Luther ‘Me So Horny’ Campbell - New Miami Mayor?
You heard that right. Luke Campbell of 2 Live Crew fame is running for currently vacated seat of Miami Mayor on May 24. And I think I like him.
On “This Week In South Florida” this morning, host Michael Putney interviewed Uncle Luke for Miami Mayor. I noticed first that Luke isn’t what I’d call a “well-spoken” fellow. His speech was peppered with “I mean…” and “you know…” Probably closer to the street than city hall, but what he had to say impressed the hellouta me and my husband.
Other than the party-loving, misogynistic rapper with the raunchy lyrics, you’ll remember Campbell’s fight to the Supreme Court. Twice, in fact, and he won in both cases. The first was an attempt to censor his lyrics and the second was a copyright infringement suit. I was never a 2 Live Crew fan and found the music insulting and offensive, but even so, I always supported Campbell’s freedom of speech.
Campbell’s been a busy guy even if he hasn’t held any public office. He writes for the Miami New Times, a kind of funky, local paper (good article there btw, except for that horrible bit about the schools), he’s a high school assistant football coach and does mentoring for inner-city kids. He’s also been been a successful business man, both running and losing companies. At the top of his game,
Campbell’s enterprises include 16 rap and R&B acts, 23 employees, three labels, two publishing companies, a 24-track digital recording studio, a video production facility, a 6,000-square-foot warehouse and a cluster of Miami nightclubs.
and other ventures.
Luke has recently entered the adult film industry and cites on his MySpace page the need to clean up the “sometimes amateurish new courtship of Hip-Hop and Adult Entertainment”.[2] He produced the Adult Entertainment movie “Luke’s Bachelor Party” in 2007.
In December 2007, Campbell launched The Luke Entertainment Group and took the company public trading under the symbol LKEN on Pink Sheets. As of September 3, 2008, its current price is $0.01 per share.[3] With this launching of Luke Entertainment Campbell had bought an oil company with the stock trading symbol of FPPL. Luther Campbell is also a legendary DJ member of The Worldwide DJ organization, The Core DJ’s.
All well and good you say, but why should I throw such an important vote to a guy who made his money in the music biz and adult porn? Well, there are two answers. First, he couldn’t do any worse quite frankly. Miami has a long history of corrupt politicians (and that list needs to be updated to add a few more). Poverty, greed and joblessness in some areas haven’t changed for decades. Campbell says here:
When asked why he’s running, Campbell told the weekly publication that he’s “mad frustrated… I get in my car, ride around Liberty City, and everything looks the same as when I was in the neighborhood growing up. I see the same crimes in the same areas. Officers and residents are still getting killed in the community I grew up in. I go to a city like Atlanta that has sensible affordable housing, and no one is being murdered. I go to Miami International Airport and see the same construction that has been going on for like a hundred years. All of that frustrates the hell out of me. Why aren’t we getting it right in Miami-Dade? Why is our government only serving one set of people? That’s what is pushing me to run.”
Right on, Luke. The thing is, NO one is speaking to these issues, but Luke.
The second answer is that he has some great ideas that seemingly contradict his experience, or what we know of his experience. He wants a “stripper tax”. Miami-Dade does not regulate, either by tax or policy, gentleman clubs. Campbell says there’s a wealth of money to be made here for the city, without having to do what the Republicans want to do which is fire 1000s of public servants (police and fire). It also has the added benefit of insuring that strip clubs employ women over 18 and do not exploit minors.
Pretty cool for a guy who makes millions on Adult Entertainment companies.
Another pretty awesome idea, when Putney asked him today what he thought about our public servants currently in the Mayor’s office refusing the 3% pay raise (to save the city coffers), Luke responded that this won’t help us. Now-recalled Mayor Alvarez added 15 depts to the mayor’s office. In fact, this is one of the reasons the public hated him. He was giving jobs to every family member and lobbyist that greased his hand. Campbell says we can save millions by getting rid of the “assistant to the assistant to the assistant” - cutting jobs that are purely bureaucratic,
And lastly, Luke attacked Marco Rubio as not just a tea party member, but “the first non-white KKK member.” Oooo baby! I’ll let you read about it here. Yes, Campbell is definitely given to hyperbole. What he ain’t is a politician, but his point is pretty clear. No, he isn’t actually saying Rubio owns a white hood, but he may as well if he’s part of the Tea Party. Heavy stuff, Maynard!
Anyway, I have to look at Luke a little more closely before the election, but so far, it seems it may be a smart thing to love him long time.