Kutcher Following Other Actors Running For Congress?

The Kuchter '10 campaign is alive and kicking. I know some of you out there are skeptical about Ashton Kutcher taking on Congressman Steve King (R-IA). King after all is a seasoned politician. He served in the Iowa Senate for six years before being elected to Congress in 2002. However, there is a history of actors becoming successful politicians.

Let take a look at some of the of the actors that led the way for Ashton to make his run for Congress.

• Ronald Regan - The hero of the Republican party. He stared in over 50 films, became the Governor of California and then went onto become the 40th President of the United States.
• Clint Eastwood - Star of Dirty Hary and Academy Award Winning Director became the Mayor of Carmel, CA. He was no match for his opponent and didn't have to retire from movies to do the job. He only served one term which would work for me and get Rep. King out of office.
• Fred Gandy - Played Gopher on the show Love Boat, actually showed Iowa how this is done. After opponents tried to say he was a "fancy educated fool actor" he won anyway. Sounds like something King's people would try on Kutcher who played Michael Kelso on That 70's Show. Kelso was not exactly the smart character on the show.
• Sonny Bono - Partnered with Cher he stared in The Sony and Cher Show. He became Mayor of Palm Springs and then went on to Congress. Because of his celebrity status, Bono was able to reach across party lines and make many friends on the other side of the aisle.
• Jesse Ventura - Known for his professional wrestling career, Ventura was able to transition into acting with roles in movies like Predator. He was elected to Mayor of Brooklyn Park, MN by beating the 18 year incumbent. He then went on to surprise everyone by winning the election for Governor of MN by beating out the two mainstream party candidates (one being Norm Coleman).
• Arnold Schwarzenegger - Know as The Terminator Arnold has starred in numerous blockbuster films. He was elected Governor of California in the 2003 in a recall election. He won after only running for 2 months which shows his use of his celebrity to get the word out.
• Al Franken - Another example of someone that played a "funny guy" as a star of Saturday Night Live and was able to run a successful campaign for the Senate. He is currently waiting on the final ruling so he can be sworn in as the latest actor to become a representative of the people. This was the most expensive race in Senate history and shows the power of celebrity to fund raise. Another interesting point is that Franken had no previous political experience.

There are many others that could be discussed here like Shirley Temple Black and Jerry Springer that have done the same thing.

Some got involved because something happened to them personally that they wanted to overcome, others got involved because they wanted to make a difference in the bigger picture and replace the incumbent. The common thread is that by being a celebrity the amount of free press and attention that candidate draws is huge. Even if they are not succesfull their ability to expose what the incumbent is doing is amazing. And frankly, if people really knew what Rep. King was saying in Congress on a daily basis they would be shocked and appalled.

With Ashton's amazing ability to control the web and social media and the fact that everyone wants him on their show it would be easy for Kutcher to control the message. Also, the fund raising possibilities are endless. I could not be more excited for Kutcher vs. King 2010. It will be a great day in Iowa politics when King loses his seat.

Lezzymom has two kids and a wonderful partner. Her political commentary has appeared on C-Span and CSPAN.org. Visit her Lezzymom blog for more of her insights.

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Ashton Kutcher 2010 - Let the Campaign Begin

 

YOU PICK THE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN

If you listened to Episode 5 of my podcast then you understand why I am starting a campaign to get Ashton Kutcher to head home to Iowa and run for Congress. I'm sure you all are more creative than I am and will be able to come up with something better than "Kutcher '10 - Moving Iowa Forward." So come on and play

Name That Campaign
 

Now this is not random. I want him to run specifically against Republican Representative Steve King. If you need some creative fire as to why this is so important I encourage you to listen to the final segment of the podcast for more details but in case you can't let me give you some insight on Rep. King.

• Official Statement on the marriage decision shows King is worried about Iowa becoming a "gay mecca." 

“Iowa law says that marriage is between one man and one woman, yet activist judges molded Iowa’s Constitution to achieve their personal political ends. Ultimately, the people of Iowa should decide whether or not Iowa should allow same-sex marriage, not activist judges handing down extra-constitutional rulings.

“I believe the majority of Iowans are committed to marriage between one man and one woman, one of the essential building blocks of civilization. I will continue to work with the Iowa legislature to pass a Marriage Amendment to the Iowa Constitution, clarifying that marriage is between one man and one woman. Along with a constitutional amendment, the legislature must also enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become the same-sex marriage Mecca for America.”

• While speaking at an anti-abortion event King stated that he would like to see people defy the court.
  

“This decision by the [Iowa] Supreme Court puts us in a position where we can either defy the court — which I would prefer to do, but I don’t see the appetite out there to do that,” the congressman said. “If it were up to me I’d say, ‘You made this decision, so now you enforce it because you stepped outside your bounds.’ But the logical approach to this — to get something that we can do —  I think is to pass a constitutional amendment to correct the court.”

• King continues to show his fear of LGBT people and how people will come to the new gay mecca, Iowa, get married and then go back home and spread...well I don't really know but maybe you can understand his fear.

