This week’s decision by the School Land Board at their meeting to keep the Christmas Mountains and not sell it to private bidders looked like an acceptance that the blasted stretch of West Texas will become part of Big Bend National Park. But not so fast: Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wanted a quick word with the press corps.
As they headed to the door, journalists were told that “we” would be holding a media briefing at 2pm. But the “we” in question was not the School Land Board, but Patterson in his role as land commissioner. It was another opportunity for him to tell the press that he was just concerned about the land and couldn’t understand why people wouldn’t just let private owners have it and, yet again, said that his stance was no hunting, no sale.
Patterson, whose press conferences can veer between cordial and confrontational, has never been afraid to face the media. His fellow board members Todd Barth and David Hermann sprint from the camera and the microphone, but the high-profile coverage of the Christmas Mountains sale has turned them into reluctant minor celebrities. Last time Patterson told the media what he wanted to do with the ranch, the other two members handed him a nuanced but undoubted defeat. Will there be any repercussions for his decision to talk out of class again?
This article appears in February 1 • 2008.
