Today, 'leading' Democratic candidate Tom Schieffer launched his gubernatorial campaign in Forth Worth, a portion of which he used to represent as a state legislator in the 1970s. You can read more about that announcement and view his kickoff speech here. I say 'leading' in quotes only because of the current declared field (rounded out by humorist Kinky Friedman and Mark Thompson), Tom Shieffer is the most serious candidate, even as he trails Kinky in recent polling. Of course, that's polling without Mark Thompson being included, who as we should know, has an uncanny ability to beat better known and funded primary candidates with no rational explanation.
So what changed today? Not much. The real change in the Governor's race happened yesterday.
It's no accident that Sen. Van de Putte's letter declining a run for Governor and subsequent endorsement of fellow state senator Kirk Watson of Austin happened the day before Schieffer's announcement. Watson's going to be able to take the time to consider his options, see the reception to both that trial balloon as well as the response to Shieffer's official launch (and even step a little on his media, whether intended or not).
While I don't know what Watson will decide, at least the last 24 hours has seen people start taking affirmative actions to say "yes, no, or maybe" with greater confidence so the political calculus can become clearer for all interested parties. That's a good thing in my book. And for what it is worth, various BOR staff writers have been involved in both "draft" groups on facebook, which ended up with over 760 for Sen. Van de Putte this spring and now over 225 for Watson in the last 24 hours alone.
I watched Tom Schieffer's speech. I wasn't offended by anything in it but at the same time, wasn't particularly inspired by anything in it either. Talking to other activists, granted, on the more progressive side of things, it's mostly the same refrain. No one dislikes Tom (well, some do for his relationship with former President Bush), but there is a sense that this election should be more than just "not disliking" our nominees, especially at the top of the ticket.
And in what should have been a day focused around Schieffer's plan and policy ideas, two separate statements have generated needless "cringe" moments that could separate him from grassroots activists.
"And also remind people that this is not going to be easy. It's going to be really hard. And if they want to do that, I get to be governor. And if they don't want ot do that, I can go make money, and I've done my civic duty of trying to lay it out."
Responding to a reporter's query, Schieffer said today: "I think Sen. Watson is a very good candidate... He told me he was not going to run for governor. I hope nobody (else) runs for governor. I hope everybody will fall out on both sides, but I suspect that won't happen."
Huh? I never knew that running for the Democratic Party's nomination for Governor was so much of a burden.
Of course, Mark Thompson and Kinky Friedman have been more obnoxious this past week in their own strategies.
Mark Thompson via Twitter on Shieffer's announcement:
Tom Schieffer Channeling Sam Rayburn now to run as a Democrat? Didn't he channel Benedict Arnold to sellout the TX Democrat Party with Bush?
Kinky Friedman seems to have no comment on Schieffer, but instead, gave a crass gift to Perry last week after the Governor injured himself while mountain biking.
NBC-DFW: Although Kinky Friedman promised fewer jokes this time around in his campaign for Texas governor, he did not resist the allure of a zinger last week.
The author-musician-humorist sent Gov. Rick Perry (his likely gubernatorial opponent) a special sympathy gift: a pair of training wheels.
The purpose of the gift was two-fold. Gov. Perry broke his collar bone last week as a result of a mountaing biking accident. However, Friedman included a note saying, "Sorry you got hurt. Too bad they don't make training wheels for a legislative session."
I thought Kinky was promising to be a more serious candidate in his conversations with Democratic County Chairs. Back to the jokes already... and bad ones at that. While Perry is easy to get a cheap laugh out of, his gift and accompanying note is in poor taste. It's unsettling when the only emotions I feel of any kind in the Governor's race are negative, and directed towards Kinky Friedman.
But I'm not sure that I should be entirely surprised, should I? For now, I'm going to blame it on the Texas heat.
New polling from Texas Lyceum suggests that Texans have yet to focus on the upcoming elections for Governor and a possible U.S. Senate special election. Of course, since the primaries are still nine months away, it is hard to blame them. There may be some problems with the methodology of these polls, but it never hurts to take a look.
Texas Governor (Republican Primary)
Rick Perry 33% Kay Bailey Hutchison 21% Leo Berman 1%
Undecided 45%
Even in a race where two candidates are very well known throughout the state, close to half of the Republican primary voters remain undecided, according to the poll. I believe 21 percent is a low water mark for Hutchison's polling. With so many undecideds, however, it may not be very significant.
