Posted on 12/26/2005 5:32:20 AM PST by Theodore R.
Texas governor's race shaping up to be big show next year
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN (AP) - For the first time since Republicans claimed all statewide offices in 1998, the party faces the possibility of a big-name GOP primary showdown next year.
The March 7 primary for Texas governor will likely pit Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a self-described "tough grandma," against her longtime foil and incumbent Rick Perry.
"I've never been the darling of the insiders. I run with the people," Strayhorn said. "Right after the new year, buckle your seat belt and hang on."
This month Strayhorn denied speculation she might consider a run as an independent, potentially postponing a contest with Perry until the November general election. She hasn't officially filed her candidacy papers yet, but she's expected to make the Jan. 2 deadline.
Perry, meanwhile, said he's only talking about his own Republican campaign.
"I know which party I'm for and which party I'm going to run. I made that decision a decade ago. I've got other very important things to spend my time on," said Perry, who switched from the Democratic Party before his run for agriculture commissioner in 1990.
If elected to another four-year term, Perry could hold the governor's office for 10 years, making him the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He was lieutenant governor under then-Gov. George W. Bush and assumed the state's top job when Bush was elected president in 2000. Two years later, Perry was elected to his first full term as governor.
Among Democrats, who admittedly are in a rebuilding period, former Houston congressman Chris Bell and former Texas Supreme Court justice Bob Gammage will challenge each other for their party's gubernatorial nomination.
The race's wild card is musician and author Kinky Friedman, who wants to get on the ballot as an independent. He'll have to gather 45,540 signatures from registered voters after the primary, but as a sign of confidence he's hired campaign manager Dean Barkley, who helped engineer the surprise victory by former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura for governor of Minnesota.
"There will be a whole new spirit blowing through Texas," Friedman said of his candidacy earlier this month. "There will be a smile on everybody's face and a chill up the spine of every politician."
The Republican race for governor narrowed in June when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison decided to run for re-election rather than challenge Perry. The governor had warned a primary contest would be a "bloody" and "brutal" affair.
"Perry has shown that he gives no quarter in political races. None should be expected," said consultant Bill Miller, whose company's political committee has donated to Perry's campaign.
Miller predicted a hard-hitting contest if Strayhorn makes good on her promise to run. "They're both going to go for the jugular," he said.
Both camps began shooting insults at each other early in the year. Strayhorn called Perry a "do-nothin' drugstore cowboy" who hasn't shown leadership on children's issues or school property tax relief. Perry's campaign questioned Strayhorn's ethics and accused her of using her state office for political gain.
Perry and Strayhorn are also veteran campaigners. Perry has never lost a race. Strayhorn lost a run for Congress in 1986 after she switched to the GOP from the Democratic Party, and she lost a race for Railroad Commission in 1992. But she was later elected to the commission, then went on to become Texas' first woman comptroller. She was known at the time by the last name Rylander, before she remarried.
Perry's aides portray him as the real conservative. They cast Strayhorn as a pseudo-Republican whose support comes from Democrats and trial lawyers.
"I think the primary voters will see right through that," Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "Republican primary voters need to know if trial lawyers have picked a candidate in the Republican primary and who that candidate is."
Strayhorn's camp says it wants to attract more than the usual 600,000 people who typically vote in a Texas Republican primary.
"Our game plan is to turn the Republican primary in 2006 into the general election," said Mark Sanders, Strayhorn's spokesman. "We want everyone who wants to have a say in the future of this state. In order to do that, they need to vote in the March Republican primary."
As 2005 ended, Strayhorn and Perry were busy collecting campaign cash. At the end of the latest campaign reporting period, June 30, Perry had $8.8 million in cash on hand, and Strayhorn had $7 million.
They won't have to report their contributions for the second half of the year until mid-January, but each undoubtedly added millions more dollars.
It's widely believed Perry would outspend Strayhorn, who said she plans to counter Perry's power by debating key issues and bringing together supporters of all political stripes.
