Congratulations and thank you to everyone who took an active role in showcasing the importance of private property rights in Texas through our successful "Protect Private Property, Vote Yes on Prop 11" campaign. Todd Staples, Commissioner of Agriculture, also deserves recognition for his strong leadership in a separate "PAC Off, It’s My Land" campaign. Texas voters, in response to agriculture’s efforts, passed Prop 11 with the highest percentage at 81.02 percent and most votes at 845,770. Elected officials at the state level must recognize this as a mandate for further private property protections in the next session of the legislature.

Polling prior to the campaign kick-off indicated the Constitutional amendment was at risk of failing due to its complex and legalistic wording. The extensive list of work by Farm Bureau members at every level to simplify the confusing language for voters paid off well. Almost 500,000 mailings were sent out in the form of Texas Neighbors and Texas Agriculture or as postcards mailed directly to Farm Bureau members who had voted in previous Constitutional amendment elections. Farm Bureau members attending annual meetings were greeted with 38,685 push cards, 20,000 placemats and comments from local leaders and convention speakers. A blast e-mail was sent to 27,000 Farm Bureau member addresses and an attachment directing recipients to our Eminent Domain website was attached to every Texas Farm Bureau organization e-mail sent out of the Waco office.

The public was exposed to 10,725 bumper stickers, 3,500 polling place signs, 2,100 11" by 17" door signs, 100 auto magnets, 350 four-foot by four-foot and 100 4-foot by 8-foot campaign signs, and eight giant billboards. President Dierschke penned an Op-Ed for the largest newspapers in the state. Press releases were sent to every media outlet in the state and a radio news story was also produced. President Dierschke, Senator Hutchison and Agriculture Commissioner Staples barnstormed the state holding press events in Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, Dallas, Lufkin, Nacogdoches and Houston. The TFB Eminent Domain website was viewed by 1,000 people and a compelling video was viewed by 1,500 people (posted on the website, YouTube, FaceBook). And perhaps most important, each of us talked with our friends, neighbors, community groups and anyone we came across about how important it was to support Prop 11.

All these efforts took the amendment from possibly struggling in the mid-50s like Props 1 and 4 to blowing the top off at 81.02 percent (congratulations to Baylor County for achieving the highest passing rate of 91.84 percent). We can now build on this momentum by reminding our state representatives and senators to finish the job next session; and by electing a governor who will sign—not veto—further reforms such as good faith offers, fair market values, compensation for diminished access and the right to buy back land that isn’t used for the condemned purpose.