Posted on 09/17/2006 8:05:59 AM PDT by Theodore R.
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 grassroots bloc supporting his rebel campaign. The election outcome should answer the question of whether Friedman has broad backing among voters or whether some people are merely enamored with his unorthodox candidacy.
"I think he's (Friedman) tapping into the anti-politics, anti-incumbent crowd in Texas and beyond," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a non-profit that tracks money in politics.
The joke-cracking mystery writer had more than 17,000 individual donations from Texans from January through June, including online sales of his campaign memorabilia, according to a revew of campaign funding by The Associated Press. Perry had about 3,300 in-state donors, while Bell had about 1,400 and Strayhorn about 1,200. Friedman also leads the candidates' pack in out-of-state contributions.
Donors seem to like the novelty of Friedman's candidacy and appear to be giving because of that, often through his Internet fundraising and merchandising, McDonald said.
"Many have probably rarely, if ever, given to candidates," he said.
Friedman's online campaign store accounted for about one-third of his $1.5 million in contributions the first half of the year. The store sells inexpensive items, like bumper stickers for $3, caps for $20 and Kinky Friedman talking action figures for $29.95.
Friedman said in an AP interview this week that his supporters aren't buying his merchandise "the way Britney Spears' fans buy stuff."
"I think it's that we have given people hope. They think we can do it. The young people are inspired now and inspiring me," Friedman said.
Perry collected the most money during the six months, $4.7 million, followed by Strayhorn with $3.1 million. Democrat Chris Bell raised $1.3 million. The other candidates also have been raising money on the Internet.
Both Perry and Strayhorn had money socked away from previous years to use this election, and both collected this year from powerful sources.
"The governor is the biggest vacuum cleaner in the race. He's sucking up all the traditional, what we call, money from the lobby," which means corporate and trade group interests, said McDonald, whose group has been studying gubernatorial campaign reports separately from the AP review.
Strayhorn, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, got large sums from trial lawyers, who typically support Democrats. She also received big contributions from principals of Ryan & Co., a tax and accounting firm that represents clients before her state agency.
Strayhorn received $250,000 each from trial lawyers Walter Umphrey of Beaumont and John Eddie Williams of Houston in June after it was confirmed she had collected enough voter signatures to make the ballot as an independent. She also got four other six-figure donations.
Perry had a $100,000 donation from poultry magnate "Bo" Pilgrim of Pittsburg. From other donors he got five $50,000 donations and received a total of $1.9 million from 76 contributions for $25,000 each.
Bell's biggest single donation was $100,000 from Aubrey Smith of Smith Energy in Houston.
All the gubernatorial candidates collected sizable amounts of cash from the state's major metropolitan areas. And all had donors from the glitzy ZIP codes of River Oaks in Houston and Highland Park in Dallas.
Perry led in fundraising in those exclusive enclaves, with $135,765, compared with Strayhorn's $77,758, Bell's $50,825 and Friedman's $21,817.
Friedman, who lives on a Hill Country ranch, collected the most money of all the candidates in nearby Kerrville, bagging a total of $11,521 there.
Bell pulled in his biggest contingency of contributions from his residence city of Houston, with a $698,522 total. Perry raised $1 million in Houston and Strayhorn had $758,484. Friedman collected $190,792 in Houston.
When it came to large individual donations, Perry and Strayhorn were the king and queen.
There are no limits on how much one can give a state political candidate in Texas, but some campaign finance advocates want to change that.
State Rep. Mark Strama, an Austin Democrat, said he will team with Democratic Rep. Mike Villarreal of San Antonio in the coming legislative session to push a bill that would limit one person's total campaign contributions to $100,000 per election cycle. The proposal died in the 2005 Legislature.
Strama said large gubernatorial contributions from both Democrats and Republicans, such as those in the current governor's race, and the $3 million San Antonio businessman James Leininger poured into GOP legislative primaries in the spring are reasons to renew the effort.
"A hundred thousand dollars is enough," Strama said. "The logic is that nobody needs to have more influence than that on the political process, and most people can't have that much influence on the political process."
