Burnt Orange Report

Ive heard Chris Bell speak twice and he is a powerful speaker. It is hard to gain media attention at this juncture, but give him some time. When the media turns to the campaign in earnest - he will be there with oratory on the issues.

As far Kinky, he is a joke. I saw the website and cartoon. He has no message other than "Im not the status quo." The fact that his key media outreach to voters is a cartoon speaks volumes.

If you think Kinky is a joke come out this Wed. to campus and hear him speak with students. He has profound ideas - more so than anything Bell can offer. He will be on campus this Wed. 28th. He starts a Spirt Walk at Noon from the MLK statue and finishes up with a rally on the West Mall at 1pm.

Come see how many people come out to this event. I assure you it will be more than the 100 that showed up to Bell's announcment. Maybe then you will see that people do not take him as a joke - but a breath of fresh air.

I have a piece of advice for Jason Stanford (who I understand from friends is a nice fella)

You are not a pundit. You are a flack for a campaign for Governor. You cannot hope to continue to work in poltics by "repeating the charge" that is - saying that your candidate is doing stupid things! Wake up and smell the Karen Hughes coffee and get on message.

James Carville used to say that a campaign's message needed three things: simplicity, clarity and repetition. Given all the sympathy for Louisiana right now, can you take some advice from the Rajan Cajun?

I've come to the conclusion that with the primary voting trends in South Texas that Felix Avaredo has a 35% chance of becoming the Democrat nominee. Bell is becoming the punch line that he hoped to deliver. Humor in politics has a way of clarifying the political landscape. Those who can do it well can succeed mightily (Clinton, Bush) those who cannot should not try (Bob Kreuger Part Deux). You dig?

No matter the primary, Perry's new statue as the Rudy of the Hurricane world will ensure his easy victory next fall.

Maybe his consultants thought it would be appealing to the UT students who apparently make up the bulk of his supporters. Chris Bell does not have the support he would need to win against Rick Perry. And won't have it. No matter how often his consultants say he will or the bloggers say he will. It isn't there. And part of the reason why is what's revealed about him in this column. A total lack of maturity in terms of what he conveys to others about himself. Is he running for governor or for president of the student union?

The lack of any serious challengers in the primary despite a lack of any real support for Chris Bell would indicate that "mainstream" Democrats basically believe the gubernatorial election is a waste of time. That is sad. And a little scary. Not to take a pot shot but if Chris Bell is all the Democratic Party can come up with, there is a message there about the Democratic Party. Not about Chris Bell. The message can be heard loud and clear by the stampede at Kinky Friedman events.

As for Kinky Friedman, joke or not, quite a few support him because he's real. And that's where the joke ends. The rest of us are real too.

We need a dose of reality in government. Someone real in the governor's mansion. Not another politician created by consultants. We already have one of those in the Governor's Mansion and another one of those in the White House.

"Run against Perry, he's the enemy."

That's what's wrong with politics today. This is not a war. There are no enemies. Just sleazy politicians selling a message provided for them by equally sleazy consultants. Both Democratic and Republican. How many of our representatives really vote according to the way their constituents feel and felt when they elected their representatives to office? How many really kept their campaign promises? Very few.

Most make their decisions based on what consultants tell them. Or what lobbyists tell them. We need someone who is "no-strings- attached." Someone who thinks for themselves. Which is why so many are drawn to Kinky Friedman. What you see is what you get. And quite a few like what they see.

Lots of things you can say about Kinky Friedman. Some are the same things a lot of people at the time said about Sam Houston. But Sam Houston served this state well. Better probably than anyone has since. As the first President of the Republic of Texas, then a US Senator and then as the first and only Independent governor. Kinky Friedman may well be the second Independent governor of Texas.

Sam Houston was everything Kinky Friedman is. Top of the list is real. Like the rest of us.

As for this obviously embarrasing column in the Statesman, the thought of having a governor who thinks a memory of being arrested over a food fight in college makes him appealing actually makes him that much more unappealing. Sort of disturbing actually. But then quite a lot about him is disturbing to be honest. What is most disturbing, again, is the reflection upon the Democratic Party itself.

"I've come to the conclusion that with the primary voting trends in South Texas that Felix Avaredo has a 35% chance of becoming the Democrat nominee."

As pointed out on BOR, it might help if he was a little more visible. Is the 35% representative of the assumed Hispanic vote in the primary?

The rest of us might like to know more about him. He doesn't seem to be real responsive from the comments on BOR but maybe he is just waiting for the right moment to build some momentum?

