Firsts for VaLinda Hathcox
Ms.Hathcox was the first-woman elected-prosecutor as Hopkins County Attorney. She was also the first woman to hold the position of Director of Governmental Relations and Programs with the Texas Attorney General, the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Association of Counties. She was the first woman president of Austin Young Lawyers. VaLinda was a Founding Mother of the Women and the Law Section of the State Bar and served as its president.
VaLinda was a charter member of the Hopkins County Democratic Women, Travis County Democratic Women and Texas Democratic Women. She has served as a voting delegate to the county and state Democratic Convention from both Travis and Hopkins County.
Current Civic Activities
Ms. Hathcox is currently president of the Hopkins County Community Chest and has served on its Board of Directors for 10 years. She was chosen for Leadership Sulphur Springs in 2000. She was the recipient of the 2005 Martin Luther King Political Award for Hopkins County bestowed by the East Caney Missionary Baptist Church.
VaLinda and her family are members of the First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs. She was baptized in this church on September 30, 1956. While living in Austin, she was an active member of Hyde Park Baptist Church.
VaLinda has served as president of the Bluebonnet Garden Club and is a member of the Lone Star Heritage Quilt Guild. As Hopkins County Attorney, she participated in the restoration grant for the historic county courthouse and has recently become involved in the Downtown Revitalization Alliance. She is an AARP and VITA volunteer for income tax preparation for the elderly and low income.
Ms. Hathcox and her participating organizations have received numerous awards including recognition from the Boy Scouts of America for sponsoring an Explorer Law and Law Enforcement Post.
As a University of Texas and Texas A&M Commerce graduate, she donates money to student scholarship funds. VaLinda was named an ETSU Ambassador and served on the Alumni Association Board.
Recent Civic Activities
AARP Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
Bluebonnet Garden Club, past president
Downtown Revitalization Alliance
First Baptist Church, baptized 09/30/1956
Hopkins County Attorney, elected
Hopkins County Community Chest, president
Leadership Sulphur Springs 2000
Lone Star Heritage Quilt Guild
Martin Luther King 2005 Political Award
More on VaLinda Hathcox
VaLinda Hathcox won the Democratic Primary for Texas Land Commissioner. VaLinda began her public service career as Governor Dolph Briscoe’s intern in the planning division of the General Land Office under Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong.
VaLinda rewrote Texas’ mineral leases to include geothermal resources and other alternative energy resources. She also assisted with the legal planning for the environmental clean-up known as the Superfund, which capped abandoned oil and gas wells.
VaLinda Hathcox is seeking the Office of Land Commissioner because many of the programs began over 35 years ago have not been developed or completed, especially in the area of alternative energy resources. She also is concerned that the Open Beaches Act is being eroded to the detriment of our natural beach protection of State lands.
Recently at a forum in Austin, VaLinda asked where the money from Texas oil and gas leases has gone? With the high prices being paid at the pump, there should be money to meet or address the school funding crises. Texas is the Land. And the current land commissioner is not serving the interests of Texan citizens and especially its school children.
Upon receiving her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas Law School, VaLinda was hired by Bob Bullock, who was then the newly-elected Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. She served as an administrative tax examiner and judge for five years.
When she and her husband divorced, VaLinda worked for a year with the Dallas law firm of Golden, Potts, Boeckman and Wilson, which was instrumental in obtaining tax refunds after the repeal of the unconstitutional Texas admissions tax.
VaLinda returned to Austin as Director of Programs for the State Bar of Texas. In handling the State Bar’s legislative package, VaLinda guided the successful repeal of the Texas Inheritance Tax.
From the State Bar, Ms. Hathcox was asked by Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox to be a Special Assistant Attorney General and director of governmental relations. She did the footwork in successfully ushering the child support program from the State’s public welfare office to the Office of the Attorney General.
The executive director Texas Association of Counties recruited VaLinda from the Office of Attorney General to serve as director of governmental affairs and attorney for the quasi-governmental county association. VaLinda pushed to get the first “mandates” law introduced requiring the State to provide the money, if the State mandated the counties to provide the service. Also, legislation was passed giving counties limited ordinance authority to clean up the colonias in South Texas.
VaLinda also worked with the large and small counties to reach a compromise to get legislation passed authorizing the initial Indigent Health Care Act to equalize the tax burden in carrying out the constitutionally mandated obligation to provide for the poor.
In 1992, VaLinda returned to Northeast Texas to assist her mother, when her father had a disabling accident. In 1996, she filed to run for Hopkins County Attorney. She won a three candidate Democratic primary without the necessity of a run-off and she had no opposition in the general election. Two weeks after the Democratic primary, her father died.
As Hopkins County Attorney, VaLinda prosecuted over 4000 misdemeanors to guilty pleas with the need for only 10 full trials; thus saving the county thousands of dollars in court costs and collecting nearly a million dollars in hot checks, fees and fines. She set up an education program for anger management and budget abuse.
As an attorney, VaLinda has been active in many legal associations and is admitted to practice before the Texas Supreme Court and the U.S. Tax Court. VaLinda is currently president and has served on the Board of the Hopkins County Community Chest for 10 years. For three years, she has volunteered as an AARP tax preparer for low income and senior citizens in Hopkins County.
Last year, she was the recipient of the MLK Political Award. She was selected for Leadership Hopkins County and has served as a judge for the Hopkins County Stew Contest. She is a charter member of Hopkins County Democratic Women. She helped coordinate the antique quilts and the boutique for the Lone Star Quilting Guild. She is a past president and active in the Bluebonnet Garden Club.
She earned her B.A. with High Honors in English/French and Education and her M.A. in Political Science from Texas A&M Commerce. She taught at ETSU, Austin Community College and did her student teaching at Lake Highlands High School in the Richardson School System. Her sister Symantha Murray teaches at Sherman High School in Grayson County. Not being able to have children, VaLinda dotes on her five nephews, two nieces and one great-nephew.
VaLinda resides in Wood and Hopkins counties with her family on Hathcox Farms and the Big H Ranch. Dairy farmers, until the death of her father, Bill Jack Hathcox, in 1996, her mother Margie Dale Hathcox, VaLinda and her two brothers, B.J. and K.D. run the family stocker operation, which includes a herd of Texas Longhorns and Bison/Buffalos.
http://www.valindahathcox.com/about.html
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