Statement by Robert Black concerning Carole Strayhorn’s claim that she is not an “Austin insider.”

“It’s hard to figure out when Carole Strayhorn became an Austin outsider. Was it before or after she was Austin mayor, a member of the Austin ISD school board, the host of an Austin TV show, an Austin-based consultant, and a 9-time candidate for public office from Austin,” Perry spokesman Robert Black asked? “The only hope Carole Strayhorn has of winning a lifetime achievement award is if they give one for being an Austin insider.”

Strayhorn bio:

In 1976, Carole Strayhorn left the Austin ISD school board and the Austin Community College board to run for Austin Mayor. She quit as Austin Mayor four months early to take a job at the State Board of Insurance in Austin. During this time she also co-chaired Walter Mondale’s Travis County steering committee. She left the State Board of Insurance three years early to run for an Austin Congressional seat against Jake Pickle and lost. Before she ran for her next office, she was a “consultant” for six years and hosted an Austin based public affairs television program. In 1990, she co-chaired Clayton Williams’s campaign for Governor from Austin. She ran for Railroad Commissioner in Austin in 1992 and lost. She ran again for the Railroad Commission from Austin in 1994 and won an unexpired term. She ran again in 1996 and won but after less than 2 years, she announced she was running for yet another office, Comptroller of Public Accounts.