Governor election shows all politics are loco

There are three things you should know about me: I generally prefer Democrats over Republicans, I cannot register to vote in Texas this year and, until recently, I supported Kinky Friedman for Governor.

There was a gubernatorial debate nearly a month ago, Oct. 6, a night when many Texans were watching high school football or had headed to Dallas for the UT-OU game. Of the six debates proposed, this was the only one incumbent Governor Rick Perry agreed to attend. After watching part of this debate and reading excerpts, I am glad I am not voting in Texas. I would hate to have to choose between the four major candidates.

Chris Bell, the former Democratic Congressman famous for filing the ethics complaint that started the downfall of Representative Tom DeLay, is apparently a very dynamic individual when you meet him in person and when speaking at fundraising events, and I agree with a lot of his ideas. But I simply cannot get over the fact that he might be the most boring politician I have ever seen speak, and I have watched some pretty boring speeches. Every time he opened his mouth during the debate, I started nodding off.

Carole Keeton Strayhorn, or “Grandma,” as she prefers to be known, does not seem to be all that different from Rick Perry when you can actually figure out where she stands on anything. She has been a part of the Texas political machinery for decades, and like many current Republicans — including Perry and DeLay — was a Democrat until the 1980s. While her ideas about smaller government, more fiscal responsibility and putting more qualified people in office seem good, they are complicated by the fact that she may or may not have accepted bribes while she was state comptroller. She also has a nasty habit of speaking in nothing but talking points and sound bites without saying anything of substance. For a right-leaning independent staking her campaign on the differences between herself and the Republican leadership, actually declaring her position on issues might be a good idea.

Richard “Kinky” Friedman is an interesting case. He has some unconventional ideas about how government should operate, where Texas should be headed and how it is going to get there. He also has habits of contradicting himself, not staking out clear or consistent opinions on issues and making comments that many construe as racist while refusing to apologize. I used to support Kinky, but now I do not know whether he is the kind of progressive outsider he markets himself as — or if he is just playing political games like the opponents he ridicules. And, like Strayhorn, he has a habit of speaking in slogans and sound bites, which further complicates the efforts of voters trying to establish where he really stands.

Finally, there is Governor Rick Perry: The man who, in part due to the three-way split opposition, will probably get re-elected with somewhere around 35 percent of the ballots cast by Texans who actually take time to cast ballots. A vast majority of what Perry has done and plans to do offends my sensibilities and ideas about what government should be. The bigger thing that I took away from the debate was that he is a misleading hypocrite and generally just a smug jerk who, in the face of criticism of his policies, simply uses copouts along the lines of, “There are bigger issues at play,” and then resorts to partisan sniping at the other candidates.

In my home state of Connecticut, I know I have my own close, interesting race to vote in: An insurgent liberal is trying to defeat a Democratic senator out of touch with his constituents. But in Texas, while there are clear choices in the lower-ticket races, the options for governor seem kind of bleak. With a choice between the lesser of four plus the Libertarian evils, it is unclear who deserves votes besides Rick Perry.

I wish there were someone clear in his or her beliefs. Who sees the state’s problems in a logical and rational way, takes a similarly reasonable approach to solving them and actually has some of the charisma necessary to motivate people to get out and vote. If that person existed in this race, then I would be out there every weekend block-walking and at a phone bank every night trying to get them elected. So while I am not saying you should not vote, because everyone should exercise their right to voice their opinion, I just wish the choices for the leader of this important state where I now live were better.

Dan Henkoff is a Hanszen College freshman.

Back to top