CC residents rally for Kinky

By Austin Kinghorn
Baytown Sun

Published February 7, 2006

A handful of Chambers County residents met last week united by a cause. In the words of the independent gubernatorial candidate they support, they’re saving themselves for Kinky.

Once the party primaries are concluded in March, you may be hearing personally from them why they have made their commitment to support Kinky Friedman to replace Texas Governor Rick Perry.

“I think people are ready for a change,” said Larry Briggs, a chemical plant operator who lives in The Plantation. “They’re fed up with Gov. Perry, who hasn’t done anything, and the Democrats who haven’t had a chance in I don’t know how long to do anything.”

Briggs also likes that the Friedman campaign is not benefiting from big money donations.

“I like the idea that he’s not going to have to kiss anybody’s butt once he gets in office,” he said.

Richard “Kinky” Friedman has become something of a Texas icon through his many manifestations in Lone Star lore. Most recently a columnist for Texas Monthly, and he has also penned a slew of mystery novels. In the ‘70s he was the front man for the satirical Kinky Friedman & the Texas Jewboys.

Always the humorist, pundits have struggled from the beginning whether to take Friedman’s early campaign positions as serious or sarcasm. His campaign literature ranges from statistically backed reasons for his support for a teacher pay raise — Texas is currently $6,000 below the national average — to his commitment to outlaw the de-clawing of cats.

For the record, Friedman may be serious, as he has worked extensively with the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. But also for the record, Friedman is the only gubernatorial candidate selling talking action figures in his likeness for $29.95 to raise campaign funds.

But according to a spokeswoman for his campaign, Friedman’s run at the Governor’s mansion is no joke and is born out of genuine concern for Texas.

“He is very disgusted at the state of things and the way career politicians are running the state,” said Laura Stromberg. “Kinky, at heart, is a humanist who connects with people on a level I don’t think any of today’s politicians can.

“My thought is that just being out there speaking with people, Kinky felt they where overwhelmingly unhappy with the leadership, and he thought, really, why the hell not? How hard can it be?”

Friedman does have serious proposals for the state of Texas. He wants to raise teacher pay, abolish the TAKS test and allow casinos to pull in additional education funding, a proposal stymied in the legislature in its most recent session.

He wants to make Texas the renewable energy capital of the nation with special emphasis on bio-diesel as an alternative fuel source. He also wants to ensure affordable healthcare for all citizens, although his campaign admits he has yet to spell out a proposal.

That’s okay with some local residents who say they are just anxious for a change in Texas politics.

“It’s because I’m really, really tired of the whole two party system,” Briggs said. “I feel like I’m picking between paper and plastic with the Democrats and Republicans.”

Lynette Parsons, the campaign chair for Chambers County, has been a Kinky fan for years, owning his original records from the ‘70s.

She said she gave serious thought to his gubernatorial candidacy because of the legislature’s failure to resolve issues surrounding education in recent sessions.

“Anybody who loves books, music and dogs can’t be all bad right?” Parsons said. “He’s very witty and quick with a phrase but also has a brain behind it.”

Parsons is a fitting local spokesman for Friedman because like the candidate, her political inclinations fall outside of conventional lines. While in college she was heavily involved in the conservative Young Americans for Freedom organization but claims to have later become a radical feminist who has since aligned herself with the Green Party.

Friedman is similarly hard to peg down as he holds positions from across the political spectrum. He supports gay marriage and favors non-denominational prayer in schools. He calls for closing the Mexican border, at least temporarily, and says he wants to take a “good look” at death row because he’s concerned innocents are being executed.

“I don’t think that he’s as radical as people make him out to be,” said Valerie Jensen, a Mont Belvieu resident who has pledged support for Kinky. “If they look at his views on things like two party system and education, they might change their minds. I think they would see he has simple solutions for complicated problems.”

Kinky’s supporters in Chambers County held the first official meeting last week at Mont Belvieu Seafood, to which five volunteers showed up. The plan? A massive petition drive across the county as soon as the party primaries are concluded.

Kinky will need 45,540 signatures across the state from registered voters who did not vote in a party primary, and he’ll have to get them between the dates of March 8 and May 11, assuming there is no runoff in the governor’s race, which is a possibility on the Democratic front. If that is the case, the campaign will have a smaller window of April 12 to May 11 to work with.

Kinky’s campaign has devised a rather sophisticated model to target how many signatures from all of Texas’ 254 counties to get him on the ballot, and Chambers County is being asked to come up with 400.

But A. Lynette Parsons, the campaign chair in Chambers County, thinks her team will deliver above and beyond their quota.

“We think we’re going to have an easy thousand,” Parsons said. “Given the number of registered voters compared to those who usually vote in the party primaries, we don’t think it’ll be an issue.”

The local campaign also issued a call for notaries to help authenticate the petitions they will be gathering to give Kinky a spot on the ballot. They are also searching for businesses that will host a Kinky for Governor petition station.

Statewide the campaign is actually eyeing 100,000 signatures — just to be on the safe side.

Parsons, who lives in Anahuac and is the county’s librarian, said she constantly fields questions about Kinky’s campaign, starting with her appearance at a Smith Point volunteer firefighters’ fund-raiser on Labor Day 2005, where she sported a Kinky t-shirt. She gave away about a dozen of Kinky’s bumper stickers that day and says the campaign has been gaining support ever since.

But Briggs has had less luck wooing voters in his neighborhood, which he describes as heavily Republican. And the GOP boss in Chambers County, Lamont Meaux, is dismissive of Kinky’s efforts.

“No one’s interested that I’ve talked to,” he said. “He belongs in the Democratic Party and I think he’s just trying to make a name for himself.”

Meaux also pointed out that convincing Chambers County voters to stay out of the party primaries will be a tall order considering some hotly contested local races. Republican votes will support Rick Perry and won’t be tempted by any Kinky “silliness,” Meaux said.

But the chairman of the county’s Democratic Party, Guy Robert Jackson, admits “the Kinkster” is on his radar and believes he will peel off more Democrats than Republicans.

“I think the past several elections have shown Texans as a whole are disenfranchised with our current cast of candidates, and that’s based on low voter turnout,” Jackson said. “If he can bring new people to the polls, more power to him. Will he hurt Democrats? Absolutely.”

Unlike the GOP, Jackson said several traditional Democratic primary voters have told him they’re sitting out to support Kinky, while others say they’ll stick with the Democratic primary but will vote for Kinky in November if he makes the ballot.

“He’s building a good grassroots campaign, and that’s what you have to have,” Jackson said.

For more information on the Kinky Friedman for Governor campaign in Chambers County, call A. Lynette Parsons at 409-550-3065.

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