09.01.09
Governor’s race round up
Kinky Friedman will run for Governor in 2010, this time as a Democrat. Kuff has the news, Kinky announces (yawn).
I’m going to be nice, just this once, and let that one slide. I don’t see Friedman having any of the assets he had going into the 2006 race – energized supporters, money, a cool/anti-establishment vibe that got him way more media exposure than he ultimately deserved – and as such, I don’t believe he will attract much support in the primary, especially given how much animosity a lot of Dems still feel towards him. If nothing else, I think Hank Gilbert totally steals his thunder as the wisecracking rednecky type who gives good quotes and gets his name in the papers, with Hank having a vastly better relationship with the Democratic base. A Kinky/Schieffer matchup might have been interesting in that it would have forced the Dems who have issues with Schieffer to make a choice about whether those issues are enough to give the finger to the rest of the Democratic ticket. Now they have Hank and can express their disapproval with a clear conscience.
Anyway. For these reasons among others, I don’t see Friedman as being a factor in the race. I could be wrong, and I am looking forward to seeing his next campaign finance report, but I expect there will be much less to say about Kinky this time around than there was in 2006. And for that, I’m grateful.
I’m not sure what to think or Kinky, and care even less. But usually the joke isn’t as funny the second time around. Like this great riddle from a comment to the BOR’s post on Kinky’s run.
He was a pretty good satirist before he started taking himself seriously. He used to be a pretty entertaining character, until he turned himself into a caricature. And he’s always been a half assed musician, that’s a fact.
Shoot, he’s not even a native Texan.
Riddle: Why does Kinky hate Texas? He doesn’t. He just loves himself more.
Go listen to Hank Gilbert’s podcast at the HChron’s Texas Politics blog, A top Democratic ’06 vote-getter to run for governor.
Gilbert now says he will formally announce as a candidate for governor on Sept. 21, taking on Tom Schieffer, Mark Thompson and an expected bid by humorist Kinky Friedman. Gilbert says he would expect to face Gov. Rick Perry in the general election because he does not believe U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison can win the GOP nomination. Wharton County Republican Debra Medina also is running for the Republican nomination.
Burka’s Rumor post has caused quite a stir. Rumor has it Hutchison is polling 17 points behind Perry right now in the GOP Primary. Which makes this quote from a subsequent post interesting.
Back in July, the Dallas Observer broke the news that mayor Tom Leppert was considering joining the free-for-all that would be the race to fill the seat that Kay Bailey Hutchison has said she will vacate, although she has appeared to back away somewhat from that pronouncement.
Being 17 points down could make anyone “back away”, and think twice about a race. It’s doubtful Hutchison wants her political “swan song” to be a double digit trouncing in the GOP Gubernatorial Primary. If she doesn’t run, and never resigns, that makes things interesting up and down the ballot for both parties in Texas.