His résumé includes four years in the U.S. Senate, a seriously homophobic voting record, and a tab with “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Her résumé includes such prestigious titles as Tit Happens and Super Size Meat.

Republican U.S. senator David Vitter of Louisiana and porn star Stormy Daniels may seem to have little in common, but if Daniels gets her way, she’s going to challenge Vitter for his Senate seat.

Daniels sat down with WGNO-TV reporter Michael Hill to talk about her candidacy and her stance on several social issues, including marriage equality.

“One of the joys of being an American is equal treatment,” she says. “The big debate against gay marriage is that it’s a sin, but that’s between the couple in question and their higher power. It’s not the government’s decision. Do we really want to spend all this money fighting couples from getting a piece of paper? … And by the way, telling them they can’t get married isn’t going to magically make them un-gay.”

Daniels also says she’s pro-choice, but more important, is pro-condom, adding that abstinence-only education is unrealistic and that no one is actually pro-abortion.

Challenging Vitter will be an uphill battle — Louisiana is an overwhelmingly Republican state where voters are expected to take issue with Daniels’s background in adult entertainment.

For Immediate Release

Contact: DraftStormy

Phone: 504-273-4938

Email: press@draftstormy.com

NEW ORLEANS, LA. – May 10, 2009 – Today, DraftStormy issued the following statement regarding NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh’s false assertions in Roll Call this morning:

Today, National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh went even further down the rabbit hole of desperation and embarrassment in his pathetic attempt to defend his candidate, disgraced Louisiana Junior Senator David Vitter.

Rather than living up to the Reagan legacy of fiscal conservatism and personal responsibility, Walsh and national Republicans are defending an ethically challenged career politician who is on record as the 5th biggest pork barrel spender in the United States Senate.

In their ill conceived attacks on DraftStormy, “questionable political strategy” one could say, Brian Walsh and the NRSC have begged the question, why aren’t they whole heartedly endorsing the conservative message of Stormy Daniels? Stormy spent the last week touring Louisiana, listening to voters and spreading her message of protecting our children from online predators and replacing the federal income tax with The Fair Tax.

While we do not understand why Brian Walsh and national Republicans are opposed to Stormy’s message of protecting children and repealing the income tax, we recognize their right to do so and look forward to watching them explain this to the voters.

DraftStormy will happily engage them in this debate. And if Stormy decides to go forward and run for United States Senate, Louisiana voters will have the opportunity to choose a candidate who has the honesty, integrity and strength of character to stand up for fiscal and personality responsibility in Washington DC.

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Meet Stormy Daniels. Or, if your workplace is a bit prudish, meet her here. Ms. Daniels is a self-made businesswoman, has a hugely successful career in film, and has won awards as a director and screenwriter. She may or may not be running for Senate from Louisiana next year — she’s currently on a “listening tour” of the state — but there’s certainly a concerted group of believers encouraging her to do so.

Oh, and she’s a porn star.

That fact is, predictably, dominating news stories about her potential run for office. The equally predictable sideshow to these stories is the story of current senator David Vitter, who would be her opponent. In brief, he’s one of the strictest “values” conservatives in Congress, but in 2007 he was identified as a frequent client of a New Orleans escort service — one with a reported penchant for wearing adult diapers during the act. Pure tabloid sensationalism. Or is it?

We are, as a nation, forgiving of our politicians’ pragmatism. Sure, ideology makes for a great stump speech, but in reality we recognize that politics is business and business requires flexibility. But only to a point. And a man who decries sexual freedom (straight and gay alike) while simultaneously hiring prostitutes — well that goes far beyond that point. That’s because, when properly applied, pragmatism serves the diverse needs of the public, while private flaunting of declared values is simply hypocritical. But Vitter reversed those equations, spinning his hypocrisy as a moral failure-and-redemption story (family values work!) while pragmatically distancing himself from the madam who kept his urges satisfied (whores don’t vote Republican). That madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, killed herself rather than go to prison. Vitter got a standing O. There’s justice for ya.

