Free Republic

Scott McClellan's critics in Washington have speculated about his motives for writing a book bashing President Bush, but back in the former White House spokesman's home state of Texas, some chalk it up to something very simple: his gene pool. Bush defenders and impartial observers point in particular to Mr. McClellan's mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, as having set a precedent for turning on former allies, while others say that his family tree had strong liberal leanings. They also said his decision will make it hard to do what all Texans do: return home. "Scott's going to be something of a...

Each day, I make the dreaded drive down Interstate 35 to go to work in Fort Worth. Each day, I slug through the snarl and sludge of ceaseless traffic, which intensifies my growing desire to commit hari-kari, or at least incites a vehement curse of the highway gods. Certainly, we in Texas need more lanes, more roads, more rails, more something to deal with the ever-expanding urban population and growing international commerce. Yet how do we solve our transportation needs without carving up the countryside like some congratulatory cake? Or should the construction of a superhighway-rail-utility corridor even concern us?...

Some Republicans groaned at Gov. Rick Perry's announcement that he plans to seek another term in 2010, but Mayor Bill White's camp reacted with glee. White has made no effort to hide the fact that he is looking to run for governor after being term-limited out of the mayor's office next year. And Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the biggest vote-getter in Texas history, has been more than hinting that she plans to "come home" to run for the same office. She outlined to Texas Monthly last November a plan to resign the Senate in 2009 to make the race, while...

HEMPSTEAD -- The Trans Texas Corridor may be the most controversial highway ever built in Texas. That is, if it ever gets built. All month, there have been public hearings throughout the area where people have been showing up in droves to oppose it. People don’t drive very fast on Odis Styers’ family ranch near Hempstead, but TxDOT wants that to change. “It’s quiet, it’s peaceful,” Styers said. “It’s a shame a road is gonna mess it up.” The road is the Trans Texas Corridor. The plans call for it to come through here, and with it: separate lanes for...

AUSTIN - Republican Gov. Rick Perry beat a unique set of challengers Tuesday for another term that could make him Texas' longest-serving governor as he presses priorities such as border security, strict state budgeting and an ambitious transportation plan. It was a less-than-cliff-hanging end to a race that started with a lot of potential for drama ? thanks to the entry of colorful independents Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn ? and ended with much of that potential unrealized. Early returns showed Perry ahead with about 40 percent of the vote, followed by Democrat Chris Bell, who had about 29...

The ability to move people and things in an efficient manner is essential to competing in a global environment. Economic and population growth have strained many aspects of Texas' transportation infrastructure, particularly in urban areas. Congestion not only decreases safety, it also reduces economic efficiency, raises transportation costs and otherwise hampers the competitiveness of the state economy. With the growing population and expanding economy of Texas, transportation constraints and congestion will only worsen over the coming decades. In fact, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) projects that road use will rise by 214 percent during the next 25 years. Although...

If all the meetings on the Trans-Texas corridor proved one thing, it was that the majority of the people, both Democrat and Republican, are against it. We still have one more chance to show our strong opposition and that is at the ballot box on Nov. 7. Since the contract for the corridor would run for 50 years, maybe more, by which time gasoline will only be a memory, how does it make any sense to build an ethanol plant in Temple while destroying the blackland prairie needed to grow the corn to process there? It doesn't! Since the motivating...

(October 30, 2006)—The multi-billion-dollar Trans Texas Corridor will pump billions of dollars into the state’s economy and will create millions of jobs according to a new study by Waco-based economist Ray Perryman. Click Here To Read The Full Report In “Moving Into Prosperity: The Potential Impact of the Trans-Texas Corridor on Business Activity in Texas,” Perryman says the project will make the state’s economy more competitive. “Because the TTC enhances efficiency, improves logistics, and reduces transportation time and costs, it increases the ability of companies within the region to expand intrastate trade and operations, and, thus, increase market size and...

Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry faces Democratic challengers Chris Bell and Independents Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn in the 2006 gubernatorial race. In the fourth part of News 8 Austin's five-part gubernatorial forum, the candidates discuss transportation and energy. Q: Now, let’s combine public transportation and developing renewable energy. What do you think we should be doing to make Texas the leader in the nation in these areas and why should Texans care about that? Strayhorn: Well, we certainly need every renewable energy and we need wind generation and we also need telecommuting. Fifteen percent of my employees are...

