I saw this on the news earlier and I didn't catch who ran the poll, but interesting stats if they are accurate. Perry - 30% Bell - 25% Kinky - 22% Strayhorn - 11% Great results for Bell and Kinky -- Perry and Strayhorn have to be very worried at this point. I'll try to link something to back this up...
King Excellent individual race coverage at this site. http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com Here's a direct link to the TX gov race. http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/election_tags/tx_gov
I know there are 8% of the voters out there who aren't voting for Kinky because they didn't think he had a shot at winning. If all the voters that want to but weren't planning on it because they thought it would be a wasted vote would go ahead and vote for the man, Texas would have Jewish Independent as its next governor. I would absolutely love it.
If the numbers of Bell hold up, he has a real chance, amazingly enough, and if Kinky moves up some more, his chances become very real as well. I'll be voting for whoever has the best shot of defeating Perry. Conventional wisdom had Rylander-Strayhorn-Etc. having the best shot, but those numbers don't reflect that at all. Very surprising. Keep D&D Civil.
Couldn't get into the WSJ politics [$] section, but Bell's home page had a cut/ paste... _______ UPDATE: Bell within 5% in Zogby, Perry heading South Perry: 30.7% (-4.1% since August/-7.6% since July/-7.6% since January) Bell: 25.3% (+2.2/+4.5/+9.7) Kinky: 22.4% (-0.3/+1.3/+8) Strayhorn: 11.1% (+1.5/+0.1/-9.5) Libertarian James Werner: 2.6% (first time on poll) link
I like Kinky's ideas on the issues. Here are 10 reasons to vote for Kinky. I particularly like 3,4,5, and 7.
Good List I asked why before I saw the List Being Jewish and Independent is not enough You gotta have strong Ideas and I like some of these Rocket River . .. at least until Mayor Bill runs for Governor
OK, I saw it in the WSJ section. This is great news! At the last minute, Friedman and Strayhorn should throw their support behind Bell and make sure Perry loses. IMO, anybody that seriously votes for Friedman should have their head examined. Carol Keeton-Rylander-Strayhorn has flip-flopped and remade herself so many times she has no credibility. "One Tough Grandma" really means "One Tough Loser" with a lot campaign money to spend. I'm not enamored with Bell but Perry just deserves to lose.
As a Democrat, I want to agree with you, but Kinky isn't far behind Bell, and they both have a shot at Perry. Considering how little money Kinky has to spend, compared to the others, especially Strayhorn and Perry, he's doing remarkably well. I agree that the best scenario would be for two of the three challengers to throw their support in the last days running up to the election to the frontrunner. I hope that happens. I'm just not sure yet who will be the leading challenger at that point. The biggest surprise is how well Bell is doing. Almost as surprising is how badly Strayhorn has fallen. I expected Kinky to poll at around 20%, better than Bell, but behind Strayhorn, with Perry winning because the others split the vote, which could still happen. No way does Perry poll better than 40% on election day, and I think he may do much worse. The problem is the lack of a runoff, which sucks, pardon my French. Why we don't have a runoff, for governor, as well as other offices, like President, is truly stupid, and cheats our democracy of a lot of it's vitality and meaning, in my opinion. Anyway, I'm thrilled with the numbers. Perry is corrupt, and doesn't deserve to be a county commissioner, much less governor. The man is a disgrace to the State of Texas, and needs to go, ASAP. Keep D&D Civil.
If it was between Perry and Kinky, I'm afraid I'd have to sit that one out. Perry must go, but the "Ten Reasons to Vote for Kinky" are a bunch of campaign nonsense. As governor, he would either have to identify strongly with one partisan side or both sides would torpedo him. It would be much worse than Jesse Ventura in Minnesota because their state politics (at least then) weren't nearly as poisonous as Texas is now. The notion of an independent governor rescuing Texas from partisan politics is fantastic foolishness. He couldn't get one thing done without a core of supporters in the legislature. If he offended one side too much, they would destroy him politically and the other side wouldn't be there to defend him and fight back. That's just how messy real-life politics are. A vote for Kinky is a waste because (1) he probably won't win and (2) if he wins it would be a complete disaster. It would be the shortest honeymoon in political history. Fortunately, he likely falls by the wayside (i.e, down in the polls) before November. I agree with your comments on Perry. The one and only reason he became governor is because he rode Bush's coattails and was elected Lt. Governor and then slid into the governorship. County commissioner is about where he belongs. This is hard to believe but I think he's worse than Ann Richards. The runoff issue is complicated. Maybe that can be discussed in another thread.
