From
Hotline on Call:
The Quorum Report says today that TX comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn will run for governor as an independent.
Strayhorn, a former Dem, had hinted of an independent bid and as recently as Friday, her campaign refused to say what her party allegiance would be come today, which marks the filing deadline in TX.
Strayhorn is the mother of WH press sec. Scott McClellan.
Dems Chris Bell and Bob Grimmage are on the line to challenge GOP Gov. Rick Perry; satirist Kinky Friedman has filed to run as an independent.
A lack of a competitive GOP primary makes it easier for Friedman and Strayhorn to get on the ballot, an already difficult proposition for independents.
Candidates wanting to run as independents must gather about 46,000 signatures from the pool of voters who don't vote in the primaries. Since the Strayhorn/Perry primary would have been the only race to trigger high turnout, a competition-less GOP primary will enlarge the pool of voters from which Strayhorn and Friedman can collect names.
A four-way race in the general suddenly opens up a plethora of possibilities, and some of them don't include a second term for Gov. Perry.
Big question for Texas Dems -- what's better, to vote in the Dem primary, or to give a signature to Strayhorn to help put her on the ballot and split the GOP in the general?
And a big question for Scotty: does he campaign for his mother, or does he remain loyal to his party? The current crop of Republicans routinely put their party above the Stars and Stripes. But family? Will Scotty put his party above his mother?