It probably doesn’t sound like much to say that the Austin Chronicle has endorsed Chris Bell for Governor. As they themselves note, they “almost always endorse Democrats”. The reason why this is noteworthy is that their readership is at the forefront of Kinky Friedman worship. Take a look at the “Politics and Personalities” section of their Best of Austin awards. Friedman wins for Best Citizen, Best News Story, and Best Visionary. Now look at what they have to say about him in endorsing Bell:
As Bell pointed out at the opening of the only televised debate, he in truth faces three Republican opponents (plus one). Like many Chronicle readers, we initially welcomed the anti-Bush novelty of maverick Kinky Friedman. But however entertaining as a candidate, if Friedman were actually elected, the joke would be on everyday Texans. He has no real interest in the crucial details of governance. He has chosen positions out of whim and ignorance (such as martial law on the border, or quickly dissipating a budget “surplus” visible only to him). Along the campaign trail, he has made no effort to learn anything new or from his mistakes. (The last denizen of the Mansion with Friedman’s Know-Nothing approach to governance is now in the White House.)
Ouch. Bell needs to run up a decent margin in Travis County if he’s going to have any hope of winning. If Friedman has lost the AusChron crowd, the odds of that happening are better today than they were a week ago.
More good news for Bell: the WSJ/Zogby Interactive poll now has him at 26.2%, his best showing ever, with Strayhorn and Friedman each down at 13%. Perry is up as well, to 37.5%, but Bell is showing signs of consolidating the anti-Perry vote. According to Bob Ray Sanders of the Star Telegram, there’s real enthusiasm for Bell now. As noted by BOR, the Texans for Insurance Reform PAC did a followup to its pre-debate poll in which Bell placed fourth, and now has him in second, gaining almost six points. The Cook Political Report has changed the race from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican”.
All of this is tempered for me somewhat by the Houston Chron’s odd endorsement of Carole Keeton Strayhorn (as I blog this, the chron.com site is down), which I’ll get to shortly. But still, this has been a good week for Chris Bell.
UPDATE: Edited to reflect that the AusChron’s Best of Austin awards were given by their readers and not the paper’s editors, and to clarify that while the AusChron endorsed Bell, the HouChron went with Strayhorn.
As I recall they endorsed Bush for a second term. Dumb Ducks.
The Chronicle went to granny. She wants to shake up Austin. Hell she has only been there all of her fuckin life!
Where has she been?
Just making the clarification that AusChron READERS named Kinky those things. The AusChron staff endorsements are a bit different.
john cobarruvias: I think you must have accidentally posted comments about the Houston Chronicle under the Austin Chronicle post. I can assure you that WE did not endorse Bush or Strayhorn. (Actually, as I re-read the post, Kuff seems to have made that mix-up first.)
And yes, Kimmy, thanks for making the distinction between our readers’ opinions and our staff’s opinions. Kuff, if you’re going to accuse us of “Kinky worship,” I hope you have more to base it on than our BOA awards.
And at what point did we become “mainstream media”? I’m not sure if I should feel complimented or offended. 🙂
(Lee Nichols, Associate News Editor, AUSTIN Chronicle)
Lee – Thanks for the feedback. I use “Chron” to describe the Houston Chronicle, and “AusChron” for the Austin Chronicle. I should have been clearer in this case.
My apologies regarding the BOA stuff. I took those awards to be the editorial staff’s and not the readers’. I have edited the post to reflect this, and to make the Hou/AusChron distinction plainer.
Here is the distinction: Readers Picks are just that, and Critics Picks are from our staff.