Blondie
08-02-2002, 12:11 PM
Ex-stripper running for Congress has hard time getting his message across
By The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. - Congressional candidate Chuck Kalogianis says he wants affordable prescription drugs and social security to be the main focus of his campaign.
But his past as a stripper in Massachusetts may get in the way.
Kalogianis, 39, acknowledges his two-year stint with "Men in Motion" more than a decade ago when he was a law student in Boston.
In his act, Kalogianis wore a bird costume that masked his face but exposed his legs. It ended with him doing a chicken dance and tearing off the bright yellow costume to show his French bikini thong to crowds of women throwing money.
Today Kalogianis is a successful attorney in New Port Richey, a family man and an unopposed candidate for a Democratic nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives.
He hopes to unseat Republican incumbent Mike Bilirakis in Florida's 9th congressional district, representing parts of three counties north of the Tampa Bay area.
But the dancer label keeps popping up.
Kalogianis said he's tired of the attention it gets. When he qualified to run, a one-sentence blurb in a local paper about his campaign mentioned his "former job as a male stripper."
He said his performances were tasteful.
"I'll talk about it all day long, as long as the campaign doesn't get sidetracked from important issues," he said this week.
By The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. - Congressional candidate Chuck Kalogianis says he wants affordable prescription drugs and social security to be the main focus of his campaign.
But his past as a stripper in Massachusetts may get in the way.
Kalogianis, 39, acknowledges his two-year stint with "Men in Motion" more than a decade ago when he was a law student in Boston.
In his act, Kalogianis wore a bird costume that masked his face but exposed his legs. It ended with him doing a chicken dance and tearing off the bright yellow costume to show his French bikini thong to crowds of women throwing money.
Today Kalogianis is a successful attorney in New Port Richey, a family man and an unopposed candidate for a Democratic nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives.
He hopes to unseat Republican incumbent Mike Bilirakis in Florida's 9th congressional district, representing parts of three counties north of the Tampa Bay area.
But the dancer label keeps popping up.
Kalogianis said he's tired of the attention it gets. When he qualified to run, a one-sentence blurb in a local paper about his campaign mentioned his "former job as a male stripper."
He said his performances were tasteful.
"I'll talk about it all day long, as long as the campaign doesn't get sidetracked from important issues," he said this week.