Former Dem, former Mayor of Austin, former state Comptroller, ran against Rick "Goodhair" Perry in 2006 (in the famous four-way race between Republican Perry, disgruntled primary-loser-cum-indepdendent Strayhorn, Democrat Chris Bell, and Independent Kinky Friedman), and lost.
Her TV commercials (and in my opinion, campaign) were terrible. It was embarassing. General consensus here in Austin is that she's an opportunist, and borderline delusional vis a vis her electability and importance. One of my close friends worked in her office when she was Comptroller and came out despising her.
She's also changed her name about a thousand times, so she has less name recognition in the state than she should have.
From Wiki:
Carole Keeton Strayhorn (born September 13, 1939) is the former Texas state comptroller of public accounts, a position that now includes most of the duties of the former state treasurer, a position abolished by Texas voters in 1996.
Elected to the comptroller's post in 1998 as a Republican, Strayhorn ran as an independent candidate for Texas governor against GOP incumbent James Richard "Rick" Perry in 2006. She lost the November general election to Perry and placed third in a five-way race, with 18 percent.
Strayhorn is notable for several "firsts" in Austin and Texas politics. She is the first woman elected as mayor of Austin and the first Austin mayor elected to three consecutive terms. She was the first woman elected to the Texas Railroad Commission and the first woman elected as comptroller. She also was the first woman to serve as president of the Austin school board and as president of the Austin Community College board.
Carole Stewart Keeton was born in Austin, the second child and only daughter of W. Page Keeton and the former Madge Anna Stewart. Her father was the longtime dean of the University of Texas Law School and a renowned expert on tort law. The University of Texas at Austin renamed a section of 26th Street on the UT campus "Dean Keeton" in his honor.
Strayhorn's first marriage was to attorney Barr McClellan, whom she divorced in 1978 during her first term as mayor. In 1983, she married Curtis H. (Hill) Rylander; that marriage ended in divorce in 1995. She married high school sweetheart Ed Strayhorn in 2003. Strayhorn told reporters that Ed Strayhorn proposed to her while both were attending the University of Texas, but her parents thought she was too young to get married.
She is the mother of:
Scott McClellan, former George W. Bush White House Press Secretary and who was Strayhorn's campaign manager three times;
Mark McClellan, current Medicare director and former Food and Drug Administrator;
Brad McClellan, Strayhorn's gubernatorial campaign manager and former Texas Assistant Attorney General
Dudley McClellan, current Assistant Chief Disciplinary Counsel, State Bar of Texas, and Brad's identical twin.
Soon after the 2002 election, Strayhorn began publicly feuding with Governor Perry over what she sees as his inability to provide leadership on issues such as school finance and government spending. She has been extremely vocal about Perry's support for privately-financed large-scale road projects. She calls Perry "a weak leadin', ethics ignorin', pointin' the finger at everyone blamin', special session callin', public school slashin', slush fund spendin', toll road buildin', special interest panderin', rainy day fund raidin', fee increasin', no property tax cuttin', promise breakin', do nothin' phony conservative."
On May 9, 2006, Strayhorn turned in 223,000 voter signatures to the office of Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams. Only 45,540 were required to place her on the November general election ballot. "I told you, Texas," Strayhorn said while standing in front of 101 boxes stuffed with signatures. "We have blown the barn doors off this petition drive." Media reports later confirmed that the boxes were substantially less than half full (for comparison, her opponent, Kinky Friedman put 169,000 signatures in 11 similar boxes). On June 22, 2006, Texas Secretary of State Roger B. Williams declared that only 108,512 signatures on her petition were valid, about 35,000 less than Friedman's count. <3>
Strayhorn tried to have herself listed on the gubernatorial ballot as "Carole Keeton 'Grandma' Strayhorn", claiming that "Grandma" was a common nickname for her, and that independent opponent Kinky Friedman was able to use "Kinky" on the ballot (although he was listed as "Richard 'Kinky' Friedman"). Secretary of State Williams ruled that Strayhorn's "nickname" was a slogan she used during her campaign for state comptroller (One Tough Grandma). Friedman, on the other hand, had used "Kinky" as a professional name on his albums and novels, and had been known by that name for at least 40 years. <4>
During the Texas Governor's debate, Strayhorn suffered image points when she could not name the president-elect of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, during a rapid-answer segment of the debate. In a format similar to a TV game show, the candidates had 15 seconds to answer questions. She stated that the election had been hotly contested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Keeton_Strayhornhttp://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/images/media/8482Strayhorn,%20Carole%20Keeton.JPG
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