TX CD 10: Larry Joe Doherty Running From His Support For National Animal Identification System
By Vince Leibowitz on Feb 13, 2008 in 2008 Texas Elections ![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
Tweet This Post 
It appears as though Larry Joe Doherty (D-Brenham) is running away from a statements which were formerly on his website that enunciated his unequivocal support for NAIS–the National Animal Identification System.
Via McBlogger, Austin station KUT-FM reported on Doherty’s thoughts, which the station culled from his website:
Doherty supports the National Animal Identification System. Opponents of the program claim it is designed to benefit major agricultural software campaign donors. His opponent, Mr. Grant, is fighting against it.
Dan Grant (D-Austin), Doherty’s opponent in the March 4 Democratic Primary, even released a statement in response to his opponent’s position.
But, Doherty’s position no longer appears on KUT’s website. So, what gives?
KUT got the statement off Doherty’s website, although it is no longer there, either. Sources from KUT have confirmed to Capitol Annex that the station found the material about his support of NAIS on Doherty’s website, but that his campaign called and requested they pull it. The station complied.
Grant’s position on the detrimental NAIS program is well-known:
Dan Grant: [answering a question about whether rural CD 10 residents can count on an urban Austinite to represent their concerns] The point is to be attentive to every constituency within my district. I’ll admit I grew up in Austin, and I wouldn’t know how to run a ranch, but my job is to pay attention to the people who do. My job is to be able to discern good policies from bad. A good example is NAIS – the National Animal Identification System. It’s a big concern in the rural communities of Texas where a lot of ranchers and farmers are, because it mandates microchipping of livestock, and the cost has to be borne by individual ranchers. And it’s very sweeping as well – if have you have [one] horse, you are suddenly classified as a rancher and have to register with the government and pay the cost of the chipping. It seems from all evidence that this is a terrible program that really is designed to be a windfall for the microchip companies and isn’t particularly interested in public health. And I can see that, and I don’t have to be a guy who runs a ranch to understand it. And I’ve made a point of listening very carefully to the people in rural counties and getting their sense of it too, because they know their business and they know what they’re talking about it. And McCaul was in favor of it.
I guess we’ll see how much additional distance Doherty tries to put between himself and NAIS. The problem is that he’s already evidently let the cat out of the bag. Whether he was simply so clueless he didn’t know what NAIS was and just told a reporter, “yeah, I support it,” (or what) is unknown, but if Doherty is actually informed about the program and supports it–in a district that includes some pretty significant swaths of rural south Central Texas, he’s in trouble.
Of course, like many candidates, I suspect we’ll see Doherty come out “against” this after he was “for” it.
Tweet This Post ![[Post to Ping.fm]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-ping.png){kind=icon}
Ping This Post
I’m all for blogs becoming influential in politics, but why is Dan Grant linking to this blog as the source for his press release, with the words “KUT reported” leading over here? Are you affiliated with KUT somehow? I’m just a bit confused, since your site says KUT took the statement down.
The press release in question.
It just seems a little unprofessional for a US Congressional candidate such as Grant to be using a local blog as his source. Shades of the Dawnna Dukes campaign.
I thought that progressive candidates like Dan Grant were supposed to be above petty political divisiveness based on unfounded, sourceless falsities. Grant may be young and inexperienced, but that’s no excuse for immaturity.
Rachel, before you jump to conclusions, perhaps you should read all of our posts on the subject. I suspect the campaign links here because KUT didn’t have the guts to actually come out on their own website and let the world know that they found the information on Doherty’s website and that he took it down and then called them to complain about it. I found this out through original reporting and calling KUT myself.
As for it being “unprofessional” for a campaign to use a blog as a source, perhaps you should research the number and kind of stories blogs have broken in the past three or four years. As a former award-winning journalist, I don’t publish anything without independent confirmation. I received my confirmation from KUT, although they aren’t making an issue of it on their own site because they no longer want to be caught in the crossfire.
(/blockquote)I guess we’ll see how much additional distance Doherty tries to put between himself and NAIS. The problem is that he’s already evidently let the cat out of the bag. Whether he was simply so clueless he didn’t know what NAIS was and just told a reporter, “yeah, I support it,” (or what) is unknown, but if Doherty is actually informed about the program and supports it–in a district that includes some pretty significant swaths of rural south Central Texas, he’s in trouble.(blockquote)
Oh, he knew about it! I PERSONALLY sent him information in June of 2007, after he said he knew nothing about this program in response to my question to him at a meeting of the Austin County Democrats… There’s a LOT more on this at BOR here:
http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4971