Baby Snooks, would you please, please, please stop trying to equate Kinky Friedman with Sam Houston. Sam Houston was one of the greatest Texans, and Americans, to ever live. To have his life as a Governor of Tennessee and Texas, US Senator and war hero equated to that of a singer/songwriter and detective novelist is only to denigrate Sam Houston.

Everything else is fair game, but Friedman- very few present-day Texans for that matter- is nowhere near the man that Sam Houston was.

I think you need to read up on Sam Houston.

Karl,

Congratulations for buying into the Texas MSM cynicism. When you wonder why there are no statewide elected Democrats, it shouldn't take you long to realize that you're now becoming part of the problem.

To Karl's defense, him pointing out that Chris Bell is a bad candidate is not contributing to the problem, it is mearly pointing it out. Maybe Chris Bell would be a good candidate if more people knew who he was and knew what he stood for, but Chris Bell hasn't raised the money to make that happen. Hell, if I'm not mistaken Kinky has raised more $$$ than Bell.

Greg, telling people they are traitors because they don't like lazy candidates who don't bother to raise money, and would rather talk about the good ol' days at UT in the 70's than the horrible conditions of our state's school system and the environment in urban areas while Rick Perry is sitting at an under 40% approval ratings is just contributing to the problem. The Bell Campaign needs to get its "S%^t together and being a cheerleader for incompetence isnt going to be much of a motivating factor.

1. I wonder what it means that as many people seem to know Jason Stanford as know Chris Bell.

2. Nothing is a boondoggle that gets your name in the paper because people won't care about your mistakes if they don't know who you are.

3. Kinky isn't Sam Houston, Kinky is more like Robert Stack, Dennis Quaid or Richard Boone - the actors that played Sam Houston. They look and sound like people who should lead us but, take away the accent the makeup and the script and they're just actors.

4. Kinky is an alternative to what we have and people want the alternative to what we have, even if it is just as bad as what we have.

Asking Kelso to write this column will go down as the single most important decision leading to Bell's defeat. Raising almost no money was bad enough. Paying what little he raised to the consultants that thought this Kelso bit was a cool idea was even worse. R.I.P., Chris Bell.

I lived at SRD, aka Spoiled Rotten Daughters, aka the Virgin Vault. I plotted with my penthouse (top floor) dorm mates weekly to disrupt the lives of the unfortunate souls who left town for the weekend. We disassembled and reassembled the RA's room above the showers in our bathroom. Then there were the stories about the waiters, sneaking boys up to our room in the laundry bins that the maids used for our sheets (no men allowed above the first floor) and breaking curfew by simply staying out all night. But the best story of all was altering all of the Bull Creek Road Signs to read Butt Cheek Road.

Yawn.

A better story from that time though is when I marched on the capitol against the adoption of HB 1147, the first omnibus tuition bill since 1957 with an outspoken Democrat and Tri Delta who was recently elected judge – as a Republican.

Jason just chose the wrong reporter. Kitty Crider readers would have enjoyed the reference to the frat boy food fight and they might pony up money to the campaign.

Ki,

In case this is news, Texas is a tough state to run in as a Democrat. The GOP have tried to freeze out many of our donors and the ones that remain out of conviction have a defeatist fatique since we've not been able to win even with candidates who have outspent Republicans. No amount of knocking the people who are working on behalf of Team Bell undoes the irony of backseat consultants suggesting they know better how to win in Texas.

This campaign will be tough. It will be entirely uphill. But it's a campaign we MUST fight. No excuses. There's a whole range of risks that an uphill candidate must take. Some pay off, some don't. That's the nature of risk. When you're the underdog, there's no playbook to go by that dictates a path to victory. It's up to Chris Bell to test and try new things. That's why he's taking more of a decentralized, internet-friendly campaign ... to collect the input and advice that others seem to only vent on their own blogs to a friendly audience of self-defeatists.

"When you wonder why there are no statewide elected Democrats, it shouldn't take you long to realize that you're now becoming part of the problem."

In other words, you and several others have decided that that Chris Bell is the only candidate, others need not apply, and either you support him or you're not a "good Democrat," emphasized by this intimation that if you don't support him, you've brought down the entire state party. Someone needs a reality check.

1.) This is Kelso. From the Statesman. He just THINKS he's funny, the way the Statesman thinks its a real newspaper. The only news the Statesman covers is what happens at UT games.

2.) Chris is a funny guy. Anyone who went to the Harris County Tejano Democrats event a couple of weeks ago will tell you that he can take a joke as well as he can dish them out.

