Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, or “One Tough Grandma” as she has hoped to be known by on the ballot, is no outsider or new addition to Texas politics. Her decision to run as an Independent should surprise nobody, due to the fact that this is the third switch she has made since she became involved in politics. One of her first real involvements in politics was in 1984, serving as the campaign co-chair for Travis County to elect Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale.

Since then, she has switched from Democrat to Republican to Independent, her views on the issues changing with each flip. On the issues, she stresses the importance of education like every candidate does, and has for many years. The only problem with this is that her values on this important issue change with her party affiliation as well, especially on the subject of school vouchers. When it comes to issues, Strayhorn has plenty of opinions, but she won’t publicize them as the rest of her fellow gubernatorial candidates have.

Now in deciding who we want to vote for in elections, we have a wonderful tool in our candidate’s campaign website! That is, unless you‘re looking for information on where “Grandma” Strayhorn stands. I took a look at the different candidate’s sites, and most are good indicators of where each candidate stands on issues like education, tax reform, immigration and the like. Republican Governor Perry has his list of achievements since he’s been governor and some things he wants to initiate in his next term. Democratic Candidate Chris Bell has a detailed list of where he stands on quite a few issues. James Werner, Libertarian candidate has a very detailed platform as well, and a nifty “Name the Guv” contest where people can give him a nickname. Even Kinky Friedman has a tougher outline on his stance on the critical things that affect Texas.

Have a look at Strayhorn’s website, www.onetoughgrandma.com, and there is no platform or issues page. There’s a weak interview page where she outlines her stance on a couple of things halfheartedly. This is typical for the famous flip-flopping Strayhorn. Grandma Strayhorn is no free spirit to politics as she wants the voters of Texas to believe. According to the Houston Chronicle, Strayhorn (before she was Strayhorn, of course) is quoted in 1985 as saying “I have been a lifelong Democrat, but I'm going to spend the rest of my life vigorously and wholeheartedly in the GOP.” More flip-flops include her stance on abortion. In 1990, she publicly told the Greater Austin Right to Life that she supported overturning Roe v. Wade, but has since changed her position. She’s pulled the same flip with her stance on school vouchers, which she now thinks needs to be taken out of discussion entirely.

In addition to her inability to stick with a stance on an issue, problems are also beginning to rise for the Strayhorn campaign. On August 9^th, 2006, the Associated Press printed a story about Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell issuing a call for Comptroller Strayhorn to return 29,500 dollars in campaign donations given between November of 2000 and June of 2004. These donations came from a family that is now heavily involved in the building of the Trans-Texas Corridor, which is more than 4000 miles of tollways, railways, gas lines and lots of utilities across the state. Bell and Strayhorn have both campaigned harshly against the Trans-Texas Corridor, which was introduced by Governor Perry in 2002. Bell claims that “we can't believe a word she says about stopping toll roads until she returns every cent she's taken from the company that's building the toll roads.”

There are quite a few candidates running for Governor of our glorious state of Texas. We should want what’s best for Texas, and as far as I’m concerned, the worst thing we could do is elect Strayhorn as our governor. Even if I disagree with a few of the candidates, they have at least had the strength to have a clear stance on the things they believe in. So far, it seems that the only thing that Carole Keeton Strayhorn believes in is herself. That’s great for a third grader, but Texas deserves better.