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| October 26, 2006 |
| BY John Young | The Waco Tribune-Herald | Thursday, October 26, 2006
Gilbert: “I’m not running for cookie commissioner. I’m running for ag commissioner.”
It’s not a big cash crop. But Texas sells $60 million worth of sugar cane a year, all grown in the Rio Grande Valley.
Based on the historic role of a state commissioner of agriculture, you’d expect the officeholder to sing cantatas about the commodity.
You would, except if she’s Susan Combs. This ag commissioner has nailed the picture to the wall. Sugar: public enemy No. 1.
Historically, the focus of an agriculture commissioner has been on selling crops, dusting crops, processing crops, shipping crops.
Combs has done that. But she’s also spent a lot of time on lollipops.
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| October 26, 2006 |
| Democratic candidate Hank Gilbert |
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From Staff Reports | Country World News
OCT. 26, 2006 – The 2006 General Election ballot in Texas will host a great list of candidates for jobs ranging from governor to county judges. One section on the ballot, of keen interest to Texas agricultural producers, is the one for Commissioner of Agriculture.
The elected commissioner will, for four years, lead the Texas Department of Agriculture, a state agency established by the Texas Legislature in 1907. TDA enforces all agricultural laws in the state, such as animal quarantine, food inspection, disease and pest control (including pesticide safety), and promoting exports, according to the Texas Politics website.
The agency also oversees many programs, in divisions of communications (such as the Hay Hotline), governmental affairs (such as Livestock Assistance Grant Program), marketing and promotion (such as GO TEXAN), food and nutrition (including school breakfast program), pesticide (applicator licenses), regulatory (ranging from organic producer to seed labs to rose grader), and rural economic development (such as the biofuel incentive program).
The newly-elected commissioner will take office Jan. 1, 2007, and will replace Susan Combs, who served as Texas Commissioner of Agriculture for the maximum two terms.
Three candidates for Commissioner of Agriculture are on the 2006 General Election ballot:
- Democratic candidate Hank Gilbert, a 47-year-old self-employed rancher and former high school agriculture teacher, from Whitehouse;
- Independent candidate Clay Woolam, a 21-year-old student from Richardson; and
- Republican candidate Todd Staples, a 43-year-old small businessman and rancher from Palestine. Staples is also currently a state senator in District 3.
In an effort to provide Country World readers with a little window into the ag candidates’ ideas on some key issues, Country World provided a short questionnaire to each, and two responded. Following are the questions, and the responses from Hank Gilbert and Todd Staples
(NOTE: If you're interested in Staples' comments you can look for them at the original article linked above)
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| October 16, 2006 |
| BY R.A. DYER| Editor | STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
AUSTIN - Like the thick black smoke that puffs from its smokestack, the beleaguered Texas State Railroad has begun pumping controversy into an otherwise placid and largely unnoticed race for Texas agriculture commissioner.
On one hand is the well-financed front-runner, state Sen. Todd Staples, a Republican who has taken a public leadership role in preserving the train. "For 12 years I have been an ardent supporter of the Texas State Railroad," he says.
But on the other is his Democratic opponent, Hank Gilbert, who says that although Staples may talk a good game, as a state senator he sponsored a measure that could have literally sunk the rail line. "It's all a sham, and it's politics, and the people are tired of it," Gilbert says.
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| September 28, 2006 |
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By Skip Nichols| Wise County Messenger
Laid-back, picturesque Greenwood was transformed into an energetic, booming town for one afternoon and evening last Saturday.
The transformation may have signaled the resurgence of the Wise County Democratic Party.
The political party holds a fall rally and fund-raiser each year in Greenwood, usually attracting a couple of dozen local activists.
This year, however, more than 200 people turned out to hear a host of federal, state and local candidates – the biggest rally by Democrats in years, said county Chair Brenda Rankin.
“It is so great to see so many people,” Rankin said.
There were flags everywhere, signs for candidates, tables filled with cakes and desserts, a huge barbecue and plenty of laughs for a donkey that brayed when a Republican candidate was mentioned – or simply whenever it felt like it.
The combative mood of Democrats was reflected in one of the signs on the whitewashed wall of the Greenwood museum: “Fight ’em ’til hell freezes over, then fight ’em on the ice!”
Democrats filled the pavilion to hear candidates who repeatedly pointed out voters are fed up with the mounting deaths in Iraq of U.S. soldiers, high prices for gas, electricity and health care, a trillion-dollar deficit, the state’s 49th place ranking in education and the cozy relationship between Republicans and high-powered lobbyists.
For good measure, the hot-button issues of pollution from injection wells and the Trans-Texas Corridor proposal were also recurring themes in speeches.
