Mention the name “Kinky” in polite company anywhere in Texas and your audience likely will know precisely of whom you speak.

It would be Kinky Friedman, the humorist, singer, author, part-time farmer, gadfly — and a Democratic Party candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner.

In an earlier post on this blog, I dismissed Friedman as a serious agriculture commissioner candidate, citing what I believe to be his lack of actual farm-and-ranch experience. But as Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune points out in the link attached here, Kinky might have a shot a breaking the Republicans’ choke-hold on every statewide office in Texas.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/03/13/analysis-kink-democrats-chain/

How does he do that? He can parlay his overwhelming name identification, for starters.

Kinky is in a runoff to occur May 27 with Jim Hogan to be his party’s nominee. Republicans have a runoff too, featuring Sid Miller and Tommy Merritt. Of the two GOP candidates, the only one who’s solicited my vote this year has been Merritt, who’s been touting his belief in the Second Amendment and in the “sanctity of life.” Someone will have to explain to me how that matters with regard to the office he is seeking.

I digress. Back to Kinky.

He ran for governor eight years ago. He came to the newspaper where I worked as editorial page editor and had a sit-down interview with the editorial board. To be honest, he had us in stitches.

I enjoyed the meeting tremendously, particularly when I asked him what he considered to be a dumb question (I wish I could remember it) and he body-slammed me with a put-down. Hey, I’ve been slammed by the best — and Kinky Friedman might qualify as being among the best put-down artists in the business.

How should we rate Kinky’s chances this year? The odds are long, Ramsey writes. “The odds are against Friedman, but they were also against Rick Perry in 1990, when he won the same job against Jim Hightower,” according to Ramsey.

With most — if not all — of the attention focusing on gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis, Democrats might have a sleeper candidate in a guy who wants to be taken seriously while campaigning like someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

I’m hoping he wins the Democratic runoff. This campaign season is going to need some levity. If Texans can retain their sense of humor, that might be Kinky Friedman’s ticket to public office.