Kinky update: Looks like Kinky will be on the ballot!

Today was the deadline for the independent candidates for governor to turn in their signed petitions needed to get on the ballot in November. Just to recap the requirements under Texas law, a successful petition drive would require a minimum of 45,540 valid signatures, and in order to be valid, a signature must come from a registered voter who did not vote in any primary or runoff election.

As reported on the official Kinky Friedman for Governor website, today Kinky turned in 169, 574 signatures. Along with the signatures, the Friedman campaign gave the Texas Secretary of State (Roger Williams) a CD containing a database of all the signatures. You might be wondering what that's all about. Well, you see, as signatures were obtained, they were sent to Friedman campaign HQ every week. Campaign volunteers then took the time and effort to verify those signatures. Part of the reason for that work was so that the campaign would have an accurate idea of what work needed to be done and whether the minimum amount would be met. But there is more to the story...As the Kinkster said,

We have done far more than the laws of Texas require. In fact, we've done most of Mr. Williams' job for him. We used our time and our limited resources to work with his office rather than against it. That's good government in action. That's how my campaign operates, and that's how this state will operate when I'm in charge - not fighting one another but working together.

Now, you might be wondering what that's all about. Well, the answer lies in the actions of the other so-called independent candidate, Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, or as I call her, Carole Keeton Crazylady. She used to be a Democrat. Then she lost a primary election and decided she was really a Republican. As a Republican, she was elected State Comptroller, but then she wanted to run for Governor, found out that she probably would lose a primary race with incumbent Rick Perry, and decided that she was an independent. Give me a freaking break.

But back to her actions in this campaign...In late March, Strayhorn filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas challenging how petition signatures would be verified. Instead of having each signature manually verified, Strayhorn wanted only a statistic sampling technique used. In other words, Strayhorn did not want each of her signatures checked, and she wanted to get around the law in Texas. At the time, the Friedman campaign responded as follows:

We’ve been studying the state’s election laws for the past year, and although the laws are restrictive, they will probably survive a legal challenge. We believe our time and resources are better spent complying with the law.

While we may be affected by the outcome of this litigation, her lawsuit does not affect what we’ve been doing for the last 13 months – building the kind of grassroots organization needed to change the Texas political landscape.

We wish Comptroller Strayhorn luck in her lawsuit.

As it turns out, she needed more than luck, as yesterday a federal judge ruled against her. So, while Strayhorn was trying to find a way around the law, Kinky--in spite of the fact he considered the law to be unfair to independent candidates--decided to follow it. And he also included a CD full of data designed to help the Secretary of State in verifying his signatures.

Strayhorn, on the other hand, made the Secretary of State do additional work. Kinky delivered 11 full boxes of signatures. Why am I mentioning this? Well, two days ago Strayhorn held a major media event in which she had on display 101 boxes of signatures. WOW! 101 boxes! That sure makes Kinky's 11 boxes look pitiful, huh? But the real deal on the thing is that, well, Strayhorn really had only 12 boxes. Here's the story from the Austin American-Statesman's blog, Postcards from the Lege:

“As our staff is beginning to consolidate and organize all of the petitions that Ms. Strayhorn turned in yesterday, we have consolidated her 101 boxes (of petitions) down to 12,” says Scott Haywood, communications director for the Secretary of State’s office.

Haywood is not sure what the agency will do with the leftover cartons (all 101 delivered Tuesday were slapped with Strayhorn bumper stickers). He made it clear that Strayhorn did not fill boxes to the brim.

“If she had not been so hungry for media attention, we would not have had to waste time consolidating her petitions into a more usable format. By trying to get a bigger play in the media, she has made the process more time-consuming for our office.”

Strayhorn’s campaign manager, Brad McClellan, harrumphed, noting that Secretary of State Roger Williams, an appointee of GOP Gov. Rick Perry, evidently hasn’t verified any of the more than 223,000 voter signatures that Strayhorn says she turned in.

McClellan, saying that the campaign would like any empty boxes back, said: “It’s another political attack. They want to play games with boxes instead of doing their job.”

McClellan said Strayhorn’s campaign organized the petitions in 101 sets. “Try organizing one box full or carrying one full,” McClellan said. “It’s a shame they waste time doing this cheap partisan attack.”

(emphasis added). For those of you new to Texas politics, Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn is the mother of Brad McClellan...and Scotty-Boy McClellan. I would call Brad McClellan a "cheap partisan hack," but that would be an insult to cheap partisan hacks. Instead, I will call Brad McClellan a weakling mama's boy--"I can't carry a full box of paper. It's too heavy." What a putz.

And here is the response from the Kinkster's campaign on Wednesday:

[T]he Kinkster will be delivering his signatures to the Secretary of State tomorrow. Yes indeed--there will be [ ] tightly packed, signature-filled boxes. And we'll be bringing the muscle to carry them.

Indeed.