SocraticGadfly: More money-wasting and cronyism from the Texas GOP

December 04, 2014

More money-wasting and cronyism from the Texas GOP

From a press release by Ag Commissioner-elect Sid Miller yesterday:
Today, the transition team of Texas Agriculture Commissioner-elect Sid Miller announced that Texas Facilities Commission Executive Director Terry Keel will be leaving that agency and will be joining the Texas Department of Agriculture as an Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture. The former state lawmaker, Travis County Sheriff, and criminal prosecutor will assume the newly created position of Assistant Commissioner for Enforcement, Consumer Protection, and Border Security. In that capacity he will oversee the department’s extensive inspection division and will protect Texas consumers from fraud and abuse by those the department regulates.
Why?

First, those have been responsibilities of the Ag Department for years and years, and theoretically (but often not actually) getting done without a new assistant commissioner.

So, there's the money-wasting part.

The crony part?

The first Republican sheriff of Travis County, as Miller touts Keel, eventually lost in the 2006 GOP primary when he tried to move from the Texas House to the Court of Criminal Appeals. It's actually kind of sad, because he's basically a non-wingnut Republican.

And, that said, maybe that's a bit of positivity about Miller.

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