Strayhorn: "I have never been the darling of the insiders."
Strayhorn stock might be higher outside Capitol realm
No one knows whether that's enough to boost her toward winning governor's race.
August 08, 2006
By W. Gardner Selby
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
GRANGER — Around those who hold sway at the Texas Capitol, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn sometimes gets shrugged off as a fast-talking party turncoat with little chance of making a strong November showing versus GOP Gov. Rick Perry.
Yet the second-term state comptroller, who outpolled all state office-seekers by drawing 2.8 million votes in 2002, might retain substantial appeal among folks whose lives do not turn on the vinegary tit for tat that plays out near the pink dome.
"She's straightforward," said Bill Warford, who paused here seeking feed for his goats and sheep one afternoon last week. The Davilla rancher was among a dozen voters who appraised Strayhorn as competent and likable during an unscientific sampling in Central Texas burgs on Texas 95 some 40 miles northeast of Austin.
"She's going to get the job done in the best interests of the average Joe," Warford said. "She'll do a lot better job than the one we have now."
Strayhorn, 66, ended June with more campaign cash than any other Perry challenger, putting her in position to outflank Democratic candidate Chris Bell and independent Kinky Friedman once competing TV ads air. Libertarian James Werner also is on the ballot.
If Strayhorn has a shot at Perry, said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas government professor, "it's rooted in her ability to establish a plausibility in the rest of the state that may be harder for her to establish here, given the tension between her and the Republicans."
In January, Strayhorn touched off quizzical looks in the Capitol crowd by declaring herself an independent, a move sparing her from chasing Perry in the March GOP primary. She and Perry already had aired disagreements for nearly three years, a far cry from their seeming mutual admiration in early 2003 when Perry and his wife, Anita, hosted a champagne reception honoring Ed and Carole Strayhorn after their marriage.
Fiscal conservative activist Peggy Venable once gave Strayhorn an award for bird-dogging taxes and championing government savings by turning over certain duties to private firms.
Now, Venable said, "she's not perceived as a team player by legislators or the governor. She's been through many metamorphoses. A lot of people who have watched her in politics over the years aren't sure what she really does stand for."
Some simmer over Strayhorn's party shifts, including her segue from the Democratic to the Republican Party in the 1980s before challenging longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle.
Liz Carpenter, former press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, said she and other Democratic women supported Strayhorn when she was a "young woman achiever" advancing from serving as the nonpartisan Austin mayor to the state board overseeing insurance.
"She's not young anymore," Carpenter said. "I don't support party switchers."
Popularity contested
Most voters visited from Taylor to Holland hailed Strayhorn — several because Perry has fathered a plan to build toll roads around the state. That includes a project here that could force landowners to sell property to clear space.
Teachers or former teachers were especially pro-Strayhorn. The Texas Federation of Teachers and Texas State Teachers Association have endorsed Strayhorn, a former teacher and school board president, who, like Bell and Friedman, favors higher teacher pay than what Perry has approved.
"Fantastic woman," said substitute teacher Kathy Green of Granger. "She's going to do our state really good by turning our schools around — things like that. . . . We just need a person in the office who can show some backbone to help our state."
Strayhorn listens, said Debbie McKeon, a reporter for the Tribune-Progress, a newspaper serving Bartlett, Holland and Granger. "We're just small regular people, we're not politicians — just Joe Citizens. We like thinking someone cares about who we are."
Perry's support for toll roads has evidently boosted Strayhorn, who calls his envisioned Trans-Texas Corridor an ill-advised boondoggle. Ralph Snyder, owner of a Holland salvage yard, has posted a Strayhorn sign outside his business and given her effort $1,250.
"Got guts," Snyder said of Strayhorn. "She's got that fierce Texas spirit that we don't see much anymore."
On Perry's watch, Snyder said, lawmakers raised state spending and adopted an expanded business tax (intended to finance lower school property taxes). "Perry and the people who have lined up behind him are a bunch of damn liars. I voted for all those people in office. But they've broken their trust with the people."
Perry spokesman Ted Royer, noting that Perry has led in pre-election polls, suggested misinformation on his record — overlooking, for instance, his vetoes of $2.5 billion in spending — unfortunately gets spread easily. Perry is "proud of his record on working for limited government," Royer said.
Too early to call
Most voters interviewed had heard of Friedman, a humorist, but were unfamiliar with Bell. The former U.S. House member from Houston is making his first statewide run; unlike Strayhorn, he has never held office in Central Texas.
