Wheels Coming Off Gilbert Campaign

I have not commented on the race for the Texas Agriculture Commissioner in the Democratic primary. That is because I respect both men (Kinky Friedman and Hank Gilbert), and I was a bit angry with both of them for dropping out of the governor's race -- leaving us facing the awful prospect of the nomination of Blue Dog Bill White (after seeing what the blue dogs did to hurt America in the last year, there's no way I could ever vote for one).

I had decided to just sit back and see whether Texas Democrats chose the populist (Friedman) or the progressive (Gilbert). In fact, I wasn't absolutely sure which of the two I was going to vote for in the March primary. But then the wheels started to come flying off the Gilbert campaign wagon.

The trouble started soon after Gilbert dropped out of the governor's race. When he dropped out, he surprised most political observers by throwing his support to Farouk Shami instead of Blue Dog Bill. It later came out that Shami gave at least a $100,000 to Gilbert's campaign for Ag. Commissioner. Personally, I think Gilbert is an honest man who can't be bought, but this has left at least the perception that he was paid to endorse Shami -- and that's not good.

Then an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News made the claim that Gilbert has been driving on an expired Texas driving license and refuses to use his seat belt. His campaign admitted both were true and offered some pretty weak excuses -- he hasn't had time to get the license renewed and his rather substantial girth makes a seat belt uncomfortable.

Of course, those were ridiculous excuses. Millions of Texans find the time to obey the law and get their licenses renewed. In fact, you can even get it done by mail. As for the seat belt, many others are rather rotund (including myself) and they still obey Texas law and buckle up. At the very least, Gilbert (pictured) is showing himself to be a poor role model (especially for someone who wants to be an elected state leader).

A few days ago, the campaign again blundered. After meeting with National Farmer's Union president Roger Johnson, Gilbert announced that Johnson had endorsed him to be Texas Agriculture Commissioner. The only problem with that is Mr. Johnson said he had NOT made any endorsement in the race.

Again the campaign came up with a rather weak excuse for the error. They said they'd been getting so many endorsements that they just made a mistake. That sounds like a pretty egregious mistake. Is the campaign so disorganized that it can't even keep something as simple as an endorsement straight?

Gilbert ran a pretty good campaign in 2006. Even though he didn't win, he actually got more votes than the Democratic candidate for governor did. But his 2010 campaign seems to be a comedy of errors.

It looks like I'll be climbing back on the Kinky Friedman bandwagon after all.