

I wrapped Thursday at the Travis County Democratic Candidates Forum. There were seven groups that endorsed statewide candidates:

Black Austin Democrats
Capital Area Asian American Democrats
Capital Area Progressive Democrats
Circle C Area Democrats
Capital City Young Democrats
Northeast Travis County Democrats
Texas Environmental Democrats (Austin)

And I’m pleased to announce that all of them endorsed my campaign to take back the Texas Department of Agriculture. Check out News8’s coverage of the story. I’m incredibly grateful to the members of these groups, many of whom I had a chance to visit with before the event, for their support and trust. It never ceases to amaze me that even after turning their county blue, Travis County Democrats are still active and engaged, ready to help anyone in this state who shares their Democratic ideals and wants to take Texas back!

For myself and my staff, thank y’all for your support and hard work. This is an historic time for Texas Democrats and with your help we’re all going to win in November!

In unity,

Hank Gilbert

What: Texas House and Senate Transportation Committees Joint Hearing

Where: Texas Capitol Extension Room E1.030

When: Monday, February 1, 2010

Hearing starts at 8am, Gilbert testimony likely won’t be until  a bit later.

Who: Hank Gilbert, Democratic Candidate for Agriculture Commissioner

A formal statement from Hank Gilbert will be released in the afternoon.

“The Legislature passed HB2925 in May, 2009 with an effective date of September 1, 2009, not September 1, 2010 or January 26, 2010. This is an important new program, one long overdue and there’s no reason for the delay”, Gilbert stated. “Why wasn’t this a lobby priority for him during the 2007 session? Why was it, like biofuels, something he didn’t act on until he’d been in office for two years?”

Gilbert continued, “It’s absolutely stunning to me that Commissioner Staples did not begin to make preparations to implement this program during the summer of 2009 in an effort to be ready  for the September 1 effective date. Instead, Staples did what he always does… waited until an election year to take action on something important to the consumers of this state. It is time for a change at TDA, one that reflects a real willingness to protect the consumers of this state.”

If anyone is expecting Democratic candidate for Agriculture Commissioner Hank Gilbert to pull his punches going into the March primaries, they are sorely mistaken, as the lifelong Texas rancher stopped in Big Spring Friday to discuss his platform.

And while Gilbert must get past fellow Dem Richard “Kinky” Friedman before facing the Republican candidate in the November contest, there’s little doubt the Whitehouse, Texas, man has already set his sights on incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, and other “parasitical” politicians in Austin.

“It’s not going to change as long as we keep putting aspiring politicians in this office,” said Gilbert. “Rick Perry started out in this office, spent eight years there and made all of the political connections he needed to make and moved up the ladder. Along comes Susan Combs, and she does the same. And here comes Todd Staples, and he had a heck of a race against me, a political nobody. If I had 10 or 20 percent of the money he spent in the campaign I would have beat him and his political career would have been over. He got by, however, and he’s spent three years trying to make those connections.

“He hasn’t done anything in that three years to enhance agriculture, to enhance the marketing of agriculture or do anything to increase alternative energy, until now, when it’s an election year… That pattern has to stop. We have to stop allowing the cycle of parasites, because that’s what these people are. They are parasites. They are playing on feelings and emotions to get money from special interest groups to propel their political career. And we can all see from the situation in Washington, D.C., that career politicians have no idea what the people of this nation want.”

According to Gilbert, alternative energy and fuels could play a hefty role in revitalizing the agricultural industries in the state of Texas if political futures give way to common sense.

“The agriculture industry is struggling. We’re losing family farms every day, and we don’t have the people in place — including the leadership — to figure out how to help these people hold on to their farms and enhance the industry,” Gilbert said gravely. “There are a number of ways you handle this problem. There’s a great misconception, not only in this state among the leaders, but among the leaders of this country that agriculture is a certain way and a certain format. However, if you don’t change with the times and keep up with technology, you’re never going to enhance the industry.

“One of the big pushes in this country and state right now are alternative energy and biotechnology or biofuels. As far as an agency is concerned, we have made no moves in that direction… We are now the largest producer of wind energy in the country, yet we utilize only a fraction of it because we don’t have the infrastructure in place to get it from where it’s being produced to where it needs to go. Just like Gov. (Rick) Perry and his Trans-Texas Corridor concept, they want to approach this the same way. They want to just take people’s land and not give them a choice whether or not they will go from Point A to Point B through their property, and that’s the wrong approach to take.”

