Wow, The Chronicle Took Notice Of A Down Ballot Race

The only race receiving less attention this year than the Land Commissioner’s race is the race for Railroad Commissioner. Until now, however, I hadn’t seen a lot of press on either.

But, the Houston Chronicle has finally done something on the Land Commissioner’s race where VaLinda Hathcox will face off against Republican incumbent and pro-gun nut, state park sellin’ machine, Jerry Patterson.

Conventional wisdom is that Hathcox, who doesn’t even have the AFL-CIO’s endorsement, is as much of a longshot as Dale Henry.

However, it must be noted that Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is in the middle of the tornado whizzing around the parklands sale debacle.

For Patterson, the parklands debacles, as well as other public land sales are part of his overall strategy:

His No. 1 goal is to boost money for the Permanent School Fund by investing oil and gas royalties into lucrative real estate deals and by developing wind energy.

“Diversify, diversify, diversify,” he said. “That’s part of what we’ve done in the first four years. We’re going to ramp it up substantially.”

Ramp it up, huh? Interesting.