Texas gubernatorial election, 2006

The 2006 Texas gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2006 to select the next governor of the state of Texas, who is serving a four year term that began on January 20, 2007. The Republican and Democratic Parties chose their candidates by primaries and convention. Primaries were held on March 7, 2006, with the winner of each requiring a majority vote. The Libertarian Party chose their candidate by caucuses held at various locations around the state and convention in Houston, Texas. By law, all parties in Texas must hold their political conventions in the month of June, then deliver to the Secretary of State a certified list of their candidates. The Democratic, Libertarian, and Green Parties held their convention on the weekend of June 9 through June 11, 2006, while the GOP met a week earlier on the weekend of June 2 through June 4.

Only a plurality was required to win the general election (see [http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/txconst/sections/cn000400-000300.html Article 4 Section 3] of the state constitution).

The race was a six person affair involving:
*Rick Perry, the Republican incumbent
*Richard 'Kinky' Friedman, a country music singer and mystery author, running as an independent.
*Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican choosing to face Perry as an independent instead of during the Republican primary
*Chris Bell, the Democratic Party candidate
*James Werner, the Libertarian Party candidate
*James "Patriot" Dillon, who is the only announced write-in candidate per the Texas Secretary of State's office. (The office does not show Green Party candidate Jerry Larson as an official write-in candidate.)

In order to qualify for the ballot, both independent candidates and the write-in candidate had to obtain enough valid signatures. Both Strayhorn and Friedman submitted signatures to the Texas Secretary of State, who announced that each and every signature will be checked for validity (in protest, Strayhorn contended that this is a tactic by Perry – her bitter political enemy – to keep her off the November ballot). Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams validated the candidacies of Strayhorn and Friedman on June 22nd. [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3993429.html]

Primaries

Republicans

*Larry Kilgore 50,119 7.64%
*Star Locke 23,030 3.51%
*Rick Perry 552,545 84.23%
*Rhett R. Smith 30,225 4.60%

*Race Total 655,919 [ [http://elections.sos.state.tx.us/elchist.exe 2006 Republican Party Primary Election] ]

Candidates listed on the November ballot

Republican Party

*Rick Perry - Incumbent

Democratic Party

*Chris Bell - Former Congressman, Former Houston City Councilman and Attorney.

Independents

*Richard "Kinky" Friedman - country singer, mystery author, and Jewish cowboy.
*Carole Keeton Strayhorn - Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, former Railroad Commissioner, former City of Austin Mayor, and former Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees President, who spent June through December 2005 seeking the Republican nomination.

Libertarian Party

*James Werner - Sales Consultant.

Former candidates and possible write-in candidates

Democrats

*Bob Gammage - Former Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and former Congressman
*Rashad Jafer - Retail Store Chain ManagerAnother potential candidate, middle school administraor Felix Alvarado, was excluded from the Democratic primary ballot when his check for the party's required $3,750 filing fee bounced. [http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/20alvarado.html]

Independents

In addition, four independent candidates and Jerry Larson (the endorsed candidate of the Green Party) did not submit enough signatures to qualify for ballot access, nor did Larson qualify as a write-in candidate.

Background

Perry

Incumbent Rick Perry became governor in late 2000 when then-Governor George W. Bush resigned following his election as President of the United States. He had been elected lieutenant governor in 1998. Perry was subsequently elected Governor in his own right in 2002 and successfully ran for a second full term in 2006.

Perry's overall poll ratings had plummeted since the 2002 election, plagued by budget woes, battles over school financing reform, and a contentious and controversial redistricting battle. His approval rating dropped to 38% during the latter part of the 2005 legislative session. Perry then improved from this position, more recently holding a 44% approval rating, with 51% disapproving, as of a September 2006 poll. [cite web
url = http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=04e26af7-73ba-4a89-a0a6-9e49dcbeaaff
title=Results of SurveyUSA News Poll #10269
accessdate = 2007-01-02
publisher = SurveyUSA] Texas election laws do not require a run-off in the event that a solid majority is not achieved, and so Governor Perry joined only two other Texas governors to achieve the office by a plurality of less than 40%. The Texas Governor Elections of 1853 and 1861 both won with less than 40% of the vote.

Despite weak polling numbers, Perry had the support of the Texas GOP. According to Perry's campaign website, he gained 142 separate endorsements. Perry had endorsements from virtually the entire Texas GOP Congressional delegation (all but two members), every other Republican statewide officeholder (except Strayhorn and judicial officeholders; the latter by law cannot endorse political candidates), 51 of the 62 members of the Texas Republican Party executive committee (it should be mentioned, however, that someone on the executive committee is in danger of removal for supporting someone other than his/her party's nominee), and nearly every major Texas pro-business, fiscal conservative, and social conservative organization and PAC. Perry even managed to gain the endorsement of the Teamsters Union, notwithstanding Texas's strong right to work laws.

Some speculate that Perry would have been defeated had it not been for the two independent candidates dividing the votes of those who disapproved of his leadership. Following the 2006 election, many of Perry's critics disparagingly referred to him as "Governor 39 Percent."

Friedman

Kinky Friedman, an independent candidate, gained a good amount of popular support among Texas voters. He claimed that country-music lovers, college students, animal lovers, ranchers, and anyone who didn't vote in the last election were among his supporters.

By Independence Day, Friedman passed Democrat Chris Bell in a few polls, which he didn't keep up. His website claimed that "he doesn't put much stock in unscientific political polls among "likely" voters, saying, " [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/19/60minutes/main1221449.shtml It's Kinky Friedman versus apathy] ". Friedman stated during that the campaign that he was going after the 71% who didn't make it to the polls in 2002.

Friedman was haunted by racially insensitive statements that were made, both during the campaign and during comedy routines twenty years ago.

