Rep Stickland (R) criticizes Dewhurst, Patterson for attention to Red River (BLM) spat
An escalating land management spat between Texas landowners and the federal government has spilled over into the state political arena, as one lawmaker criticized statewide elected officials for what he said was their johnny-come-lately interest in the issue for the benefit of getting good press.
The issue centers around a multi-year review the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is planning to undertake along a 116-mile stretch of the Red River, which marks the natural boundary between Texas and Oklahoma. The BLM states up to 90,000 acres area around the river is and has always been in the public domain. Local landowners – and an increasing numbers of local politicians – call the review a land grab, with Attorney General Greg Abbott even warning the federal agency to “Come and take it!”
On Monday, Texas lawmakers met with local landowners in the Red River area over the issue. The meeting was hosted outdoors by Tommy Henderson, a local man who lost control over a large tract of his land in a 1988 court case with the BLM. But what was meant to be an educational meeting for locals on the intricacies and history of the land management issue became more of a show for the media when Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson showed up, said state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, who said he called the meeting after being contacted by Henderson last month.
“Some people were only interested in helping him (Henderson) when the cameras were on,” Stickland said after the three-hour meeting Monday. “I intended it to be an education deal, not a press deal.” He added Dewhurst showed up and acted “like this was an issue he was leading on” when Henderson told him he’d been trying to reach the lieutenant governor and land commissioners “for years” without a response.
In response, Patterson called Stickland’s reaction “horsesh–,” saying lawmakers who represent the Red River area, like state Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, were likely asking themselves, “What was Jonathan Stickland doing there?”
[font color=green]Nothing starts the morning off better than reading about Republicans in a feud.[/font] 