Strama said it isn't fair to everyday voters who are just starting to feel they can have an effect on politics through the Internet.
Through the Web and traditional methods, out-of-state money also has trickled into the governor's race, but in relatively low amounts.
Friedman leads in total out-of-state donations with $269,324 reported so far this year, or about 17 percent of his total. His biggest concentrations of money from other states came from New York, California and New Mexico. He also has a few overseas donations.
Perry's out-of-state money amounted to 4 percent of his total for the six months. Strayhorn's was 2 percent, and Bell's was slightly below 3 percent.
The out-of-state giving to Friedman doesn't indicate any outside interests trying to influence Texas government, said McDonald of Texans for Public Justice.
Notable donations
A review by The Associated Press of the major gubernatorial candidates' campaign finance reports for the first six months of 2006 found the following notable contributions and trends:
DONATIONS IN TOTAL & DOLLAR FIGURES
Rick Perry, $4.7 million
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, $3.1 million
Kinky Friedman, $1.5 million
Chris Bell, $1.3 million
TOTAL NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL DONATIONS FROM TEXANS
Kinky Friedman, 17,668
Rick Perry, 3,371
Chris Bell, 1,461
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, 1,279
TOTAL OUT-OF-STATE MONEY
Kinky Friedman, $269,324
Rick Perry, $212,093
Carole Keeton Strayhorn $59,770
Chris Bell, $35,585
INDIVIDUAL SIX-FIGURE & DONATIONS.
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: $250,000 from John Eddie Williams, Houston attorney; $250,000 from Walter Umphrey, Beaumont attorney; $250,000 from David Alameel, Dallas dentist; $150,000 from Amanda Ryan, spouse of a Ryan & Co. principal in Dallas; $100,000 from Joe Jamail, Houston attorney; $100,000 from Kenneth Banks of International Muffler Co. in Schulenburg.
Rick Perry: $100,000 from Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, poultry magnate from Pittsburg.
Chris Bell: $100,000 from Aubrey Smith of Smith Energy in Houston.
Kinky Friedman: $125,000 and $100,000 in two separate donations from John McCall, hair products businessman from Spicewood.
These represent only individual donations made by the contributor and do not count smaller, separate donations that may have been made by these donors or by other donors whose combined gifts could surpass $100,000.
Sources: Texas Ethics Commission; Perry, Strayhorn, Bell and Friedman campaigns.
I am going to hold my nose and donate money to Perry beacuse the alternatives (Staryhorn-Rylander-Insert name here, (Ding)Bell, and Kinky (lefty with a book to schill) are too awful to contemplate. Staryhorn courts Big Labour with the zeal of a liberal and Bell is a complete left-wing tool, and Kinky relegates all policy questions to his campaign manager whils signing books (all three of these idiots think that more taxes are also a panacea to perceived problems).
4 out of 5 people I know are not supporting Perry. I know I am not.
Agreed.
Perry will win, no doubt about it!
Maybe it's just the company you keep.
I heartily endorse Rick Perry, and I look forward to gloating when he wins.
Who ARE you supporting?
Kinky Friedman is a comedian and a joke; a veritable twit among twits. If Texans slip up and actually elect this boob as their governor, they will have the governor they deserve.
WAKE UP, TEXAS - SMELL THE SALSA!!!!!!
I agree, but he will have been sent a strong message...that he is NOT the future.
I also think that he will. Bell is just a DNC puppet who waits for the daily memo to tell him what to say. Strayhorn goes further left with each press conference. Kinky would have made a great snake oil huckster who, when you ignore the lame jokes, is a liberal at heart. Besides, most of his supporters will be too high to vote.
This is one native Texan who said from the beginning that Kinky chose to run to boost his flagging career (and waning name recognition) and sell his latest trite book.
I agree. He wins either way.
Kinky, he beats the others.
See post #14
Kinkys biggest supporters are Wille Nelson and Cindy Sheehan.
I agree, but he still is better the then other three in the race. A rat, a whack job, and a rino.
Seems like you have your choice of boobs.
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