Farmer's Union endorses Rick Bolanos

Rick Bolanos (photo)
Congressional District 23 candidate

Congressional District 23 candidate Rick Bolanos has received the endorsement of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America. FECUA is a general farm organization with a membership of nearly 250,000 farm and ranch families throughout Texas and the United States.

Bolaños, says he received the endorsement because " Henry Bonilla has proven that he is out of touch with the small farmer."

He went on to say that "Bonilla, true to his avaricious strategy to vote only his donors, supports exclusively the huge agribusinesses, now recipients of more than 2/3rds of the grants and subsidies that once went to small farmers."

Bonilla, as Chairman of the agricultural appropriations committee, had enjoyed the benefits of the union's endorsement ever since he first took office.

Bolanos cited a study by the USDA indicating that last year more than 88% of the farming counties in Texas had been declared disaster areas, and this year it was 66%. Bolaños stated that "refusing to help the families who because of those disasters are on the verge of bankruptcy or have already gone bankrupt is an "absolute moral travesty."

Bolaños added that his stance against the Trans Texas Corridor was another leading factor in the Union's decision to endorse him over Bonilla.

Since last fall, Bolaños has polled hundreds of farmers in Texas and learned that many of them were literally disgusted by Bonilla's support of the Corridor, a costly project scheduled to seize vast amounts of farmland from smaller farmers in the state of Texas.