Published Aug. 12, 2003|Updated Jun. 20, 2006
A comedian best known for demolishing watermelons onstage took his campaign to be governor of California to the nation's capital on Monday.
"I'm tired of being dismissed as merely a guy who smashes fruit," said Gallagher, who grew up in the Tampa Bay area and attended Tampa schools. He is so well known for the act that his audiences wear plastic ponchos.
"I'm as nutty as the others" in the crowded field to replace Gray Davis, should the governor be recalled in a special election, said Gallagher. But his campaign slogan is "Insanity That Makes Sense."
So while Republican frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger was refusing to take reporters' questions in New York City, Leo Gallagher was answering anyone who would ask one at Jack's Famous Deli, across the street from the Washington Post. Yes, "Leo is my first name," conceded Gallagher, who was forced to reveal it to be on the California ballot. "It's also my astrological sign."
He is among the lesser-known of nearly 200 candidates. Others include Michael Jackson, an electrical engineer counting on name confusion; Nathan Whitecloud Walton, son of former basketball star Bill Walton; Donald A. Novello, who played Father Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Live; Angelyne, a Los Angeles billboard model; smokers advocate Ned Roscoe, owner of the Cigarettes Cheaper! discount chain; and Jack Grisham, singer for the punk band TSOL.
Is this political race a circus?
"Sure it is," said Gallagher, who believes that many of the candidates are actually running just for the publicity. His own press release mentioned that he has appearances later this week in Chicago and Iowa.
Unlike the others who are just now formulating their views for the race, the candidate said he already had a political philosophy and is "getting publicity for my platform by using the governor's race."
For instance, he advocates using large military helicopters to pluck cars disabled by fender-bender accidents off crowded freeways. That would prevent huge traffic jams that are reducing economic productivity because people can't get to work.
And he wants to make it illegal to talk loudly on cell phones in public places and to wear your pants too low. He believes the national anthem should be sung in Spanish at sporting events in cities such as Los Angeles and Miami that have heavily Hispanic populations. He also wants a dam to be built across the Gulf of California to create a new fertile valley in Mexico. After the sea water is drained, crops _ including watermelons _ would be grown and harvested by Mexican families who then wouldn't have to emigrate to the U.S., he said.
Gallagher said that he came to Washington to visit the Pentagon, departments of Education and Transportation, Atomic Energy Commission and the Mexican Embassy "to do research" on how his programs could be implemented. His first stop, however, was the Post, where he said the security guards wouldn't let him in.
So the 57-year-old candidate set up a temporary campaign headquarters across the street.
"I'm the comedian who smashes watermelons on TV," Gallagher explained to Washingtonians who didn't recognize him.
"It was like pulling teeth to get 65 signatures in Los Angeles" in order to qualify as a candidate, he said. Many people didn't recognize him.
In Washington, dozens of fans did recognize him and some asked for autographs. But few were registered to vote in California.
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Originally Posted by of_corpse_not
