A state senate candidate in California is on the verge of winning a race to replace a retiring legislator in a district that is 60% Hispanic and heavily Democratic. Andy Vidak, a farmer from the Central Valley, ran a pro-business, pro-development campaign and is an inch from winning an outright majority in the open primary. The Wall Street Journal reports that it wasn't that he connected with Hispanics culturally, or tempered his message to please moderate Democrats. Vidak touted the potential in his district to develop shale oil feilds and take back decresing water allocations that are strangling farmers in what used to be the most productive agricultural land on the planet. My dream always was to have a few cows," Mr. Vidak says. After graduating from Texas Tech in 1991 with a degree in animal business, he worked agricultural jobs in California. With his savings, he bought land in Kings County to grow cherries and raise a small herd of cattle in the hills of Tulare. Such is the...(Read Full Post)