Filing Finished

All the filing finished yesterday and the big news was, of course, Carole ETC's announcement that she will run in Kinky's Party, I mean as an Independent.

Chris Bell's reaction is that he likes his chances in a 4-way race against three Republicans, 3 Republicans, 1 Democrat:

The race is now going to come down to 3 Republicans and one Democrat. All Chris Bell has to do is get Democrats to vote for a Democrat, and he'’ll win.

Bob Gammage had this to say, Strayhorn Defection Bad News for Perry:

"This is bad news for Rick Perry and great news for Texas. This guarantees that Rick Perry will have two strong opponents shedding light on his shortcomings all the way to November. There are plenty of decent Republicans out there who are fed up with Perry, Tom DeLay and the corrupt GOP Leadership."

The Morning News tells us how the GOP majority, whatever it will be, will be further to the right (and some other info too), Filings point out faint rifts in Legislature:

The filings suggest that House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, could preside over a chamber where dissenters have been squeezed aside: Republicans who defied the speaker on meat-and-potatoes conservative issues find themselves challenged by conservatives from within the party.

And don't forget what the "conservative meant-and-potatoes" are, James Leininger and vouchers.

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[UPDATE] Anotther interesting tidbit I just thought of after reading this article and this paragraph in particualr:

Both Strayhorn and Perry are former Democrats who switched to the GOP in the 1980s as the party rose to political dominance.

Kinky's the only one, of the "big" names that is, not to have run for office as a Democrat.