Trial Lawyers Funding Strayhorn

Interesting story from the Morning News:

In her bid to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn is pursuing an unprecedented strategy of soliciting big-dollar donors with a history of backing Democrats.

The approach carries considerable risk for a candidate trying to woo faithful Republican primary voters, but it may be Mrs. Strayhorn's only option for matching the GOP incumbent's fiscal firepower, analysts say.

Of the Republican comptroller's $7 million campaign account, more than $800,000 has come from some of the Democratic Party's biggest political donors, according to an analysis by The Dallas Morning News.

The donors include dozens of trial lawyers, whose financial largess probably will be a theme in Mr. Perry's campaign against Mrs. Strayhorn in next year's GOP primary. But experts say Mrs. Strayhorn had little choice.

Two things: 1) How sad is it that this is what the Democrat Party has been reduced to in Texas and 2) Is this a viable Strayhorn strategy? Does it have a chance of working?

Oh yeah, and 3) Thanks TTLA. The one thing this article doesn't do is get the trials to say why they're backing Strayhorn (Chris Bell haters?) and if this marks a shift in strategy away from backing Dems and towards backing Republicans that aren't as bad as the bad Republicans.

Or maybe the trial lawyers want Perry to win.