Carole Strayhon wants to be Comptroller again, this time as a Democrat. But to say her political history is complicated is something of an understatement. She has run for everything from school board to governor, operating under three different political labels.
First elected in Austin as Carole Keeton McClellan to the school board, she was the city’s mayor in the late 1970s. She was a Democrat.
She divorced, remarried, switched parties. Carole Keeton Rylander then ran unsuccessfully for Congress. She ran (and won) an election to the Railroad Commission, divorced, then ran for Comptroller. As comptroller she married again (to Mr. Strayhorn), left the GOP in 2006 to challenge incumbent Rick Perry as an Independent.
She came in third.
Earlier this year, she tried to run again as mayor of Austin, and again came in third.
According to Jason Embry at the Austin American Statesman, she recently reached out to the Texas Democratic Party to gauge their interest in her running for Comptroller. They didn’t say no.
For the record, incumbent Comptroller Susan Combs has done a remarkable job — promoting transparency and encouraging costs savings. The job of comptroller shouldn’t be a glamorous one; it’s all work, and all about managing the state’s checkbook. But Combs has been getting the work done with the kind of grace we haven’t seen in that office in a very, very long time.
But back to Strayhorn. The former Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent-retreaded-Democrat now wants back the job she left, but from the first party she left. How would one introduce her on the campaign trail (former school board, mayor, failed congressional candidate, former commission, comptroller and losing gubernatorial candidate who couldn’t get re-elected mayor)? Or describe her party affiliation(s) — D, R, I, D?
Maybe this movie can clear things up:
