As many of you, especially my regular readers, know, I am running for a seat in the Texas house of Representatives as a Libertarian. I delayed my announcement until after January 2, because that was the filing deadline.

My intention was to delay the announcement so as not to encourage the Democrats to put a candidate in for the race (the Republican incumbent has run unopposed since his initial election to the office in 1988). My reasoning was that, if the Democrats do not run, it's a two person race and my chances of winning are VASTLY improved.

A check on the Texas democratic Party website confirms that, indeed, the Democrats did not file a candidate for the race in our district, and the race will, indeed, be a two person race.

My opponent is the co-author of Texas' new gay marriage amendment. He has made a very strong point of mentioning that fact to anyone he meets. While the amendment passed strongly, I find it likely that opponents of the amendment will vote for me by default. I need to add substantially to that total, however, but I come into the campaign knowing I pretty much have a core group of voters (and, hopefully, campaign workers) in my corner for this reason.

I also believe that every Libertarian in the state of Texas will benefit from the campaigns of current Lt. Governor Carolyn Keeton Strayhorn (independent) and Kinky Friedman (also independent), as they increase the likelihood that voters will not vote straight party ballots, and will give more consideration to independents and third party candidates in other races. An anti-incumbent mood, which seems to be brewing, also increases the likelihood that this will happen.

While I'm still a dark horse in every aspect, I believe that every day the news is swinging more and more in my favor. Who knows, by this time next year, I may be looking up information on apartment rentals in Austin.