Kinky Friedman is a Texas songwriter and novelist who is running for Governor next year. He is running as an independent and just hired Jesse Ventura's old campaign manager. A lot of people seem to think he has a legitimate chance down here, he is getting national attention, and I just joined the campaign so he is sure to win Check out some info on him here.

http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/kinkyviews.html

As part of the campaign, I would make a suggestion about changing his name from Kinky to just about anything else you can think of.

What about the name of his band, "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys?"

That could possibly work against him.

If Jesse "The Body" Ventura can get elected, I see no reason not to elect Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150482,00.html

I heard him talk about his candidacy on O'Reilly a while back, He really didn't seem to articulate himself well at times. He should make for a interesting race, I guess.

Yeah at that point he didn't really seem to have his platform down, but I have seen him a lot more on local and state news interviews and he is getting a lot better. He writes a great satirical column in Texasmonthly each month that reminds me a lot of Hunter Thompson's work. Plus us Texans are not known for electing the most articulate speakers.

Oh, my hometown is never lax on the weirdness.

By the way, C4Lukin, your avatar is one of my favorites.

I just bought a six pack for the Mavs game, looking forward to it.

Hell yeah, I'm gonna watch the game and then see Trail of Dead at Emo's.

Austin is the shit!

Shit, don't remind me. I was supposed to go tonight, but a birthday party came up.

Sounds like he should fit right in at the governor's office.

Damn, beat me to it ...

Update

Texas gubernatorial race gets spicy
By Miguel Bustillo
Originally published September 28, 2006


"HOUSTON // Kinky Friedman, the musician, mystery writer and self-styled Jewish cowboy running for governor of Texas, was stumping for votes in a smoky beer bar called the Flying Saucer, and spraying one-liners like a Gatling gun.

Rick Perry, the Republican governor, "had done a pretty good job - as a cheerleader at Texas A&M," Friedman joked to raucous applause. Perry had served on the Aggies' pep squad, an apparent political no-no in this macho slice of the Lone Star State.


Friedman then introduced his guest of honor, an unusual voice of political gravitas fresh off the beaches of Baja California. Sporting a nascent attempt at dreadlocks and a braided beard, Jesse Ventura stared out over the under-40 crowd. The former pro wrestler said it felt like 1998, when he stunned the country by wooing enough disaffected voters to win the Minnesota governorship.

"We haven't had an independent governor in Texas since Sam Houston," Ventura said in his wrestler's growl. But he predicted that "Kinky will win - if you have a big voter turnout."

The barroom appearance was another odd moment in a four-way race for governor that has begun living up to its billing as one of the most colorful contests in recent Texas history.

In addition to the GOP incumbent and the cigar-chomping comedian, there is Carole Keeton Strayhorn, another independent candidate who waged a losing battle to be called "grandma" on the ballot, and Democrat Chris Bell, who is pushing a "Don't Mess with Ethics" reform plan, a play on the state's famous anti-litter slogan, "Don't Mess with Texas."

Whether the Texas campaign will be close as well as colorful, however, remains to be seen.

Polls have consistently shown that Perry, who experts say lacks the folksy charisma that helped popularize former governors such as Ann Richards and George W. Bush, is vulnerable to defeat - some surveys gauge his support as low as 31 percent. Yet with a little over a month left in the race, no challenger has made a move, raising the likelihood that a splintered vote will get Perry re-elected.

A Survey USA poll taken two weeks ago showed Perry with 35 percent of the vote, followed by Bell and Friedman with 23 percent and Strayhorn with 15 percent. A Zogby International/Wall Street Journal poll two weeks earlier had shown the race much closer, with Perry at 31 percent, Bell at 25 percent, Friedman at 22 percent and Strayhorn at 11 percent.

A fifth candidate, Libertarian James Werner, is trailing far behind the rest but says he hopes to play the spoiler.

Texas political experts said that while Perry maintains a sizable lead, many voters are undecided. All four major candidates have enough money to run television spots, making it impossible to predict who will come out on top on Election Day.

"Nobody has gotten quite close enough to scare" Perry, said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

Strayhorn - the Texas comptroller who calls herself "one tough grandma" - initially was considered the most serious challenger, thanks to a combination of personality, a hefty war chest and an insider's knowledge of statehouse politics. But her campaign has not taken off.

At a stop this week beside the Houston Ship Channel - where the supporter who introduced Strayhorn also cracked wise about Perry's cheerleading past - the comptroller attributed her poor poll numbers to the fact that she remarried and has a new last name.

Bell, a former congressman and Houston city council member best known for lodging an early ethics complaint against Texas Republican Rep. Tom Delay, was widely perceived as a sacrificial lamb months ago, and his campaign has struggled with minimal support from the Democratic Party. But Bell has been gaining traction in recent weeks, thanks in part to the verbal gaffes of Friedman, who angered African-American leaders by calling Hurricane Katrina evacuees "crackheads and thugs" in a speech on Houston's rising crime.

Miguel Bustillo writes for the Los Angeles Times. "

So I was with the campaign for about a month before I actually had to get a real job. But he is doing well for himself, and getting a lot of national attention. My step Dad who is a lifelong straight ticket Republican is voting for him, and my real Dad who is a lifelong straight ticket Democrat is voting for him, so there is some hope for us.

I do not know whether or not he would be a good governor. The lovely thing here is, the Texas governor has zero power. This election does show that even in the deep dark red states, there is a big portion of us who want non partisan change. We are sick of the democrats, and we are sick the republicans, and we just want someone who actually thinks for themselves. He is getting close, and the only bumperstickers you see in Austin at least are Kinky stickers, and W's with a slash through them, and Gore 2000 stickers that they were too lazy to take off.

I'll be sure to get my absentee ballot. I need to look at everyone's platform, since I really don't know anything. My mom got to meet all the candidates the other day (she's talked to Rick Perry a few times) and she said Kinky Friedman looked like he had just gotten high.