Two private-sector groups have submitted proposals to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor-69, a 600-mile thoroughfare that may wind around Lufkin and Nacogdoches one day. The bid process is part of the effort to create a public-private partnership that the Texas Department of Transportation says would speed the construction of "one of the state's priority transportation projects." Trans-Texas Corridor-69, if and when it is built, is expected to connect with Interstate 69, which will stretch from Canada to Mexico. The proposed Texas corridor would start in South Texas and pass Houston, Lufkin and Nacogdoches before hitting Texarkana and/or breaking off into Louisiana....

The governor's race is becoming a referendum on the Trans-Texas Corridor toll road. Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Perry supports the TTC that would parallel Interstate 35 from Laredo to Oklahoma. However, it could gobble up 81,000 acres of rural land according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Also, a large chunk of the land used would be in North Texas. Lance Haynes, a Republican, said he wonders if his family's 68 acres in rural Collin County might be covered in concrete in the near future. The land lies within the path where the state could route the TTC and he's...

Secret parts of a contract for the Trans-Texas Corridor have been out for more than two weeks now. So has a development plan that outlines how state transportation officials and a foreign-led consortium plan to plow the countryside with toll roads and railways to relieve growing traffic on Interstate 35. That's plenty of time to begin scouring the thousands of pages — on the Web at KeepTexasMoving.com — to find out what the big secret was. But so far, no one can or will say if there's a detail, some twist or mumbo jumbo that, if found, would blow the...

New ad hammers a key campaign theme. Sunday, October 15, 2006 "Beyond," Carole Keeton Strayhorn's latest ad, is expected to be viewable starting Monday at http://www.carolestrayhorn.com. KEY POINT 'Tolls across Texas?' ANALYSIS Strayhorn hammers one of her familiar Perry critiques — that he's out of step with voters by advocating networks of congestion-relieving toll roads around the state. KEY POINT 'Gov. (Rick) Perry's plan is beyond anything we've ever known. It's the largest land grab in Texas history.' ANALYSIS Perry's envisioned Trans-Texas Corridor might eventually require nearly 600,000 acres for roads, rail lines and rights of way. That would not...

Details of a new television campaign ad from independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn: TITLE: "Beyond" LENGTH: 30 seconds. PRODUCER: Alex Castellanos, media consultant; WF of R Inc., media placement. AIRING: Started Friday in most markets; will be airing statewide by Monday. SCRIPT: Carole Keeton Strayhorn: "Tolls across Texas? "Gov. Perry's plan is beyond anything we've ever known. It's the largest land grab in Texas history. A deal to seize more than a half million acres of private property and hand it over to a foreign company, so they can charge us tolls. "I believe Texas property belongs to Texans,...

On Sept. 30, about 100 people carrying protest signs and handfuls of dirt rallied at the Alamo to protest Gov. Rick Perry's massive toll road plan. Perry's feisty challenger, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, spoke at the event, which was not covered by the Express-News. Our no-show wasn't a judgment call. A reporter who was notified about the rally simply did not pass the information on to editors who decide what to cover and who will cover it. It was a flub, primarily by the Express-News, but also by the organizer, the San Antonio Toll Party, which needs to be more effusive...

The more William Molina heard about toll road plans, the more outraged he got, until finally he picked up his camera and did what he does best. Molina spent the past several months shooting more than 40 hours of footage at public meetings in San Antonio and nearby towns, talked to activists, tried to talk to toll road advocates and spliced together a film documenting what he says is a nexus of tremendous change. "I just wanted to capture history," the veteran filmmaker said. "One day we're going to look back at this and say, how did this happen." "Truth...

The Milam County portion of the “Hands Across the Corridor” Statewide Rallies was held Saturday, Sept. 30, on the Milam County Courthouse lawn. We had a great assembly of concerned Texans, Democrats, Republicans, Strayhorn Independents and even a couple of really “Kinky” folks. Everyone in attendance agreed that our current Governor and many of our senators and representatives have forgotten the constituents that they are supposed to represent. They seem to be representing only ‘big money contributors and companies' whose interests are not what is best for Texas, but how much money the ‘projects' (toll roads and corridor) can make...

