Uncle Luke loses his bid to be Mayor of Miami

Posted at May 25, 2011 by Julie J Comments Off

In news that should not surprise anyone, Uncle Luke officially loses his Mayoral bid. He came in at 4th place, receiving about 11% of votes cast, or 20,663 to be precise, in the Miami-Dade County Mayor election. Hiphop ain’t doing so well in the political polls, I guess, with Rhymefest losing earlier this year.

I still feel like Uncle Luke ran kind of a goofy campaign. I mean, that italicized “I’m Dead Serious… Are You?” combined with that mug? No wonder some people couldn’t take him seriously. It’s like he’s parodying or satirizing the whole political process.

He blasted his celebrity friends, basically demanding that they contribute financially to his campaign, over Twitter no less. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a very effective fundraising tool because he raised a total of $10k. Plus, he just sounded a little wacky at the NCAAP forum clips I posted where he seemed like he was about to whoop some guy’s ass.

I’ll probably receive hella heat for this, but I’m going to liken his campaign to that of like a typical Tea Party candidate. Before you completely discount what I’m going to say, lemme explain. To overgeneralize, all the candidates seem kind of loud, critical of the ‘establishment,’ have some ideas that might sound good but just aren’t feasible (completely eliminating Medicare/Medicaide? #cmonson), but ultimately, are a little rough around the edges and seem a little ignorant of how the whole political system and process works.

For example, Uncle Luke denounced special interest money, refusing to take it. Considering that he only raised a total of $10k, one could easily speculate that the special interest groups never paid him any attention to begin with because they didn’t consider him to be a serious candidate who could potentially win the race, or at least force a runoff. After all, why would someone want to invest in a candidate that has absolutely no chance at winning? It’s like investing in a stock that is on a downward spiral, or giving money to a homeless guy whose sign reads “I’m going to be honest, I just want to buy beer.”

Sharron Angle told Hispanic students that they looked more Asian than Hispanic. Christine O’Donnell dabbled in witchcraft. Uncle Luke wants to tax strippers. I’ll stop.

Anyway, I hope that Uncle Luke runs again. He was funny to me, and stirred up the political scene in the 305. In his column for the Miami New Times, he says that he enjoyed every minute of it, which I don’t doubt, and he leaves us with:

I’ve shown Miami-Dade voters I know and understand the political landscape in our community. I’ve demonstrated I’m well informed on the issues that affect every person who claims the 305 as home. And I will continue to be a voice for the disenfranchised whether I’m the mayor, a columnist, or a high school football coach.

Watch out, 305.