Relative unknowns among candidates for state's highest office
Editor's note: This is one in a series of stories on the March 4 primary elections. Each day this week a different statewide race will be featured, leading up to the local election guide in Sunday's editions.
AUSTIN - As his first name implies, SECEDE Kilgore - formerly known as Larry Kilgore - wants Texas to leave the union.
"The U.S. economic collapse cannot be avoided," Kilgore, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful who writes his first name in all caps, wrote on his Facebook page. "Texas needs to secede now or we will sink too."
Lisa Fritsch also is running for governor on the March 4 GOP Primary because she wants Texas to return "to the basics of Republicanism and what it means to be a conservative, which are faith, hope and charity."
Fritsch, who is African-
American, said during a mid-January visit to Lubbock she blames liberals for "destroying the black community with lies of victimization."
Miriam Martinez, who also visited Lubbock the same day, decided to run for governor "to join the fight against big government that threatens our Constitution and the pursuit of life."
"And yes, I am opposed to Obamacare," Martinez stressed the day she announced her candidacy.
Never heard of Kilgore, Fritsch or Martinez?
If not, you have plenty of company.
None of them have ever held public office and, to their chagrin, they aren't mentioned in opinion polls.
Despite being virtually unknown - plus lacking the millions of dollars needed to fund a statewide campaign - Fritsch, Kilgore and Martinez decided to seek the highest office in Texas.
Though Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is heavily favored to win the GOP nomination - mainly because of his name identification and a war chest of nearly $30 million - Fritsch, Kilgore and Martinez would like to remind Republican voters that they, too, are running for governor.
The same goes for Democrat Reynaldo "Ray" Madrigal, a part-time judge in Seadrift - a rural community in the Corpus Christi area - and a one-time member of the now defunct Raza Unida Party.
Although state Sen. Wendy Davis is widely expected to be the Democratic Party's nominee for governor who will likely face Abbott in the Nov. 4 general election, Madrigal is asking the party's faithful not to write him off next month.
"I think that when people start voting, they will see me as an alternative to Wendy Davis," said Madrigal, who ran unsuccessfully for Texas Land Commissioner in 2002.
"If I got 400,000 votes 12 years ago, I think there's a chance I'll do better," Madrigal said regarding his second-place finish in the Democratic primary. He received 303,142 votes, or 37.67 percent, according to the race total posted on the Texas Secretary of State's website.
Fritsch, Kilgore, Madrigal and Martinez can try to get attention, but Austin watchers said they have no chance of being elected governor.
"Their chances of winning are nonexistent," said Mark P. Jones, chairman of the Political Science Department at Houston-based Rice University.
Jones said they have no name identification, no government experience, no campaign money and no plan on how they would govern.
It is the lack of funds that has hurt their campaigns the most, Jones and other political analysts said.
On Jan. 1, Madrigal and Martinez began the final nine-week stretch of the campaign with no money, much less with campaign headquarters and a staff.
Kilgore is hardly better off than Madrigal and Martinez. He raised $3,850 during the second half of last year, but his cash on hand was down to $72.88, according to fundraising reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Though Fritsch is in better financial shape than Kilgore, Madrigal and Martinez, the $34,045 she raised, plus two loans - one for $3,000 and the other for $200,000 - are no match to Abbott's multi-million dollar war chest.
To make things worse for Fritsch, Kilgore, Madrigal and Martinez, Texas is the second-most populated state - after California - and has 20 media markets.
The large number of media markets forces statewide candidates to rely on expensive television, radio and newspaper advertising, as well as mailers, to reach voters. The unfunded or poorly funded hopefuls also lack name identification. Consequently, they are seldom invited to candidate forums across the state.
In the end, Fritsch, Kilgore, Madrigal and Martinez will get a few votes but those will be mostly "protest votes," Jones predicted.
"Some voters just cast a protest vote because they don't like party-backed candidates" such as Abbott and Davis, Jones said. The protest votes usually go to unknown and unfunded candidates.
Despite what Jones and other political observers say, Madrigal said he is not discouraged.
"The majority of Texans are tired of Republicans being in office for 16 years and they don't see Wendy Davis as a leader, especially Catholics" Madrigal said. "But it's just not Catholics, it is Baptists and people of other religions. They don't support abortion and Wendy Davis is an abortion candidate."