The Texas Transportation Commission unrolled Sept. 28 the long-awaited road map for the Trans-Texas Corridor. Release of the Master Development Plan will result also in public disclosure of the full contract between the state and Cintra-Zachry, a private joint venture between the Spanish firm Cintra and the Texas highway contractor Zachry. Both Cintra-Zachry and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) appealed a ruling from the Texas Attorney General’s office that the full contract is an open record. A trial was scheduled for Oct. 10 in Travis County district court. The master plan calls for the prompt building of seven segments...

AUSTIN - Can the four major candidates for Texas governor debate each other for an hour on live television without being seen or heard? Probably not, but Belo Corp., sponsor of the only such gubernatorial showdown this fall, will test that possibility Friday night, both with its restrictive distribution rules and the time slot. Originating in Dallas, the debate will be carried live on the company's WFAA flagship; Belo affiliates in Houston (KHOU-Channel 11), San Antonio and Austin; Belo's Texas Cable News (TXCN) and will be streamed live on their Web sites. TV stations in smaller towns outside Belo markets...

About 30 opponents of Gov. Rick Perry’s controversial Trans-Texas Corridor plan for superhighways statewide rallied at the McLennan County Courthouse Saturday morning, waving plastic bags of soil and vowing to resist any efforts involving eminent domain to seize their land for highway construction. “This is a little piece of my land,” Riesel rancher and farmer Robert Cervenka said. “And this is all they’re going to get from me without a fight.” Although some of those gathered at the steps of the courthouse were allied with independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, others said they were for any political force capable...

<p>A master plan of the proposed toll road and rail line from the Oklahoma border to San Antonio was unveiled this morning by the Texas Department of Transportation.</p> <p>This summer, critics panned the secrecy of the privately funded deal and called for financial details to be revealed.</p>

North Texas grows by 150,000 people a year – about the population of Richardson and Rowlett combined. McKinney and Frisco each add 200 newcomers a week. Keeping pace with the mobility needs of the mushrooming region is a losing proposition if we use only traditional means: state fuel taxes and leveraged federal funds. Yet most positions taken by candidates for governor are unrealistically wed to yesterday's formulas for financing roadways. Here's the size of the North Texas funding gap over the next 25 years: a nearly $28 billion shortage for new highways and related projects, according to the Regional Transportation...

HILLSBORO, Texas — Leroy Walters has survived many a threat on the farm that has been in his family for 120 years — droughts, hailstorms, tornadoes, grasshopper attacks. But now he sees a manmade danger on the horizon: a colossal, 600-mile superhighway that will plow clear across Texas, perhaps cutting through Walters' milo and corn fields, obliterating family houses and robbing his grandchildren of their land. "I don't think they're going to want to pay a toll to go across this land," he said. "They want to enjoy it free, as Texans should enjoy it." That kind of fear and...

Pat Hensen spent a good part of his 35-year career with the Soil Conservation Service (now Natural Resource Conservation Service) helping Texas Blacklands farmers improve their land. And he’s invested considerable time, effort and money the last 20 years doing the same on his own or leased acreage. And it may all end up under yards of concrete and asphalt if the Trans Texas Corridor passes muster and follows the latest proposed route. “My farm would be in the middle of it,” Hensen says from his Bell County living room where he and wife Loretta participate in a grassroots campaign...

ENNIS - Corridor Watch, a nonprofit organization designed to inform the public about aspects of the Trans-Texas Corridor, presented its perceptions about the highway project to an Ellis County audience Thursday evening. The event was sponsored by Independent Texans and held at the Ennis Sixth Grade Center. Corridor Watch, which was founded by Linda and David Stall of Fayetteville, is “first and foremost an educational entity,” said David Stall, who added that the group’s “biggest concern is stopping the Trans-Texas Corridor.” Stall, speaking for the anti-TTC Corridor Watch, raised several questions about the TTC, ranging from its origins to its...

