strayhorn makes the ballot

rodrick_98 · May 3, 2006

looks like she's the first with 115,000 signatures... hopefully kinky will blow that number out of the water.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...06/stories/050206dntexstrayhorn.115d58e4.html

Strayhorn lists 115,000 reasons to be on ballot

Campaign brings signatures to court, urges quick action

10:49 PM CDT on Monday, May 1, 2006

By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's campaign brought 115,000 signatures into court Monday, urging a federal judge to force the secretary of state to speed the process of putting her on the ballot.

With 21 boxes of petitions stacked as evidence of voter support, attorney Randall "Buck" Wood said it's clear that Mrs. Strayhorn is a viable independent challenger to Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

But he said Secretary of State Roger Williams, a Perry appointee, is hurting her campaign by refusing to accept signatures as they are gathered and by certifying every signature rather than following the past practice of using a statistical sample.

Until the petitions are certified, Mr. Wood said, "My client cannot credibly report to the media, people, contributors and volunteers that she is going to be on the ballot."

Edward Burbach, deputy attorney general, said the secretary of state is simply following the law and argued there is little evidence the Strayhorn campaign is actually being harmed.

Mrs. Strayhorn and entertainer Kinky Friedman, who also seeks to challenge Mr. Perry as an independent, must submit 45,540 valid voter signatures by May 11. Both camps have said Mr. Williams' insistence on signature-by-signature verification is harming their efforts, but only Mrs. Strayhorn filed suit.

A comment in court Monday prompted a dust-up between the Friedman and Strayhorn camps. Mr. Wood said the comptroller was "soliciting signatures among teachers" while Mr. Friedman was "soliciting signatures in bars and dance halls."

Mr. Friedman promptly called a news conference at an Austin bar and declared that the Strayhorn campaign was denigrating his supporters.

"Whether the signature comes from the country club or the homeless shelter should count exactly the same," he said. "That's what democracy is all about."

In its lawsuit, the Strayhorn camp asked U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel to direct the secretary of state to use statistical sampling, a process it said would verify the comptroller's candidacy in a week rather than the signature-by-signature check that could take until July.

The verification process Mr. Williams wants to use would send petitions to Houston-based data-entry firm Tela Technologies, which has up to four weeks to produce a computer database. After that's done, Mr. Williams said, it could take only 24 to 48 hours for his office to match the names with registered voters and determine whether a candidate has enough valid signatures.

Mr. Wood said the Williams plan would take too long and violates Mrs. Strayhorn's constitutional rights.

At one point, Judge Yeakel asked why the Strayhorn campaign did not hire an outside expert to conduct its own statistical sample and report the results to voters, contributors and the media. Mr. Wood said nobody would believe it.

"I wish people and the press took statements like this from politicians as gospel, but unfortunately, a majority of television stations and the media don't take that seriously," he said.

Mr. Wood said a statement by the secretary of state was needed to assure voters and campaign fundraisers.

Both the Strayhorn and Friedman camps were continuing to collect signatures in advance of the May 11 deadline. The judge indicated he would rule soon.

The Democratic nominee for governor is Chris Bell.

The 115,000 signatures the Strayhorn camp made public Monday by stacking the 21 boxes in the courtroom was its first public indication how petition-gathering is going. Mr. Wood said the campaign had an additional 30,000 signatures at headquarters and campaign aides said an average of 600 signatures a day continue to come in.

Mr. Friedman said he didn't know how many signatures his supporters have gathered. He expressed confidence he would have enough to be on the ballot.

Wearing a turquoise Western shirt and smoking a cigar, Mr. Friedman offered an elaborate mixed metaphor in predicting a mood among Texas voters to replace the status quo.

"If the peasants come with pitchforks to throw the moneychangers out of the temple like I think they're going to do in November, and if it's a big turnout, then I think we'll sink all ships and be able to win," he said.
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rodrick_98 · May 12, 2006

bumping an old thread, and replying to my own post... 2 things one shouldn't do, but...

HOLY COW - 169,000 signatures for kinky, and i was thinking that strayhorn was gonna have more....

http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/2006/05/kinky_friedman_turns_in_169000.html

edit - nevermind, i guess she did with 223,000; but still, 169,000 is a good sign. when i signed, i was talking to the denton county coordinator, and he was saying that 100,000 would be nice....

Mulder · May 12, 2006

If UH was any indication, there were guys that had both petitions on campus. From what I saw, lots of people agreed to sign Kinky's but almost everyone said "no thanks" for StrayCat.

RocketMan Tex · May 12, 2006

On top of that, Strayhorn's sigs were gathered by a hired petition circulating company, while Friedman's sigs were gathered by volunteers.

rhadamanthus · May 12, 2006

I'm out of the loop on this one - someone please tell me who Strayhorn is and why I should (or should not) vote for her.

Her website is the usual uninformative political tripe.

RocketMan Tex · May 12, 2006

rhadamanthus said:

I'm out of the loop on this one - someone please tell me who Strayhorn is and why I should (or should not) vote for her.

Her website is the usual uninformative political tripe.
Click to expand...

She's a Republican insider, the State Comptroller, who is running as an Independent simply because she had no chance of beating Rick Perry in the Republican primary.

The only true independent candidate for governor is Kinky Friedman.

jo mama · May 12, 2006

carol keaton-mcclellan-rylander-strayhorn is also the mother of scott mcclellan. that alone would make me not ever vote for her.

she also likes divorces. maybe she should hook up w/ limbaugh - 4th time is the charm!

No Worries · May 12, 2006

RocketMan Tex said:

She's a Republican insider, the State Comptroller, who is running as an Independent simply because she had no chance of beating Rick Perry in the Republican primary.
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Strayhorn btw started her life as a Democrat, albeit a yellow dog Democrat.

She is betting that she can not beat Perry in a Republican primary but can beat him in a general election runoff. To do this, she will have to get more votes than either the Democratic nominee (Bell?) or Kinky to make the runoff. Polls have shown that she could take down Perry in general election runoff. I am not sure Bell or Kinky make a similar boast. It is still too early to take polls seriously though.

There is no doubt in my mind that Strayhorn would make a better governor than The Haircut. Given Texas's conservative political climate, running as a right of center independent may be the only way that The Haircut can be taken down.

We will see.

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strayhorn makes the ballot

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