Return
to TFB Main Page
Return
to Texas Agriculture Archive
January 18, 2002
The January 2nd filing deadline for candidates interested in seeking elective office in 2002 has passed. Let the new election cycle begin.
First on the calendar is the March 12 Primary Election. Where needed, a Primary runoff election is held on April 9. Survivors of the Primary will meet on November 5 in the General Election.
Of great interest to all candidates at this point is financing. It's been said that money is the mother's milk of politics. In Texas, the cost of running a campaign for statewide office, the state Senate or the state House, has increased dramatically in recent years. A new study profiling political action committee (PAC) spending in the two-year 2000 election cycle in our state illustrates this fact.
Texas Farm Bureau's political action committee, Texas Farm Bureau Friends of Agriculture Fund, Inc. (AGFUND), continues to be an important tool for our organization in maintaining an active presence in Austin. The recent study verifies Texas Farm Bureau's position among the biggest and strongest PACs in our state.
Here are a few of the highlights that might be of interest.
In the 2000 election cycle, Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND ranked 42nd out of 865 PACs that reported expenditures of at least $1 in Texas elections. AGFUND was ranked at the top of the 32 PACs that represent agricultural interests. Agriculture PACs accounted for $1.2 million in election expenditures in 2000 cycle, or roughly four percent of the statewide total for business-related committees. As you would suspect, PACs representing lawyers and contract lobbyists accounted for nearly 25 percent of all expenditures in the business PAC community.
PACs set a new spending record of $54 million in the two-year 2000 election cycle, despite the fact that the period was a non-gubernatorial cycle. This is significant because political spending increases in gubernatorial cycles as a result of such high-profile statewide races as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and comptroller. In addition, the number of PACs spending money in Texas politics declined for the third straight cycle.
Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND was ranked 32nd in the 1998 election cycle and 34th in the 1996 election cycle based on expenditures.
•••
State Sen. Craig Estes of Wichita Falls, elected in December to fill the unexpired term of the late Sen. Tom Haywood, has been appointed to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Agriculture. In addition, Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff named Sen. Estes and State Sen. Eddie Lucio of Brownsville to the Agriculture Policy Board.
The Board is charged with advocating and recommending strategies for agriculture through research and analysis to enhance agriculture production, income and employment. The Board will also review all legislation impacting agriculture in the state and all agriculture budget issues. Other Senate members serving on the Board are State Sen. Robert Duncan of Lubbock and State Sen. David Bernsen of Beaumont.
