Texas Getting Kinky

Kinky Friedman just turned in more than enough signatures to get on the ballot in Texas. From Reuters:

Musician and mystery writer Kinky Friedman, brandishing his trademark cigar and spouting one-liners, turned in petitions with nearly 170,000 signatures on Thursday in his bid to run for governor of Texas as an independent candidate.

The 169,574 signatures were more than 3 1/2 times the number needed to get Friedman’s name on the ballot in November but they still must be verified, state officials said.

Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams has said it will take several weeks to make sure at least 45,540 of the signatures, or the minimum number needed to get on the ballot, come from qualified voters.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Carole Keeton Strayhorn also turned in signatures:

Friedman became the second major independent candidate to file a ballot-access petition this week. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn filed 223,000 signatures on Tuesday as an independent candidate for governor.

If certified, Friedman and Strayhorn will join Democrat Chris Bell and Libertarian James Werner in challenging the re-election of Gov. Rick Perry, the Republican nominee.

Strayhorn’s campaign has tried to portray her as more legitimate than Friedman. Her aides said she collected signatures at schools while claiming Friedman got his from rowdy crowds at music halls.

“All I can say is, thank God for bars and dance halls,” Friedman told his supporters as they unloaded 11 legal boxes of petitions from the “Guv Bug,” a pink trailer topped with Friedman’s trademark black cowboy hat.

Friedman said he was not surprised that Strayhorn gathered more signatures than he did: “Of course she got more signatures than we. She had all her ex-husbands sign.”

According to John Slevin, Mark Leszkiewicz deserves the lion’s share of the credit for getting Kinky on the ballot. Mark arrived at my Birmingham apartment yesterday to help place Loretta Nall on the ballot in Alabama. Nall requires approximately the same amount of signatures, although Texas has around five times the population as Alabama.

posted May 12th, 2006 by Stephen Gordon
  • http://libertarianyouth.blogspot.com Nigel Watt

    I’m hoping the TXLP will really put effort into convincing those who are planning on voting for Strayhorn and Friedman to vote Libertarian in the rest of the races.

  • http://kinkyisawesome.blogspot.com/ Kinky is Awesome

    Kinky would be a GREAT Texas governor.

    Kinky “Gets It” About Political Correctness

    Kinky is a genius. With all the politicians in Texas acting like officers in the political correctness police, Kinky promisses to “de-wussify Texas.”

    According to a recent story in the Austin American Statesman, Kinky is smart enough to realize “the more people I offend, the more people will like me.”

    Here are some other gems from that story:

    “I’m a compassionate redneck…

    In a November CNBC interview, for instance, he was pressed on a line in his 1987 novel, “A Case of Lone Star,” comparing New York to “a Negro talking to himself.” Friedman said he saw nothing wrong and even said of sexual predators: “Throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself.” Video excerpts appeared online on the Burnt Orange Report, a pro-Democrat blog.

  • undercover_anarchist

    Kinky is an authoritarian, statist boob. On top of that, apparently he’s a racist too. Great. With those credentials, he’ll likely win the governorship of that great state. “Leave no teacher behind?” Leave ‘em all behind!

  • andreaintexas

    You are quite mistaken, and have not done your homework. Neither has Mr. Slevin. Mark L. worked on the Kinky campaign briefly, did not perform and was never hired on as staff. He left voluntarily, but only after lack of production. Reid Nelson and Laureen Oliver led the petition drive efforts. Mark L. doesn’t deserve a mention, much less this “lion’s share” credit.

    Do your research.

    A Kinky campaign volunteer since Summer 2005.

  • andreaintexas

    Mr. Undercover,
    You don’t know Kinky. He’s the best shot this state has at reclaiming its independence and the fierce grip of the Republicans that given Texas such a bad name. He’s a genius indeed, a true independent, a thinker, a lover of all people and animals. He is far from racist – his books, his comments and his music were not racist. They MADE FUN of racists. He is progressive-minded, yet promises to be fiscally conservative. He is for gay marraige, pro choice and pro stem cell research, but is not afraid to say he thinks prayer in school ain’t the worst thing a kid could face.

    Let’s hope Texans are smart enough to elect the only independent in the race this fall.

  • ton

    Kinky Rules… he’s getting my vote and numerous others I know of.
    The time has come to have someone in Austin who listens to the citizens of Texas and not just the lobbyists and their checkbooks. The current gov has had plenty of time to show Texas he cares about her and has failed in every way imaginable; aka, politics as usual.
    Kinky was called a flip-flop politician recently. These are just ideas/possibilities – better than we’ve heard in 6 years or more.
    PS. he took offense, not to the “flip-flop” comment but, to being referred to as a “politician” which he isn’t and Texas is not in need of another one.
    Vote for the person and not the party. My party has embarrassed “us” for too long now and if you look around, yours has too.

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