Friday, December 05, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Failed Nevada gubernatorial candidate seeks presidency

Russo would pull troops out of Iraq, abolish Patriot Act

Aaron Russo Launched campaign for presidency this week with Web site, e-mails to media

Movie producer Aaron Russo may have gotten trounced running for governor of Nevada, but that isn't stopping him from eyeing the Oval Office.

Russo, 60, of Los Angeles, launched his official bid as an independent candidate for president of the United States this week with a Web site and messages e-mailed to the media.

"It's funny I heard they were making some bumper stickers in Nevada saying `Where's Aaron Russo when we need him?' " Russo said in a telephone interview.

Russo, 60, has been a Republican, a Libertarian and, once again, is an independent. A part-time Nevada resident with a home in Las Vegas, he has flirted in state politics by making an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1998.

His presidential platform is simple: "Pull the troops out of Iraq and abolish the Patriot Act."

But getting his message out, despite his personal wealth, will be difficult amid a sea of candidates. Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan voter education organization, lists 40 independent candidates for president on its Web site.

This doesn't bother Russo.

"Why not run? Look what's running the country. This economic recovery we have is phony. It's just because they sent checks to everybody and created a fiction," he said about the Bush administration and its tax cuts.

Russo, a onetime manager and boyfriend of Bette Midler, doesn't mind Hollywood fiction. He produced the Oscar-nominated film "The Rose" and Eddie Murphy's "Trading Places," among other films.

But dabbling in Nevada politics didn't get him far.

He lost the 1998 Republican gubernatorial primary to Kenny Guinn, getting 26 percent of votes to Guinn's 59 percent.

In 1999 he held a news conference announcing that he was forming an exploratory committee to run for Congress as an independent. He didn't specify whether he was interested in the Senate or House, but never ran for either.

Last year he began running television ads in Nevada lambasting Guinn for not taking Nevada's case against Yucca Mountain directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. But, he didn't run against Guinn a second time.

Pete Ernaut, Guinn's campaign chairman in 2002, called Russo a "five-alarm, certifiable idiot."

Paul Brown, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, questioned why Russo would run.

"It's really unusual if you get trampled for governor that you come back and run for president," Brown said.

Russo is undeterred, saying there is a "huge vacuum" in national politics.

Russo describes himself as a social liberal and fiscal conservative who favors legalized medical marijuana wants eliminate the national deficit.

He cites environmental issues as a major concern and said that if elected president, he would turn Yucca Mountain into "a big playground for the kids or find something inventive to do with it."

Russo, who also worked as a promoter for The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead, is promoting his presidential bid with electronic messages on his Web site: www.russoforpresident.com.