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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, June 23, 2006

Texas gubernatorial chaos

Both Kinky Friedman and Carole Strayhorn met the requirements to run as independents in the Texas governor's race alongside Democrat Chris Bell and "movement conservative" Rick Perry. (Perry is the worst governor our state has had since I've been politically aware, and, remember, we had governor George Bush.)

Oh, it's going to be a mess. Carole Strayhorn is going to siphon off the moderate Republicans and some Dems although how many is yet to be determined, and Kinky Friedman is going to pull off the anti-establishment Nader type voters from the Dems. (Friedman's support is vocal but small.)

It could be an open door for Chris Bell to sneak in, but who knows. It's going to be all about turnout.

13 Comments:

  • Democracy is scary... especially in a country like ours where a 60% turnout is considered remarkably high.

    uvCouple low turnout with the new sectarian politics brought to us by the extremists and things can get ugly real fast.

    By Blogger -epm, at 4:30 PM  

  • Tell me about it. I'm in Texas. We got the "movement Republican" christian nuts coming out of the woodwork.

    Thankfully, the smarter "money ones" have realized the what they really voted for in '04 and are pulling back. They form the backbone of Strayhorn's campaign.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 5:14 PM  

  • Old Kinky, hey? Writes a funny book, but further right than Gengis Khan.
    If he ever made it his mouthpiece would be one of Rupert's drones from Sydney.
    Kinky and Piers Akerman share a space so far right nobody else has been there.
    They also share a very odd friendship.

    By Blogger Cartledge, at 10:43 PM  

  • Governor Goodhair is widely touted as a shoo-in for re-election in our fair state, which begs the question: what happened to the state of Lyndon Johnson and Lloyd Bentsen? Is Texas now permanently the domain of idiots and incompetents?

    By Blogger Motherlode, at 3:12 AM  

  • Motherlode, it switched under Reagan. I'm with ya.

    But that may be changing again after the immigration debate. Basically in the last 10 elections or so, the cities have gone blue with the suburbs red and hispanics split. I don't think the hispanics will be split anymore. It's just a question of how much the Republicans can maintain in the white flight areas.

    (PS. Ann Richards prognosis isn't too good from what I last read.)

    Cartledge, Kinky Friedman has gotten no message out at all(no money,) so basically all his support is "quirky."

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:16 AM  

  • It my understanding that to the extent the Hispanic vote is split, it is split over Christianist issues: sex, gays and God. Living in New England the immigration issues is much more a fear and bigot issue in the abstract, compared to the real and socially tangible impact that I imagine it is in TX.

    It will be interesting to see how the Hispanic community votes in the '06 elections and what the driving issues are for them. But remember, Bush has a very liberal stance on immigration compared to the Deliverance branch of the GOP.

    By Blogger -epm, at 11:54 AM  

  • And in Texas, it's a pretty passionate split. You have people who think that they Mexicans have come to exploit social services etc, etc. Then there's the other group, which also seems to exist in the border states, like me, who just see them as part of the society, hardworking, honest, good people. I don't know the ratio of the split.

    And, I think immigration as a political issue is designed to bring back the suburbs who have been slipping away from the Republicans. For some reason, white suburban families seem to be more subject to fear campaigning than other groups. Maybe it's some manifestation of parenthood or nesting.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:20 PM  

  • Kinky is running as an Independent this time despite the fact that

    (1) he has run for office in the past as a Republican,

    (2) he voted for Bush/Cheney in 2004,

    (3) his interview with Ruminator magazine confirms that he supported Bush's Iraq war,

    (4) his public voting records confirm he lied about voting for Gore in 2000,

    (5) he hasn't voted for a Democrat in any election at least from 1994 to 2004,

    (6) he wants to take time out of the school day for prayers in public schools,

    (7) he wants to post the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms,

    (8) he thinks "Negro is a charming word,"

    (9) he thinks "Mexico is not a poor country," and

    (10) his immigration policy of hiring Mexican generals to police our border is a right-wing extremist's fantasy.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:41 AM  

  • EXCELLENT. If I can figure out how, I'm gonna link this.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:11 AM  

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