Friedman leads field in individual donations; Perry holds cash lead AUSTIN (AP) - Comedic candidate Kinky Friedman has far and away the most individual donations in the governor's race this year, collecting campaign cash from thousands across Texas and across the country. Republican Gov. Rick Perry leads in total money, followed by independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn - both piling up millions of dollars and benefiting from some large contributions of $100,000 or more. With Perry and Strayhorn holding that strong financial advantage entering the Nov. 7 election, Friedman will be working to capitalize on what appears to be a...

Governor hopeful Bell says changing schools priority for state's future BY ROBIN BRISCOE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell said he wants to build the Texas that most only envision in their dreams. He believes he offers a new vision of positive change for the state and encouraged an excited crowd of about 60 Democrats Thursday evening to unite to make it happen. Bell said he believes changing public schools is the No. 1 priority to a brighter future, adding that there aren't enough bandages to just fix it. "We keep falling further and further behind the rest of the...

Gov. Rick Perry's campaign opponents are hoping his Trans-Texas Corridor becomes a central campaign issue, and it is now the focus of a new online campaign attack. It's an animation, like the JibJab cartoons that took aim at President Bush during the last election. But the creators say their message is anything but funny. It's the latest shot in the Texas governor's race, and it takes aim at Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor. An online animated video calls Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor a land grab that will use eminent domain to kick Texans out of their homes, farms and ranches. "Eminent domain is...

GOVERNOR'S RACE Contrasting views emerge on the mix of faith, politics Candidates make their beliefs known in wake of national push for a piece of religious vote AUSTIN - God is everywhere in the race for Texas governor. And in this crowded field, there's plenty of room for interpretation on just what it means to bring faith to public service. Is it Gov. Rick Perry campaigning against gay marriage and signing abortion restrictions into law at a church school gym? Is it Democrat Chris Bell calling Texas' budget morally out of balance under the GOP incumbent because of children who...

AUSTIN — Two gubernatorial candidates received rare embraces from leaders of an organization that prides itself on its fierce nonpartisanship and rigid rules for politicians. Democrat Chris Bell got a warm embrace Saturday morning after pledging support for education and healthcare spending, training for livable wage jobs and comprehensive immigration reform all of which make up the "working families agenda" for the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation. Texas comptroller and independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn got a big hug on Friday from the Rev. John Bowie of True Light Baptist Church in Houston after Strayhorn offered passionate support for most...

Who should be governor of Texas? 8:30 CDT Sept. 8, 2006 Carole Keeton Strayhorn --31 percent Richard Friedman -- 43 percent Rick Perry -- 26 percent Democrat Chris Bell not included in the poll

Democratic candidate Bell fires criticism at Perry ASSOCIATED PRESS IRVING (AP) - Democrat Chris Bell, the lone candidate for governor campaigning on Labor Day, didn't mince words in taking aim at Republican incumbent Rick Perry. "On issue after issue, category after category - education, health care, stem cell research, the environment, our state parks system - Rick Perry is an absolute miserable failure as governor," Bell said at the Dallas AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast. Bell made other stops Monday in Tyler, Galveston and Waco, each time stressing the need for the state to revamp a weak education system. Perry spent...

TOPEKA, Kan. - Democratic congressional challenger Nancy Boyda repeated concerns Wednesday about a proposed multilane superhighway that eventually could span the United States from Mexico to Canada, calling it a threat to Kansans. "There seems to be a plan to blur the border with the United States and Mexico," Boyda said, referring to a proposed 10-lane corridor parallel to Interstate 35 in Texas. Boyda has made the highway an issue in her effort to defeat incumbent Republican Jim Ryun in a rematch of their 2nd District race two years ago. While Ryun says immigration is the top issue on his...

One out of every eight votes in Rick Perry's margin of victory in the 2002 race for governor came from the rural counties along the Interstate 35 path of Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. Now, as he seeks re-election, Perry's long-range transportation vision is turning into a political liability for the Republican chief executive. More than 14,000 Texans — almost all opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor — turned out at public hearings held by the Texas Department of Transportation this summer to express their displeasure with the highway and the governor. "I'd like to admit that I made one big mistake...

