Independents begin push for gov ballot

So here's the thing about this year's gubernatorial race: It promises to be intetesting. On the one hand, we have incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has more than $9 million on hand and hair that's feathered like the wings of a majestic mockingbird, and Chris Bell, a Democrat who observers say needs to build statewide name recognition and only has $100,000 in his campaign chest at this point. And then there are the independent candidates — or, rather, the people who want to be independent candidates.

State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and author and musician Kinky Friedman are both trying to collect the 45,540 signatures they'll need to get on the ballot in November. The deadline for the signatures is May 11 — so, as KTRK points out, that's 735 signatures a day. But just to be safe, the campaigns will shoot for 100,000 signatures, or more than one signature every minute of every day between now and the deadline. Strayhorn's website doesn't have information on petition-signing events yet, but Friedman's does — and they're mostly at bars. We wonder if Strayhorn supporters will gather at local watering holes, too?

Remember that it's really hard for an independent to become governor of Texas. In fact, the last independent governor we had was Sam Houston in 1859.