Posted on 12/26/2005 5:32:20 AM PST by Theodore R.
Texas governor's race shaping up to be big show next year
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN (AP) - For the first time since Republicans claimed all statewide offices in 1998, the party faces the possibility of a big-name GOP primary showdown next year.
The March 7 primary for Texas governor will likely pit Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a self-described "tough grandma," against her longtime foil and incumbent Rick Perry.
"I've never been the darling of the insiders. I run with the people," Strayhorn said. "Right after the new year, buckle your seat belt and hang on."
This month Strayhorn denied speculation she might consider a run as an independent, potentially postponing a contest with Perry until the November general election. She hasn't officially filed her candidacy papers yet, but she's expected to make the Jan. 2 deadline.
Perry, meanwhile, said he's only talking about his own Republican campaign.
"I know which party I'm for and which party I'm going to run. I made that decision a decade ago. I've got other very important things to spend my time on," said Perry, who switched from the Democratic Party before his run for agriculture commissioner in 1990.
If elected to another four-year term, Perry could hold the governor's office for 10 years, making him the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He was lieutenant governor under then-Gov. George W. Bush and assumed the state's top job when Bush was elected president in 2000. Two years later, Perry was elected to his first full term as governor.
Among Democrats, who admittedly are in a rebuilding period, former Houston congressman Chris Bell and former Texas Supreme Court justice Bob Gammage will challenge each other for their party's gubernatorial nomination.
The race's wild card is musician and author Kinky Friedman, who wants to get on the ballot as an independent. He'll have to gather 45,540 signatures from registered voters after the primary, but as a sign of confidence he's hired campaign manager Dean Barkley, who helped engineer the surprise victory by former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura for governor of Minnesota.
"There will be a whole new spirit blowing through Texas," Friedman said of his candidacy earlier this month. "There will be a smile on everybody's face and a chill up the spine of every politician."
The Republican race for governor narrowed in June when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison decided to run for re-election rather than challenge Perry. The governor had warned a primary contest would be a "bloody" and "brutal" affair.
"Perry has shown that he gives no quarter in political races. None should be expected," said consultant Bill Miller, whose company's political committee has donated to Perry's campaign.
Miller predicted a hard-hitting contest if Strayhorn makes good on her promise to run. "They're both going to go for the jugular," he said.
Both camps began shooting insults at each other early in the year. Strayhorn called Perry a "do-nothin' drugstore cowboy" who hasn't shown leadership on children's issues or school property tax relief. Perry's campaign questioned Strayhorn's ethics and accused her of using her state office for political gain.
Perry and Strayhorn are also veteran campaigners. Perry has never lost a race. Strayhorn lost a run for Congress in 1986 after she switched to the GOP from the Democratic Party, and she lost a race for Railroad Commission in 1992. But she was later elected to the commission, then went on to become Texas' first woman comptroller. She was known at the time by the last name Rylander, before she remarried.
Perry's aides portray him as the real conservative. They cast Strayhorn as a pseudo-Republican whose support comes from Democrats and trial lawyers.
"I think the primary voters will see right through that," Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "Republican primary voters need to know if trial lawyers have picked a candidate in the Republican primary and who that candidate is."
Strayhorn's camp says it wants to attract more than the usual 600,000 people who typically vote in a Texas Republican primary.
"Our game plan is to turn the Republican primary in 2006 into the general election," said Mark Sanders, Strayhorn's spokesman. "We want everyone who wants to have a say in the future of this state. In order to do that, they need to vote in the March Republican primary."
As 2005 ended, Strayhorn and Perry were busy collecting campaign cash. At the end of the latest campaign reporting period, June 30, Perry had $8.8 million in cash on hand, and Strayhorn had $7 million.
They won't have to report their contributions for the second half of the year until mid-January, but each undoubtedly added millions more dollars.
It's widely believed Perry would outspend Strayhorn, who said she plans to counter Perry's power by debating key issues and bringing together supporters of all political stripes.
"I am looking forward to the challenge," she said.
Strayhorn is saturating the airwaves during the Rush Limbaugh Show with her "tough Grandma" ads. However, I've seen nothing so far that suggests that she's as conservative as Perry.
For years I listened to Rush nearly every day and every hour that I could. Now I am increasingly finding it difficult to sit through even an hour a day. It is starting to sound repetitious, but after 15 years of listening, how could it be an ongoing fresh report? He has just about told me everything that he knows, and while that is a lot, it is hard to keep listening so regularly.
I'm not voting for Perry again. That's the one definite thing that I can say. He has no substance as a leader. He just plays politics. Katrina and Rita, to his good fortune, gave him free face time.
So will you just sit out the primary and the general election too? I understand that there is a young conservative running too, but he has no visibility. Too little funding in such a huge state! People can be expected to ratify the retention of Perry on the grounds that the alternatives are unacceptable. It could also be that Friedman will pull away some of the wavering GOP vote, but I don't see a committed Democrat going for Friedman, unless the popular Willie Nelson gets them all stirred up.
Or as Ed Sullivan would have said: "it's gonna be a really big sheewww....."
Strayhorn is a self promoting grandstander that has no true substance or agenda other that to feed her ego.
She's a loon, and I am being reserved in my language
It will be a signal of concern to the GOP, it seems to me, if the Gammage-Bell Democrat primary draws more voters to the primary polls than does the Perry-Strayhorn battle.
Agreed. I am fed up with this $5 brain with a $50 haircut mounted on it. To be honest I know of many who are talking about voting for Kinky Freidman.
She was the left wing nut mayor of Austin. Her father was a left wing head of the University of Texas Law School. Nuff said? She was a good State Comptroller until she decided she was governor material. From then on, she has used the job to attempt to circumvent anything Governor Perry does.
I don't think Texans have ever warmed up to Rick Perry, but it will be a sad day for us if Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn gets into the Governor's Mansion. (Yes, that would be McClellan, as in Scott McClellan, the President's press secretary.)
I agree.
I'll vote for the best candidate (who won't be Perry), if there is one, in the primary and the general election. Unfortunately, Perry is good-looking, and I think that he's still got wind in his sails from all of the hurricane interviews that he did. He benefits from the hurricanes, although I doubt that he deserves any credit for any action beyond using the state assets available in a timely fashion. Strayhorn looks like a grandma, and we love our grandmas, but not as governors. I'm not even sure that I'd vote for her. This election may require people to hold their noses as they vote.
Are the potential Friedman voters just vibrant fans of his key supporter, Willie Nelson?
So who are you going to vote for? Perry may be an airhead, an accidental governor who just happened to be standing in the right place when Bush left for D.C., but at least he's our airhead. Strayhorn isn't a republican.
There's a reason big democratic donors are lining up behind her...
I don't think that many Democrats will vote for Friedman unless there is the total collapse of the Democrat gubernatorial nominee in the October 2006 polls. I think Friedman will do better among "moderate Republicans" than he will Democrats.
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