Jack's trying to go to Washington

Jack, the "class warfare" candidate

You may remember Jack from a 2007 post. We met at a MoveOn protest in front of the federal building.

I ran into him a couple of times shortly after that, at the Ogden Museum and Coliseum Square Park with his female black lab, Condoleeza Rice. He asked if I was stalking him.
Now, Jack has decided to run for public office against the somewhat popular incumbent, Republican Congressman Joseph Cao.

Jack had some difficulty coming up with a platform because he could only figure out what he was against, not what he was for. Jack doesn't like corporations or the military - he is sure about that.

For a while, during the BP ordeal, he was planning to sell his house and leave New Orleans, convinced the city was on the verge of turning into a toxic waste dump. But we're all still here.

So, last week, the newspaper's political reporter asserted Jack wasn't running a "real" campaign. Jack was outraged. Just because he wasn't fundraising didn't mean he wasn't a serious candidate. His campaign wasn't "invisible," as the newspaper stated, merely under-the-radar.
He has been running a stealth campaign, one-on-one at sporting events and music festivals, mingling among the common people and sharing his philosophy on Good Government. In the meantime, he gets to hear the music and catch a few rays. That's the trouble with our election system, he says. It's all based on money. The TV news stations won't interview candidates if they haven't raised $10,000. (I suppose they might spend it on TV advertising.)

Jack wrote an irate letter to the newspaper editor, which wasn't published, voicing his negative assessment of the news media, which obviously wasn't performing its First Amendment job.

Though his letter wasn't printed, Frank Donze did respond with a news story, "Long-shot pair differ sharply on philosophies," comparing Anthony Marquize, the conservative, and Radosta, the progressive.

Radosta said the BP rig disaster was the catalyst for his candidacy.

Jack's campaign manager

I guess you can say it was a rash decision, he said. I got so angry and frustrated when they started dumping oil in the Gulf of Mexico, I plopped down my $500 and said 'I'm running.'

Jack told Donze he was an advocate of class warfare. I told him that probably wasn't a wise comment to make to the press. "Why not? The corporations started it first," he claimed.

Many of our current politicians are bought and paid for by large corporations, which are in effect killing the democratic process as it was envisioned by the founding fathers.

He may have a point there.

Donze mentioned that Radosta has not attended campaign events, even when there was a chair reserved for him. Jack told him: "unavoidable things came up." I said: "Like the free, Lindy-Hop class on Frenchmen Street?"

Jack's credentials, according to the paper, include a BA in General Studies, carpentry skills and acting ability. In fact, he played the cab driver in the first episode of "Treme."