Texas gov race gets Kinky

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26702.html

Texas gov race gets Kinky
By ANDY BARR 9/3/09

Richard “Kinky” Friedman is making his second run for governor of Texas, this time as a Democrat.

Beginning with an Associated Press interview earlier this week, Friedman has been slowly rolling out his announcement in a series of sitdowns with state media outlets. The popular satirist, musician and Texas Monthly columnist told the AP on Monday that it is “really time for Texas to secede from [GOP Gov.] Rick Perry.”

Friedman won 12 percent of the vote — nearly 550,000 votes — when he ran in 2006 as an Independent, enough to win fourth place in a crowded general election field. He raised $4.8 million for the race and attracted a considerable amount of national media attention, but many Democrats were left with a bitter taste as his candidacy was perceived to have drained votes from Democratic nominee Chris Bell.

Friedman told the AP that he decided to run because he believes he gives Democrats their best chance to win a contest that is so far being dominated by the contentious Republican primary fight between Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

“I look around and I think, I’m the only true man of the people in the race,” Friedman said, insisting that his candidacy would enable the party to “run on ideas, not on demographics.”

Friedman already has a Sept. 16 fundraiser planned with country singer Willie Nelson and expects to raise much of his money online. He claims that 70,000 individuals contributed online to his 2006 campaign.

Four other Democrats are seeking the gubernatorial nomination, including former U.S. Ambassador Tom Schieffer; Mark Thompson, a therapist for the blind; school teacher Felix Alvarado; and rancher Hank Gilbert.