Gov. Perry Is An Ill Wind Blowing

Texas can add their governor to the list of natural disasters.

In 2006 incumbent Gov. Rick Perry received a mere 31 percent of the total votes. The translation of that is 69 percent of Texas voters did NOT want Perry to be elected. Certainly, there must be a reason for that.

Despite earning less than 50 percent of the total number of votes, Texas law does NOT require a run-off of gubernatorial candidates in a general election. He who gets the most votes becomes governor. Perry was very lucky to have run against a strong Democrat (Chris Bell) and two equally hardy independent candidates in Carol Keeton Strayhorn and Richard “Kinky” Friedman. Texas votes were divided mostly to these four candidates and Perry was able to squeeze-out the win. To hear Perry gloat after the election, you would have thought he won by 95 percent.

In any case, Texans had to accept the fact that Perry was governor for the next four years.

Perry is one of the worst governors Texans ever had. While he was incorrigible for most hardworking folks, he was a boon to his special interest industries, e.g., insurance, health care, transportation, electric