Kinky Politics in Texas says Grandma

[RonJonSurfer]

Texas says "Kinky" can be on ballot

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Writer and musician Kinky Friedman, who once sang "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore," may include the name by which he is best known on the ballot to choose Texas' next governor in November, the state's top election official said on Monday.

Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams said Friedman's nickname was not a slogan and thus did not violate state law. His name will appear on election ballots as Richard "Kinky" Friedman.

But Williams, a Republican, said Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is also running as an independent against incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry, cannot include "Grandma" as a nickname on the ballot.

Strayhorn's campaign advertising calls her "One Tough Grandma."

Williams said Strayhorn, the state comptroller who left the Republican Party to challenge Perry, never used "Grandma" as a nickname before the campaign.

Perry is leading the polls but if either Friedman or Strayhorn win, it would be the first time an independent won a race for Texas governor since Sam Houston did it in 1859. Friedman would be the state's first Jewish governor.

Friedman, who has written a series of detective novels, first became famous as the leader of satirical country and western band The Texas Jewboys.

Some have dismissed Friedman's campaign as a publicity stunt, but Friedman has hired a consultant who helped former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura win the Minnesota governor's race in 1998 to run his campaign.

In conservative Texas, Friedman has used humor to state his support for controversial ideas like same-sex marriage.

"I support gay marriage," Friedman said in 2005. "I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us."

Gov. Perry is also being challenged by Democrat Chris Bell, a former legislator from Houston, who lost his seat in the redistricting engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.