I don't think you rid the venom from Texas politics by constantly choosing one side and then another so that some things could get done. If Kinky won that would mean support, and holding the seat of gov. would be enough of bullypulpit to get his ideas out there. That would put pressure on the legislature to get something done. The other thing about one side destroying him would only hold true if he was beholden to one side or the other. If he isn't bed with either side the power they have to destroy him politically is minimal.
Is Kinky still for legalized gambling? I'd love to go down to the dog track and play some slots or blackjack...
The correct answers to the test TEN REASONS TO ELECT KINKY FRIEDMAN GOVERNOR OF TEXAS 1. My only special interest group is the people of Texas. Without a political party to appease or lobbyists to pay back, Kinky will answer only to the people of Texas. - k whatever 2. What's wrong with this picture? The Republican and Democrat candidates spent $100 million in the last governor's racefor a job that pays $100,000 a year! And less than a third of eligible voters showed up at the polls. Texans didn't die at the Alamo so only 29% of us would vote in our elections. -No, if you believe everyone should vote, talk to the average citizen, it should change your mind. 3. Put teachers in charge of education! They do our most important job, yet teachers in Texas get paid over $6,000 a year less than the national average. Kinky will boot the career desk jockeys out of the education system, put teachers in charge at every level, and end teaching to a test that gets dumber every year. -sure, i don't really care. Privatizing the education system would make it more effective. so no 4. Keep our kids safe. Texas prisons are full of drug addicts who are sick, not criminals. Let's get them into treatment and out of prison, so there's enough room to lock up sexual predators for the rest of their lives. -Drugs should be legalized and regulated like cigs, put an excise tax on them. But slapping drug offenders on the wrist with "rehab" won't help the cause, so no. 5. If you're born poor, don't get sick in Texas. Only one in five children has health insurance in Texas. If the best test of government and a society is how it treats its poorest citizens, Texas is failing badly. -Why don't you move to canada? Healthcare is a private industry, if you can't take care of yourself, your'e at fault 6. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Political correctness has become stifling in Texas. Kinky wants to de-wussify Texas. People ought to be able to wish each other Merry Christmas if they want to. The Ten Commandments shouldn't be reduced to The Ten Suggestions. And a man (or a woman) ought to be able to light a cigar once in awhile. -Thank God, YES 7. Make Texas an international leader in the emerging renewable energy industry. Renewable energy is becoming one of the world's biggest growth industries, and only 0.7% of Texas' energy comes from renewable energy. Using proven technologies like biodieselfuel we can grow, we can expand Texas' economy, create jobs, and help get America off the Saudi oil merry-go-round. -Yes, and then drill in the Alaskan wildlife 8. The two-party system is broken. The current governor isn't getting it done. The Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature aren't getting it done. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, Texas is plumb crazy. -ummm this is just more rhetoric to get elected, k whatever 9. The best people get the job. With no political party demanding patronage jobs for party hacks, Kinky will hire the most qualified person for every job in his administration. Then he'll get out of their way so they can do their job and make state government really work for the people of Texas. -more rhetoric, these aren't even issues, but to believe ppl with different ideas would be more productive in office is an absurd thought 10. It's time for Texas to declare independence from politics-as-usual. Texans are the most independent-minded people in America. The last independent governor of Texas was Sam Houston. The time has arrived for the next independent governor of TexasKinky Friedman! -I thought these were issues? Out of these 10, only 3 were actual issues If all Kinky said was #6, i'd support him. But no he had to keep on talking. He will not win.