Gilbert Drags Campaign Into The Gutter

The Republican primary campaign for governor has been in the gutter for a while now, but I was hoping the Democrats would conduct their primary campaign on a higher level than that. It looks like that hope was in vain. Hank Gilbert has decided to attack one of his opponents with nothing more than rumor and innuendo.

In a Parker county speech last Saturday, Gilbert accused Kinky Friedman (pictured above) of accepting $100,000 from the Rick Perry campaign to run in 2006 and drain votes from the Democratic candidate (Chris Bell).

Gilbert admitted he had no proof of this and said his comment was based on "rumor after rumor after rumor." He went on to say, "We heard that Perry had $100,000 paid through a donor to get him (Friedman) in that race in '06. We don't have any confirmation. We just know he's back in the race now."

That's some pretty low campaigning, to attack an opponent with unsubstantiated rumors. Is Gilbert really that afraid that Friedman might beat him in the commentary? Even the right-wing candidate, Tom Schieffer, hasn't resorted to this kind of slimy tactic.

And it's a pretty silly rumor to begin with. Friedman received over $6 million in contributions in that campaign from his followers. Is it reasonable to believe he could be bought with a measly hundred grand? That's nothing in a Texas state-wide campaign.

Gilbert knows that a lot of maverick Democrats like Kinky Friedman. I'm one of them actually. So he's trying to tar Friedman by tying him to Rick Perry. He also would like us to think that Friedman cost the Democratic candidate the election in 2006 by running as an independent. Neither is true.

As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Politex blog says, it was Carole Strayhorn ("One Tough Grandma") who pulled most of her votes from the Democratic candidate. Exit polls showed that Friedman pulled about an equal amount of votes from each party. Both parties would have benefitted equally if he had not been in the race.

Friedman did not cost the Democrats the governorship in 2006. They lost that race because that had a poor and under financed candidate who was unknown to most Texans.

Although I'm a Kinky Friedman supporter, I was thinking I could easily support Hank Gilbert if he beat Kinky in the primary. But if he doesn't pull his campaign out of the gutter, I could change my mind about that. I could always skip the governor's race when marking my ballot.

Come on Mr. Gilbert. You're better than that!