August 12, 2004

Farm Bureau Spurns Farmer Stenholm
in Favor of Freshman Rep. Neugebauer

Group Denies Democrats' Allegations of Intervention in Endorsement Decision by Republican Leader DeLay

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Somewhere in U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm's Washington office you might notice a bronze replica of a John Deere plow that he received from the American Farm Bureau Federation in 1999 for being "a very special friend of agriculture" during a congressional career that had spanned two decades. There might be another one that looks just like that in the Jones County farmer's West Texas district office - and he might keep yet another one at home on his mantle or some other special place.

Stenholm - the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee - is the only U.S. House member who's been honored with three Golden Plow Awards from the AFBF since it started bestowing them in 1988. He's the last Democrat to take home the miniature plow - and he was the only member of the U.S. House to receive the honor in 1992 and again seven years later. Stenholm's Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, hasn't ever won a Golden Plow Award, but then again that's because he's only been in Congress for a year since winning a special election last spring. That isn't long enough to have his voting record on agricultural issues rated by the AFBF either.

But it's all the time the Lubbock Republican has needed to persuade the AFBF's state chapter, the Texas Farm Bureau, that he's the best candidate for West Texas agriculture in the race for a newly designed U.S. House district that curves up from east of Abilene into the High Plains of the state. In what a TFB official called "a shot heard `round the world," the state organization announced Thursday that it was endorsing Neuguebauer, a subdivision developer, over Stenholm, who raises cotton and cattle on his family's farm, in the general election this year. The group, which represents more than 370,000 members across the state, broke the news at press conferences in Abilene and Lubbock.

Neugebauer is the first Republican in five targeted Texas congressional races to receive the Farm Bureau's official support so far this year. U.S. Reps. Chet Edwards of Waco and Max Sandlin of Marshall - both Democrats - also have been endorsed by the TFB. The group plans to endorse Republican ex-Judge Ted Poe of Houston in his race against U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson of Beaumont - and it will throw its support to Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions in his battle with Democratic U.S. Rep. Martin Frost for a Dallas area district.

Edwards and Sandlin qualified for the TFB endorsement under a "friendly incumbent rule" that essentially guarantees that the group will either endorse or stay neutral in a race featuring a member with a voting record rating of 70 percent or more. Edwards faces Republican State Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth of Burleson while Sandlin is dueling former appellate judge Louie Gohmert of Tyler in races in Central and East Texas this fall. But the special provision doesn't apply in races in which incumbents are matched.

The Farm Bureau's endorsement of Neugebauer in Congressional District 19 brought howls of protest from Democrats, who are alleging that U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay pressured the group into its decision. According to some Democrats, DeLay telephoned a top Farm Bureau official in Waco and threatened to have U.S. House leaders withhold federal dollars and other assistance from Texas agricultural producers if the TFB nod went to Stenholm.

But Steve Pringle, the TFB's state and national legislative director, said DeLay made no attempt to contact the group about its endorsement and exerted no pressure on it in any other way. Pringle said the group endorsed Neugebauer after county Farm Bureau organizations sent representatives to Waco for a Tuesday vote on the CD 19 race. To be eligible to vote, Pringle said, a county representative had to have contributed to the state group's political action committee and had to be a member of the county FB's governing board. Each candidate was given 15 minutes to speak to the voting members and another 15 minutes to answer questions from them.

Forty-five county Farm Bureau members from 18 counties qualified to participate in the endorsement vote - and a majority picked Neugebauer. Pringle would not reveal the final tally, saying only it was not as close as he would have expected.

There are a total of 26 counties in the West Texas district, but three of those don't have local Farm Bureau chapters. Five counties that do have Farm Bureau organizations did not send representatives to the Waco meeting. A maximum of 69 county members would have been eligible to vote for the endorsement if all the counties with chapters had sent three members as allowed. Pringle described the voting members as "very representative" of the group's overall membership and Texas agriculture in general.

The Farm Bureau endorsement in some districts is unrivaled in the significance it can hold for the fall campaign. For Democrats like Stenholm, it's a confirmation of conservative credentials and values and a validation of priorities that put agriculture first. For Republicans like Neugebauer, it's a way to put away a Democrat like Stenholm in a district that leans Republican but is also largely rural. To the Republican's credit, he has sponsored legislation favored by farmers such as a new crop insurance bill. Like Stenholm, he's a member of the House Agriculture Committee, even though he's one of its junior members. He brought the committee chairman, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, to the district to tour it and meet with farmers and ranchers there last fall. The Agriculture Committee's previous chairman was former U.S. Rep. Larry Combest, the Lubbock Republican who held the CD 19 seat before resigning early last year.

The TFB sparked fireworks in 1998 when it endorsed then-Comptroller John Sharp over Rick Perry, who had been the state's agriculture commissioner for eight years. Perry supporters at the time complained that the group had become more of a bureaucracy that offered discounted insurance policies more than an organization for rank-and-file farmers and ranchers. But Perry gladly accepted the group's endorsement four years later in the gubernatorial race.

A likely tactic now for Stenholm will be to discredit the endorsement selection process by having supporters who belong to the Farm Bureau object to the voting process in radio and print interviews and letters to the editor of their local newspapers. But no matter what the grassroots reaction, Neugebauer will consider the endorsement a major coup in his first re-election campaign.