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Greg Abbott discussed his “We the People” plan with Chad Hasty on KFYO.

*Transcription may not be exact.

CHAD HASTY: Good morning, sir. How are you?

ATTORNEY GENERAL GREG ABBOTT: I’m doing great. Great to visit with you again.

HASTY: I appreciate you being on the show today, taking a little bit of time. I know you are busy. Your campaign, you just announced, you just announced recently some big policy proposals that are out there, dealing with ethics and privacy. Let’s start with ethics. What are some areas that you really want to tackle as governor?

GENERAL ABBOTT: We want to make sure that we reemphasize that people who hols public office hold a public trust. And when they do so, they need to have the highest ethical standards. And when they go to Austin, Texas, working for the people, they need to do just that, as opposed to working for themselves. And we see too many ways in which too many ethical flags are being raised about ways in which legislators or people in Austin have the opportunity, or use the opportunity, to line their own pockets as opposed to helping out people back in their districts who they really need to be helping out. So I’m rolling out some ethics proposals and reforms that for one, will disclose more information about how legislators and public officials, state-wide elected officials are making their money. Number two and maybe the more significant of the two, is to get them now for the first time, to reveal any types of contracts that they have with any of these outside parties, especially local government bodies. We have some people I believe, working in Austin, TX, who are using their position to make money from local… make sure that the general public get to know what is really going on in Austin, Texas.

HASTY: There are obviously going to be some people who…go along with you on this.

GENERAL ABBOTT: It will have to be the people of the state of Texas, who insist that they want more transparency and more solid ethics used by the legislators in Austin, Texas . Because of course the best interests in Austin in favor of the status quo. I’m pushing back against the status quo, I’m pushing back in favor of the local residents in Lubbock, or Amarillo, or El Paso or wherever they may be, and I think that when the individuals across the state of Texas rise up and join with me and fight for greater disclosure, I think it will put a mandate on these legislators and on the other state wide elected reforms.

HASTY: Some reforms that were attempted in this past legislative session…from who exactly is donating to different outside organizations, didn’t completely make its way through the legislative session.

GENERAL ABBOTT: Well there’s a couple of different sides…and that is, people need to know where these campaign contributions are coming from, only twice a year, and especially when we get down to the closing days and people are pouring a bunch of money in at the very end to avoid scrutiny, allowing the candidate to spend a lot of money. One of my proposals is to require, well really prevent any, candidate from spending a single penny of any contribution of over $5000 in the last 30 days of the campaign, unless and until that contribution is disclosed online for everyone in the public to be able to see. This law is based upon a United States Supreme Court decision that allows big contributions to be made. However, we have a right in the state of Texas to regulate disclosure of that information, so that the voters get to know who is trying the influence the elections.

HASTY: Visiting with Greg Abbott, Republic candidate for governor also current Attorney General. Let’s move on to privacy, its another big proposal that you discuss, another big platform out there because when we are looking at privacy, and I’ve been talking about this for a while now. It seems like the state of Texas, and other states out there, they’re behind when it comes to privacy and the technology that is out there right now. As governor, what would you do to ensure privacy for Texans?

GENERAL ABBOTT: Well first of all I think government across the board is behind and even getting worse. We all have seen what’s going on regarding the NSA, the IRS, the EPA increasingly using tools to look at things like our emails, our phone calls, our financial information, our health records and our political communications. So what’s going on is the government is going beyond trying to protect us, and instead seeming like they’re doing more to protect themselves from political dissent. Well, we’re seeing challenges like this even occur in the state of Texas. And so I’m trying to draw a bright line around your personal, private information. Let me give you examples of what’s going on in the state of Texas, that will surprise a lot of people. One is the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles keeps records on 22 million vehicles and drivers. And that information is sold about 2,500 times last year in instances like election agencies, banks, towing companies, and private investigators. But here’s the key thing and that is it was sold without your consent or knowledge. One other example and that is the Texas Department of Health Services sold informations concerning 27 million hospital visits. One business sold that information to 100 customers in just one year. Well the bottom line is of course this your information. And it should be disclosed only upon your expressed consent. And so I’m looking to make that change in the law. Let me mention one last thing along these lines and that is, you know, the information that is the most unique to you is your DNA. But what we’re seeing is that advances in technology are now threatening that privacy right. And so I believe it’s time that in the state of Texas we establish a personal property right for your own DNA. You should be able to control how that information about your DNA is used. Believe it or not there are four other states in the country that have already come up with laws that protect personal DNA data, and I want Texas to be the fifth.

HASTY: Let me ask you about cell phones. Because this is something that has varied from state to state. Whether or not police officers should have to get warrants to search someone’s cell phone if they’re stopped or pulled over. This can in some ways tie into a texting while driving ban in some different cities here in the state of Texas. Do you support having officers get a warrant in order to search somebody’s phone? Or not?

GENERAL ABBOTT: I support the Fourth Amendment. And the Fourth Amendment has several layers to it. Sometimes requires a warrant, other times requires probable cause. But there’s an entire body of law that is set up to ensure Fourth Amendment protections. And whether your cell phone or anything else, those Fourth Amendment protections have to be followed.

HASTY: Well where do you think cell phones fall on that, though? Does it depend on what you’re being pulled over for?

GENERAL ABBOTT: Yeah. In order for probable cause to be applied, it depends on the totality of the circumstances, part of which would be what you’re being pulled over for, part of which depends on other factors. They don’t have the right under the Fourth Amendment to go seize your cell phone to look at what you’ve done.

HASTY: Sure.

GENERAL ABBOTT: They have to have probable cause of a crime.

HASTY: Before we let you go.. we have just about one minute left. Let me ask you this. It seems like these proposals, you want to be very hands-on as a governor. Would you be more hands-on than Rick Perry was?

GENERAL ABBOTT: Well it really is impossible for me to predict or do a compare and contrast. What I can tell you is that I will be a very hands-on governor. We’ve mentioned, in our conversation right now, just a snippet of the details that I’ve already rolled out. We’re going to be rolling out a lot of details we already have. We’ll be rolling out more. You’re going to be seeing a very robust, full-bodied policy proposal by me serving as the next governor to make sure that we keep Texas on track. It is my firm belief that there is no state in the entire country better than the state of Texas, but knowing that if we don’t continue to make changes and advancements, we’ll fall behind. So you’ll have a very hands-on, active governor in me to make sure Texas remains the number one state for individual liberty, for freedom, for enterprise, and for the kinds of things that really matter in life.

HASTY: Texas Attorney General, Republican candidate for Texas governor Greg Abbott. Always appreciate your time. We’ll be visiting with you throughout the Texas 2014 election process.

GENERAL ABBOTT: It’s my honor. Thank you so much.