Daily Campus

Issue date: 10/6/06 Section: News

Media Credit: John Schreiber Independent candidate for governor Kinky Friedman tips his hat to the audience after taking the stage Thursday in the Hughes-Trigg Commons. Program Council's Speaker's Committee brought Friedman to campus as a part of their Election 2006 series.

Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman made a stop at SMU yesterday afternoon to talk about his campaign issues.

Friedman strolled into a packed Hughes-Trigg Commons fashionably late with his trademark cigar and cowboy hat and dove into some of the theatrics surrounding his candidacy.

As he was introduced in a manner more accustomed to professional wrestling than politics, Friedman took the stage and wasted no time in tearing into his opponents.

"Recently I showed a friend of mine around Austin, and he stopped and told me what a beautiful statue we have up at the Capitol," recounted a grinning Friedman. "I told him 'that's not a statue up there, that's Rick Perry.'"

This same off the cuff, half-joking and half-serious tone persisted for the remainder of the afternoon as Friedman continued to take shots at his fellow candidates and offered up enough one-liners to fill his 10-gallon hat.

In between his display of witty wordplay and criticism of gubernatorial candidates Perry, Democrat Chris Bell and Independent "Grandma" Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Friedman spoke of legalizing gambling in Texas and the state's dire need for an improvement of its education system. Friedman's research has found that legalizing gambling could create a possible $6- $10 billion that would directly benefit education.

He promised that while gambling might sound threatening to some, in reality it was the next logical step in funding the state's failing education system.

"There are five other states surrounding ours that have legalized gambling." Remarked Friedman, "Go to a casino in any one of these places and it's full of Texans. Texans want to gamble, and these states are stealing our potential tax revenue."

Friedman went on to address people being left out and left behind all across the state. He stressed the importance of everything from broken Social Security and Medicare programs to helping out people he thinks are the most in need right now in Texas: its public servants.

Continued...

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