According to the Washington Examiner, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has come up with the idea of running Jerry Springer as governor of that state. John Kasich, the current governor who ran for president in 2016, is term-limited and so cannot run again. The theory is that Springer would have instant name recognition, especially among fans of his show. To be sure, the idea of a host of a tabloid, train wreck TV interview show running for public office may be no crazier than the host of “Celebrity Apprentice” becoming president of the United States.
Besides, Springer has some experience in elected politics going back to the 1970s.
The Jerry Springer Show
During its height in the 1990s, “The Jerry Springer Show” was the only syndicated talk show to beat Oprah Winfrey in the ratings. The show featured such tabloid themes as “My Boyfriend is really a Girl” and “I Want My Husband to Stop Watching Porn.” Episodes of the show would invariably feature fights among the guests, with fists and chairs being thrown. Some critics have actually questioned the authenticity of these on set melees, suggesting that they have been staged.
A tabloid host’s political career
Before becoming famous as a Tabloid Tv host, Springer was a politician in Cincinnati. He ran for Congress in 1970 and lost.
He won a seat on the Cincinnati city council the following year. In 1974 he was obliged to resign his seat when a police raid on a massage parlor uncovered a check from Springer marked in the memo section “for services rendered.” However, the disgraced won his seat back in 1975 by a landslide and was named the mayor of Cincinnati in 1977 for a year.
He ran for governor of Ohio in 1982 running ads that touted the check incident, claiming that he was not afraid of the truth. He placed third in the Democratic primary. He left his political career at that point and became a successful broadcast journalist.
What are the TV star’s chances?
Springer regards his politics as “progressive left,” which would tend to place in the Bernie Sanders wing on the Democratic Party.
Despite the common subjects his TV show covers, his personal life has apparently been becomingly boring, at least since the check incident. Springer’s chances may revolve around whether he can get the Democratic nomination and what sort of candidate the Republicans chose for governor. Recent political history suggests that personal misbehavior, whether it is boasting to a live microphone about one’s prowess with women or body slamming a reporter, is less a factor than it has been times past. But is Ohio ready for a progressive left governor who gained fame as a tabloid TV star?
