Today was the deadline to file as a candidate for the 2006 elections here in Texas. The big news is that Carole Keeton Strayhorn (or Rylander or whatever the hell her last name is these days) has filed as an independent and not a republican. This allows her to avoid a nasty primary battle for the GOP nomination with our current governor, Rick Perry. It looks to be a four-way race between Perry, Strayhorn, the winner of the democratic primary (Bell or Gammage?) and Kinky Friedman. There’s a lot of speculation going on around the Texas political blogosphere. Check out Off the Kuff, Burnt Orange Report or Pink Dome among others for more info going forward.

Both Strayhorn and Friedman have to collect enough signatures before they’re official and apparently those signatures have to come from people who do not vote in either the republican or democratic primary as I understand it. This means that if you’re going to push for Friedman or Strayhorn, you’ll want to abstain from voting in the primary? I guess they check that on your voter registration? How does that work? What if you vote in some other races in the primary, but abstain from picking a nominee for governor in either party?

For those not familiar with Texas politics, you should pay attention, because what’s been going on here for the last 20 years was a breeding ground for Rove et al. You should also know that Strayhorn is White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s mother, which is enough to make me avoid her like the plague no matter how much trouble she causes for Perry.

Update: Here’s some more admittedly left-leaning analysis on the race.