On Friday November 21st during a public forum, Texas Senate District 18 candidates Gary Gates, Charles Gregory and Jim Kolkhorst (on behalf of his wife Texas State Representative Lois Kolkhorst who was not in attendance) were asked if their businesses participated in the bid process for contracts with state, county or any public entities, and if yes, was their business awarded the bid.
During that debate, Lois Kolkhorst’s husband Jim acknowledged their family business, Kolkhorst Petroleum, sells lubricants to Texas A&M University.
Recall that State Representative Lois Kolkhorst was appointed to the Joint Committee on Oversight of Higher Ed Governance, Excellence & Transparency on February 20th, 2013 and was a member of the 80th (R) House Appropriations Committee.
Earlier today yours truly was forwarded a copy of an email sent by the Gary Gates campaign to his supporters.
The Monday November 24th email reads as follows:
“Last week, my office received an anonymous letter and package that included information related to the recent allegations surrounding Lois Kolkhorst and her company’s (Kolkhorst Petroleum) contracts with state agencies. I believe this information was sent to me in an effort to get me to ‘run with it’. Additionally, I’ve received multiple direct phone calls from citizens, members of the media, and even my supporters asking me to comment on these claims that have been circulating, asking me my opinion.
I am going to tell you now the same thing that I’ve said in those individual conversations.
Number one, yes I have heard from multiple people that Lois’s company has contracts with tax based entities.
Second, it is in fact the case that her company does have contracts with multiple public entities including ISDs, counties, state funded colleges, and other state organizations. (Jimmy Kolkhorst also verified this at a forum last Friday night representing his wife, where Lois was not in attendance.) And a number of these contracts occurred either during or shortly after her time on the Appropriations Committee, and many of these organizations were direct recipients of funds from those same appropriations.
I’m a straight shooter — I firmly believe that no elected official should also have business partnerships and/or contracts with the same entity they are elected to serve. I feel this way about city council members, county commissioners, county judges, and yes state senators and state representatives.
Let me be clear, this is in no way an attack on Lois personally. Personal attacks are nothing more than a desperate attempt to suppress votes for an opponent and they do nothing to promote the greater good. However, a voting record and time served as a public servant of the people should be scrutinized, and elected officials should be held to the highest standard. Part of my motivation for seeking office was to eliminate exactly these types of political activities by our elected officials. I also believe it is exactly this kind of activity that has most people so distrustful and disengaged from the political process as a whole.
And for the record — regardless of the outcome of this election, I would encourage my opponent Lois to seriously reconsider her contracts with these agencies while she is a public servant. I am sure my saying this will bring on attacks, and will be unpopular…but enough is enough. Someone must speak the truth and not hide behind ‘political correctness’.
From this point moving forward, I say to my supporters, citizens, and members of the media – please refer to this letter for my stance on this issue. I do not plan to comment any further and I believe my stance on this issue has been firmly stated above.
Respectfully,
Gary Gates
For how many years has Kolkhorst Petroleum held the contracts with Texas A&M University acknowledged by Kolkhorsts’ husband Jim?
Does a potential conflict of interest exist when a former member of a House Appropriations Committee in a position to ensure Texas public entities were the direct recipients of funds from those appropriations —- and is alleged to hold contracts with those same entities?
This story continues to develop…