Kinky in 2010

Author and funnyman, Richard “Kinky” Friedman, is again in the running for Texas governor. Losing out on the independent ticket in 2007, Kinky feels his biggest mistake was running as an independent so he is now running as a Democrat. He says the last independent to win was Sam Houston. In case your eyebrow is raised over his nickname, you can put it back down: Kinky’s nickname was bestowed upon him because of his curly hair. He is also known as The Kinkster and The Jewish Cowboy.

Kinky has lots of plans to shake things up and make changes that he calls his ‘”Common Sense, Common Honesty Platform.” He wants to create jobs and develop the economy with block grants; reform education by giving teachers a $3,000 pay raise and getting rid of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) standardized testing; reform the justice system with the Timothy Cole Commission to establish guilt or innocence; and he wants to legalize gambling in certain parts of Texas, such as Galveston. The tax revenues from casinos would be used to buy back all current toll roads.

Unfortunately, many people just don’t take the humorist as a serious candidate, not that it fazes Kinky. Some call him a “joke,” and Tom Scheiffer, another contender in the Democratic primary, goes so far as to blame Kinky for Rick Perry’s victory in the last election.

If there is anything Kinky can do to make people take him more seriously, perhaps it would be to show a more businesslike attitude about governance and promote his books less. As a recent guest on Imus on October 7th, Kinky told Imus that it was a “step down” to go from being a musician to a politician. He also said that it would help if Imus showed a photo of him smiling because “that’s what politicians do.” Kinky talked more about his latest book, Celebrity Pet Files, than his campaign. Don Imus didn’t seem to have much interest in the new book and said he really loved Kinky’s other book, Heroes of a Texas Childhood. Kinky said he will make Heroes mandatory reading in school if he’s elected Governor. “Who your heroes are says more about who you are than anything you can say.”

Imus said he would much rather read Heroes than “some stupid book about Marty Stewart – I love Marty – and his dumb dog – I love dogs, too, as you know but …” Kinky said his editor at Simon & Schuster told him the only books that were selling were about celebrities and pets so he combined the two for the title of this one, and I think that last statement says more about Kinky Friedman than even he realizes. It’s all about gimmicks and appealing to what’s popular and getting a laugh.

Kinky is in essence an entertainer and unless he can put that aside and get across why he is the best candidate for the Democratic party and how he plans to accomplish his objectives, he’s just not going to get anywhere in the primary. He is up against former ambassador Tom Schieffer, former agriculture commissioner candidate Hank Gilbert, therapist Mark Thompson and teacher, Felix Alvarado. It’s a very crowded field, yet even a cursory look at most of these candidates’ websites shows the top agenda is to be very anti-Perry. Kinky’s site is a little different in that it’s the only one where you can buy cigars and salsa.

Most of the other candidates may not be as well-known as Kinky Friedman or know as many celebrities as he does, but they do seem to have less irons in less fires than the Kinkster. If he truly wants to win the Democratic primary, before now and next March, the Jewish cowboy would be wise to focus a lot less on books and jokes and a lot more on why he’s the best choice to run against the Republicans.

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Tags: don, felix, mark, marty, perry, richard, rick, tim, tom