3.) In conclusion, Kelso's column is virtually unreadable, Chris is freaking hilarious and he will be the strong leader Texas needs.

Chris needs Eric Burns.

Kelso's columns are pretty damn funny and I know (for sure outside of Austin) they are well liked and respected for their humor. Plus he often pokes fun at the 'leaders' of our state.

The statesman is a real newspaper, much more so than say the Express News down in SA. But to each city their own. Not everyone can be the Washington Post.

Beware believing one's own damage control. That's one I've tried to remember from the Dean campaign days.

""Run against Perry, he's the enemy." That's what's wrong with politics today. This is not a war. There are no enemies."

Baby Snooks, if you think there are no enemies in politics, then you haven't been paying much attention recently. The Democrats may not be perfect, and not all Republicans are the enemy, but people like Warren Chisum, James Leininger and Jerry Falwell are not just mere political adversaries with whom you can have some debates on issues with and then go out to dinner with afterwards. They are enemies of anyone who wants to live in a relatively humane society and who thinks the values of the Enlightenment are worth defending. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who stands with them and promotes their causes gets put in the same category with them, and the word for people in that category (among others) is "enemy". Sorry if that comes off as a little too hard-edged for you, but that's the real situation here.

B.S.,

Feel free to file for a run yourself. I'm not about to stop you. But last I checked, Chris was the only one in the hunt.

http://www.felixalvarado.com/

"But last I checked, Chris was the only one in the hunt."

For some reason, Greg and others don't want to consider Alvarado a candidate. Again, the attitude. Reeks.

Considering that Alvarado has stated that he'll file via nominating petition and his own county's party chair doubts he'll make the cut, it warrants being filed under "Believe it when I see it."

Again ... only one in the hunt.

Greg has done more than any single Bell supporter to turn off potential allies with his over the top anger and judgmentalism - with the possible exceptions of the candidate himself and his consultants. This Kelso column was a career ending blunder. Suck it up, folks. Alvarado's the nominee unless someone more credible jumps in.

HA!!! Good one, little d.

You know, my parent's comments when they heard both Bell and Alvarado at the Lampassas picnic was that Felix has a lot of really intelligent thigns to say and came off well, just lacks a background that would give him even a smidgen of press coverage (kind of like a lesser Victor Morales).

Maybe he can give Kelso a tour of his school...

Karl,

Amazing how you give Felix the benefit of the doubt based on his expressed views, but your dismissiveness of Bell is centered more on his campaign finance reports.

I'd love to hear the justification of the double standard.

d ... as in "defeatist?"

Ha!

Look out for some other potential candidates. Whispers are starting about Roy Spence.

Who the hell is Roy Spence and why should anyone care what he does?

"...but your dismissiveness of Bell is centered more on his campaign finance reports."

Oh, I think if you go back and read what was posted here on BOR about those reports, it goes far beyond the reports themselves. It goes to stated positions by Bell and comments by Molly Beth Malcolm and the "double standard" of both as revealed by those reports.

Roy Spence could represent a refreshing and credible alternative. Why should anyone care? because the Democratic Party can win this election if only they run an intelligent, hardball playing and broad appealing candidate.
Spence may or may not have those characteristics, but since Bell clearly doesn't and is imploding, you all need to start looking for alternatives.

http://www.utexas.edu/friends/popups/spotlight_29.html

That's a reach. So he's a UT guy. AND? No one outside of the UT/Austin/Advertising biz knows who the guy is. And why is it we should trust that he would be any better? What exactly has he accomplished as a public servant? How many elections has he won and why the hell should we gamble - yet AGAIN - on a first time candidate for office in the Governor's race?

Marie, like most Bell partisans, your in-your-face anger is well developed but your political instincts could stand some work. I'm not a Spence partisan, by the way. But he is clearly a successful businessman who can buy name ID (Bell has tried to build his up for more than a decade and still has zero... and no money to buy any). Spence is attractive, knows how to promote himself and causes, and could offer Texans looking for an alternative to Perry... well, a new alternative.

Yeah, that's what Tony Sanchez said.

"Spence is attractive, knows how to promote himself and causes ..."

Actually, that's EXACTLY what Tony Sanchez said. Spence was one of those consultants that likely put a kid or two through college based on the checks from the Sanchez campaign. Yet now, the double-standard crew is suggesting that that's a bad thing ... unless you're the actual consultant?

Wow!