Bell's campaign took issue with Strayhorn's possible appeal beyond the Capitol: "Familiarity with Carole Strayhorn apparently breeds contempt," said spokesman Jason Stanford. "The more she campaigns, the lower she goes in the polls, and 'Grandma-gate' has turned her from a character into a caricature. Good night, and good luck."
(The reference was to Strayhorn's failed effort to appear on the ballot with "Grandma" in her name. She's employed "one tough Grandma" as a descriptive since 1998, but the courts ruled that it was a slogan, not a nickname, and thus couldn't appear on the ballot.)
It will likely take the fall rev-up of campaigns for voter sentiments to settle out across Texas.
"No one is paying attention" yet, said Eugene Atkinson, associate professor of social sciences at Tarleton State University, in Stephenville, southwest of Fort Worth. He said most students who signed a petition this spring to get Strayhorn on the ballot did not know or care who she was.
Strayhorn disputed a suggestion she's not widely popular in Austin, her hometown, while adding: "Certainly there is a whole world beyond Austin. . . . I run with the people. I have never been the darling of the insiders."
A July poll on behalf of state Democratic Rep. Donna Howard of Austin suggests that in western Travis County, Perry leads Strayhorn, though nearly 55 percent of respondents view Strayhorn favorably, compared to 41 percent for Perry and 27 percent for Bell.
Among Central Texas voters queried last week, not everyone gave Strayhorn huzzahs.
"She's been in politics too long — forever and ever," said Linda Rowe, a retired Taylor hospital worker inclined toward Friedman, who's not held public office. "There's a lot of grandmas," Rowe said. "She's lumping us all together."
Undecided voter John Hughes, 44, a Taylor general contractor, made a smiling reference to Strayhorn's three marriages and related changes in her last name.
"I can never keep up with how many names she has. There's always something changing. I never could get the whole grandma thing.
"But I'm not saying she might not be the best thing for our state."
Strayhorn career highlights
•Member, Austin school board, (1972-77); president, (1976-77)
•Mayor, Austin (1977-83)
•Member, State Board of Insurance (1983-86)
•Member, Texas Railroad Commission (December 1994-99)
•State comptroller (1999-present)
Source: Strayhorn for Governor Campaign
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman : www.statesman.com
No one knows whether that's enough to boost her toward winning governor's race.
August 08, 2006
By W. Gardner Selby
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
GRANGER — Around those who hold sway at the Texas Capitol, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn sometimes gets shrugged off as a fast-talking party turncoat with little chance of making a strong November showing versus GOP Gov. Rick Perry.
Yet the second-term state comptroller, who outpolled all state office-seekers by drawing 2.8 million votes in 2002, might retain substantial appeal among folks whose lives do not turn on the vinegary tit for tat that plays out near the pink dome.
"She's straightforward," said Bill Warford, who paused here seeking feed for his goats and sheep one afternoon last week. The Davilla rancher was among a dozen voters who appraised Strayhorn as competent and likable during an unscientific sampling in Central Texas burgs on Texas 95 some 40 miles northeast of Austin.
"She's going to get the job done in the best interests of the average Joe," Warford said. "She'll do a lot better job than the one we have now."
Strayhorn, 66, ended June with more campaign cash than any other Perry challenger, putting her in position to outflank Democratic candidate Chris Bell and independent Kinky Friedman once competing TV ads air. Libertarian James Werner also is on the ballot.
If Strayhorn has a shot at Perry, said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas government professor, "it's rooted in her ability to establish a plausibility in the rest of the state that may be harder for her to establish here, given the tension between her and the Republicans."
In January, Strayhorn touched off quizzical looks in the Capitol crowd by declaring herself an independent, a move sparing her from chasing Perry in the March GOP primary. She and Perry already had aired disagreements for nearly three years, a far cry from their seeming mutual admiration in early 2003 when Perry and his wife, Anita, hosted a champagne reception honoring Ed and Carole Strayhorn after their marriage.
Fiscal conservative activist Peggy Venable once gave Strayhorn an award for bird-dogging taxes and championing government savings by turning over certain duties to private firms.
Now, Venable said, "she's not perceived as a team player by legislators or the governor. She's been through many metamorphoses. A lot of people who have watched her in politics over the years aren't sure what she really does stand for."
Some simmer over Strayhorn's party shifts, including her segue from the Democratic to the Republican Party in the 1980s before challenging longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle.