Simply put, David Vitter is one of the biggest pricks in government. And we wholeheartedly support the candidacy of someone who knows big pricks — and what to do with them. She might even win.

It is a US Senate race to savour, pitting a porn star named Stormy — the proud winner of the 2007 Golden G-string award — against a Christian family-values Republican shamed after being caught cavorting with prostitutes.

In these gloomy days of global recession and soaring unemployment, the Louisiana Senate race is brightening the lives of many, courtesy of Stormy Daniels, who set off on a “listening tour” of her home state yesterday, taking on David Vitter, the Republican senator, with the slogan: “Stormy Daniels: Screwing People Honestly”.

Ms Daniels says that she is running in response to an internet campaign called Draft Stormy that she claims has got people even more excited than viewers of her hit films Space Nuts and Taken. Whatever the outcome, her decision to thrust her 36-inch chest into Louisiana politics is dragging Mr Vitter’s 2007 prostitution scandal back into the limelight.

“He ran for the Senate on a family values, anti-sex education platform,” Ms Daniels told The Times. “And he’s caught with prostitutes. That’s hypocritical. Call me what you will, but you can’t call me a hypocrite.”

Ms Daniels says she loves the business she works in, but if she did enter the US Senate: “I think I would have to give it up.” Mr Vitter, an outspoken conservative who co-sponsored an anti-gay Marriage Protection Amendment last year, was humiliated in 2007 when it emerged that his name and number was on the list of phone call records kept by the so-called D. C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who turned the documents over to a news organisation.

Mr Vitter, with his wife by his side during the inevitable post-revelation press conference, admitted to a “serious sin” after it emerged that his phone number had been called five times by Ms Palfrey’s agency.

Yet he added that he had “asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife”. In May last year Ms Palfrey was found dead, having apparently committed suicide after being convicted of running a prostitution ring.

Ms Daniels, one of the most successful porn actresses in the US, has already challenged Mr Vitter to a debate — “but I don’t think he has the balls to confront me” — and said she would be willing to wrestle him, something that Mr Vitter, with his track record, might secretly relish.

Few think Ms Daniels can actually beat Mr Vitter next year but her candidacy is an uncomfortable reminder for a Republican party as to why it has been so resoundingly rejected by US voters. After losing power on Capitol Hill in 2006, the party lost the White House and further ground in Congress in 2008. Democrats now reign supreme in Washington.

Part of the reason was the sleaze factor and as Ms Daniels says: “Politics can’t be any dirtier a job than the one I am already in.”

Unlikely winners

The Queen of England Actress Glenda Jackson, best known for playing Queen Elizabeth I in the TV serial, hung up her crown to become MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 1992. She ran an unsuccessful campaign to become the Labour candidate for London Mayor in 2000

The trailblazer Ilona Staller, better known as Cicciolina, was the first porn star to enter politics. She was elected an MP for Italy’s Radical Party but became most famous around the world for flashing her breasts in public

The recovering alcoholic It was said that George W. Bush won the 2000 US elections because voters would rather have a beer with him than Al Gore. Bush, however, had stopped drinking 14 years earlier after decades of alcohol abuse

The Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in the US from Austria aged 21, unable to speak English. He became a champion bodybuilder, a millionaire tycoon, married a Kennedy and starred in more than 40 movies before he was made Governor of California in 2003

The Beauty Queen Former Miss Great Britain Gemma Garrett attempted to fill David Davis’s shoes after his protest over the 42-day detention law prompted a by-election in Haltemprice and Howden. She won 521 votes — not enough to trump Davis, who regained his seat

The washed-up actor Ronald Reagan starred in B-list movies with such titles as Swing Your Lady and Bedtime for Bonzo before being elected to the White House in 1981. He was named the most popular president since Eisenhower

The sign on the door to Serio’s Po Boys in the CBD Wednesday morning said: “Storm Warning at Noon.” It was the only official notice to customers that business would not quite be usual.

