Kinky makes case for governor

Kinky Friedman says that it’s time to stop telling one of his favorite jokes — that he’s too young for Medicare and too old for women too care.

Friedman celebrates his 65th birthday today, and he spent part of the week leading up to the big day in Odessa, where some greeted the musician, author and Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate like a rock star with bigger hits than "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and your Buns in Bed," "The Ballad of Charles Whitman" and "(Expletive) from El Paso."

Hunter Cunningham, 19, was jubilant after meeting Friedman at Wednesday’s Local Heroes Banquet at Odessa Country Club. He even got one of Friedman’s personal brand cigars.

"I was about to ask him what he smoked, and he was like, ‘Would you like a cigar, Hunter?’ " Cunningham said. "I was like, ‘Yes sir!’ "

Before the banquet, which was put on by the Ector County Democratic Party, Friedman stopped by the Odessa American’s offices, where he discussed the governor’s race, which has so far been defined by sniping between Republicans Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking a third full term, and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has said she will resign in order to face Perry in the March 2 primary.

"I think Rick and Kay are certainly the ‘Battle of the Cheerleaders,’ " Friedman said. "They were both cheerleaders in college, and before that I believe they were hall monitors. We have the ‘Clash of the Plastic Titans.’ "

Friedman, who is running in the 2010 Democratic primary after finishing fourth out of four major candidates in the 2006 governor’s race with a little more than 12 percent of the vote, said the fight between Perry and Hutchison will benefit the Democrats.

"This is going to deliver a lot of heat and very little light and leave the Republican Party very divided and no time to heal," Friedman said. "It’s going to offer the Democrats a great opportunity."

And the former singer for Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys hopes that his black cowboy hat wearing, cigar-toting image is just the thing to rise to the top of the "coat and tie" Democratic establishment that hasn’t won a statewide race since 1994.

"They’re a very small group, but they are the ones who have presided over the party the last 17 years," Friedman said.

But he says he doesn’t mean that as a slight against the other Democrats in the race, which right now includes rancher Hank Gilbert and Tom Schieffer, a former ambassador to Japan and partner in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

"I don’t know these guys, most of ’em, but I believe any of ’em would be better than Rick or Kay," said Friedman, who said he’s been a Democrat all his life except for the 2006 race and when he ran for justice of the peace in Kerrville in 1986.

The issue Friedman brings up first is education. He plans to end the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test and give all teachers a $3,000 annual pay raise.

As for higher education, Friedman said state colleges are charging too much, and it’s time to stop allowing them to set their own tuition rates, as they’ve done since 2003. According to the College Board, tuition at four-year public universities in Texas has risen to $7,347, which is now higher than the national average.

"The colleges are filthy rich, and the kids are broke," he said. "You’ve got to go after this tuition thing — re-regulate, re-re-regulate — that’s what we’ve got to do."

Friedman said more Texans should run vehicles on biodiesel, like his friends Willie Nelson and Neil Young have done with their tour buses for years. He suggests placing alternative fuel stations on highways every few hundred miles.

Friedman also suggests putting a one-half percent "surcharge" on big oil and gas companies and giving the money to teachers — an idea that many wouldn’t think would go over well in the oil-rich Permian Basin. But Friedman said they might see things differently.

"Not only will it be the best PR that they’ve ever had, but we don’t buy that oil here anyways. It goes up to the Yankees," he said.

Toll roads in general and Perry’s proposed Trans-Texas Corridor are something Friedman said he’d do away with. He’ll pay to buy back the state’s current toll roads using revenue from casino gambling, which he wants legalized.

"You’ve got all of North Texas going to Oklahoma," he said. "You’ve got everybody in East Texas going to church on Sunday morning and then going to Shreveport to build the roads in Louisiana."

Friedman said he feels good about how he’s doing as the campaign season heats up. When asked about how he’ll do in the Basin, he flashes back to his days working with the Peace Corps in Borneo, and how he said the children there revered Texas.

"When I talk about the children of the world, this is what they’re looking at, not Dallas or Houston," he said. "They’re looking at ‘Giant’ and ‘The Last Picture Show.’ They see rural Texas as what determines Texas, and that’s what we’ve got to hold on to and protect."