Liz Carpenter, former press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, said she and other Democratic women supported Strayhorn when she was a "young woman achiever" advancing from serving as the nonpartisan Austin mayor to the state board overseeing insurance.
"She's not young anymore," Carpenter said. "I don't support party switchers."
Popularity contested
Most voters visited from Taylor to Holland hailed Strayhorn — several because Perry has fathered a plan to build toll roads around the state. That includes a project here that could force landowners to sell property to clear space.
Teachers or former teachers were especially pro-Strayhorn. The Texas Federation of Teachers and Texas State Teachers Association have endorsed Strayhorn, a former teacher and school board president, who, like Bell and Friedman, favors higher teacher pay than what Perry has approved.
"Fantastic woman," said substitute teacher Kathy Green of Granger. "She's going to do our state really good by turning our schools around — things like that. . . . We just need a person in the office who can show some backbone to help our state."
Strayhorn listens, said Debbie McKeon, a reporter for the Tribune-Progress, a newspaper serving Bartlett, Holland and Granger. "We're just small regular people, we're not politicians — just Joe Citizens. We like thinking someone cares about who we are."
Perry's support for toll roads has evidently boosted Strayhorn, who calls his envisioned Trans-Texas Corridor an ill-advised boondoggle. Ralph Snyder, owner of a Holland salvage yard, has posted a Strayhorn sign outside his business and given her effort $1,250.
"Got guts," Snyder said of Strayhorn. "She's got that fierce Texas spirit that we don't see much anymore."
On Perry's watch, Snyder said, lawmakers raised state spending and adopted an expanded business tax (intended to finance lower school property taxes). "Perry and the people who have lined up behind him are a bunch of damn liars. I voted for all those people in office. But they've broken their trust with the people."
Perry spokesman Ted Royer, noting that Perry has led in pre-election polls, suggested misinformation on his record — overlooking, for instance, his vetoes of $2.5 billion in spending — unfortunately gets spread easily. Perry is "proud of his record on working for limited government," Royer said.
Too early to call
Most voters interviewed had heard of Friedman, a humorist, but were unfamiliar with Bell. The former U.S. House member from Houston is making his first statewide run; unlike Strayhorn, he has never held office in Central Texas.
Bell's campaign took issue with Strayhorn's possible appeal beyond the Capitol: "Familiarity with Carole Strayhorn apparently breeds contempt," said spokesman Jason Stanford. "The more she campaigns, the lower she goes in the polls, and 'Grandma-gate' has turned her from a character into a caricature. Good night, and good luck."
(The reference was to Strayhorn's failed effort to appear on the ballot with "Grandma" in her name. She's employed "one tough Grandma" as a descriptive since 1998, but the courts ruled that it was a slogan, not a nickname, and thus couldn't appear on the ballot.)
It will likely take the fall rev-up of campaigns for voter sentiments to settle out across Texas.
"No one is paying attention" yet, said Eugene Atkinson, associate professor of social sciences at Tarleton State University, in Stephenville, southwest of Fort Worth. He said most students who signed a petition this spring to get Strayhorn on the ballot did not know or care who she was.
Strayhorn disputed a suggestion she's not widely popular in Austin, her hometown, while adding: "Certainly there is a whole world beyond Austin. . . . I run with the people. I have never been the darling of the insiders."
A July poll on behalf of state Democratic Rep. Donna Howard of Austin suggests that in western Travis County, Perry leads Strayhorn, though nearly 55 percent of respondents view Strayhorn favorably, compared to 41 percent for Perry and 27 percent for Bell.
Among Central Texas voters queried last week, not everyone gave Strayhorn huzzahs.
"She's been in politics too long — forever and ever," said Linda Rowe, a retired Taylor hospital worker inclined toward Friedman, who's not held public office. "There's a lot of grandmas," Rowe said. "She's lumping us all together."
Undecided voter John Hughes, 44, a Taylor general contractor, made a smiling reference to Strayhorn's three marriages and related changes in her last name.
"I can never keep up with how many names she has. There's always something changing. I never could get the whole grandma thing.
"But I'm not saying she might not be the best thing for our state."
Strayhorn career highlights
•Member, Austin school board, (1972-77); president, (1976-77)
•Mayor, Austin (1977-83)
•Member, State Board of Insurance (1983-86)
•Member, Texas Railroad Commission (December 1994-99)
•State comptroller (1999-present)
Source: Strayhorn for Governor Campaign
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman :
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, August 08, 2006
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