A Kinky Take on Political Correctness

With the Alamo as his backdrop, musician-turned-mystery author Kinky Friedman launched an independent and unconventional campaign Thursday to run for Texas governor in 2006.

He announced his candidacy just after sunrise, saying, “We’re going to wake up this great slumbering giant of Texas independence.”

Friedman is campaigning against what he calls the state’s “wussification,” which he defines as political correctness run amok.

He favors legalized casino gambling to finance education and would push for life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty.

His humor often plays on his Jewish background, and he quotes Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, both friends. Campaign bumper stickers use his longtime nickname to proclaim: “Why Not Kinky?”

Friedman, 60, views the successes of Jesse Ventura in Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger in California as signs that he can be elected -- but getting on the ballot as an independent will be a hurdle.

After the March party primaries next year, he has two months to collect 45,540 valid signatures, which is 1% of the votes cast in the 2002 race. If a runoff follows the primaries, the signature period shrinks to 30 days.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry is expected to seek a second full term next November. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn also are possible GOP candidates.

Friedman -- whose real name is Richard -- had modest success on the entertainment circuit with his band, the Texas Jewboys, and toured with the all-star Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue in the 1970s.

More recently, he has written 17 mysteries, counting Presidents Bush and Clinton among his readers. Among his books are “Greenwich Killing Time” and “A Case of Lone Star.”

His only previous bid for public office was an unsuccessful try for justice of the peace in 1986 in Kerrville, near his ranch.