Ag Commissioner Hopefuls Clash

EAST TEXAS — The race for state agriculture commissioner, which features two East Texans, has become a volley of accusations. According to KETK, the fight between incumbent Republican Todd Staples of Palestine and Whitehouse Democrat Hank Gilbert has gone online with competing websites focusing more on the opposing candidates’ faults than on campaign issues. Gilbert’s site is called “Sleazy, Sleazy Staples.” In it, he accuses the incumbent of things like a “$3 million broadband boondoogle” and voting to allow radioactive waste from other states to be dumped in Texas. Staples’s site is called “Guilty, Guilty Gilbert.” It chronicles Gilbert’s run-ins with the law, like driving with an expired driver’s license and driving without a seat belt.