We know it seems like it was ages ago, but it was only in 2008 that Barack Obama campaigned on the promise to end infighting between Democrats and Republicans. That hasn’t happened in Washington, but in Texas, two men are running a race so clean, they’ll have to prove to constituents that they can get their hands dirty (since they’re running for land commissioner).
Current Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson (pictured at far right), a Republican, and challenger Hector Uribe (above, left), a Democrat, actually like each other. They share transportation to and from campaign rallies. Uribe told the incumbent that his receptionists could still keep their jobs if he won, and Patterson gave him a standing offer to fly with him in a two-seater vintage plane from World War II. Now that’s keeping your enemies closer!
“You reach a point in your life when you’ve got nothing to prove by denigrating somebody else,” Patterson, 64, told the Associated Press.
Running a mud-slinging campaign is “just not who I am,” Uribe, who’s also 64, added.
The only thing they disagree on? Whether a piece of land in Big Bend National Park be auctioned off to private landowners. Maybe the two will talk it out over dinner tonight. Watch their interactions below:
Photo 1 via Facebook. Photo 2 via Texas General Land Office.