PerryVsWorld has been all over the Strayhorn as independent rumors, going so far as to get a comment out of the CKS campaign, which was "Carole Keeton Strayhorn is a Republican candidate for Governor." The Star Telegram made the same calls and got the same answers, which leads PvW to (correctly, in my opinion) conclude that this story is dead until and unless someone goes on the record about it.

Two questions linger: Did the Perry campaign have a hand in this, and would CKS be better off going indy? As I said before, while I have no trouble believing that Team Perry could cook up something like this, I don't see how it benefits them to stir that particular pot. They've been on the attack against Strayhorn, which would seem to make the Independent storyline a sidebar at best and a distraction at worst. And though I think he'd be likely to benefit from a further dilution of the anti-Perry vote, I think there's a greater chance that CKS could siphon off just enough of Perry's otherwise-solid base to make him more vulnerable than he is now than there is that Strayhorn could win the GOP primary. In short, he's got her where he wants her, so why muck with it?

To answer the second question, I say the time for a jump has passed. To drop out of the GOP primary now, bad poll numbers and all, would be taken as a sign of weakness. Better to go down fighting and maybe try to exact a little revenge by lobbing stinkbombs from the sidelines during the general, when Perry's attention will be focused elsewhere.