Texas Governor (Democratic Primary)
Kinky Friedman 10% Tom Schieffer 6% Leticia Van de Putte 3%
Undecided 81%
Polling with 81 percent undecideds is almost a waste of time. Although Van de Putte declined to enter the race yesterday, I think most people believe she would have been able to defeat Friedman and Schieffer handily had she decided to run.
Given that he received over 12 percent in his run for Governor in 2006 and his name ID is much higher than the others, Kinky's numbers here are not too impressive.
U.S. Senate (Special Election)
Bill White 9% Greg Abbott 4% David Dewhurst 4% Elizabeth Ames Jones 3% Roger Williams 3% Florence Shapiro 2% John Sharp 2% Michael Williams 2%
Undecided 71%
With a margin of error of 6 percent and 71 percent undecided, it is hard to learn much from this poll. The poll confirms that most people just haven't tuned into this yet to be called special election. At this point in the race, Democrats can be happy that Bill White has by now raised over $3 million and that he and John Sharp have a sizeable advantage in cash on hand over every Republican.
As rumors circulate whether Leticia Van De Putte will enter the a statewide race or not, Tom Schieffer announces he has been endorsed by the Texas Association of Hispanic County Judges and County Commissioners (TAHCJCC).
Tom Schieffer was endorsed for governor Wednesday by the Texas Association of Hispanic County Judges and County Commissioners. The endorsement was made after Schieffer addressed a meeting of the group on South Padre Island. It was his first statewide endorsement.
"I am honored that they would endorse my candidacy. I think this will have a huge impact all over Texas because I think it demonstrates my message connects with Hispanic voters and elected officials," Schieffer said. "The message I have is one of bringing people together to solve our state's problems."
According to R.G. Ratcliffe, current U.S. Senate candidate, John Sharp, announced a the same endorsement in February.
This comes on the heels of Kinky Friedman's apology phonebank. Our current Governor's race includes a man who is endorsed by a group who doesn't have a website that can be found online, a candidate apologizing for running as an independent but not his racist remarks, and a third who is not doing anything at all.
Schieffer's press release points out, he is expected to formally launch his campaign later this month.
This would indeed be one of the more interesting listening tours, mainly for what Democrats might have to say around the state if given an open opportunity to express their thoughts on the matter. From the Democratic County Chair in Austin County...
I just had a call from Kinky Friedman. It was a pleasant conversation lasting five or six minutes. I told him straight up that I had not been very impressed with his run last time. I also told him I would like to see him put forth some real position statements describing his beliefs on issues important to Texas. He was quite pleasant and sounded quite sincere. He said he was calling to express that he is very serious about being the Democratic Candidate for Texas Governor. He commented that he felt his running as an independent last time around was a mistake and that he should have run as a Democrat.
We discussed the fact that the office of Governor in Texas is refered to as a weak executive position where the Governor has limited powers. He quoted Ann Richards regarding the importance of character and personality for Texas Governors. He said he preparing to do a "listening tour" of Texas. I told him I would be glad to help arrange something here in Austin County if he gives me some warning regarding scheduling.
My feeling is that he has an uphill battle to shed the clown image but I was pleased that he seemed to be taking a serious approach to it and was taking the logical step of personally contacting County Chairs.
Harold Huff
Austin County Democratic Party Chair
That begs the question, who was Kinky listening to 4 years ago?
Kinky Friedman, The Cowboy Philosopher, will be our keynote speaker for the First Unitarian Universalist Public Affairs Forum.
The speech and Q&A is Sun., April 19th, 11:30am-12:30pm, at First Unitarian Universalist Public Affairs Forum of Autin. It's located at 4700 Grover Ave., Austin. Near 47th/Burnet, behind the TX School for the Blind.
This is a free event and all are invited.
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman, is an American Singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and columnist for Texas Monthly. Kinky recently authored "What Would Kinky Do? How to Unscrew a Screwed Up World", and "You can lead a Politician to Water, But You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics". Kinky is also working on a new pet celebrity book to be released this fall. Join us for lots of laughs and intellectual stimulation from the one-and-only Kinky Friedman!
This is NOT a campaign speech. Kinky's speaking as an author, humorist, and TX Monthly columnist...Kinky was invited to speak a while back, before he announced his potential plan to run for TX Gov.
