Texas: Strayhorn, toll roads and Primary Screenout

Strayhorn blasts Perry over toll road contract
KELLEY SHANNONAssociated Press Contra Costa TimesMay 31, 2006
AUSTIN - Independent candidate for governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn chided Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday for keeping secret the details of a state contract with a private company building Texas' colossal highway toll system.
It's been exactly a year since Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled a contract between the state transportation department and Cintra-Zachry is public information, Strayhorn said.
"We need government in the sunshine," Strayhorn said. "I'm calling on Gov. Perry to order his transportation department to drop its lawsuit and release to all Texans the secret contract with a foreign company.".... [more]

Rock Howard (Libertarian) writes:
Republicans Hurt Own Cause 2006-05-30 ...In the last general session the Republican Party killed the bill I had drafted to improve ballot access in Texas by ending the practice of "Primary Screenout" (which is the archaic rule that says that primary voters can't sign petitions for independents or other political parties trying to get on the ballot.) A few months after the bill (HB 1721) was killed in committee I heard the scuttlebutt that a Republican strategist had decided that the bill would help Kinky Friedman too much. (Strayhorn was not yet running as an independent at that time.)
Killing the bill did not prevent Kinky or Carol from picking up their required signatures, but it significantly impacted the Green Party efforts to get on the ballot. It should not have mattered since petition signers are allowed to sign for both an independent candidate and a political party, but apparently many of the Friedman and Strayhorn petition gathers told their signers to play it safe and not sign any other petitions for fear of possible invalidation. .... [more]