BS BULLETIN:
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Chris Gallant, the Democratic candidate challenging Republican Rep. Nick LaLota in New York’s 1st Congressional District, is openly discussing old bondage photographs that surfaced last month.
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The 37-year-old military helicopter pilot told The New York Times that his friends already knew about his sexual interests and joked that he made the fictional Christian Grey look like an amateur.
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Rather than retreat from the controversy, Gallant is using the attention to promote his candidacy, including a new slogan: “Make Politics Sexy Again.”
Most congressional candidates spend October talking about inflation, taxes and healthcare.
Chris Gallant is talking about bondage gear, leather collars and why he believes he makes Christian Grey look like an amateur.
And apparently, he’s enjoying the publicity.
The 37-year-old Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Nick LaLota for New York’s 1st Congressional District has decided that the best defense against a potentially embarrassing political revelation is to embrace it.
In a Wednesday interview with The New York Times, Gallant addressed sexually suggestive photographs that surfaced in September showing him modeling bondage equipment, including leather straps, a collar and a heavy chain.
“I mean, all my friends know I’m kinky,” Gallant told the newspaper.
Then came the line that practically writes its own campaign advertisement.
“I make Christian Grey look like amateur hour.”
Christian Grey, of course, is the wealthy, bondage-loving protagonist of the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise.
Gallant’s photographs were taken years ago, including images produced for Mr. S Leather, a San Francisco retailer specializing in fetish equipment.
His attorney previously confirmed that the photographs were authentic and that other images came from a private, consensual photo session involving Gallant and his then-partner.
The candidate has said he requested removal of the commercial photographs before entering public life. The images subsequently resurfaced through archived internet material.
But Gallant isn’t apologizing.
He even suggested the publicity could become his “Kim Kardashian moment,” referring to the celebrity whose rise to fame included an infamous intimate video.
And his campaign has reportedly adopted a new slogan: “Make Politics Sexy Again.”
Gallant told the Times that getting voters to recognize his name had been one of his biggest challenges.
Now, thanks to the photographs, name recognition is apparently no longer quite the problem it once was. “My most difficult thing was always getting my name out there or trying to improve that,” he said, acknowledging that the controversy had substantially increased his visibility.
Gallant is not a conventional political newcomer. He is a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter pilot who has served overseas, worked as an air traffic controller and volunteered as a firefighter.
He also rejected LaLota’s characterization of him as “weak and woke.” “I’ve carried people out of burning buildings; I’ve flown helicopters in the Middle East,” Gallant told the Times.
“If that’s weak and woke — well, I just think that’s inaccurate.”
The Republican incumbent has not publicly commented on the bondage photographs, according to Mediaite.
Gallant, meanwhile, argues that the images have little bearing on his qualifications for public office.
He has described their publication as a politically motivated attempt to embarrass him and drive him from the race.
His fiancé, fellow National Guardsman Mike Ingram, is currently stationed in the Middle East.
Gallant said his family’s acceptance of him helped shape his decision not to hide his personal life. “If my family can accept me, the world can,” he told the Times.
The controversy arrives less than four weeks before the November midterm elections.
And in a congressional campaign where Gallant had struggled to attract national attention, the photographs have accomplished something that political advertising often struggles to achieve.
People are talking about him.
Whether those conversations translate into votes is another matter entirely.
MY QUICK TAKE
Well, there’s a campaign strategy you don’t see every election cycle.
Most politicians spend their careers trying to keep embarrassing photographs from becoming public.
Chris Gallant apparently wants to put his on a campaign poster.
But there’s a more interesting political lesson here.
Remember when Gary Hart’s presidential ambitions collapsed amid revelations about his private life? Or when Bill Clinton’s personal conduct became a national political obsession?
The rules of political scandal have changed dramatically.
Today, a candidate can look at an embarrassing revelation and decide the best response is to turn it into a marketing campaign.
And frankly, that presents voters with a different question: Are they evaluating a candidate’s qualifications, or are they simply reacting to whatever sensational material dominates the news cycle?
Gallant has military service and emergency-response experience worth examining. He also has a political platform that deserves scrutiny.
His private, consensual activities from years ago don’t automatically answer whether he’d make a good congressman.
But I will say this: “Make Politics Sexy Again” is a remarkable campaign slogan.
Washington already has enough politicians tying themselves in knots. Apparently, one candidate decided to make it official.
I don’t care about his sexual preferences, as long as it’s consensual, or that he’s a Fn pedophile! The left makes it important! I care about what he stands for, as far as what he would do in office!
Kudos to him for his military service. But, that doesn’t mean he gets a free ride when he runs for office.
A political candidate without strong moral values cannot be depended on to consider the moral implications of a bill. The basic concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are fundamental to Western Civilization.