Best,
David Kobierowski
Co-Chair Public Affairs Forum of Austin
San Antonio attorney and Friedman adviser Abel Dominguez will serve as treasurer of the campaign committee, called "Texans for Kinky."
Dominguez orchestrated Victor Morales' victory in the 1996 Democratic U.S. Senate primary. Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower also is helping Friedman.
Jim Hightower? Really? Disappointing.
If there is anything that I'll take for comfort, it is the tone of the following statements from both the Statesman article and his campaign press release.
"I am a humorist, but I know these are not humorous times," Friedman said in a letter to supporters. "There is a pathetic lack of leadership at the state level. The last governor who was truly on the side of the people was Ann Richards. She was a very funny lady-she was also a great governor."
"I intend to run a serious campaign, one that grows the party," he wrote. "I intend to play by the rules. I will endorse and campaign for whomever wins the Democratic Primary."
A Personal Note: About a month or so ago, I briefly chatted with Mr. Friedman at the Democratic GAIN event at Opal Devine's that BOR jointly sponsored. I was likely more cordial than Matt in my words, which were few, but it was more than we exchanged in the 2006 campaign. As to that campaign, I stand by the editorial decisions I approved and directed for this site in releasing the tapes and series of posts on 'racist Kinky Friedman' which began as far back as the primary.
In our exchange, Mr. Friedman stated his primary interest was "seeing a Democrat in the Governor's mansion". I agree with that statement (and told him so), though I have yet to be convinced that Kinky Friedman should be that Democrat.
Personally, I believe that Democrat should be Sen. Leticia Van de Putte but I recognize that there is a chance our choices might be limited to Kinky, Tom Schieffer, and maybe Gene Kelly. That's hardly the most inspiring line up for Texas progressives and it's only because there is not a clear alternative at this point to Friedman for grassroots progressives, I may wait and see how seriously he chooses to approach this campaign.
Though, Kinky Friedman does have more in common now with Carole Strayhorn. They'll each have run for office as a Republican, Independent, and as a Democrat.
Kinky Friedman is officially exploring another run for Governor. This time he is embracing the party he has routinely voted against and blocked from the Governors mansion in 2006.
That's right, Kinky Friedman is exploring a run for Texas Governor as a Democrat.
Here's the way I see it: Democrats + Independents = Victory
Problem is, Kinky's Democratic support is soft if not virtually non-existent. After his 2006 "campaign", Democrats throughout Texas justifiably look at this as another marketing stunt.
As recently as February, Friedman admitted he didn't take the 2006 campaign seriously.
I'm toning down the one-liners a bit. If I run, it's going to be a serious run,' Friedman told The Associated Press on Tuesday, peppering the interview with one-liners.
He's running as a Democrat because, "I can't afford to be a Republican."
"There's a lot of young people and no one I've met wants to grow up and be Rick Perry."
In one month, Kinky embraced the campaign as a joke meme that laced his 2006 campaign. Rather than explaining why he is a Democrat and embraces the party of the people, he made a joke. Rather than talk about the problems facing Texas or his proposed solutions he went for the funny. Friedman is right about one thing, "these are not humorous times for a lot of us".
Perhaps that is why his announcement is laced with statements to simply ignore his affect on the 2006 campaign. We are asked to ignore he ever threw our party aside in 2006.
I was serious when I ran for governor in 2006 and I'm serious now. I am a humorist, but I know these are not humorous times for a lot of us. Part of the reason is the pathetic lack of leadership at the state level. The last governor, I believe, who was truly on the side of the people of Texas, was Ann Richards. She was a very funny lady - she was also a great governor. I'll take my cues from Ann Richards
[...]
But I do not wish to fight yesterday's campaign again. Today, I have taken the first step toward running for Governor in 2010 by forming "Texans for Kinky," a committee to help with research and raising the funds necessary to launch a successful campaign. Now is the time to win...
I don't speak for the staff on this. I don't know where they are on this race, but I will say Kinky Friedman's hostility to his critics is scary and shocking.
Friedman talked to Aman Bethja at the Fort Worth Star Telegram and finally discussed race in response to research and reporting here and here were Kinky used racial slurs.
Friedman said he would only run again if he could raise $3 - $5 million for the Democratic primary.
Whether that's possible, he said, will depend on if the Democratic grassroots can move past the attacks some lobbed at Friedman in 2006, much of which focused on decades-old comedy routines in which he used racial slurs.
