State Rep. Mike Strain, R Abita Springs, told area Republicans on Friday that if he is elected commissioner of agriculture, he will return honesty and integrity to that office. 

 

Strain is running against Commissioner of Agriculture Bob Odom, a Democrat who has held the office for 28 years. Odom has been indicted on public corruption charges.

 

Strain told the Republican Roundtable that if he is elected, there will be no more boondoggles in the Agriculture Department and no indictments. 

 

Strain said he would not build sugar mills that are not economically sound using department employees who are not construction workers. 

 

Strain said Louisiana will have a new governor and many new legislators after the next election. 

 

"It is critical to have a new Agriculture commissioner because Odom will bite at the new governor every day," he said. 

 

Strain said he plans to look at every contract, policy, program, board and commission in the Agriculture Department to make sure it is being run as efficiently as possible. He said he would look at all of the 800 jobs in the department. 

 

He said he will also examine every commodity, region by region, to see what needs to be done to help those sectors and reduce transportation costs for farmers, and that he would work with land grant universities and agriculture centers to develop new farming methods and technologies. 

 

Strain said he is a native of Abita Springs, and his family has been in farming for five generations.

 

He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Louisiana State University; owns and operates the Claiborne Hill Veterinary Hospital with his wife, who is also a veterinarian; served as a reserve deputy with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office for 17 years; and was elected to the Legislature in 2000. 

 

He said he is not termlimited and could probably easily win re-election, but because he sees the critical need for change in the state and the Agriculture Department, he decided to run for that office. 

 

"If we don't change the image and policies of this state, we will never move forward," Strain said.