Democratic Musical Chairs

As Bill White made his way into the Texas Governor's race on Friday, a musical chair game had been created.

2006 Agriculture Commissioner nominee Hank Gilbert had planned on running for Governor this go around, mainly due to his assurance from White that he would not enter the race. Of course, that all changed when Kay Bailey Hutchison decided to remain in the US Senate while running in the GOP primary for Governor. White made his move. Thus, Gilbert followed suit, by shifting gears to be the 2010 nominee for Agriculture Commissioner once more. And as a parting shot to White, endorsed Farouk Shami for the Governor spot in the process.

Shami released the following statement on Friday:
  "I am deeply honored to receive the endorsement of Hank Gilbert. Hank ran an excellent campaign and we share a remarkably similar vision for Texas. The policies Hank formulated and put forth in this race mirror many of my own ideas and beliefs and I will be carrying forward many of his ideas through the remainder of my campaign and into the Governor's office next January.

Jobs, strengthening the Texas economy, protecting our environment, improving public education, equal rights for all, and improving transportation infrastructure in our state are key to making Texas a world leader and incubator for innovation in government and industry.

The support Hank amassed in his race represents a significant portion of our party's grassroots, progressive base. I look forward to earning their support in the coming weeks and months as I continue my campaign for Governor of Texas.

I look forward to working with Hank as we lead the effort to turn Texas blue again."

Whether someone named Farouk Shami can win the party nomination and in turn win the general election remains to be seen. However he is taking it seriously, opening four additional statewide regional offices. Shami plans to stop by the opening of his Dallas office, located at 1451 Empire Central Drive, on December 7th at Noon.

Also on December 7th, another race may be getting kinky. No, it isn't as good as it sounds. Kinky Friedman is expected to switch from his planned run for Governor to the Agriculture Commissioner's race as well. Interesting enough, KinkyFriedman.com expired on November 30th and has yet to be renewed. So if he did indeed have anything interesting to say on his website about which race he may partake in, we won't see it.

Another oddball entrant into the Democratic race is private investigator William Dear. We have no information or reasoning as to why he wants to run for Governor, but he was the first to file. You may know him from the best FOX documentary ever created, Alien Autopsy.

All we need now is a LaRouche Youth Movement candidate, and we'll have a grand ol' time in March!