Although Friedman did briefly enjoy a high standing in the polls, and though much was made of his wide support among young voters, his campaign appeared to fizzle out as Election Day drew near, and he ultimately finished a distant fourth with under 13% of the vote.

Bell

Chris Bell, a former Congressman from Houston, is best known for filing an ethics complaint against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as a lame duck who had been defeated in his party's primary after the controversial mid-decade redistricting in the state. Bell announced his run in July 2005.

Bell's official strategy was to get Democrats to unite behind and vote for a Democrat, predicting (and betting on) a splintering of the Republican vote among Perry, Strayhorn, and Friedman, giving the Democrats the needed plurality to win the election. [Stanford, Jason. " [http://www.chrisbell.com/blog/010205_etch-a-sketch 3 Republicans, 1 Democrat] "". 2 January 2006. Accessed 26 March 2006. ] Running on a platform of ethics reform and education issues, he stayed with the pack of three candidates with better name recognition. After a good debate performance, his poll numbers improved significantly to where he had taken second place in nearly every poll afterward.

Chris Bell finished the election with 30% of the popular vote, which was higher than he had polled at any point prior to the election.

trayhorn

Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the Comptroller of Public Accounts, was initially pegged as running in a potentially contentious three-way Republican primary battle with bitter rival Governor Perry and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hutchison declined to run for governor in late 2005, instead opting to run for re-election to the Senate. This left Strayhorn and Perry vying for the GOP nomination. Believing her chances to be better running as an independent and appealing directly to voters, rather than those of the Republican Party first, she announced her intent to challenge him in the general election instead. Had she run in the primary, the December 2005 Scripps Howard Texas Poll of match ups had Perry in the lead against Strayhorn by a 55%-24% margin.

However, candidates not associated with a major political party have had a hard time garnering support (only one independent candidate, Sam Houston, has ever become Governor of Texas).

Although a few polls had her tied for second going into Election day, she finished with 18% of the vote, 12% behind Bell and 21% behind Perry.

Werner

James Werner was the Libertarian Party candidate. According to Werner's campaign website, he has a Masters degree in Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of California, a Bachelors degree from Vanderbilt University and is currently working for an Austin-based educational software company.

Werner previously ran for Congress in 2004 as the Libertarian nominee. Contending for the 25th District, he garnered 1.7% of the vote.

Dillon

James "Patriot" Dillon was the only announced write-in candidate, according to information from the Texas Secretary of State's office.

Requirements for independent gubernatorial candidates

It is difficult for an independent gubernatorial candidate to gain ballot access in the state of Texas. The election law, summarized briefly, requires the following:
*The candidate must obtain signatures from registered voters, in an amount equalling at least one percent of the total votes cast in the prior gubernatorial election. For the 2006 ballot, this would require 45,540 signatures. (This is also the number of signatures required for a third party to gain ballot access, which only the Libertarian Party has done.)
*The signatures must come from registered voters who did not vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries or in any runoff elections for Governor.
*The signatures must come from registered voters who have not signed a petition for any other independent candidate. In other words, a Strayhorn supporter cannot also sign Friedman's petition, nor vice versa. If a supporter signed more than one petition, only the first signature counts.
*The signatures must be obtained within 60 days following the primary election; the window is shortened to 30 days if a runoff election for either party's gubernatorial candidate is required. In 2006, neither party had a runoff election for Governor; therefore, the candidates had the full 60 days – until May 11, 2006.

In the event a candidate does not qualify for independent status, they may still run as a write-in candidate. The candidate must pay a $3,750 filing fee and submit 5,000 qualified signatures. However, the filing cannot take place any earlier than July 30, nor later than 5:00 PM on August 29.

Election results

"Percent change available only for parties that participated in the 2002 Texas gubernatorial election."Election box begin
title=Texas general election, 2006: Governor [cite web | url = http://elections.sos.state.tx.us/elchist.exe | title = 2006 General Election | accessdate = 2007-01-02 | publisher = Office of the Secretary of State (Texas)] Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (US)
candidate = Rick Perry
votes = 1,716,803
percentage = 39.03
change = -18.78Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (US)
candidate = Chris Bell
votes = 1,310,353
percentage = 29.79
change = -10.17Election box candidate with party link
party = Independent (politician)|Independent
candidate = Carole Keeton Strayhorn
votes = 797,577
percentage = 18.13
change = Election box candidate with party link
party = Independent (politician)|Independent
candidate = Richard “Kinky” Friedman
votes = 546,869
percentage = 12.43
change = Election box candidate with party link
party = Libertarian Party (United States)
candidate = James Werner
votes = 26,748
percentage = 0.61
change = -0.86Election box candidate with party link
party = Independent (politician)|Independent
candidate = James “Patriot” Dillon
votes = 718
percentage = 0.02
change = Election box majority
votes = 406,450
percentage = 9.24
change = Election box turnout
votes = 4,399,068
percentage =
change = -3.40Election box hold with party link no swing
winner = Republican Party (US)

Polling

"* denotes polling result winner is within the margin of error"

"** denotes data was not reported by the pollster"

ee also

* U.S. gubernatorial elections, 2006

External links

* [http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/txconst The Texas Constitution]
* [http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections Texas Secretary of State Elections info]
* [http://www.rickperry.org Rick Perry Campaign]
* [http://www.werner4texas.com James Werner Campaign]
* [http://www.carolestrayhorn.com Carole Keeton Strayhorn Campaign]
* [http://www.chrisbell.com Chris Bell Campaign]
* [http://www.kinkyfriedman.com Richard "Kinky" Friedman Campaign]
* [http://www.txgreens.org/ Texas Green 2006 Candidates]
* [http://www.tx.lp.org/ Libertarian Party of Texas]

Citations