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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Controversial Florida state Rep. Willie Logan is hiring Jesse Ventura's adman to launch his grass-roots Senate campaign.
Sep 1, 1999 | In his underdog campaign to run for U.S. Senate as an independent candidate, Florida state Rep. Willie Logan is clearly looking to Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura as a role model. And though Logan isn't exactly shaving his head and donning feather boas and multicolored Spandex, he is doing the next best thing: hiring Ventura's media guru.
On Thursday, Logan will announce his candidacy for the seat currently held by retiring conservative Republican Sen. Connie Mack III and introduce his campaign team -- including Bill Hillsman of Minneapolis-based North Woods Advertising.
Hillsman masterminded the television and radio ads that played a pivotal role in sending the former pro-wrestler, talk radio shock-jock, C-list movie actor and small-town mayor to the Minnesota state Capitol in St. Paul. When Ventura announced he was challenging St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, and former state Attorney General Hubert "Skip" Humphrey, the Democrat, no one took him very seriously.
Similarly, Logan -- who was elected mayor of the predominantly African-American city of Opa-locka when he was 23 -- knows something about being an underdog.
As a liberal African-American state representative in Tallahassee, Logan, now 42, was constantly on the losing side of legislative debates. After being elected to the state House in 1983, Logan worked his way up the leadership track. In 1996, the Miami Herald named him the second-
But in January 1998, Logan's fellow Democrats ousted him as speaker-designate and replaced him with a white woman representing Fort Lauderdale. Many of the Democrats claimed that Logan had lost their confidence because he devoted too little time to the party. Others viewed the move as racially motivated.