The occasion was the second stop on the “listening tour” — her words, not mine — of Stormy Daniels, the as-yet undeclared candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by David Vitter.

Daniels is not your run-of-the-mill politician, no party mouthpiece in a suit, no policy-leaden talking head, she. Daniels — of no stated political party — is a star of, as her website attests, “the adult entertainment industry.”

You might know it by its other name: Porn.

But don’t take Stormy for a dumb blonde. Draftstormy.com points out that she not only performs porn, but she also writes — and directs! — as well. She was also, it should be noted, the president of her 4-H club in high school back in Baton Rouge.

And, as previously stated, she is on a listening tour of south Louisiana, “a conversation with the citizens of Louisiana” about “the ongoing struggles they face in these troubled economic times.” And nothing gets a downtown diner more charged up than a populist porn star and thus it was that Serio’s was packed.

When I walked in to check out the scene, my eyes came to rest on the two biggest meatballs I have ever seen in my life. No, I’m serious. Have you ever seen Serio’s spaghetti plate? Meatballs like Volkswagens. These guys, they know how to meet a man’s appetite.

As for Stormy, she carries an impressive carriage herself. She handled the assembled press, gawkers and lunch-bucket Joe’s with casual aplomb. If the whole point of her “listening tour” — the sum total of which was the stop at Serio’s and a similar event Tuesday in Baton Rouge — is to keep the pokes in the eye coming at Vitter, it seems to be working.

There was plenty of media on hand to trumpet the occasion and my gracious colleagues from both WWL and Gambit actually asked policy questions. And they asked about Vitter whom, you may remember, had a little “family values” issue a while back — and whoever the money is behind Stormy wants to make sure none of us forget it.

When given the opportunity to speak to Stormy, I demurred. The meatballs had made me hungry as hell. And I did not feel that I could top the very astute political commentary offered by the renown historian, John Barry — author of “Rising Tide” and “The Great Influenza” — who was also in attendance (he happens to be a Serio’s regular) and observed: “She has done something I never saw a politician do before.”

Many things came to my mind. I forgot all about the meatballs. And Barry finally explained: “She showed up on time.”

Proprietor Mike Serio was the gadfly of the moment, reveling in the in-house insanity, flashbulbs popping and a throng of hungry guys lining up at the lunch counter with mischievous smiles and open wallets.

“Truth is, I’m a Vitter fan,” Serio said. “But I’m open to suggestions. And all I can say is that she’s been a very good stimulus package for me.”

BATON ROUGE — Stormy Daniels strode onstage at a downtown Baton Rouge restaurant in a tight black blouse with a plunging neckline and a knee-length skirt in the popular purple of Louisiana State University. She introduced herself with a warning.

“For those of you who don’t know who I am,” she told the lunch crowd at The Roux House, “I’d suggest that you don’t Google that until you get home from work.”
Sen. David Vitter

She’s a Louisiana-born porn star who says she is considering a 2010 run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican David Vitter, whose family-values reputation was marred in 2007 when his name was linked to a Washington prostitution ring.

Daniels, 30, insists she’s serious. She’s spending her own money on a “listening tour” to hear what people have to say as she considers a possible run, and said she isn’t just starting a publicity stunt to promote her work or embarrass Vitter. However, she said she hasn’t lived in Louisiana for seven years — she currently resides in Florida — and would need to re-establish residency to run.

She sprinkled her presentation Tuesday with the occasional joke (“If you get any closer you’re going to have to start tipping me,” she told a crowd of reporters and photographers) but she kept the topics serious.

Daniels’ platform contains a few issues she probably has professional knowledge of — backing efforts to remove child pornography from the Internet and keeping minors from viewing adult material — as well as the bread-and-butter issues of many other candidates: Support for a national sales tax to replace the income tax and pushing to get troops home sooner from Iraq.

She doesn’t want to take questions about Vitter. “I think it’s about time David Vitter started answering David Vitter questions,” she said.

