David Van Os, brought his "Whistle Stop Tour of Texas" to Bonham Wednesday afternoon and it didn't take long for the Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General to explain exactly why he is visiting all 254 county seats in Texas.
"I'm here because I'm mad as hell," Van Os told a crowd gathered on the west side of the Bonham square. "Folks, I love my state. I love the people in my state. But right now we've got government by cronyism. That's not the way it is supposed to be and it's time for the people to take it back.
"The commitment to public education is one of the mandates of the Texas constitution. The people of Texas have a lawyer that is supposed to work for them. Every family and every child in Texas must have access to the same opportunities under our constitution, the constitution of Texas. All of our citizens rely on it.
"Right now, our attorney general should be rolling up his sleeves and crafting a solution. Folks, this is a public education crisis in the state of Texas. It's time to fix it and I don't mean a band-aid. There's got to be a better way. I think it's time government came back to the people."
While everyone concedes that it will take tough decisions to correct deficiencies and properly fund public education, the populist rhetoric of Van Os struck a nerve in the home of Sam Rayburn, a man with tremendous grass-root support that demanded to be called a progressive.
Van Os also paraphrased one of the best stump speakers in East Texas history, Ralph Yarborough, when he told the crowd, "The Attorney General of Texas has all the tools to put the jam on the lower shelf where all the little people can reach it."
A native of Kilgore, Texas, David graduated from the University of Texas, went on to get his law degree from UT and has been practicing law since 1976.
