Lampasas Democrat eyes runoff in railroad commissioner race
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

Dale Henry

As Lampasan Dale Henry prepares for a Texas Railroad Commission runoff by touting his background in oil and natural gas, opponent Mark Thompson of Hamilton believes his distance from those industries makes him the best candidate.

The two Democrats will face each other in an April 8 runoff election. The winner will go up against Republican Michael Williams, the incumbent railroad commissioner, in the November general election.

Thompson claimed 48 percent of the Texas vote in Tuesday's Democratic primary, while Henry took 28 percent. Art Hall got 24 percent.

Henry won the Lampasas County primary, though, recording 748 votes, or 57 percent, compared to Thompson's 417 votes, or 32 percent. Hall tallied 12 percent locally with 159 votes.

"We think we're in mighty good shape," Henry said.

The candidate said he believes his campaign suffered Tuesday night from an "Obama problem," as many voters who don't know much about the Railroad Commission went to the polls mostly to vote in the presidential primary. Henry expects lower turnout in the runoff election, which he said likely will help him.

"The people that vote will be the people who know (me)," Henry said.

Thompson said he has established good name recongition, mostly as an advocate for consumer safety and more stringent regulations on oil and natural gas production.

Thompson said he was the only candidate to question the Railroad Commission and ultimately to research open records after recent natural gas explosions in Cleburne and Wylie killed homeowners. Investigations later revealed the blasts resulted partly from loose compression couplings installed by Atmos Energy.

"When people died at Cleburne and Wylie, nobody did anything about it," Thompson said. "They just thought it would be easier to pay off the families (of the victims)."

The Hamilton man said he would have made Atmos replace the couplings at the first sign of loosening. He also plans to lower gas utility rates and limit saltwater injection at drilling sites.

Thompson said the oil and gas industries exercise undue influence on the Railroad Commission, so he believes his lack of connections to those industries would make him an effective commissioner.

"All my buddies are not in the oil and gas industry," he said.

In his more than 130 speeches during the campaign, Henry, on the other hand, has emphasized his experience in oil and gas, a record he said voters trust.

"I have been involved in oil and gas my whole life, and that's very important to the people of this state," Henry said.

The candidate has run for the Railroad Commission before and said he typically does well in El Paso, along the Mexican border and in Dallas County. Henry and his wife, Ruth, have visited almost every county during the current campaign.

"We had a real good reception everywhere we went," Henry said. "Across the state, we have really good name recognition."