E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

The Art World's Enfant Terrible Runs for Senate
[Free Press] PASADENA, CA — Stefan Simchowitz, 53, is no one’s idea of a viable candidate, including his own.

"I have no illusion that I can win or that I stand a chance to win, which is also quite liberating, because I’m not running to win a campaign. I have no prayer," he tells me.

Simchowitz, who is running for Senate as a Republican in a seat that has been held by a Democrat for 32 years, is perched at the kitchen island in one of his four homes, an updated Victorian farmhouse on an acre in Pasadena that he’s been building into an exhibition space and artist residency for the past year or so. He calls it Red Barns.

In a tan Altadena Hardware shirt and one of his signature bucket hats, the contemporary art dealer once dubbed "the Art World’s Patron Satan" offers me sparkling water and a bite of his blueberry muffin. Unlike the Democrats vying for Dianne Feinstein’s open seat—Representatives Katie Porter, who has a $12 million war chest and Adam Schiff ($32 million)—and the Republican front-runner, former L.A. Dodger Steve Garvey, Simchowitz doesn’t seem concerned with shaking hands, kissing babies, or winning votes.

"Sometimes if you know you’re going to lose you can only win," he says. Stefan sees this campaign as a "vehicle to sell his ideas." In other words: a performance art project of sorts. How else to make sense of this Democrat-turned-Republican, with no political experience, throwing his hat into the ring?
Posted by: Besoeker 2024-03-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=692934