Gilbert said the current state administration has simply disguised a floundering agricultural economy, a false face that could become all too apparent during the next legislative session.

“They’ve done an excellent job of disguising the fact they have been running the wagon into the ditch, and it’s going to become abundantly evident when they go back in session in January 2011 and they are facing a $15 billion to $20 billion shortfall,” said Gilbert. “A lot of people have raised a lot of concern over the fact the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker recently sent out a memorandum to state agencies to cut back 5 percent, when, in actuality, the governor has done that every two years that he has been in office prior to the session. He asks the agencies to make cuts so they will end up with budget surpluses, and, at least on paper it would look like they were really being conservative and good stewards of our tax dollars.

“Unfortunately, what has happened by doing that is we’ve let a lot of good people go from these agencies who were doing the work out in the field, and those jobs were the first ones cut. So we ended up with incidents like what we had in Plainview a year-and-a-half ago when tainted peanut butter killed nine people across the United States. We have gas pumps and other regulatory devices that are supposed to be monitored in a timely fashion and that’s not being done.”

The use of imminent domain — especially in the pursuit of the Trans-Texas Corridor — is something Gilbert said he’s strongly opposed to, opting for a more user-friendly approach that could benefit both the state and Texas farmers and producers.

“I’ve been fighting the Trans-Texas Corridor for six years now,” he said, “and if the governor had been just a little bit smarter he could have gotten his corridor built, even against the wishes of people like me, if he had appealed to the land owners on the route of that highway to pay them fair market value for their property and give them royalties as well. A perpetual income — and it doesn’t have to be a lot of money — because they sacrificed their property so it could be built here.

“The same thing could be done with our wind energy, even with our oil and gas lines. Any oil or gas company can go to the Texas Railroad Commission and get a permit for $100, and it gives them imminent domain authority. That’s wrong. Any way you slice it, that’s wrong. If we would work with the land owners, I believe the agency could be the go-between with the investors and landowners. I don’t have a problem with power lines running across my property. I can farm under them, I can ranch under them. Sure, they are an eyesore, but they aren’t causing me any problems. They certainly wouldn’t both me if I were receiving a check at the end of the year. And it doesn’t have to be a lot. We have farmers right here in Howard County and West Texas who are struggling to keep their farm. They are looking for any and every resource they can to keep their farms.”

Gilbert said he’s proud of his Democratic background, but urged Texas voters to look at the issues, not just partisan politics, when they go to the polls.

“Most people who were born in this state prior to the mid-60s were raised as fiscal conservative Democrats,” said Gilbert. “Ronald Reagan did a lot to change that perspective, which is where the term ‘Reagan Democrats’ came from. My family never changed. We kept our fiscal conservative principles, but never left the Democratic party.

“I can guarantee you, when it comes to fiscal conservatism, I’m far more conservative than a lot of people we have elected in Austin and Washington, D.C., which is one of the reasons I’m running (for ag commissioner). I don’t believe you should spend money you don’t have and i believe we should be better stewards with people’s tax dollars. Unfortunately, under the leadership of this current administration we have in Texas, we’ve done a terrible job at that.”

The similarities between Democratic agriculture commissioner candidates Kinky Friedman and Hank Gilbert don’t extend much past their trademark cowboy hats.

But they echoed one common theme at the Lubbock County Democratic Party events this weekend: the post should be made more relevant and far-reaching.

“We need a new model,” Friedman said at the banquet Saturday evening, attended by gubernatorial candidates Bill White and Farouk Shami, among others. “We haven’t had a governor who has been man of the people sinceAnn Richards. We’ve got to run on ideas and excite the grassroots.”

On his list: a Willie Nelson idea to establish farmers’ co-ops at truck stops that also sell alternative fuels, create animal rescue shelters in every county, enhance rural schools and fight toll roads that encroach on farmers’ land. He also threw in the desire for a statewide public defender and end to the death penalty.

“To sum it up, ‘No cow left behind,’” he said, cherished cigar in hand.

Gilbert also spoke about redefining the position. “I want this to be about the issues,” he said. “If you aren’t on your toes people are going to die.”

