Count Staas van der Winst for CongressFollow

So some dude named Jake Rush is running for Congress in Florida. He's a Republican which is largely irrelevant here and I know nothing about him or what his chances were a day ago (won a primary? front-runner? distant fifth? no clue). However, some blogger dug up that Rush was an active LARP member. Live Action Role Playing ("Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!") of the White Wolf vampire persuasion. The blog is filled with some amusing hand-wringing that reminded me of 1980's Dungeons and Dragons hysteria:


There's also some messages and stuff from Rush that are more problematic at least in a "Everyone says dumb **** but yours is worse because I get to judge you for it" sort of way. The blogger mentions some various photos from the MES wiki site but I don't know if any of those are actually connected to Rush or just "Gasp! Stock photo goth girl headshot labeled as succubus!"

Business Insider has picked this up now with a statement from Rush's father laughing it off with comments like "What if you find out about our Halloween parties" and connecting LARP activity to community theater and the arts.

This isn't a representative group to be asking "Would you care...?" what with you all being MMORPG dorks and stuff but I did find it interesting. The liability of it, the Jack Chick style hand-wringing, all of that. Makes the candidate who was called out last cycle for playing World of Warcraft seem like small potatoes.

I assume you mean a scandal with his LARP group and guild. "Dude, we need a healer for our raid on Friday and you're always off LARPing!"

Yeah, I figured the posting was the nail in the coffin (wakka-wakka-wakka) regardless but was amused at how much effort and focus was expended on the LARP aspect.

Well sure, if he lands them.

If he's trying to lightning bolt a rock he's done for.

An aside: The Maine Senator whose campaign the GOP tried to derail with her WoW playing history has had a couple good sessions. She seems to be a well-prepared and well-regarded law-maker.



Edited, Apr 1st 2014 6:48pm by Elinda

Maybe he could target the Twilight/Vampire Diaries/True Blood vote. Do they let tween girls vote in Florida?

I'm faintly remembering a candidate who caught flack for being photographed in an SS uniform as part of a WWII reenactment group. I once dated a girl whose parents were into Civil War reenactments and got roped into filling a slot for one of their events (I was a flag carrier -- yippee). Pretty sure I was on the Confederate side so this might sink my political career as a Democrat. Coincidentally, the girl in question was way into vampires back when that meant Anne Rice instead of Stephanie Meyer but maybe the vampires don't fall far from the role-playing tree.

I think his father has the right tack: associate it in peoples' minds with theater, not OH MY GAWD THE OCCULT. Still, it's going to be hard to live down. It's not as bad as being a mime, but it's still pretty embarrassing.

I think it's more the roleplay kindapper/rapist with a van bit that's going to deter values voters. The dress up makes a good picture, which will get people to the message board post which makes him hope his law career is going to withstand the publicity.

I'd trade one of Joph's kids for a grilled cheese sandwich.

I haven't made a Grilled cheese sandwich since last weekend.

The kids are addicts.

I played Vampire: Masquerade for a session or two, but some of the players were off-the-wall LARPers while we were trying to play a tabletop game.