Monday’s political round-up

October 31, 2005

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* With just eight days until New Jersey picks its new governor, a new Zogby poll is in line with nearly all of the other recent polls: Sen. Jon Corzine (D) is up by mid-single digits. In this one, Corzine leads Doug Forrester (R) by seven points, 47% to 40%.

* In Virginia’s gubernatorial race, a new Washington Post poll shows Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine (D) with the momentum, inching ahead of former state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R), 47% to 44%.

* On a related note, with just eight days to go, the Kaine campaign is pulling out the big guns to rally support: Kaine appeared over the weekend with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) before several thousand supporters in Norfolk.

* In Texas, Willie Nelson hosted a fundraiser for his Kinky Friedman, an independent gubernatorial candidate, yesterday. Nelson helped Friedman raise about $170,000.

* Would-be Republican presidential candidates were all over Iowa this weekend, hoping to rally some interest in their non-official campaigns while avoiding discussion of the Plame-related indictments. Among the Republicans were former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

* A plan to shuffle the 2008 Democratic presidential calendar is progressing nicely and may be adopted soon. Following the work of a commission studying this issue for months, the new plan would allow two or three states to hold caucuses between Iowa and New Hampshire, expanding the number of contests while ensuring that Iowa has the first caucus and New Hampshire has the first primary. “It is getting to be a done deal,” said Mike Stratton, a member of the 40-person commission headed by Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.) and former labor secretary Alexis Herman. The commission is to make a final recommendation to the DNC at its Dec. 10 meeting.

In this one, Corzine leads Doug Forrester (R) by seven points, 47% to 40%.

That leaves a whole lot of undecided, or is there a 3rd party candidate that is doing fairly well?

  • Kinky Friedman, who’s campaign motto is “Why the hell not?” would be nothing short of a miracle for Texas and, given today’s political landscape, America as well. Check out this great New Yorker piece on what kind of guy we’re talking about:

    “Kinky Friedman, who, in the nineteen-seventies, traveled around the country with his country-and-Western band—Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys—annoying audiences with a series of goading, satirical songs with titles like “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Asshole from El Paso.” In the eighties, after the band broke up, Kinky reinvented himself as a mystery novelist. In the past twenty years, he has written seventeen mysteries starring a detective named Kinky Friedman—a Jewish cowboy from Texas who has quit a singing career for a life of sleuthing and one-liners in New York City. . . . Kinky, who never learned to sit still much, has grown tired of his second career—this year, at the age of sixty, he announced that his most recent mystery will be his last—and has sought out a third. He intends to be the governor of Texas.”

    Texans are funny. As much as we’ve all gotten used to thinking of it a neo-con criminal heaven, it took some serious gerrymandering to make it solid Republican, and there is a fierce independence that doesn’t take well to B.S. Sure it’s a long shot, but kinky would be exactly the kind of guy to make water flow up stream for a day.

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