The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

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July 20, 2006

Van Os addresses issues during campaign stop

Matt Pederson

Texas Attorney General candidate David Van Os was in town Thursday on his 254-county tour to tell Walker County voters how he plans to take the power away from the corporations and put it back into the hands of the people.

With his “whistle-stop campaign,” the San Antonio labor attorney will travel to every county courthouse in Texas, sending his message directly to the people.

Van Os made his 84th stop on the tour Thursday afternoon at the gazebo in front of the Walker County Courthouse and spoke about the struggles faced by Texans with the escalating price of gasoline.

“There are people struggling in this state who cannot make their paychecks stretch to cover the cost of gasoline to get to and from work and that’s a disgrace in this great state,” Van Os said. “It’s a disgrace when working people have to choose between not being able to afford not to go to work and not being able to afford to go to work.”

What baffles Van Os is the apparent need for an increase in gasoline prices, when the gasoline companies are still making a great deal of profit. If elected, Van Os said he will go after those very companies for the sake of the people.

“A fair warning to big oil: When I get sworn in in January of 2007, I’m coming after you on behalf of the people of this state,” he said. “When one private company is bringing in $3 billion a month in net profit, not gross revenue, Exxon/Mobil made $36 billion in 2005. The mind can hardly comprehend how much money that is.

“When profits are that huge, yet the price to the consumer keeps going up at the consumer end, something’s wrong. It defies common sense. I don’t buy it, and somebody’s got to go after it.”

Van Os also sent a message to insurance companies, who he said were driving up prices to the point of being unaffordable if someone is not on a company plan.

“They’ve made it to where the individual citizen can’t afford health insurance unless they’re part of a group plan through their employer or their union,” he said. “The insurance monopolists are telling Texans that they have to pay the highest premiums of anyone in the country for homeowner’s insurance.”

What makes Van Os really upset about the issues at hand, is that he does not see current Texas attorney general Greg Abbott doing anything about it.

“When it’s like that and nobody’s doing anything about it and we have antitrust laws that require competition, somebody needs to take them on, and that republican incumbent corporate mouthpiece attorney general in Austin is not doing it and is not going to do it.” Van Os said. “It’s time to fire him and put a people’s lawyer in the attorney general’s office in Texas and it’s fixing to happen this year.”

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