Kinky Says, Why the Hell Not?

And, jumps into the race for Ag Commissioner, which already has a Democrat in it - Hank Gilbert.

The Texas Tribune has all the details from his announcement today. The Democratic Primary should be interesting. I think Gilbert made a tactical error endorsing Farouk Shami for Governor when he made his switch from the Governor's race to the Ag Commissioner's race. It muddled his message. Hank had a ton of great policy proposals during his run for Governor. Instead of strong messages about what needs to happen in the Ag Commissioner's office, we got that he was supporting a guy in the Democratic Primary for Gov who doesn't even have a Democratic voting record (or even a strong voting history, period.)

In today's announcement, Kinky Friedman makes it clear he is not endorsing anyone for Governor, but he also says it was after his meeting with Bill White that he decided the Governor's race was in good hands. He gave some details about his policy roll out:

"I've got a pretty detailed plan of action that we'll be rolling out later in the week," Friedman said. "From forming a statewide public defenders' office and setting a goal of at least one animal rescue facility in each county, to restoring our depleted woodlands and promoting a greater role for local producers in school cafeterias, we're going to shake things up and show folks what the office can be if you have someone there who actually cares about the job."

But, let me be clear: I'll be voting for Hank Gilbert for Ag Commissioner in the Democratic Primary. Just as I don't for one minute think Shami is a real Democrat, I know Friedman is not, either. As a good Democrat, I'm not forgiving about him taking votes away from Chris Bell in 2006. I just don't take him seriously, except for his ability to distract otherwise reliable Democratic voters into believing he has a chance of winning.

Hank has run for Ag Commissioner once before, and I know his policies and his smarts are needed in a statewide office. My advice to Hank would be to focus on his own race and to take Kinky seriously. Kick Shami off to the side, and run hard and run smart.