The battle of the party switchers
Rick Perry -- elected to the Texas House as a Democrat, he made his name as part of a group of conservative Democrat budget hawks known as the Pit Bulls. In 1989, he switched parties to run for Ag Commissioner. A decade later, he was governor.
Carole Strayhorn -- once a Democrat in the Austin mayor's office (elections are non-partisan), she switched to the GOP to run for Congress. Later she became a railroad commissioner, and then comptroller. Now she's running as an independent.
Kinky Friedman -- once ran for office as a Republican, but only because he was running in a heavily Republican area. Now he's an independent.
Chris Bell -- he's never actually switched parties. Although I guess his wife has, because she once was a Republican. But in 2001 Bell was planning to run for mayor of Houston against Lee Brown as the de facto Republican/centrist opposition. As part of that, he voted for tax cuts and then accepted an award from the Harris County Republican Party. Bell's strategy was foiled when Orlando Sanchez entered the race, but he still went to many, many Republican events in 2001's campaign season. Every GOP event I was at, there was Chris Bell.
Posted by Evan @ 08/10/06 03:26 PM
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You've got your facts wrong on Kinky, he ran as a Republican in what was a heavily democratic area.
Posted by Correction please @ 08/11/06 11:20 AM
Friedman ran in 1986 in Kerr County. In 1992, HW Bush got 54% while Perot and Clinton each got 23%. In 2004, W got 79% of the vote against Kerry.
In other words, I'm not the one with my facts wrong.
Posted by evan @ 08/11/06 12:49 PM
No, you are still the one with your facts wrong. Kerr county WAS heavily democratic in 1986 when Kinky ran. It has since like shifted to being heavily Republican. However when Kinky ran a REpublican in Kerr county did not stand a chance, which is why it was humorous that he ran as a Republican.
Posted by Correction please @ 08/11/06 05:12 PM
Unfortunately, you are still wrong. Your assertions are incorrect, which is probably why you have been unable to support them.
The lady who beat Kinky Friedman in the Republican primary went on to win (overwhelmingly, if memory serves) in the general election.
Also, as previously stated, Bush won a huge majority in 1992. 6 years is not nearly enough time for such a partisan switch to occur, particularly one of such a massive landslide.
If you choose to comment again in this thread, either acknowledge that you are wrong or research the facts.
Posted by evan @ 08/13/06 04:07 PM
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