Texans, beware - Kinky Friedman running for Governor in 2010 as a Democrat

[derby378]

Kinky Friedman is considering entering the campaign for Texas governor in 2010 as a Democrat.

Friedman said the Democratic party, which hasn't won a statewide election in more than a dozen years, could use a nontraditional approach to connect with voters.

"I consider myself a Democrat in the mold of JFK, (former Texas Gov.) Ann Richards and (journalist) Molly Ivins," Friedman said.

During his campaign for Texas governor last year as an independent, Friedman couldn't overcome the financial and logistical clout of the two major parties, which he compared to the Crips and Bloods street gangs.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5102859.html

Is this guy serious? Does he really want to be the Democratic governor of Texas? If he's sincere, he's gonna need to sit down with us for some serious work - starting with that "Throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself" line of his.

Brace yourselves, fellow Texans - the road to 2010 may be getting very bumpy, indeed.

[tularetom]

1. He's a strange dude - actually has some good civil rights credentials

from back in the day, but also has an unfortunate habit of making ignorant sounding statements.

He would probably make a lousy governor because he'd quickly get bored with the job. But he wouldn't be the first lousy governor Texas has ever had, would he?

[Warpy]

2. He couldn't possibly be worse than Stupid or Goodhair

and, as a Democrat, he'd attract avisors who would actually be competent to do the work of the office, whether or not he got bored with it all and retreated to his camper, cigars and cat.

[depakid]

15. "an unfortunate habit of making ignorant sounding statements."

Considering who gets elected- that doesn't seem to be a drawback in Texas....

[DFW]

3. He wouldn't be doing us any favors if he did

Now that so many Texans are waking up to the fact that
"conservatism" and "family values" haven't done our state
a whole hell of a lot of good under Bush/Perry, and we
finally have a chance to take back the statehouse, Kinky
starts making noises about being like Ann and Molly, two
Texans we can all be proud of. The trouble is, Kinky is more
like a mixture of Jesse Ventura and Jerry Lewis.

His only claim to a campaign is that he could hardly be any
worse for Texas than the previous two governors. But big deal.
The same could be said of Dracula or Benedict Arnold.

[blogslut]

4. Start you own, party Richard

Here's my suggestion for a name: The Opportunist Party
:mad:

[NoPasaran]

5. I shit in his hat

On edit: Fuck off, Kinky!

[cloudbase]

6. Well, now. . .

Chris Bell couldn't do it, the "dream team" couldn't do it, so why the hell not?

[blogslut]

11. Chris Bell got almost 30% of the vote

Perry won with less than 40%. If Richard Friedman had stayed out of the race, Bell would have received the 12% that voters frittered away on that cigar-chomping faker. If Friedman cared about this state he would support a candidate instead of being one.

[Honeycombe8]

17. Correctomundo, my friend. Friedman is Texas' personal Ralph Nader....

It's true that Bell was a nothing kind of candidate. Very blah. And very short of cash...almost no advertising.

Contrast that with Perry...good looking, tall dark and handsome, boy next door Republican. With lots of money and contributors. In a RED state.

But even against those odds, the Dems really got the vote out and voted, it seems, STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC TICKET, so that Bell got quite a lot of votes, considering his circumstances.

Had it not been for the "independents" on the ticket, Bell might well have gotten at least enough for a runoff election. There were a LOT of candidates, and two very strong "independent" ones - Friedman and a woman (I forget her name - she used to be a Repub, then suddenly became an "indie" and ran for governor. You don't have to be the brightest light in the room to figure that one out. She got the very important teacher union vote.)

For those Imus watchers (I was one) - Imus supported Friedman in his bid for gov. Friedman and Imus are close friends that go waaaaaay back.

I'm an "indie." But even I wouldn't vote for Friedman. Enabling anyone to allow a Repub to stay in office in 2004 was a very bad thing. Each Repub in office is another Bush supporter...and they all join hands and push the Bush policy for the most part. It is critical to continue getting as many Repubs out of office as possible, and that usu. means voting for the other major party.

[Liberal In Texas]

7. Well, he's got to win a primary first, doesn't he?

With all the hype and bumper stickers, he got a whopping 12.4% of the vote in '06.

[SoCalDem]

8. He ran in '06 and had his ass handed to him..

Perhaps the solution is to find a GOOD dem candidate and start NOW !

[seabeyond]

9. he will win in the panhandle of texas. they like him. n/t

[NoPasaran]

13. Their "like of him" didn't translate into voting for him in 2006

A look at the county-by-county returns shows that Friedman finished in fourth place in practically every county in the state, (He did manage to scrape into third in a few cases.)

[Blue_Tires]

10. lol...even here in VA, i has a couple of neighbors with kinky stickers

on their cars...(they are also die-hard RW ayn rand libertarian types)... If i didn't hate them so much, i'd SO want to ask their thoughts about this....

their other favorite bumper sticker? of course, 'charlton heston is my president'

[UTUSN]

12. Ah, yaas, another indulgence for the Austin play-at-being-Lib crowd. What did TX *do* to deserve

all the crap. Oh. Nevermind.

[NoPasaran]

14. Pardon me? We kicked his ass in Austin

Governor Goodhair REP 59,794 26.43%
Chris Bell DEM 101,989 45.09%
James Werner LIB 2,775 1.22%
"Stinky" Friedman IND 30,519 13.49%
Carole Fournames IND 31,090 13.74%
James "Patriot" Dillon W-I 9 0.00%

[Liberal In Texas]

16. And just for the record, in Dallas County

Rick Perry (REP) . . . . . . . . 143,132.. 35.23%
Chris Bell (DEM) . . . . . . . . 161,886.. 39.84%
James Werner (LIB) . . . . . . . 2,172 .. .53%
Richard "Kinky" Friedman (IND) . . . 41,330.. 10.17%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn (IND). . . . 57,581.. 14.17%
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 224 .. .06%

Maybe it wasn't an ass kicking, but Bell beat Perry in Dallas Co.
Rural/small town Texas is repub. And there is a lot of that.

[NoPasaran]

18. Dallas Democrats did an incredible job in 2006

Let's get Houston on board and bring the Lone Star State back to sanity!

[derby378]

19. I'm just sorry we didn't finish the job by replacing our Congressmen...

Gary Page, Will Pryor, Dan Dodd, and Charlie Thompson would have served our nation much better than the rascals we've got on Capitol Hill today. We're still trying, though.

[Liberal In Texas]

20. It also helps to have an honest election administrator.

I knew Bruce Sherbet before he was the Election Admin., and he always seemed like a straight up guy.