i voted in new york city’s democratic primary this morning. i voted for kris glen, among others.
i did not vote for strip club dude. who?
victor bernace, candidate for city council in my district.
who sent me a [ahem] lovely postcard asking me to vote for him. it had his skimpy credentials on one side, and a woman in lingerie on the other side. the woman in lingerie was beckoning me to come to his one and only fundraiser.
which was at a strip club. with exotic dancers.
now, i’m telling you, although i admit to being vanilla, i am not a prude. believe me. but there’s a line, and victor bernace has crossed it. how am i to take him seriously? it’s clear that this is a gimmick to grab attention, and he needs it, because his opponent robert jackson, seems to be quite a qualified incumbent. which is why i voted for robert jackson, and not for strip club guy.
i also didn’t vote for brian ellner, who is an out gay man running for manhattan borough president. he has a tv commercial with his partner featured prominently in the “i hug my wife and kids often” part at the end. ordinarily i’d strongly consider voting for him. but i didn’t. vote for him.
why?
because the first half of the commercial is a head shot of george w. bush. the camera pulls back slowly, and we see that bush’s head is pasted onto the naked torso of a middle-aged man. the voice-over: “the emperor has no clothes.”
again. clearly this candidate has a small budget, so he packs as much controversy as he can into a cheap commercial, runs it a few times, and hopes for a lot of publicity. which he got, because one of the local stations refused to run the spot.
don’t get me wrong. he has a perfect right to make and try to air whatever commercial he wants to. and strip club guy can raise campaign money however he chooses within legal guidelines.
but a commercial about george w. bush, much as i hate bush, has precious little to do with being manhattan borough president, other than tangentially.
and strip clubs have precious little or nothing to do with being a city council person.
stick to the issues. and maybe i’ll vote for you.