A Kinky update

The Kinster's campaign is picking up momentum, financially speaking. There was a goal to raise $100,000 by Thanksgiving, and that goal was met and exceeded. As Kinky his own self said, "It's support like this that really lets me know we're going to win this thing." In a separate fund raising effort, Willie Nelson and Jesse Ventura hosted a golf tournament which raised $170,000.

The Dallas Morning News had a good article on Friedman after his appearance here in The Falls. Here's one of my favorite excerpts: "At the Kemp Center for the Arts last week, a couple hundred flannelled ranchers, angry educators, coiffed Republicans and bell-bottomed youngsters came on a weeknight to gather around the self-proclaimed Jewish cowboy[.]" And there was also at least one smart-ass "playground brat" (that would be me). The crowd--and there was a crowd--was indeed diverse. As John Hirschi, the man who organized Friedman's appearance here, told my sister a few days ago, there is a ground swell of support for Friedman right here in Wichita Falls. I have been part of something similar, namely Wes Clark's campaign in 2003-2004. I was part of the Draft Clark effort (a small part, but a part nonetheless), and I campaigned for Clark once he entered the race. What amazed me was the diversity of people I saw at campaign events and online. It seems that Friedman is now drawing that same kind of diversity, and I hope he successfully utilizes it.

In my first post about Friedman's campaign, I noted that he has to get about 50,000 eligible voters to sign a petition to even get on the ballot. Here is some info about that:

Under Texas' election rules, independents must:

• Acquire valid signatures from registered voters in a number equal to 1 percent of the total votes in the last governor's race. In Mr. Friedman's case, the target is 45,540.

• Get those signatures only from people who did not vote in either party's primary or in a runoff.

• Gather them in, at most, about 60 days after the primaries. If there's a runoff, the window is shortened to about 30 days.

(emphasis added). The italicized portion is going to be the tough part. As Dean Barkley, Kinky's campaign manager (who was also Jesse Ventura's campaign manager), told the Dallas Morning News, "We hate to tell people, 'don't vote.' It's not like us, but that's the rules the Republicans and Democrats have put up in Texas. And we have to play by those rules."