One Litigious Grandma is wearing out a path to the courthouse.
Independent candidate for governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn sued the Texas secretary of state today in her attempt to have the nickname “Grandma” listed along with her full name on the Nov. 7 ballot.
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Strayhorn’s attorney, Roy Minton, filed the lawsuit in state district court. It alleges that Williams denied Strayhorn the right to have her nickname on the ballot as provided for by the Texas Election Code.
Minton stated that the word “Grandma” has never been a slogan. Minton has said that Strayhorn began using the name when she became a grandmother in 1994.
Oh, for God’s sake. Does this mean I get to be “Daddy” on the ballot if I ever run for office? It’s a name I’ve been called since 2004, after all. I’m losing IQ points just contemplating the depths of this argument.
The secretary of state said he took several factors into account in deciding Strayhorn’s ballot name request. He noted that Strayhorn has never appeared on an election ballot under the name “Grandma” and that her declaration of intent to run as an independent, as well as her petitions to get on the ballot, listed her as “Carole Keeton Strayhorn.”
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“This is not the first time that Carole Strayhorn has sued Secretary Williams for upholding Texas’ law,” Williams’ spokesman Scott Haywood said. He said they were confident the courts would agree with Williams’ interpretation of the Texas Election Code.
Maybe if Strayhorn spent as much time on the campaign trail as she did in the courthouse, she wouldn’t need to pull BS stunts like this to prop up her candidacy.
Honestly. Carole Keeton Strayhorn used to be a sharp and savvy politician, one who wasn’t easily pigeonholed and who certainly wasn’t afraid to buck the party line. When exactly did she become a bad parody of herself? Is there no one on her campaign staff to explain to her why this is such a joke?
The Chron gave her a pretty solid slap yesterday, before she actually filed suit.
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign spokesman, Robert Black, accused Strayhorn of throwing a “childish temper tantrum.” No doubt the governor would breathe easier if Strayhorn were not in the race, but Strayhorn’s “grandma” strategy, far from being a display of temper, has shrewdly kept her name in the news and will continue to do so should she make good on her threat to sue Williams.
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Texas has a long, ignoble and continuing history of candidates who run for office only in the hope that their familiar-sounding names will attract sufficient votes. Unqualified candidates named Houston and Crockett and Yarbrough have been disastrously elected or come dangerously close to defeating superior candidates.
Had the secretary of state allowed Strayhorn to embrace “grandma” on the ballot, there would be little to prevent candidates from filing as “Rick the Business-minded,” or “Chris the Virtuous.” Fortunately, every so often a limit is applied to the transparent ploys politicians hope will give them unearned advantage.
Any time you’re being compared to the likes of Sam Texas and The Wrong Don Yarbrough, you’ve really gone off the rails. The Express News says it’s time to “move on to more serious matters, such as the issues that actually affect the lives of Texans”. And the best quip of them all goes to Paul Bourgeois:
Being a whiner and a bad loser are such attractive attributes in any candidate, don’t you think?
Hey, here’s a nickname that might work: Carole Keeton “One Big Crybaby” Strayhorn.
… or she could suck it up and try being a serious candidate for a change.
Kinky is a joke. Why does she feel the need to compete?
Gotta love a twofer.
UPDATE: PerryVsWorld weighs in.
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