Fallon speaks in Atlanta

Pat Fallon spoke Monday, October 19th to a room full of mostly supporters in the backroom at Amigo Juan’s. Fallon came out swinging because of charges he felt had been leveled against him regarding the Marvin Nichols Reservoir issue. At the meeting, he said there were people, including the write-in candidate within his party that have accused him of owning a bottled water company out of Dallas and supporting the Marvin Nichols initiative. A charge Fallon strongly denied.

“Number one, I am not or have I ever been a supporter of the Marvin Nichols Reservoir. There has not been one statement, one position paper, never, it was a whole-cloth invention… Then there was a claim, it gets more fanciful, that Jen and I own stock in bottled water, and breweries and that was why I was supporting the Marvin Nichols Reservoir because when we get all that water, I am going to sell it down in Dallas and I am going to make a pile of money,” said Fallon. “Provenly false,” he exclaimed.

Later in the meeting, in the response to a comment Fallon went on to say that he always he “always apposed it because of eminent domain and that property rights are ‘Sacro Sanctum’.”

The proposed Reservoir is a hot topic for those in Northeast Texas because it threatens to affect 100 square miles in Northeast Texas. Kenny Michell, the publisher for Bowie County Citizen’s Tribune in his series on Marvin Nichols that ran in this paper said that “for about 20 years now, the name Marvin Nichols Reservoir has been kicked around in our area and across the State of Texas. This proposed behemoth, 72,000 acres, would fill up the Sulphur River Basin from right about Hwy. 259 around Dalby Springs all the way back to Hwy. 37 in Red River County south of Clarksville.”

The proposed action would potentially send large quantities of water in Northeast Texas to Dallas and severely affect various industries including the mills and timber industries.

For this reason, many residents and businesses have been worried about a candidate that some have felt is an outsider, would come and use his influence as a future US congressman to lobby for the reservoir to be built.

The Journal-Sun was not able to find conclusive evidence one way or the other in Fallon’s defense or against.

When asked by the Journal-Sun how he, as a U.S. congressman, could help make sure that the Marvin Nichols Reservoir is not built, Fallon responded, “A lot of it is a state issue but any time they need some federal legislation I’m going to file it. I want to talk to leaders in the community, we also want to find alternative solutions as well.”

“There is a difference between power and authority. We may not have any sort of authority in a particular area (since it is a state issue) but we still have power and still have a voice as a member of congress.”

“There are other alternatives, there is a gentleman named Lyle Larson who is a water expert who I would love to chat with… about Marvin Nichols,” responded Fallon. Fallon as a Texas State Senator for District 30 said this was never an issue he had to work through, he went on to say, but now it is a huge issue because he now hopes to represent this area for congress.

Fallon also went on to say other ways he can represent the district regionally on a national level could be helping to promote industry, economy and broadband. “If industry is wanting to locate to one of our 18-counties, we will need broadband access to support it.”

Fallon is the republican candidate for the Representative for Texas’s 4th district.

He will be battling the write-in candidate Tracy Jones, democratic challenger Russell Foster, and Lou Antonelli from the Libertarian Party.

All of them hope to replace John Ratcliffe who became the current director of national intelligence for President Donald Trump.

UPDATE 10-30-20

Upon publication in the October 28, Journal-Sun 2020 paper Tracy Jones responded to this story by explaining that the charges leveled against Pat Fallon were not “whole-cloth inventions,” but rather Fallon had a track record of statements in favor of reservoirs and has strong ties an individual who supports the Marvin Nichols project. Jones also provided video evidence to show that he did not say that Fallon or his wife owned a bottled water company, and proided documentation showing that Fallon had made statements talking about the need for resivoirs.  Jones went on to say that he would not make accusations against his wife, “family is off-limits.” The Journal-Sun is further investigating Jones claims, and the documentation he provided.  We hope to have an online story before the election.