Saturday 10th April - politics at the kids fair

I now have a very creaky, very silver bike. The Salvation Army came up trumps, and it was only $68. Bargain. They sell absolutely everything in there, and it was rammed this morning.

We worked for a couple of hours this morning, catching up a bit and filing. We then decided to try and take a trip on the river, but because there were freak rain showers this morning, the boat trip was called off. Instead, we three had a walk into the downtown business bit of Houston, where there were a lot of shiny banks, and, randomly, a kiddie's fair.

There was an intern just next to the face painting stand who was campaigning for Bill White, the democrat candidate for Texas governor at the elections in November. Rick Perry's been in office for around 10 years. His name had been thrown in in talks in the office yesterday. He's only granted clemency to a death row prisoner once; Kenneth Foster was convicted of murder and sent to death row in 1997. Perry granted clemency after a recommendation from the Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons in 2007. Foster had been convicted of capital murder alongside three others. One, the man who actually killed the victim, has since been executed. Two others received prison sentences. Clemency was eventually granted as Foster had been the driver of a car the killer got into, and denies having anything to do with the killing itself.

Perry has denied clemency even when it has been recommended by the Board of Paroles and Pardons in the past. Whether Bill White would act any differently is an unknown, but what's interesting is that while he's running as a Democrat, he's not exactly what you'd call left-wing. The reason he has even a shot at Governor in Texas is because Perry increasingly seems to be aligning himself with the ultra-right 'Tea Party Movement', which also has Sarah Palin as one of it's main backers. Bill White can only hope that some things are too far to the right for Texas locals.