Vitter has steadfastly refused to discuss the “serious sin” he confessed to after his phone number was linked to Deborah Palfrey, the so-called “D.C. Madam” who committed suicide as she faced prison time for running a prostitution ring that catered to the powerful. His office declined to comment Wednesday on Daniels’ possible candidacy.

Vitter, 48, kept a low profile in the months after his scandal broke but has emerged as a chief critic of government bailouts and President Barack Obama’s spending plans — popular stands in a state that went solidly for Republican John McCain in last year’s presidential election.

He also has been aggressively fundraising, amassing $2.5 million in campaign funds for what will be his first re-election attempt since the Palfrey scandal broke. He won the Senate seat for the first time in 2004, spending more than $7 million to defeat four major opponents for the open position.

Noting Vitter’s solid conservative stances and his healthy campaign account, Ed Chervenak, a political science professor at the University of New Orleans, doesn’t think a Daniels candidacy would do much damage.

“It’s probably going to be fairly easy for him to ignore her,” he said.

“What it really shows is the lack of any real credible Democratic challenger,” he added.

Pollster and political consultant Bernie Pinsonat agreed. But he said a possible Daniels’ candidacy could be a distraction if Vitter is challenged in next year’s Republican primary.

“Is she a threat to beat him? No. Is she really going to run? I seriously doubt it,” Pinsonat said. “But if I had my druthers and I was running the campaign of David Vitter, I would rather she not be there.”

Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne has expressed interest in the GOP primary. Others reportedly considering a run are retired state Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor, a Republican; and state Sen. Eric LaFleur and Shaw Group CEO Jim Bernhard, both Democrats. Nobody has announced.

If nothing else, a Daniels candidacy could bring color to the Senate campaign the way adult film star Mary Carey did as a candidate for governor in California’s 2003 recall race, which Arnold Schwarzenegger won. And Daniels could restore the spectacle missing from Louisiana politics since the unabashed gambler, reputed womanizer and now-felon Edwin Edwards left the governor’s office in 1996.

Edwards was succeeded by the staid Mike Foster, the grandmotherly Kathleen Blanco and the young policy wonk, Bobby Jindal. All are a far cry from other colorful characters from Louisiana’s political past: the windmill-armed Depression-era orator, Huey Long; country-singing Gov. Jimmie Davis, who once rode up the Capitol steps on horseback; or Gov. Earl Long, Huey’s brother, who openly cavorted with Bourbon Street stripper Blaze Starr in the 1950s.

Daniels, meanwhile, has not committed to a candidacy — or a political party.

She decided to explore a possible run after a draft movement started by fans after the Palfrey scandal broke, she said. “I completely ignored the whole thing for a while, and then I just got so much encouragement and feedback that I thought at the very least I owe it to myself and to the people to come out and see what they have to say.”

At Mike Serio’s Po-Boys & Deli in downtown New Orleans on Wednesday, the crowd was friendly but some seemed more interested in Daniels’ film career.

“You look familiar. Not your face, though,” said Jody Mathern, 51, a New Orleans man who said he works in the oil industry, drawing laughs from Daniels and a table full of oil patch workers. “She’s a whole lot prettier than Vitter. But I still don’t know what color her eyes are.”

Joe Nadenicek was ready to write a check to porn star Stormy Daniels on Tuesday to encourage her to run for the U.S. Senate.

Never mind that Nadenicek is a South Dakota resident just passing through town on a motorcycle trip.

“That’s kind of the trifecta,” he said. “I wanted to see Stormy, I wanted to see New Orleans, Baton Rouge.”

Daniels, a 30-year-old Baton Rouge native, was in town for a “listening tour” in connection with efforts to persuade her to run against U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., next year.

Her appearance at the Roux House on Third Street in downtown Baton Rouge drew a few fans, curious onlookers and the media in droves, turning the event into a news conference.

Daniels, who will be in New Orleans today, talked about Iraq, taxes and her efforts to safeguard the Internet for children.

She said she is undecided on whether she will run for office.

“This is not the campaign,” Daniels said. “This is the listening tour to decide whether I campaign.”