AUSTIN – After months of complaining about Republican Gov. Rick Perry's transportation plan, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn put forth her plan Monday for unclogging Texas roads. Mrs. Strayhorn said that she wouldn't rely on toll roads, as Mr. Perry's plan does, and that she would expand capacity on Interstate 35 using existing rights of way. In some congested areas that could mean double-decker highways, she said. "Texas once had and can again have a freeway system that is the envy of the nation," Mrs. Strayhorn said. "I am adamantly opposed to any toll roads in Texas." She also...

Governor emphasis on tollways, private road-builders has generated urban and rural unrest Rick Perry's political problem with transportation, to the extent that he has one, may be that he's trying to douse a fire in 2006 that won't ignite for another 10 to 20 years. His critics say, no, the problem is that Perry wants to charge us for the water. What isn't in dispute is that the Republican governor and his appointees over the past six years have turned Texas transportation on its head, moving the state from financing public roads solely with taxes to a system that would...

DALLAS — Republican Gov. Rick Perry's former liaison to the Legislature is working once again for the Spanish company that won the rights to develop the state's $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor toll road project. Lobbyist Dan Shelley worked for the firm as a consultant just before he went to the governor's office, a connection first revealed in 2004. State officials denied any connection between that circumstance and the decision, three months later, to award Cintra-Zachry the huge highway contract. Now Shelley has left the governor's office, and he and his daughter have large contracts to lobby for the road builder,...

A plan to bring the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project closer to the heart of North Texas is getting a boost from Gov. Rick Perry. Since April, North Texas leaders have prodded state officials to alter their study maps to include a highway route that circles Dallas and Fort Worth. Until now, the state's preferred study area has prominently featured a route that only clips southeast Dallas County. The local lobbying efforts may have paid off. Mr. Perry has asked the Texas Department of Transportation to take into consideration North Texas' wishes, department officials said late Tuesday. In a letter to...

ST. HEDWIG, Texas – From the parking lot jammed with pickups, past the tables with campaign T-shirts and into the overflowing high school auditorium, Carole Keeton Strayhorn works the linoleum aisle as if it's her own political rally. And she has Gov. Rick Perry to thank. Mrs. Strayhorn has become a regular fixture at the federally mandated public hearings on the Perry-backed Trans-Texas Corridor – a wide network of toll roads, railways and pipelines to parallel Interstate 35. And she has used the almost nightly occasions to thump the governor and bring hundreds of potential supporters to their feet. So...

Texas is facing a significant turning point. Gov. Rick Perry has called for the State to build a massive network of freeways with freight rail, commuter rail, utility lines, communication towers and oil and natural gas pipelines all concentrated into a single route. This massive corridor is intended to meet the future transportation needs of the state, which is expected to increase dramatically in the next 50 years. Texas highways are already packed with cars and trucks, and gridlock strangles our major cities day and night. While the lofty goals of Perry's transportation program are admirable, the program has been...

Strayhorn drops 'Grandma' issue after judge's ruling AUSTIN (AP) - An independent candidate for Texas governor abruptly dropped her lawsuit Thursday to have "Grandma" listed as her nickname on the November ballot, saying the legal battle would distract from her campaign. Hours earlier, a judge delivered Carole Keeton Strayhorn a setback, ruling the nickname was the secretary of state's decision and the court lacked jurisdiction. Secretary of State Roger Williams denied Strayhorn's request to have her name listed as "Carole Keeton 'Grandma' Strayhorn" on the Nov. 7 ballot, saying "Grandma" is a slogan. During a brief hearing, Judge Suzanne Covington...

(July 24, 2006)—As the state wraps up a series of Central Texas hearings this week on the massive Trans Texas Corridor project, it’s becoming apparent that opposition to the futuristic highway system is mounting, especially in rural areas, and that could pose a problem to Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election bid. Leroy Walters of Hillsboro, for example, has survived many a threat on the farm that's been in his family for 120 years including drought and tornadoes. But now Walters is concerned about the 600-mile superhighway that could plow across Texas, perhaps cutting through his fields and robbing his grandchildren of...

