Elected to the comptroller's post in 1998 as a Republican, Strayhorn is currently running as an independent candidate for Texas governor. If successful, Strayhorn would be the first Independent candidate elected to the post since Sam Houston in 1859.
Strayhorn is notable for several "firsts" in Austin and Texas politics. She is the first woman elected as Mayor of Austin, Texas 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.
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Family
Carole Stewart Keeton was born September 13, 1939 in Austin. She is the second child and only daughter of Werdner Page Keeton and Madge Anna Stewart. Her father was the longtime Dean of the University of Texas Law School and a renowned expert on tort law.
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 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, an Austin attorney and Brad's identical twin.
Early political career
As Carole Keeton McClellan, she served on the Board of Trustees of the Austin Independent School District (which doubled as the Board of Trustees of Austin Community College) from 1972 to 1977. She served as president of both boards from 1976 to 1977. She was elected mayor of Austin in 1977 and held that post until 1983. In 1983, the governor appointed Rylander to the State Board of Insurance, where she served until resigning in 1986 to challenge veteran Democratic Congressman J.J. Pickle of Austin, a longtime friend and political ally of Lyndon B. Johnson.
As Carole Keeton Rylander, she won election to the Texas Railroad Commission in 1994 by beating incumbent Democrat Mary Scott Nabers, an Ann Richards appointee, by almost 300,000 votes. The panel primarily regulates the production of oil and natural gas (but no longer has authority over railroads). She served as commission chairman from November 1995 to January 1997, and from June 1998 to January 1999.
Comptroller
In 1998, Strayhorn (still known as Carole Keeton Rylander) entered the open race to succeed outgoing Democratic Comptroller John Sharp of Victoria, who was seeking the lieutenant governorship. Facing off against Democratic political scion Paul Hobby, the son of a former lieutenant governor and grandson of a former governor and lieutenant governor and a cabinet secretary, Strayhorn won by some 20,000 votes out of roughly 3.6 million votes case.
Reelected in 2002, she lead the statewide Republican ticket in terms of raw votes. As Carole Keeton Rylander, she drew more than one million votes more in 2002 than she had four years earlier and outpolled fellow Republican Rick Perry by some 246,000 votes even while Perry was easily dispatching Democrat Tony Sanchez in the governor's race.
Gubernatorial campaign
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See also: Texas gubernatorial election, 2006
Soon after the 2002 election, Strayhorn began publicly feuding with Governor Perry over what she sees as his inabilility 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 are 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 Williams declared that only 108,512 signatures on her petition were valid, about 35,000 less than that of Friedman's count.
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 will be listed as "Richard 'Kinky' Friedman"). Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams ruled that Strayhorn's "nickname" was merely 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.
Partisan affiliations
In her campaigns for school board, college board, and mayor, Strayhorn was not identified by partisan affiliation since those posts are elected on a nonpartisan basis. Strayhorn was a Democrat until the mid-1980s. She switched parties and became a Republican in 1986, when she was the GOP nominee challenging Pickle.
According to the Associated Press, "Strayhorn has insisted that she is [still] a Republican but is going independent to set partisan politics aside and do what's right for Texas." She has attempted to equate her independence to that of the legendary Sam Houston, who resigned as governor in 1861 to protest Texas' decision to join the Confederate States of America (and who was the only independent candidate to win election as governor of Texas).
Strayhorn and former Governor Ann Richards, a Democrat, are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
Trivia
During her stint as comptroller, when she married Strayhorn and changed her name again, it is reported that instead of ordering all new stationery and discarding the old, she simply crossed out "Rylander" on the existing stationery and replaced it with "Strayhorn", as a means of saving taxpayer funds.
Jake Pickle died on the same day, June 18, 2005, that Strayhorn announced her initial plans to enter the 2006 governor's race.
Strayhorn's first husband, attorney Barr McClellan, has remarried and lives in Gulfport, Mississippi. He wrote a book alleging that Lyndon B. Johnson was a conspirator in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A week after the March 7, 2006, primary, Strayhorn picked up the support of defeated 2002 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tony Sanchez of Laredo, who signed the petition to place Strayhorn on the ballot as an independent. This means that Sanchez did not vote in the Democratic primary in Webb County. Petition signers must not have voted in the March 7 primary or the April 11 runoff primary.
She played the bit role of a Sheriff in the 1980 movie Roadie starring Meat Loaf (credited as "Carole McClellan").
References
- Associated Press, Strayhorn: Call Me Grandma, (June 9, 2006).
- Robert Dodge, Finding a Healthy Balance: FDA Chief McClellan Aiming for Right Mix of Science, Economics, Dallas Morning News 1A (Feb. 16, 2004).
- R.G. Ratcliffe, Strayhorn says her politics remain true, Houston Chronicle (Aug. 20, 2006).
- Amy Smith, She's Her Own Grandma, Austin Chronicle (July 28, 2006).
- Texas Birth Index 1903-1997
- Texas Marriage Index, 1966-2002
- Texas Divorce Index, 1966-2002
