Jerry Springer: The Man Who Would Be Senator?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 30, 1999 | by Berin Szoka

He's world-famous for pitting his loud and lurid guests against each other and watching the chair-throwing, hair-pulling and arm-biting that results. His daytime talk show is the second-highest-rated TV program in the world. He's Jerry Springer, and he's running for U.S. Senate (perhaps). Ohio's faltering Democratic Party is trying to draft the king of daytime vulgarity to run against incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, a wholesomely conservative 52-year-old father of eight, in 2000.

Ohio Democrats defend the idea, pointing out that Springer worked for Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, then spearheaded the national effort to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 and served five terms as an at-large member of Cincinnati's City Council from 1971 until 1977, when he was elected mayor of the Queen City. "I think Springer would be a viable, fascinating, interesting candidate for the U.S. Senate," Tim Burke, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hamilton County, Ohio, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Of course they don't mention his greatest distinction as city councilman -- being busted in a solicitation sting after writing a personal check to a prostitute for services rendered.

Springer has made no decision yet about giving up his show for a shot at the Senate, but he says he's "flattered" by the offer and insists he could overcome his sleazy image. "You can only talk about the show for so long," he told the Associated Press. "Then we'll have to talk about the issues. People will say, `How does that affect my life? What does he think about health care?'"

"We would love to face a Senate candidate who has brought us such morally inspiring shows as `Heartbreak Hookers,' `People Who Marry Their Pets' and `Online Strippers,'" said Stuart Roy, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. Perhaps Springer could start tackling the tough issues he's sure to face in a Senate race on his talk show. How about an episode on "Neo-Nazi Health-Care Providers and the Cross-Dressing Patients That Hate Them"?