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Hank Gilbert, the agriculture teacher who wants to be ag commissioner, criticized the NAIS, Trans-Texas Corridor and Perry with wit and stinging rebukes.
Of Perry, Gilbert said: “I’ve met Rick Perry. He’s pretty, but he’s not that smart.”
On the TTC, Gilbert said he hasn’t met a single citizen at any of the state meetings who supported the issue. In fact, people have warned “you will not take my property,” he said.
The animal ID system, he said, was promoted by the big three animal companies to “put private beef cattle folks out of business. When I’m elected, we’re going to demand the legislature repeal it.”
As for the GOP-dominated state government, Gilbert said the infamous “Chicken Ranch” – a house of prostitution – wasn’t closed. “The Republicans just moved it to Austin.”
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| September 9, 2006 |
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By BUD CHAMBERS| The Brenham Banner-Press
...as McGeary started to open the program to questions, James Lehmann, identifying himself as a 52-year catttleman, demanded the microphone and emphasized, “Wisconsin has had a trial program like this, and it has ended up in a mess. Look out, big brother wants you!”
Among the thoughts then presented, in a heavy Q&A bashing of the proposed NAIS program, included:
- While the USDA has announced it will delay mandates, it is continuing to provide grants to states to implement NAIS.
- A suggestion of a “diseased animal” on a farm/ranch would give the authorities an ability to invade people's property without a warrant.
- Veterinarians would become policemen, and they couldn't treat animals if a premises wasn't registered and an animal tagged.
- Feed stores would require people to show “a premises registration” before they would be able to sell animal feed to a customer.
When McGeary opened the floor to speeches by politicians, the loudest applause went to the very first participant - Hank Gilbert, a candidate for Texas agriculture commissioners on the Democratic ticket in November.
“I'm a cowman becoming a politician because I'm sick of politicians,” Gilbert said, suggesting that there are already good record systems tracing animals from birth, plus a 49 cent per head “brand system that they aren't doing anything with. We've got politicians who want to control us.” ...
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| September 1, 2006 |
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By BUD CHAMBERS| The Brenham Banner-Press
...as McGeary started to open the program to questions, James Lehmann, identifying himself as a 52-year catttleman, demanded the microphone and emphasized, “Wisconsin has had a trial program like this, and it has ended up in a mess. Look out, big brother wants you!”
Among the thoughts then presented, in a heavy Q&A bashing of the proposed NAIS program, included:
- While the USDA has announced it will delay mandates, it is continuing to provide grants to states to implement NAIS.
- A suggestion of a “diseased animal” on a farm/ranch would give the authorities an ability to invade people's property without a warrant.
- Veterinarians would become policemen, and they couldn't treat animals if a premises wasn't registered and an animal tagged.
- Feed stores would require people to show “a premises registration” before they would be able to sell animal feed to a customer.
When McGeary opened the floor to speeches by politicians, the loudest applause went to the very first participant - Hank Gilbert, a candidate for Texas agriculture commissioners on the Democratic ticket in November.
“I'm a cowman becoming a politician because I'm sick of politicians,” Gilbert said, suggesting that are already good record systems tracing animals from birth, plus a 49 cent per head “brand system that they aren't doing anything with. We've got politicians who want to control us.” ...
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| August 27, 2006 |
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By Jessica Sanders| The Herald-Zeitung
Hank Gilbert, a candidate for Texas agricultural commissioner, said Texas also needs to refocus on domestic products instead of imported foods. He is also against the Trans-Texas Corridor.
“I want to stimulate the Texas agriculture agency through programs that get the young people back into agriculture,” he said. “My opponent (Republican Todd Staples) is using this post as a stepping stone. My only goal is to represent and encourage Texas agriculture.”
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| August 27, 2006 |
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By Emily Berman | The Rockwall County News
Hank Gilbert spoke on behalf of the agriculture industry noting how devastating this corridor can be to anyone owning farmland which this corridor will go straight through, wiping out their way of living and rich farmland.
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| July 28, 2006 |
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By Clay Coppedge| Temple Daily Telegram
ROCKDALE - The Texas Department of Transportation’s 32nd hearing on the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor drew a smaller, but no less potent crowd of dissidents Thursday in Rockdale.
TTC-35 is proposed as a 600-mile network of highways, railroad lines, and utilities running roughly parallel to Interstate 35. TxDOT is conducting 54 hearings from July 10 to Aug. 10 throughout the TTC-35 study area to gather comments on the draft environmental study.
