Friday, September 15, 2006

MySpace and the Gubernatorial Election

9/15/6 - One candidate for governor has learned how to use the internet.

No, it’s not Governor Rod Blagojevich.

It’s Kinky Friedman.

Don’t know who Kinky Friedman is?

He’s one of four candidates—an independent--on the ballot in Texas and he has caught fire.

In recent polls, he had somewhere between 16% and 22% support there.

Two polls (Zogby and Rasmussen-percentages below are in that order) place

· incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry at 31-33%,

· Democrat Chris Bell was somewhere between 25% and 18%,

· Kinky Friedman between 22% and 16%,

· independent State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn between 11% and 22%

· Libertarian James Werner at 2.6 percent (Zogby only)
But, it is his use of MySpace that caught the attention of El Paso Times reporter Brandi Grissom.

Friedman has a MySpace site with almost 27,000 “friends.”

He is a plain-spoken guy best know for his band, Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jew Boys.

He has an eclectic ten-point platform that might yield interesting results, if tried in Illinois. Here are a couple of his points:
· 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.

· 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.

· 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!
If you are interested in more, you can find it at his MySpace web site or his official campaign web site.

If you'd like to dip into what some Texans are writing about Kinky, click here.

Or you could dip into McHenry County--the proposed cat tax, for instance--at McHenry County Blog.

7 comments:

Levois 9:26 PM  

I wish there were some interesting characters in Illinois politics. Ms. Topinka is the only one that comes close. There needs to be more.

steve schnorf 10:08 PM  

And Kinky isn't strange? Somehow I think he would hate to hear that.

Anonymous,  11:41 PM  

I worked in IL state government for 10 years before moving to Texas. Governor Perry's style reminds me a little of Blagojevich (lots of PR) but he has more ganas that Blago. Kinky has a unique appeal for people who publicly root for the underdog but privately know it would be an embarassment to the Republic of Texas. I've never been in any state that has more pride in itself than Texas and Kinky brings that charisma to the campaign. The scary thing is that no one knows Chris Bell, the democratic candidate, but Kinky and the current Comptroller in Texas could split the republican vote and elect a virtual unknown democrat. God help us.

Anonymous,  12:27 PM  

I'd take that guy over Randy Stufflebeam any day of the week. At least kinky doesn't surf the web posting as "Patriot06" or whatever the hell.

Anonymous,  12:36 PM  

Every once in a while, politics needs a Jesse Ventura or a Kinky Friedman. It keeps things interesting. Yes, the main stream political hacks are embarrassed for the state when somebody like Jesse or Kinky win. But so what. I think it's fun for somebody like Jesse or Kinky to open their mouth and say out loud what everybody is thinking, politically correctness be damned.

Sal Costello 1:22 PM  

Watch the “Perry Gone Wild - Eminent Domain 4 foreign profits” Movie online now:
http://www.dumpperry.com

pathickey 12:41 PM  

Governor Friedman - the man's got sand. Yep, wish we had one - Oh, that's right - he's running the Philly schools.

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