"I think it was standard sleaze...There never was a black community against me. It was some bloggers who felt that I was doing too well. That's all. And they had to reach back 27, 29 years..and the question is does any of that stuff stick or it doesn't. I don't think it does."
In fact, Friedman think he had a bigger problem in the last election than the charges that he was a racist.
Friedman at no point apologized for those statements. In fact his only response was to criticize Burnt Orange Report and liberals for attacking him.
If Kinky wants to run, let him. If he wants to shun the party or use Republican jargon, let him. Hopefully 2006 was a stunt. Hopefully 2006 was a one time act. Perhaps he will take this race seriously and respect voters. Hopefully he will raise and spend money to help the party and down ballot candidates and not just himself.
The reality is, actions speak louder than words and the way he acted in 2006 doesn't make it easy to trust him, his campaign, or his motives. Before he starts running, maybe he should start apologizing.
Until then, we will join Kinky in one singular belief.
So I say to Democrats who may not yet take me seriously, I'll stick with you just as far as you want to go. If we stick together we'll go very far indeed. All the way to the Governor's Mansion!
We don't take you seriously. And we will pay attention to you and your race. But once you burn the activist who elected Barack Obama or the Democrats who volunteered hundreds of hours to help get us within two seats of the House or pick up a State Senate seat for the first time in year, once you burn them, the bridge is gone. You weren't there to turn Dallas blue or make Harris 85% blue. You never helped the Travis County efforts and you have been hidden since 2006 except to promote yourself.
This party is bigger than anyone of us and this state needs a leader not a self promoter. Prove us wrong. Be everything you so elegantly wrote, but don't be surprised if we remain skeptical and don't blame us for your choices. All we want is a better Texas.
(Usually, Cole Abaius can be found writing up reviews and making snarky observations for FilmSchoolRejects.com, but we've invited him to guest blog for us in order to get an objective, third-party review of Along Came Kinky, a new documentary chronicling his 2006 Gubernatorial campaign. FSR has been all over SXSW, so for more of their coverage, check out Film School Rejects. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
The opening scenes of Along Came Kinky fill the screen with the visage of a weather-beaten man lighting up and chomping down on a cigar. For those within the borders of the Lone Star State, this is an iconic image, but for most everyone outside the loop, it acts as a solid introduction to the figure that will loom largely over the rest of the film. That first smoke that fills the room seems to permeate the rest of the frames, reminding the audience that even if the film diverts to take a look at another campaign, Kinky is always hanging around as the true focal point.
In a general way, there are two distinct types of documentaries - biographies and event pieces. The former focuses on the full life of a compelling figure while the latter focuses on every angle of a single event, attempting to tell as many sides of the story as possible. What director David Hartstein has done with Kinky is to create a conflation of the two, chronicling an event from only one side, looking at a man during a small time in his life, and the film greatly suffers for it.
Taking a look at the Texas gubernatorial race of 2006, Along Came Kinky follows the independent campaign of the musician and humorist - spotlighting a campaign volunteer from Bexar county, giving insight into the grassroots system, and getting to know Friedman on a more personal level.
For the most part, the movie is an interesting attempt. Kinky is a compelling figure and obviously sharp, although he doesn't seem quite compelling enough to carry the film. He's funny and quick, but he repeats jokes and carries himself a lot like George Carlin on Valium. If there was once a fire in the man, it's almost all but been doused. His scenes in the documentary, especially his public speeches, make him seem like a father telling bad jokes at the dinner table who figured out how to make a career of it. On the flip side of that, the private moments of the documentary do reveal a sadder figure - a man who has spent a large amount of his life doing what he felt was right, a man who barely hides his bitterness behind humor, a man who is inches away from admitting that the system is just too strong to fight.
But with a severe lack of footage from the Strayhorn campaign or the Perry campaign (and only a bit from the Bell campaign) the film rests entirely on Friedman's shoulders. It seems obvious that Hartstein was simply denied access to the other campaigns, and it's commendable that he just showed up to events with a camera - the perseverance of a true filmmaker - but the dearth is noticeable and transforms the documentary into a near-apology for Kinky. The subjectivity is as exposed as Kinky was during the gubernatorial debate.
