Kinky Leads In Number Of Donors

Kinky Friedman, independent candidate for governor of Texas, leads all his opponents in the number of people who have contributed to his campaign. While Perry and Strayhorn lead in the total amount of money collected for their campaigns, Kinky has a huge lead in the number of donors. Kinky's supporters may not be rich enough to write large checks like the donors of his opponents, but the large number of them attests to his continuing popularity.

Texans for Public Justice is a non-profit organization that tracks campaign donations. Its president, Craig McDonald, says, "I think he's tapping into the anti-politics, anti-incumbent crowd in Texas and beyond. Many have probably rarely, if ever, given to candidates." Kinky says, "I think it's that we have given people hope. They think we can do it. The young people are inspired now and inspiring me."

Since January, 17,000 Texans have donated money to Kinky's campaign. In contrast, Perry had 3,300 in-state donors, while Bell had 1,300 and Grandma had 1,200. Kinky had nearly three times the number of Texas donors as the other three candidates combined.

Kinky also led in the number of out-of-state contributions. Kinky gets 17% of his total donations from out-of-state. Surprisingly, Kinky is now third in total money raised since January. Here's how it stands:

Perry..........$4.7 million
Grandma..........$3.1 million
Kinky..........$1.5 million
Bell..........$1.2 million

A lot of Democrats and Republicans want to write off Kinky's campaign as a joke, but it looks like the people have a different view.