"I am looking forward to the challenge," she said.
She'll get her ample a$$ handed to her in the primaries. Will be almost as satisfying as watching similar blowhard McCain embarrassed in the 2008 Prez primaries.
Perry's real worry would be if Houston mayor Bill White ran on the Dem side (but I don't think that he will this time.)
But you've also stated here on FR that you aren't voting for ANY Republicans, including Tom DeLay.
Actually the amount of families and businesses whose land is taken for this highway will be a fraction of those that would have had that happen to them to expand I-35 the entire route. That's the primary reason for going with the routing through rural lands, fewer affected by takings and thus a much lower cost.
The toll aspect is just to shift the construction and operating costs to private investors instead of the taxpayers. That's as conservative as one can get. Like it or not, our current gas tax revenues barely cover just current road maintenance costs, so to build the needed roads we either have to raise taxes or privatize.
And by Perry standing tough (for months) on redistricting, even as his poll numbers sank, he not only helped the state but also the nation. If he hadn't, we might well be facing a risk of losing the House next year.
So is Perry.
IIRC, he switched partied around 1990.
That's pretty much the case this time around. A contested democrat primary really hurts Keeton. Her only hope is a heavy crossover vote.
I'm in the 'hold your nose and vote Perry' crowd.
Kinky may very well not make it on the ballot....
The Texas democrats ran the 'dream team' last election and they got wiped out...... Nothing has changed that much that has upgraded the democrats position, imo.
There's a lot of useful information in your post. You sound a lot like my very pragmatic husband.
We are not voting for Perry either.
Rush is impossible to listen to for 3hours a day, 5x a week, for anybody with some clarity of mind. He comes across just like some of the worst shills for clinton during the 1990s. No matter what, his boy is a genius and his horse is winning the race. It's tiresome and tedious.
My radio day includes healthy doses of Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager (instead of Rush), Mike Medved or Dr Laura, and Savage Nation to end the afternoon.
I find that when I do take a rare listen to Rush, he is very refreshing and funny. In the modern era, he is best in very small doses, spaced widely apart.
I don't agree that the office of TX governor is so powerless. The governor has both veto power and line-item vote, something the president lacks. The governor makes quite a few appointment, but they are subject to 2/3 of the State Senate, not just the majority {unless filibustered} required for presidential appointments. Many state judges first get on the bench from gubernatorial appointment, when he fills vacancies.
The governor's salary is modest, but he has access to an expense-paid mansion. The governor appoints the commissioner of education, who manages the K-12 system. But he has to choose from a list from the State Board of Education. The governor can call an unlimited number of special legislative sessions of up to 30 days each, and only his agenda items can be considered. Lawmakers won't usually press an issue knowing that the governor is opposed to its enactment.
Former Democrat Governor Ann Richards said the office was the "best job" in the nation in her book. No one said the office of governor was "institutionally weak" when John B. Connally, Jr., held it from 1963-69. A U.S. senator left the Senate to become governor: the late Marion Price Daniel, Sr., who served from 1957-63, and another U.S. senator wants the governorship but declined to run, Kay Bailey Hutchison. Lt. Governor Perry seemed very eager to become governor: he was not lamenting his "lost" powers of the lieutenant governorship.That being said, the lt. governor can block nearly any bill he opposes by refusing to have the State Senate bring up the matter.
The governor also had extensive clemency powers until a 1936 constitutional amendment placed them in the hands of the appointed (by the governor) Board of Pardons and Paroles. It was absuses of the two Democrat Ferguson administratons that removed those powers from the governor.
After six years in the office (a longer period than many governors have served), a TX governor named ALL of the appointees to the state boards and commissions. His appointees cannot be removed by a successor governor until the term of appointment runs out.
Carole Kreaton Strayhorn "tough grandma" act sounds nothing more than Ann Richards after a bad night with Molly Ivans!
absuses should be "abuses"
Oh great...
Return of Ann Richards...
"One tough Grandma"...
What B.S.
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