She said she was annoyed at first by the Internet-based “Draft Stormy” campaign that is largely the effort of a New Orleans college student. She said she did not like her name being used.

Daniels said she later decided that a listening tour would be the responsible first step toward possibly seeking public office.

She said her contract with the porn studio Wicked Pictures is drawing to a close. She said she is only obligated to appear on camera for the rest of the year and that, at age 30, she is becoming old for a porn star.

Daniels said entering the adult entertainment business carries a lot of responsibility.

She said she is passionate about protecting children from risqué sites on the Internet and about encouraging families to install parental software.

In response to questions from the audience, Daniels said she is in favor of eliminating the income tax in favor of higher sales taxes.

The nation’s tax structure punishes success, she said.

Daniels said she grew up in a poor neighborhood, where her family struggled to pay bills.

“Sometimes we had electricity. Sometimes we didn’t,” she said.

Daniels warned anyone searching for more information on her to surf the Internet with caution.

She said it would be a good idea to wait until getting home to put her name in a search engine.

Roland Sheehan, of Baton Rouge, listened to Daniels while eating a plateful of spaghetti.

He said he frequents the lunch spot about once a week.

“I came to eat and listen to her speak,” he said.

Sheehan said he prefers Daniels to Vitter because she is honest about what she does.

He said he does not like Vitter’s morals, referring to the senator’s name being found on a Washington prostitution ring’s client list.

Liz Dunn also is unhappy with Vitter. She and a group of friends came to listen to Daniels.

“We disapprove of David Vitter, so by default we approve of this,” she said.

BATON ROUGE, LA – Adult film star Stormy Daniels kicked off her bid to unseat U.S. Senator David Vitter on Wednesday in Baton Rouge with a “listening tour” where she fielded questions from the media.

Daniels stopped short of saying she was definitely running against Vitter, saying only that she was “drafted” to do so. She is considered one of the adult entertainment industry’s biggest movie stars.

“I’ve worked very hard to become at the top of my industry and becoming as successful as I can,” Daniels said. “Um, I am stopping performing because I am at the age that I said I was gonna stop. The two things are not related and I just feel like with all the encouragement and support, I have to sound cheesy, but maybe it’s my duty.”

The Draft Stormy group says it has been labeled as a “cheap political stunt” by the old Louisiana status quo. Daniels will be in New Orleans on Wednesday for a similar appearance.

Stormy Daniels, an adult film star considering a run for the U.S. Senate against David Vitter, says she supports the Fair Tax plan, which would replace all income and payroll taxes with a national retail sales tax. In an appearance today at the Roux House, Daniels admitted she wasn’t sure the plan was feasible, but said the current tax system penalizes success.

Daniels, a Scotlandville Magnet graduate, says the appearance was the beginning of a listening tour, which is was the “responsible first step” before deciding whether to run for the Senate in 2010. “I am not here to talk about David Vitter,” she says. “I have done that enough. I think it’s about time that David Vitter started answering David Vitter questions.” Daniels answered a handful of questions from the lunch crowd, followed by a brief news conference. Daniels says she had not decided on a political party affiliation if she does run. Daniels said she is only under contract to appear in adult films through the end of this year. “By the time I would take office, my contract would be up,” she says.

Brian Welsh, a New Orleans-based political consultant who moderated the event, said Vitter had helped open the field for an outsider candidate. “David Vitter, through his indiscretions and moral failings, has allowed the opportunity to show that somebody who is actually sincere and has the honesty, integrity and strength of character to run for office can do so,” he says.

Porn star Stormy Daniels is conducting a “listening tour” this week on the issues facing Louisiana residents.

Daniels is considering a run against U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who faces re-election next year. Her bid, so far, has been featured in the national media.

Daniels, a Baton Rouge native, will be at The Roux House, 143 Third St., at noon Tuesday.

At noon Wednesday, she will be at Serio’s Po’ Boys and Deli, 133 St. Charles Ave., in New Orleans.