TX Gov.: Chris Bell's a Joke (trailing Kinky Friedman's fundraising)

[Sam Spade]

This is news???

Everyone in Texas pretty much knows the race is between Strayhorn and Perry.  Next.

[Sam Spade]

I wonder how well Friedman will do in the General against Bell?

It will be interesting whether Friedman gets on the ballot.  It takes around 45,000 signatures to get on the ballot.  The signatures have to be from voters who did not participate in the Republican or Democrat primaries, nor caucuses of the Libertarian or Green parties.  In 2004, Nader was unable to do it (it is the same standard for any statewide office or statewide party)

Yep, Texas has a pretty hard standard to meet to actually get on the ballot.  Still, I would predict he does.

I would have to assume the Democrats would get a better candidate than Bell, but since it's the Texas Democrats, I'm not that sure.

[Sam Spade]

Ah, Wikipedia.
"Political possibilities
In an interview with the New York Times, teammate George Hincapie hinted at Armstrong possibly running for Governor of Texas after retiring from cycling. In the July 2005 issue of Outside magazine (http://outside.away.com/outside/toc/200507.html), Armstrong himself hinted at possibly running for Governor, although "not in '06." By Texas political standards, he would almost certainly run as a Democrat, as he has described himself in the past as being "left of center," "against mixing up State and Church," "not keen on guns," opposed to the Iraq War, and pro-choice."

I never realized Armstrong was socially liberal, I just thought he was anti-war. Pro-choice, not keen on guns, against mixing up state and church, he'd be attacked viciously if he ever ran for anything in Texas.

Yep, I don't know whether even the celebrity factor would overcome issue problems like those in Texas, especially the gun beliefs.