By Gilbert Garcia San Antonio Express-News
In the seven weeks since Houston hair-care mogul Farouk Shami made his first San Antonio campaign stop the Democratic race for governor has turned upside down. Houston Mayor Bill White is in Fort Worth businessman Tom Schieffer and East Texas rancher Hank Gilbert are out and humorist Kinky Friedman is sitting on the fence. Although the field has thinned the challenge for Shami has only grown tougher given the momentum generated by White since he jumped into the race last Friday. But Shami in San Antonio for the opening of his local campaign headquarters Tuesday insisted that little has changed in the campaign as far as hes concerned.
White is capable of running a city Im capable of running a state" Shami said. Hes a career politician and Im a career businessman."
Shami 66 is a native Palestinian who settled in Houston and created a hair-care empire based around popular products such as the CHI hair iron.
He has pledged to spend up to $10 million of his own fortune on the campaign before the March 2 primary.
Shami cant compete with Whites formidable list of endorsements which includes U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte state Rep.
Joaquin Castro and former Mayor Phil Hardberger but hes uniquely qualified to back up his persistent talk of job creation.
Last July Shami announced his company would bring 1200 manufacturing jobs from South Korea and China to Texas. On Tuesday he promised to establish an Austin-based solar-panel-manufacturing company within the next month."
White initially declared himself a candidate for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchisons seat which she promised to vacate so she could focus on challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the Republican gubernatorial primary.
Hutchison announced last month however that shed postpone her Senate resignation until after the March primary and White responded by switching to the gubernatorial race.
Since Whites announcement speculation has mounted that Friedman would pull the plug on his own campaign and Shami said Tuesday that he expects Friedman to endorse him.
Colin Strother general consultant for the Friedman campaign said the author/songwriter is re-evaluating" his position and hopes to meet with both Shami and White this weekend with a possible announcement coming early next week.