He was referring to current food safety concerns, specifically salmonella contamination that shut down a Plainview peanut factory last year.

In an interview, he ticked off goals on his fingers. They included more emphasis on bioenergy and renewable fuels, calibrating gas pumps, battling the toll roads and eminent domain, and an overhaul of the agency to ensure enough examiners in the field.

The change motif was prominent in an evening entitled, “Turning Texas Blue.” If there was one rallying cry at the first significant Texas Democratic fundraiser, it was to uproot the Republican stronghold and “get the bums out of Austin.”

Lubbock was a little more blue Saturday afternoon.

About a dozen Democratic candidates for state offices and United States Congress converged in the city Saturday for a joint news conference.

The candidates talked with members of the media in the Science Spectrum Museum, highlighting their agendas and plans for their prospective offices.

Among those at the event were candidates for the contested races for governor, lieutenant governor and agriculture commissioner.
Gubernatorial candidates Felix Alvarado, Farouk Shami and Bill White agreed education, jobs and renewable energy are top priorities for the state.

Shami, a Houston businessman, said, as governor, he would promote developing solar panel factories in “poor areas of the state.”
“The whole idea is give everybody a job,” he said. “I’m not for handouts, I’m for giving people an opportunity to help themselves.”
Shami said he would set a goal for the state to rely completely on solar, wind and other renewable forms of energy within four years of taking office. U.S. Department of Energy goals for renewable energy are more modest, estimating renewable energy can have a 30- to 35-percent share of the nation’s electricity supply by 2030, according to a July 2008 report.

“I’m sure that we can do that,” Shami said of his four-year goal. “I think we can reduce our dependence on oil, foreign oil, and keep our money in the state of Texas.”

On education, White, a former Houston mayor, said the state’s education system has considerable room for improvement. Texas ranks 49th out of the 50 states in high school graduation rates, he said.

“We need to be the state that’s going to lead the nation, not the state that’s going to leave the nation,” White said, referencing Gov. Rick Perry’s spring 2009 statement that Texas has a legal right to secede from the United States.

Alvarado, a public school teacher and previous Democratic candidate for the Texas U.S. House Districts 6 and 12, said he’d promote the creation of well-regulated, state-run casinos to fund new public school facilities.

He said he’d also focus on improving first- through third-grade education, starting with a redesign of the state-mandated Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills standardized test.

“It’s hindering the kids; it’s hindering teachers and administrators,” he said of the test.
Lieutenant gubernatorial candidates Ronnie Earle and Linda Chavez-Thompson said they were running to bring change to state government.

Earle said his 32 years as Travis County’s district attorney would help him fight what he called a corrupted system in Austin.
“I have spent a career attacking corruption in government from the outside … and now I’m going to go inside and see what I can do,” he said.
Earle said he would fight against what he described as a Texas problem of pay-and-play politics, a system where politicians accept pay to pass legislation.

“That is not the Texas that we all love and not the Texas that we want to leave to our children as our inheritance,” he said.
Chavez-Thompson, a former executive vice president of the National AFL-CIO and former vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said she was running for lieutenant governor to fight what she described as unfair practices in the Capitol, citing high college tuition rates and suffering public education programs as her area of focus.

“I bring a passion to you as a future lieutenant governor that I hope you will take into consideration,” she said.

Kinky Friedman and Hank Gilbert had differing agendas for their intended role as agriculture commissioner.

Friedman, a humorist and 2006 independent candidate for governor, summed up his goal as agriculture commissioner by describing his understanding of the job.

“He protects the land, he takes care of the animals and he listens to the people and then he makes decisions that help them,” he said.
Friedman said he would promote farmers cooperatives that exclusively grow and sell alternative fuels at every truck stop and gas station on Texas highways, an idea he credited to country music performer Willie Nelson.

Friedman said he also would recommend creating in every county a no-kill animal sanctuary that would spay and neuter animals for adoption.

Gilbert, the 2006 Democratic nominee for agriculture commissioner and a past president of the Walnut Grover Water Supply cooperative, said food safety, farmers’ property rights in eminent domain cases, and inspecting weight and measurement scales in gas pumps and grocery stores will be his top priorities.

On day one as commissioner, Gilbert said, his plan would be to call for a restructuring of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

“We have way too much being paid on administration and not enough being paid on field staff,” he said.