And 'd' ... don't bother talking to me about anger-filled anything. I've already had Karl insinuate that my loyalty and preference have been bought. Hard to see it going much lower than that.

How is Bell imploding? We're all talking about him and, for a candidate that needs exposure, the PR Boondoggle was more PR then they got out of just doing the campus tour in the first place.

Roy Spence worked for Gary Mauro in 1998, not Tony Sanchez in 2002. Spence somehow convinced Mauro to make his sole media buy of the campaign in August under the pretext that seeing him on TV would cause Democratic donors to loosen their pocketbooks. Instead everyone knew it was Mauro's only shot. From there the campaign was over -- as Bush rolled out endorsement after endorsement from Dem after Dem. Including Lt. Gov Bob Bullock and (then) Comptroller John Sharp.

In fact, neither Bullock nor Sharp ever endorsed Bush, although Bullock did say nice things about him. You're right about Spence having nothing to do with Sanchez, despite Greg's false statement, issued just before he protested K-T's correct point (not "insinuation") that he was a paid consultant to Bell.

Try learning to use Google, d. Bullock endorsed Bush and here's a PBS story that confirms it. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/election98/bush_10-27.html And I Quote: "Mauro is campaigning with limited money and without the support of the state's most powerful Democrat -- Lt. Governor Bob Bullock, who broke from the party to endorse Bush. Bullock and a few other prominent Democrats are supporting Bush because he has made it a policy to work in a bipartisan way to get his agenda passed."
Sharp put Bush in his campaign ads that year. I was working for some high powered guys in 1998, I remember what happened.

"I've already had Karl insinuate that my loyalty and preference have been bought. Hard to see it going much lower than that."

Well, how much did you sell out for? Personally if Chris Bell wants to buy me a floor-length Blackglama, I'll get him in an ad. "What Becomes A Legend Most?" What more could a legend want than a Blackglama and her own governor?

On second thought Roy Spence can buy me a floor-length Blackglama and he and Bill Clinton can be in the ad with me. They're good friends in case no one realizes that.

Now that's an endorsement I doubt many others could get and might draw enough voters out to the polls next November to send Perry packing.

In the meantime, my heart and my money still belong to Kinky.

"he and Bill Clinton can be in the ad with me. They're good friends in case no one realizes that."

So were/are(?) Garry Mauro and Bill Clinton.

Sorry for the shameless plug:

Hello All,

Kinky Friedman, Independent candidate for Governor, will be having a Spirit Walk on Wednesday the 28th on the UT campus to speak with and listen to college students. This is a wonderful opportunity to come meet the next Governor of Texas and talk about the issues that matter to you.

The Spirit Walk will begin at Noon at the MLK statue and the procession will make its way to the West Mall with a Rally for Independence at 1pm.

Come join us in our quest to take back Texas from the special interests and give it back to the great citizens of this state!

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact John Grube at jgrube@mail.utexas.edu or visit www.longhornsforkinky.com

I wonder when people in this state are going to pull their heads far enough away from their posteriors to realize that a major part of the problem Democrats have in this state is entirely of their own making.

Don't lecture me on the difficulties of raising money in Texas Greg, that is something I happen to know a little bit about! I also happen to know that Democratic candidates who are not even running for office in Texas have managed to raise more money in Texas this year than Chris Bell.

As for this whole internet thing, yes how innovative! It's such hard work to post a blog everyday from a generic website. Maybe if your guy got on the phone every now and then and made a few calls, as well as talked to some reporters about real issues he might have more money and support than Kinky Friedman right now.

Men lemmie tell you, when you can't even get the BOR to support you it's time to make some adjustments. I think Chris Bell thought that his crusdade against Tom DeLay last year had put him on the map and it was going to propel him to the top.

Well I admire him for what he did in regards to Tom DeLay, it was GREAT, but that all by itself does not make him a strong candidate for Gov. C'mon Chris, get your head on straight, and start calling some people into your campaign that know what they are doing.

With Democratic candidates like we have in Texas, it is obvious that democratic voters are staying away from the polls in droves. As Democrats we should be able to call our own candidates bullshit when we hear it. They aren't helping our cause. Kinky Friedman is not a joke, if you think so, you haven't learned any of what he has said, written, done or stood for. He may be unorthodox, but god knows Texas could use a little of that now. If the Democratic candidates aren't any good, then why not support an independent? I don't believe in propping a party up just for the sake of the party. The Democratic leaders in this whole country have lost their nerve, their heart and they are just an embarrassment now. Oh, and yeah, Kinky is a lot like Sam Houston.