AUSTIN — Border security never mattered much to the Texas Department of Agriculture, even when Gov. Rick Perry was commissioner. Then Todd Staples took over.
Now after years of hitching drug cartel threats to a job better known for keeping grocery scales honest, Staples is running for lieutenant governor. But to hear the Republican talk about the ease of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a path to victory for Staples may be harder by comparison.