Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak Could Cast A Pall Over Staples’ Political Aspirations

A disastrous mistake by the Texas Department of Agriculture raises questions about how well the agency is functioning under Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and could cast a pall over Staples’ future political aspirations.

On Friday, the Associated Press reported that an inspector for the Texas Department of Agriculture failed to note that the Plainview operation of Peanut Corporation of America failed to note that the facility was operating without a state health permit in at least three visits to the plant prior to hundreds of people becoming ill after consuming the company’s products.

Via AP:

Health officials said problems at the plant operated by Peanut Corp. of America might have been flagged years ago had the inspector, who has since been fired, reported the plant’s failure to obtain the required license.

When the plant was finally inspected this year, Texas health officials found dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in a crawl space above a production area, leading them to order a recall of all products the plant had shipped since 2005.

Tests have since shown that ground peanuts at the Plainview plant were contaminated with the same strain of salmonella that sickened more than 650 people, is suspected of causing at least nine deaths, and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.

Texas Department of Agriculture spokesman Bryan Black said if the lack of a license had been properly noted, the department would have denied it organic certification and notified the Department of State Health Services.

The inspector, Gaylon Amonett, was fired on Feb. 13, the day after state health officials ordered the recall.

The situation creates a ready-made attack for perspective Democratic and Republican opponents of Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples (R-Palestine), who could run for re-election to his post in 2010 but appears more likely to try to move up the GOP food chain by running for Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Clearly, anyone who covets Staples’ job or any job he may run for sees the potential for negative mailers and television commercials placing the responsibility for the situation squarely on his shoulders.

So far, other Texas Republicans are being careful to give other state agencies–and Staples–a little cover on the issue. In Lubbock last week, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told a local television station, in response to a question about whether or not criminal charges would result from the PCA Plainview plant scandal:

“Our office is one of the agencies that is looking into all of the events that took place out there. At this stage it would be premature to comment on exactly what kind of outcome that will be,” Abbott said.

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