DENTON - "Grandma" lost her argument for a contrived ballot nickname. But Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn of Austin might have found a plank on which to build a campaign against Gov. Rick Perry. It's a plank 600 miles long and a quarter-mile wide. It's a giant, privately owned, multilane tollway that would part the Texas countryside the way the governor parts his ample hair. Strayhorn, a Republican running as an independent candidate, has criticized the Trans-Texas Corridor tollway plan loudly for months. So have the other principal challengers in this traffic jam of a race, novelist Kinky Friedman of Medina...

Democrat Bell says governor's race between him, Perry FORT WORTH (AP) - Criticizing Republican Gov. Rick Perry for what he called failures in education and health care, Democratic opponent Chris Bell said Friday the four-way race is really a two-man match. At the state Democratic convention, Bell downplayed the threat of independent candidates Kinky Friedman, an author and humorist, and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state comptroller who opted out of the Republican primary against Perry. So far in the campaign, the jabs have been traded between Perry and Strayhorn. But this week as the Democratic convention approached, Perry began criticizing...

Two challengers to GOP Gov. Rick Perry have oft-tossed nicknames. Carole Keeton Strayhorn, One Tough Grandma. Kinky Friedman, the Kinkster. How about Democratic nominee Chris "Who the Hell" Bell? The former Houston U.S. House member, who notably filed '04 ethics complaints against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, has yet to catch fire statewide. More than half of likely voters surveyed last month by a nonpartisan group hadn't heard of Bell (making him the least known of the major contenders). Unfamiliar, perhaps. But Bell's steady demeanor contrasts neatly with the snap-crackle-pop styles of Friedman and Strayhorn. Voters could find him a stolid...

The developer of the first phase of the Trans Texas Corridor super highway toll system says Texas needs an addition: 600 miles of new rail line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico for freight trains. That's the proposal from Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish and American partnership already working on the first section of toll road for cars and trucks, announced by state transportation officials Wednesday. The Trans Texas Corridor is the plan kick-started several years ago by Gov. Rick Perry to build 4,000-plus miles of tollways and railways that would incorporate oil and gas pipelines, utility and water lines, and even broadband...

SEATON, Texas - Gov. Rick Perry's challengers in the November election took turns Friday attacking his vision for the Trans Texas Corridor, a $184 billion plan to build megahighways around the state. Appealing to a crowd of mostly rural residents concerned about losing land to the project, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Chris Bell was joined by independent candidates Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman as he asked the crowd to "fire Rick Perry." More than 700 residents attended the meeting in Seaton, a town just east of Temple where the first leg of the corridor will likely be built within a...

The Blackland Coalition Is Holding A Forum For The Candidates For Governor... ...and guess who hasn't responded?Gubernatorial Candidates: Bell, Friedman and Strayhorn confirmed to speak on TransTexas Corridor and Eminent Domain March 24, Seaton Star Hall (5 Mi. East of Temple on Hwy 53 - 10842 State Hwy 53, Temple, Texas 76501), 7:00-9:00 PM, the Blackland Coalition will hold a meeting open to the public and interested parties. All four candidates running for Governor of the State of Texas were invited to speak, only Rick Perry has not responded. Chris Bell (D), Kinky Friedman (I) and Carole Strayhorn (I),...

Valley’s contributions total $1,600 AUSTIN — If the Rio Grande Valley is one of the last Democratic strongholds in Texas, you wouldn’t know it by looking at a list of those who have given money to the gubernatorial race. Just three people from the Valley have directly given money to a Democrat running for governor. Their contributions total an anemic $1,600 out of the combined $500,000 raised statewide by the two major Democratic candidates. Spokesmen for both Chris Bell and Bob Gammage said raising money in the Valley has been slow-going in part because they don’t have strong connections there....

Perry talks up conservatism in campaign kickoff BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Gov. Rick Perry kicked off his re-election campaign in the Hub City on Tuesday morning, saying he's the only conservative in the race for governor. "My friends, there will be only one conservative on the ballot this November," he told an enthusiastic crowd of about 100 on the Texas Tech campus. "The promise I have kept, and that I renew to you today is this - I will not only campaign as a conservative, I will continue to govern as a conservative," he said. Perry is seeking a second...