He'd get my vote for ANY office he ran for - from governor of New York to the presidency. He's got a lot of ideas that I agree with.

BTW, the nickname "Kinky" refers to his hair, which he has had a lifelong problem managing.

Here's the latest on his campaign:

Sunday Herald - 29 October 2006

Kinky Friedman: the next governor of Texas?
From Marion McKeone in Fort Worth



OUTSIDE Kinky Friedman??s Fort Worth headquarters, crowds are waiting for America??s most unlikely candidate to sign an array of items, from tanned midriffs to Kinky Talking Dolls. ??The strangest thing I??ve ever been asked to autograph,? he says as he dispatches his silver inked scrawl on a piece of flimsy underwear, ??was in Glasgow. A Scotsman insisted that I autograph his scrotum.?
Did he oblige? ??Well,? he grins, ??he was bigger than me. It would have been churlish to refuse.?

Welcome to the Kinky Friedman gubernational campaign. Where High Noon meets South Park. Where the candidate is a 61-year-old Texan Jew who dresses in an all-black preacher-style outfit, complete with cowboy hat and an elaborate leather waistcoat that was a gift from Waylon Jennings. Where Lucille O??Brien, 100 years old, wears a T-shirt that declares: ??I??m saving myself for Kinky,? and billionaire realtors sport sweatshirts that pronounce November 7, 2006 ??Texas Independence Day?. John Steinbeck described Texas as ??a nation in every sense of the word?.

This might explain why, with mid-term elections looming, Texas has become an electoral ground zero, a focus for a creeping discontent that has seeped through all 50 states during the second term of the Bush presidency.

Last time around, the candidates spent $100 million on a race that nobody noticed: 71% of eligible voters stayed at home and Republican incumbent Rick Perry was declared the victor to a response of withering lethargy.

This time, things are different, Friedman, a former country singer, novelist and satirist has injected a shot of adrenaline into a comatose race.

While his political rivals were laying the foundations of their political careers, Friedman was chopping out lines of cocaine on Led Zeppelin??s private jet en route to performances with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan.

That this, in the view of many Americans, makes Kinky Friedman supremely qualified to become the next governor of Texas, tells you something about the level of disenchantment with career politicians. Invariably, the loudest cheer on Friedman??s campaign stop comes when he declares: ??I??m the only candidate running who has no political experience.?

Pointing out that his three rivals have, between them, clocked up 89 years in politics, he concludes that ??politics must be the only job where the more experience you have the worse you get?. He cheerfully proclaims himself ??too young for Medicare, too old for women to care?, and supports gay marriage on the basis that ??gays have every right to be as miserable as the rest of us?. A self-described ??compassionate redneck?, he??s running on an unlikely combination of education reform, environmental protection and the legalisation of gambling in Texas.

Friedman??s stump speech, delivered in his rasping Texan drawl, while chomping down on a Cuban cigar, never fails to spark a standing ovation. The rapier-like ripostes always find their mark but campaign manager Dean Bartley, who masterminded Jesse Ventura??s surprise victory in Minnesota, says the campaign is no joke. There is a difference, he says, between taking what one does seriously and taking oneself seriously.

It??s a distinction that has been lost on many politicians, but the Bush White House has been watching closely of late. Bush strategist Karl Rove thinks Friedman poses a serious enough threat to warrant dispatching Bush to Texas to campaign for Perry.

When he??s asked who would be the first lady of Texas, he??ll call out casually to Little Jewford, his sidekick and road manager: ??Ya doin?? anything on the eight of November?? To which Little Jewford shrugs and replies: ??It??s a gig, I guess.?

But there is a first lady waiting in the wings, a green-eyed Londoner half his age who is smart, funny and immensely likeable.

Back in August, Friedman predicted that he would be ??swift-boated? ?? a reference to the dirty tricks campaign against John Kerry. He was right. Notwithstanding a record of activism against segregation, charges of racism were levelled by the Democrat candidate, Chris Bell. When Bell asked him to withdraw from the race, Friedman retorted: ??We don??t negotiate with terrorists.?

As with all rollercoaster rides, there is a good chance that this one will derail or reach a shuddering halt short of the finish. Right now polls of likely voters put Friedman 20 points behind Perry.

Friedman shrugs and says: ??We??re going after the 71% of unlikely voters. So we??ll either win by a landslide or we??ll get well and truly whupped.?

The key is voter turn-out. If the voters stay home again, Perry will win. If, on the other hand, the hundreds of thousands of Texans, who have been lining Friedman??s campaign trail turn out in the same numbers on election day, he just might pull off the biggest upset in Texas since the Alamo.

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