What the film does well, though, is to create a fascinating interior look at the Texas election climate and the inner workings of an independent campaign for major office. Along Came Kinky succeeds in displaying what seems like a gross stranglehold by a single party (and the near-complete impotence of the other) made even stronger by election/campaign laws. If nothing else, the film succeeds in being a champion of the cause of an independent movement. Building on that theme, Kinky's campaign achieves a similar feat, making strong arguments for the need for more competition in the process. Oddly enough, though, it isn't watching Kinky's campaign that makes this most obvious - it's the complete lack of Governor Rick Perry's involvement in the campaigning process. It's clear that the governor was absent for most of the fight - making the frustrating theme of fighting the good fight against a hubris-filled enemy even more palpable.
Respectably, the film shows an inclination that it's not actually a love-letter to Kinky by displaying the failings of the independent campaign and its ultimate downfall. There's a sense that Kinky gets the last word on the gaffe that would ultimately sink him, but the movie does spend a decent amount of time displaying the events that came after Kinky made a comment that many felt over-generalized Katrina victims in Houston as crack addicts and welfare seekers. What becomes clear for the first time is that the candidate wasn't well-prepared for public speaking, that the campaign didn't handle the gaffe which allowed it to grow.
The movie also comes close to presenting the fall out as a product solely of the mainstream media. It never goes all the way, but it comes close to dipping its toe in the pools of towing the Kinky Campaign line.
The very brief scenes of the interior campaign planning also act as an incredibly interesting bird's eye view of the limitations of the team. While the very argument against machine politics is being made by some of the entities in the doc, the lack of the strengths that professional machines have (e.g. communication focusing, image polishing, tight organization) is made abundantly clear within the walls of the Kinky campaign.
Ultimately, this film is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it offers something that no other film can by way of an inside view into a rare event. On the other, it's neutered by its lack of access to the other campaigns. From time to time it becomes engrossing, but it's ultimately a lackluster flick. It's built well, structured decently, and has a compelling figure. However, it's one weak link is its inability to share the rest of the story, and that weakness makes the film little more meaningful than the smoke coming out of Kinky's cigar.
Hartstein certainly had an interesting person for his subject matter. Kinky Friedman was running for governor clad in a cowboy hat, boots and chomping a cigar. Friedman had many reasons to take on the task, and Hartstein wanted to show that in his documentary.
"If we keep nominating the same generic Democrat, we're going to keep having the same generic Democratic loss," Kinky Friedman says now, gnawing the cigar.
Friedman felt it was time to change the face of Texas politics. He mentioned people like Molly Ivons and Ann Richards, and how the Democratic Party of Texas had not been excited since then.
He was hoping with his campaign, he could garner a grassroots base and get Texas Democrats "excited again."
"For a while, the Democrats were looking like a pale imitation of the Republican party," said Friedman.
Friedman hoped to ride a rising wave of populism he had noticed and take the Governor's Mansion by storm.
We all know that the "wave of populsim" didn't happen. The reasons for why, however -- and I haven't seen the film so this is based on the article discussion -- are dismissed as if they are trivial in the article, which is quite disappointing, though not surprising.
The article goes on to talk about the "polished political machines" Friedman hated so much, and how they hurt his campaign:
The main problem was some racist accusations on the campaign trail that came from Friedman's earlier acts, which poked fun at racists.
Many of the most public accusations were lobbed by Democrats who were angry at him for joining the race, and who admitted privately that they knew Kinky wasn't being racist. They just found it an easy to way to use his words out of context to bolster their own candidate, who they felt was endangered by Kinky's presence in the race.
"The racist accusations were so out of line," said Stromberg. "Kinky Friedman is many things, and some of them are not pretty, but a racist he is not."
Friedman admitted: "Looking back, I probably should have done a race speech like Obama did. That's the difference between being a human being and being a politician."
Here was my reaction to reading that:
I never admitted that Kinky wasn't being racist, and I'm the one who released the tapes and led the accusations. So I don't know who these Democrats are who were privately admitting whatever, but it's nice to see that the media is still just as happy to buy into the Kinky Friedman spin-machine now as it was back then.
I was the person who actually put his name to any of this stuff -- me, KT, and this site, Burnt Orange Report. That none of us were interviewed -- either for this article or for the documentary in question -- speaks volumes about how much bored, lazy reporters and bored, lazy movie-makers love to use Friedman (and how he, in turn, likes to use them) to sell their story, with complete disregard of the facts.
President Obama's race speech was incredibly inspiring. It confronted the idea of race head on, with truth and compassion. It was thoughtful, contemplative, moving, and honest. It was the very best way a human being could have confronted the issue.
