1. Ventura was the only independent in the race in Minnesota; Kinky has to share that appellation with Grandma.
2. The media market is MUCH different. In Minnesota, the only major media market is Minneapolis-St. Paul. Outside of that, you have the medium-small markets of Rochester, Duluth and Moorhead. MSP makes up half the state’s population.
Here, though, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are each as big as the entire state of Minnesota. Austin and San Antonio are both major media markets as well. El Paso is a semi-major market. McAllen/Lower Valley and Laredo/Middle Valley are both midlevel markets. Abilene, Midland/Odessa, Amarillo, Waco/Temple/Belton and Longview/Marshall are all as big as, if not bigger, than all of the non-MSP markets in Minnesota.
In short, it takes a LOT of money for TV buys to compete in a statewide race in Texas. The Internet hasn’t changed things that much — at least not yet.
Name recognition may offset some of that, but it’s not like Kinky, nickname and all, has the same recognition level as The Redheaded Stranger himself, Mr. Willie Nelson.
3. The “getting serious” factor. Kinky could have been better coached than he was for the Oct. 5 debate without being sanitized or put in lockdown. And he wasn’t. Ventura had actually had previous political experience, so he didn’t need quite as much coaching or handling.
So, that leaves Grandma and Verizon wondering if they can’t get voters to coalesce behind them to knock off Gov. Helmethair.
3 comments:
While it's always been the case that Kinky has an uphill slog to get to the Governor's mansion, it's also the case that he's defied conventional wisdom so far. First he wasn't going to get on the ballot (he wound up getting more signatures than Strayhorn). Then he was going to quickly fade away to single-digit polling (on the contrary, he's polled strongly and has drawn more fire from Perry than Bell and from Bell than Strayhorn, indicating that they think he's a threat.)
Other comparisons between this race and Jesse's worth considering:
1) Kinky's consistently (i.e. in every poll, including the ones most recently released) polled better than Jesse Ventura did during his gubernatorial bid. And Jesse was running in a three way race.
2)Texas has a higher percentage of registered non-nonvoters (people who are eligible to vote but don't) than Minnesota did. This makes the same-day voter registration issue less pressing than it is sometimes made out to be.
First, I'm not saying that Kinky might not finish higher than fourth. But Perry has a core that's not going to drop much more, and I just can't see Kinky jumping that high.
And, I've not been surprised by everything that's happened, contrary to some experts.
I expected him to get more ballot signatures than Grandma, for example. And, until a couple of months ago, if for no other reason than as a protest vote, I would have voted for him myself.
But, when he crossed over the line into religious intolerance with his "love Jesus or go to hell" comments, then more and more of his supporters were of the type to call Perry a "Republican in name only," I started running away from that idea as fast as I could.
"Stop Kinky," I'm with you.
First, you are correct that Jesse had a party; it just wasn't a "major" party, so even I occasionally lapse when doing the comparison/contrast.
Also, as I noted, he had held previous political office, so had "smoother edges" than Kinky.
Second, I was still halfway willing to consider Kinky as a protest vote until his "love Jesus or go to hell" comment, which was wayyy too much.
And, on another post of mine, one respondant called Perry a RINO, as noted in this post, so I know where Kinky-istas are largely coming from.
On the border, I know most cities in the Valley are up in arms just about a fence, let alone martial law.
That said, I'm sorry but Verizon (Can you hear me now) Bell doesn't excite me a lot. And, more unfortunately, the Green Party has still been unable to qualify for the ballot. If I do vote for Bell, it will be with no enthusiasm.
And, that's a sign that the Democratic party still has a hell of a ways to go in the state.
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