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Friedman, Strayhorn Get on Texas Ballot

AUSTIN, Texas - Maverick gubernatorial candidates Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn learned Thursday that they had each collected enough valid voter signatures to make it onto the November ballot.

Not one but two viable independent candidates have made the ballot for the first time in nearly 150 years," Friedman, a musician and author, said in a statement. "This tells us what we've long suspected: the two-party system has failed our state."

Both Strayhorn and Friedman turned in far more petition names by the May 11 deadline than the 45,540 required. Strayhorn submitted some 223,000 signatures and Friedman submitted 169,574.

Strayhorn, the state comptroller who bills herself as "one tough grandma," is the mother of former Bush administration press secretary Scott McClellan.

The last independent to be elected Texas governor was Sam Houston in 1859.