Porn Valley- The gubernatorial campaigns of Melody “Mimi” Damayo and Mary Carey could be seen as dirty politics, but their experience and exposure in adult films gives them some advantage, political pundits say.
“The whole notion that campaigns are supposed to rip off the veneer of a candidate – most porn stars leave very little hidden even before they get into the political arena,” said Walter Shapiro, Washington bureau chief for Salon magazine.
“The porn star could say that although certainly interested in [fornicating], at least he or she isn’t interested in [despoiling] the country, like most of the politicians who already are in,” William Bike, author of the book “Winning Political Campaigns,” wrote in an e-mail. “Or, the porn star could say that electing him or her would protect the little guy – after all, who knows more about protection?”
Damayo, a former adult-film actress with the stage name Mimi Miyagi, is running for governor of Nevada. Carey, who is still active in the porn business, finished 10th among 135 candidates in California’s 2003 gubernatorial election.
Two candidates don’t make a trend in this country, but porno-politicos have been firmly established on the international ballot. Illona Staller, also known as “Cicciolina,” is the best-known pioneer, winning a seat in Italy’s parliament in 1987. Since then, former and current adult film stars also have run for office in Japan and Chile.
Whether looking to boost their screen audiences, voter bases or both, not one of those candidates has been shy about her résumé. In fact, they’ve flaunted their XXX assets, and some have continued to press the flesh in both worlds.
Staller, now 55, dressed in revealing outfits and made adult films after her election. To foster peace in the Middle East, she offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein in 1990 and made the same offer this year to Osama bin Laden.
“It is time someone did something about Bin Laden, and I am ready to do it. … I am ready to make a deal. He can have me in exchange for an end to his tyranny,” Staller said. “My breasts have only ever helped people, while Bin Laden has killed thousands of innocent victims.”
Announcing a run for her country’s parliament in 2004, Chilean porn star “Reichell” [pictured] promised to flash her breasts to foster political compromise.
“When the politicians fight in Congress, I’ll show them my breasts,” said Reichell, whose real name is Maritza Gaez Arismendi. “This will be my way of protesting, and it will make them reach agreement.””
TV talk-show host Conan O’Brien quipped, “Voters are supportive of the idea, but they are insisting on term limits.”
At a recent fundraiser in Las Vegas, Damayo, 33, offered lap dances while wearing six-inch-high black heels and “a men’s-style shirt unbuttoned to reveal her capacious bosom,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“It was one of the more demure outfits,” according to the newspaper, “for a candidate whose campaign signs show her lying on her back, feet in the air, breasts barely covered by a flag-motif top – and who can be seen in much more revealing detail in an extensive catalog that includes `Deep Throat 6,’ `She’s the Boss’ and `Oriental Lust.'”
Damayo quit porn in 2003, but Carey is bobbing about in that world and the political arena, saying she still wants to serve a public beyond porn patrons. Besides promises to lower the deficit and aggressively fight AIDS, her 2003 platform included advocacy for breast implant taxes and making lap dances a tax-deductible business expense.
Both Carey and Damayo are Republicans.
“I want everyone to know,” Damayo said in a short speech at the recent fundraiser, “that I’m here to bring back the roots of the Republican Party – freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to party, free enterprise. Now it’s time to limbo!”
“The fact that both candidates are Republicans is the most intriguing part of the story,” University of Connecticut political science professor Howard Reiter wrote in an e-mail. “I’d be careful about generalizing from two people. I do think that the far West is more libertarian than the rest of the country, so there is likely to be a little less resistance to such a candidate, but I wouldn’t put a nickel on any of them winning.”
So, a porn-pol doesn’t stand a chance in the Land of Steady Habits?
No response from Reiter, but Shapiro said, “I think it really has to percolate through the hothouse atmosphere of Ohio and Iowa first.”
Bike, the author and political consultant for an Illinois communications firm, disagreed. He noted that sex and politics have long been linked and that the porn industry has been successfully probing the mainstream. He mentioned Sylvester Stallone, who was in a stag film before becoming a Hollywood superstar; former porn star Traci Lords, who followed her underage porn debut with roles in non-X-rated movies and TV shows; and adult film star Jenna Jameson, who has a best-selling book, “How To Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale.” Most recently, blue-film star Savanna Samson has been getting rave reviews for her new Italian wine, “Sogno Uno.”
To win a political race, however, Bike says the porn-pol must have backing from a party’s bosses and should fade out of the adult film scene.
“Born-agains believe we all are sinners and we all must repent,” Bike wrote. “They love it when a sinner makes a big show of a public apology and embraces the Good Book again. Look at Jimmy Swaggart. A porn star could do the same, and therefore actually have a chance to win, even in the Bible Belt.”