But Friedman labels that speech the work of a "politician." Which I think says everything about him. For Friedman, the racist jokes he made (you can go back and listen to them here) were his way of "being a human." And here I thought Obama was the one who was being a human by speaking with maturity and respect on the matter.
I posted those clips because they gave historical context to other racial remarks he'd made:
There was his remark in November 2005 that making a prisoner "listen to a Negro talk to himself" was punishment. (Source)
And when asked about those remarks by Gardner Selby in April 2007, Friedman just said that he said he used the word "Negro" because it was more poetic than saying "drug addict." As if those two should be interchangeable. (Source)
There was his description of Hurricane Katrina evacuees as "thugs and crackeads" in early September 2006. (Source)
Without that context, sure -- I can understand how posting the audio of a comedy show from 1980 would be seen as pure politics. But it wasn't. It was providing context to recent remarks made by a candidate for Governor. That Friedman didn't take himself seriously -- he repeatedly boasted that he "had no 'specific plans' when it came to the issues in Texas" (Source) -- was his own arrogance. Just because he didn't care doesn't mean that we're not supposed to.
There were plenty of people who thought that Friedman's remarks were unacceptable. Newspapers wrote editorials. (Source) And more and more newspapers wrote editorials. (Source) Even the wonderfully sharp-tongued Molly Ivins admitted that Friedman was only in the game so long because of free media from bored reporters. (Source)
I'm not surprised that the Kinky Friedman marketing machine continues to churn out his promotional material. Unlike Friedman, I'm not naive -- I know money talks, and there is a market for those 12.43% of Texans that just think of politics as a joke, and nothing more. Kinky Friedman is the poster child for political apathy -- and apparently apathy sells. Good on him for marketing himself and making a successful life for himself.
But when he enters the public forum, then there are more important things than making a buck and getting a laugh. The public forum of a political campaign is a place where ideas are discussed and celebrated. Punchlines have their place, and humor can be a valuable tool for any message, but comedy can't replace commitment. Jokes aren't enough for votes.
I doubt the movie will care about any of that, though. It's out to make money, and money I'm sure it will make. But:
Will it interview any of the former Friedman supporters who admit now that they were extremely frustrated with his campaign?
Will it talk about how Friedman became a different candidate when Dean Barkley, Jesse Ventura's former campaign manager, came down to run his race? (A statement I have heard many former Friedman staffers admit to me on numerous occassions)
Will it discuss race at all, with any substance whatsoever, or dismiss it as "smears from political machines" the way Friedman did in his joke? (And yes, I read his book about the campaign -- it took me all of a half hour while sitting inside of Book People over Christmas break.]
My guess is -- probably not. Jokes are great for a fun documentary -- and I'm sure "Along Came Kinky" will have all kinds of cool stories about the campaign. [7:20pm - I should add, albeit late, that I haven't seen the film and am happy to be proven wrong about this].
Will the movie, much like the man, dismiss the substance in favor of the flash? Or will it discuss the issues honestly? I'm curious to see how they will treat someone who once said:
"All the little issues you're talking about are all (expletive)," he said. "It's all (expletives)."
Since Tom Schieffer, a former Bush appointed Ambassador, announced his Gubernatorial exploratory committee, a lot of Texas Democrats have wondered if a candidate with a stronger Democratic history would come forward.
Well, another candidate has said he is close to filing paperwork, but it is probably not the one you were hoping for.
Friedman told me today he’ll decide by the end of this month whether to start an exploratory committee—a step enabling him to raise money for a bid.
“It’s time to win,” Friedman said. “If I were to win the Democratic nomination, I have the best chance of winning” against Gov. Rick Perry or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who are expected to face off in the 2010 GOP primary.
“I’m the only (prospective candidate) since Ann Richards who can excite the grass roots,” Friedman said. “If we run a generic Democrat, we’re going to get beat again.” Richards was governor from 1991 to 1995.
I asked him if he’d place Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth, the former ambassador, in the generic category; Schieffer started his Democratic gubernatorial committee on Monday. Friedman said he doesn’t know Schieffer.
So what’s he depending on before starting his committee?
“Mostly my conscience,” Friedman said, and “mostly if I can bring about the betterment of Texas.” Also, “can I win where I don’t think the others can?”
It will be interesting to see how, exactly, does Friedman believe he will "excite" the Democratic grass roots.