“We have no residency requirement in Iowa law, which means that people can come from all over this country — a man and a man, a woman and a woman — it could be, I suppose, a father and a son or a mother and a daughter,” he said. “They can come to this state and get married and then go back to the state where they reside. And then what they will do — and this will be a national effort — is file suit in their own state. They will press those states to recognize Iowa’s marriage law. If that happens, in each of these courts, it puts a lot of pressure on and breaks down the defense of marriage that has been created by most of the states.
“We have a real problem here in Iowa, and we’ve become the embarrassment of the nation. But we don’t need to proliferate that embarrassment to the rest of the country. We can at least save the rest of the country from the mistake made by the Supreme Court justices here in Iowa.”

• King has been working with Maggie Gallagher, president of National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to make calls to Iowa citizens encouraging them to call their representative and ask them to get an anti-gay marriage amendment passed. NOM is the organization that is spreading fear about gay marriage in the video "The Gathering Storm." These calls are a one way street since they first ask do you support the decision. Anyone that says yes is hung up on. Apparently King is not interested in seeing what his constituents really think.

• Some other great quotes to show how Rep. King thinks are below and are from Think Progress

King compared gay people to unicorns and leprechauns. "Unicorns, leprechauns, gay marriages in Iowa -- these are all things you will never find because they just don’t exist."

King sought to uphold anti-gay employment discrimination. "The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would force employers to hire homosexual employees."

King refused to say 'Happy Ramadan.' In 2007, King refused to vote for a harmless resolution recognizing the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

King insisted homosexuality was just a "behavior." Declaring that "homosexual marriage is not a civil right," King said sexual orientation "is a self-identified behavior, not an immutable characteristic."

Unfortunately King seems more concerned about the culture wars than the main problems Iowa, and the rest of the country are facing. This is of course the economy. According to a study by The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law,

Our analysis projects that giving equal marriage rights to same-sex couples will have a positive impact on the state budget of approximately $5.3 million per year and a revenue gain to state businesses of over $53 million per year during the first three years that marriage is extended to same-sex couples. The analysis shows that same-sex marriage is not just good for same-sex couples, but good for the state budget and economy, too.

Huh, I could see why that would cause some fear because we would be giving the elected officials more money to spend ... oh wait that's probably not why he's scared. Now I understand that some of that money is because the gays will be flocking to the new mecca and spending their money...oh wait that's probably not it either.

Ok so I think you all understand why Rep. King needs to go. Now why would I pick Ashton Kutcher? Well it would be an extremely tough district for a Democrat to win. (Yes I am assuming he Kutcher would run as a Democrat). But I think he could put up a huge fight. Look at the money he could raise on social media alone just by asking for $5. Plus, what house with a teenage girl (or gay man) wouldn't want Ashton Kutcher on their lawn - in sign form of course.

Not to mention the guy is smart and has been talking politics quite a bit lately. He spoke out against Prop 8 and even made a point to talk about how he couldn't believe this was even an issue and screamed of a blatant separation of church and state problem. Also, I think he isn't so far to the left that he could speak to both sides. Last November on "Real Time With Bill Maher", Kutcher spoke about where he is politically,

"I would say that I'm a fiscally conservative individual, in general, and probably very socially liberal, but there really isn't a party that exists for that. So I'm a little bit in between. I wasn't that far away from looking at John McCain as a viable candidate for myself, because I sit somewhere in the middle. But, as soon as a Sarah Palin comes onto a ticket, it turns me away so feverishly."

So come on everyone let's get this ball rolling and Name That Campaign! I know you all have some good ideas on this so leave them in the comment section so we can get King out of Congress.

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Podcast - Episode 5

Episode 5 of "Thoughts From A Lezzymom" is now available FREE on iTunes. You can subscribe and listen to it here. Please use the tell your friends link in iTunes and spread the word about the show.If you don't have iTunes use the player in the sidebar on the blog to listen to the show.


In this episode of the podcast I discuss the latest in LGBT news. Some of the topics are the "firsts" our community has seen over the last few weeks. As well as an update on the possible police discrimination case that I had discussed on the blog.

Following the news we have a great interview with Ellen Kahn the Director of the family project for the Human Rights Campaign. We discuss the possibility of LGBT adoption becoming the new issue to attack in the next election cycle.

Also, Ellen tells us about the new Welcoming Schools program designed to provide the elementary schools tools so they can better service our families.

Our song of the show is by Hotel Eden and is called "The Take - Home". Hotel Eden is actually the solo project of Kelly Warner. His new album A Way Back Home is scheduled to release May 26, 2009. You can get more information on the Hotel Eden website. You can always find new and great music on the Podsafe Music Network which is where I found out about Hotel Eden.

Finally I give my thoughts Representative Steve King from Iowa. He has been attacking the LGBT community for years. His latest show was put on during the mark up of the Hate Crimes bill this week. I go through his sordid history of comments over the years. My favorite is,

"Unicorns, leprechauns, gay marriages in Iowa -- these are all things you will never find because they just don’t exist."

Um, I guess Iowa should be on the lookout for unicorns and leprechauns cuz the gays are getting married next week!

However, I have an answer to Rep. King in the 2010 election. I'm calling for Ashton Kutcher to run against him. Now I can't take credit for this idea but believe me Kutcher 2010 needs to happen so we can get this guy out of office.


Thanks for listening and remember you can send me comments and show ideas by emailing me at lezzymom@gmail.com.