For Ag Commish
GOP voters should back Blocker and dump incumbent Miller in this important race.
“We like to eat, we like to wear clothes and we like to put gas in our cars. All three of those things are affected by the Department of Agriculture.”
That’s how Trey Blocker succinctly describes the importance of the agency he wants to manage. Blocker is unquestionably the best qualified candidate running in the Republican primary for Texas agriculture commissioner. Anybody who’s been paying attention to the news coming out of this corner of Austin during the last couple of years knows it needs new leadership.
Blocker is a conservative ethics lawyer offended by what he calls “corruption and crony capitalism” in state government, but he’s also spent decades working as a lobbyist for the farming and ranching communities. Ask him anything about the myriad duties performed by the Texas Department of Agriculture and he’ll tell you not only how things work, but also how they need to change.
This department has a peculiar list of duties. As you might expect, it supports farmers and ranchers in a variety of ways, like offering loan guarantees, administering research grants and regulating pesticide use. At the same time, it regulates grocery scales, oversees the integrity of supermarket price scanners and administers school lunch programs.
Blocker wants to shrink the size of this agency by shedding some of its duties that have nothing to do with agriculture. Why, he asks, does the agriculture department regulate gasoline pumps? The answer is pretty simple and pretty silly: No politician has ever wanted to take his name off of the signs posted at gas stations. Blocker thinks that responsibility rightly belongs with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. It’s not often that a candidate wants a job so he can relinquish some of the powers that come with the post.
Texas voters are lucky that Blocker decided to enter this race, because he’s a well-qualified, conservative Republican alternative to Sid Miller. Even if you don’t follow state government very closely, you may have heard about the shenanigans of this embarrassing incumbent.
Miller claims he’s conservative, but he doesn’t act like one. After angering farmers and business owners by raising a host of regulatory fees, he gave employees of his agency more than $400,000 in bonuses. He used taxpayer money for a trip to Oklahoma where he got a so-called “Jesus shot” for chronic pain. He also traveled to Mississippi on the state’s dime where it so happened he wanted to participate in a rodeo. The Texas Rangers ended up investigating both incidents, and Miller ended up reimbursing the state’s coffers.
The incumbent agriculture commissioner needs to be put out to pasture. Republican primary voters should throw their support to Trey Blocker.
Texas voters are lucky that Blocker decided to enter this race, because he’s a wellqualified, conservative Republican alternative to Sid Miller. Even if you don’t follow state government very closely, you may have heard about the shenanigans of this embarrassing incumbent.