Barack Obama he’s not. But Miami-Dade’s Luther "Luke" Campbell of "Me So Horny" fame is as serious about running for county mayor as Obama was about running for president.
COMPILED FROM STAFFAND WIRE REPORTS
Former 2 Live Crew front man Luther Campbell is best known outside of Miami-Dade County for raunchy rap albums, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s, that were among the first to boast parental advisory stickers, as well as R- and X-rated videos. His legal battles defended freedom of speech, including a U.S. Supreme Court victory that secured an artist’s right to parody others’ material.
But it’s not his "Uncle Luke" rap persona that’s running for mayor in Florida’s most-populous county: Campbell’s campaign is built on decades of community involvement, primarily in predominately Black Liberty City and surrounding areas. He insists it isn’t a publicity stunt or vanity campaign.
"I’m dead serious. Are you?" reads Campbell’s campaign flyers.
Fed up
He wants voters to see him as a fellow angry taxpayer fed up with Miami-Dade politics as usual – money disappearing from the county agencies; poor community policing; mismanagement at publicly-funded Jackson Memorial Hospital; hundreds of millions of taxpayer money spent on a new Florida Marlins baseball stadium; and a lack of jobs in impoverished neighborhoods.
He touts his business experience as a record company executive to back up his plans to boost the county’s economy. The most headline-grabbing plan involves strippers, but not in a "Me So Horny" sort of way – Campbell wants to impose a license fee to dance in strip clubs to raise revenue.
Record label mogul
Campbell says that his Luke Records was the first Black-owned hip-hop label, releasing music from 2 Live Crew, H-Town, Poison Clan, among others. He also helped launch Trick Daddy and Pitbull.
"Right now the entertainment industry is a major economic boost for this city," Campbell said in an interview with MTV News. "These are some of the things that I created and I did, and I’m proud of that.
"So when I look at where we need to go as a community, who best has the ideas? Me. Some other guy who really is just in there just to take money from contractors and special interest groups, he’s in there to make money.
"I’m not in there to make money. I’m all right. I just want to make the haves and the have-nots all be able to participate in this beautiful city and get jobs and live comfortable."
Large field
Campbell is one of 11 candidates running in the May 24 special election to replace Carlos Alvarez, who was recently ousted in a recall led by billionaire car dealer and former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman. Voters outraged over a property tax rate increase and a salary raise for county employees in a struggling economy made Miami-Dade the most populous area – with more than 2.5 million people – ever to recall a local official.
If no one gets a majority, the top two candidates will have a June runoff.
If elected, Campbell promises a model of government transparency. His life has been open for the world to see, including a 2008 VH1 reality show that featured some of his six children, preparations for his wedding and the porn videos he was selling at the time (he says that was a mistake).
Bigger issues
Despite building his legacy by producing sexually explicit songs, R-rated music videos that set the benchmark for hip-hop, and even porn production, there has been little discussion made of Campbell’s past in the campaign, particularly in Miami-Dade’s Black communities.
Some voters who were among dozen or so audience members at a town hall in a predominantly Black neighborhood see Campbell for the 50-year-old man he is, especially when he complains about the same issues that concern them – jobs, gas prices, improving education opportunities in poor neighborhoods and the fatal shootings of seven Black men by Miami police officers in less than one year.
Effective mentor
A 2010 McClatchy Newspapers news story wrote glowingly about Campbell’s coaching duties at Miami Central High.
"On the football field, Luther Campbell wears a whistle around his neck, not a tangle of gaudy gold chains," the story read. "He has a Miami Central High green visor on his head, not a bandanna do-rag. Instead of grabbing his crotch, he grabs the shoulder pad of a teenage linebacker to explain tackling technique.
"When he talks, the players are rapt listeners. ‘Use your brain!’ he shouts. ‘You’re seniors.’
"Campbell...is known as Coach Luke at Central, where he coaches linebackers, and in his home neighborhood of Liberty City, where he coaches boys in the Optimist league he founded.
"The former rap star, one-time leader of 2 Live Crew, celebrated and loathed for its sexually explicit lyrics, is now a mentor to inner city kids... He was seen on album covers and in videos leering with that gap-toothed grin at half-naked women on the beach, in hot tubs, at parties...Freaky, decadent times, Campbell recalls with a weary look in his eyes.
Gives advice
"Now he gathers his players around him in a huddle to talk football and dispense advice. Seventy percent of his players are being raised by a single mother or grandmother. Each one is the man of the house.
"‘I don’t tolerate cursing or the N-word,’ he said. ‘I tell them, ‘Don’t ever disrespect a girl because that makes you less than a man.’ And ‘Pick the girl who is responsible, not the one with Fs on her report card. Easy to get in, hard to get out. I’ve lived that life.’
"Football players got the same rep I got – you think your stuff don’t stink, you’re the arrogant, spoiled star. I tell them, ‘Be nice to your teachers. Sit in the front row. Keep your grades up.’ "
"It’s working. Players greet a sideline visitor with, "Hello, ma’am," or "How you doing today?" the story concluded.
Which context?
If voters consider Campbell’s rap career at all, it should be in the context of his legal battles defending 2 Live Crew’s First Amendment rights, says Gary Johnson, executive director of political research for the Transportation Workers Union Local 291.
"It goes back to the heart of the man who fights for what he believes in, and you have the characteristics of a leader when someone will fight. Would he do that for the people of Dade County? That’s why he’s running for mayor, because he’s willing to fight for the people," says Johnson, who remains undecided about who will get his vote.
A name
Local elections such as the Miami-Dade County mayor’s race often come down to name recognition, and voters may cross ethnic lines to vote for Campbell because they remember him standing up for First Amendment rights, says George Gonzalez, a political science professor at the University of Miami.
But, he asks, will that be enough to sway voters struggling with school cutbacks, joblessness and the real estate market collapse? "Here we are talking about Luther Campbell only because he was a rapper 20 years ago," Gonzalez says.
At one candidates’ forum, Campbell was asked what headline about his leadership of county government would be after 18 months in office. Campbell’s response: "He brought respect back to county government.’’
When asked how that answer would fly with people familiar with Campbell’s vulgar exploits, and he said Miami-Dade residents know he has changed.
"The people here locally, they know me as a community servant. They know me as a disciplinarian, versus people outside of this community," Campbell said. "They’ll tell you, ‘He don’t play about his community.’"
Jennifer Kay of the Associated Press and Linda Robertson of McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this story.
Source http://www.flcourier.com
No comments:
Post a Comment