[snip]
Hank Gilbert, Democratic Party candidate for Texas Agriculture commissioner, said the corridor would
“facilitate NAFTA ... taking the vegetable industry away from Texas. By building this corridor from here to Canada, we will effectively take the U.S. out of the fruit and vegetable market. We will seriously deteriorate the beef cattle industry in this country because of the influx of foreign products across this border.”
“This is the one single largest thing that is going to affect and begin to destroy Texas agriculture,” Gilbert said. “And this is just one road. There are over 4,000 miles of these toll road plans taking up over 600,000 acres of farmland.”
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| July 26, 2006 |
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By Clay Coppedge| Temple Daily Telegram
TAYLOR - Not far from where more than 150 mostly Czech-American families lost their farms on the Blackland Prairie to Granger Lake 30 years ago, a number of farmers and rural landowners stepped up to the microphone at Taylor High School on Tuesday night and asked that more Blackland dirt not be taken away for the sake of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Hank Gilbert introduced himself as a farmer and cited the importance of agriculture to the state’s economy.
“The loss of 180,000 acres of farmland would have an economic impact in the billions of dollars, all to facilitate transportation,” he said.
“People in government don’t care about rural voters. I was born and raised in Texas, and I can tell you that rural Texans can only stand so much before we have to stand up.”
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| July 23, 2006 |
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By Brian Knox | Wise County Messenger
Hank Gilbert, the Democratic candidate for state agriculture commissioner, warned those in the audience that if an agreeable price cannot be reached on the property, it will be taken through eminent domain.
“This land belongs to us,” he said, drawing applause from the crowd. “A lot of you are veterans, you fought for the right of ownership, and now it is being taken away from us.”
Another common complaint was that Trans Texas Corridor would not accomplish its purpose of relieving traffic congestion and improving air quality.
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| July 21, 2006 |
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By KENNETH DEAN, Staff Writer| Tyler Morning Telegraph
Mrs. Faulkner said ... their neighbor Hank Gilbert knocked on the couple's back door and said the motor home was on fire.
"I hope they don't have the problems I have had with the insurance company," he said.
Gilbert explained that his home burned more than two years ago and the insurance company did not want to pay based on Whitehouse not having a full-time fire department.
Gilbert said the situation he faced was a good reason for the counties of Texas to have established Emergency Service Districts to fund local volunteer fire departments.
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| July 13, 2006 |
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By JONATHAN BLUNDELL | Waxahatchie Daily Light
... Democratic candidate for Agriculture commissioner, Hank Gilbert, also added his concerns.
“I am here as a representative of agriculture,” Gilbert said. “This is about everybody’s quality of life. You can’t put a price tag on it. The cost on family farms is priceless. You’re talking about putting a major highway over quality farm land. All this will benefit is the governments of Mexico and Canada and South America. I would like to know if the same time and money was used examining our current roads. Eminent domain in my part of the state and where I grew up means you better have a bigger gun than I do. This will be detrimental to rural Texas. I believe in democracy. Both political parties have denounced this. Talk to your elected officials. Look them in the eye and ask them where they stand on the issue. If they don’t disagree
with the plan vote them out of office.”
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| July 5, 2006 |
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By BECKY BELL | Texarkana Gazette
...(Hank) Gilbert said ... he doesn’t think farmers can afford another Republican term. He said legislation such as the Trans-Texas Corridor is eliminating needed farmland. He said legislation such as House Bill 1361, which requires farmers to use microchips to track each animal, will hurt farmers’ pockets.
Delk said Gilbert’s down-home attitude has made him a cult figure of sorts among Democrats.
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| June 23, 2006 |
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By: Nancy Flake | Courier staff | The Courier of Montgomery County
With all the fire of a "come to Jesus" revival, two Democratic candidates for state office presented their gospel of how they will change things during a whistle stop tour appearance at the Montgomery County Courthouse Wednesday afternoon.
Gilbert: "God sent his son here to cover all our sins, and right now he's having a hard time covering all the sins of the Republicans."
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| December 15, 2005 |
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Whitehouse resident believes he can win
BY ROGER MCKENZIE | Editor | TriCounty Leader
“I’ve been in agriculture all my life,” said the 46-year-old Gilbert, who is a graduate of Texas A & M University. “I grew up in a cow-calf operation. I have been involved in FFA for many years. I taught high school agriculture for 13 years at LaPoyner and Pittsburg. I have no political aspirations. As agriculture commissioner, I will work fulltime to help promote Texas agriculture and food safety. I don’t want to be anything, but an ‘ag’ man.”
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Democrat Hank Gilbert and Republican Todd Staples are running for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. Incumbent Susan Combs is leaving the post to run for comptroller.
