"As I travel the district, I hear the exact same things," Florida Republican congressional candidate Jacob A. Rush writes on his campaign website. "People are nervous; they don't understand their government anymore -- it literally makes no sense."
Rush, however, has now been outed as an active member of an intricate and bizarre vampire role-playing society. It makes people nervous. We don't understand it. It literally makes no sense.
Rush, a 35-year-old lawyer and former sheriff's deputy in Gainesville, announced earlier this month he's entered the Republican primary in Florida's Third District to take on Tea Party fave Ted Yoho. According to Saint Petersblog, however, rumors soon began swirling about his gothic hobbies.
Apparently, Rush has been active in an intricate vampire-themed role-playing game called Mind's Eye Theater. There's really no way to explain this game in non-geeky terms, but we'll try our best. The game is based on Vampire: The Masquerade, a traditional table-top role-playing game created by White Wolf Studios. Mind's Eye participants have taken this one step further by dressing as their characters and playing a live-action version of the game. They also have a version of the game they play online. Basically, they adopt fantasy characters and pretend to go on quests and whatnot together, and their interactions are governed by a loose set of rules. The website also says they do stuff for charity. So geek stuff for a good cause?
Rush appears to have done a good job of deleting most of his internet trail related to the game, but St. Petersblog has discovered a page detailing photos that Rush (under the username "JRush") had uploaded to a Wiki connected to the game. This, of course, included hilarious images of Rush in costume.
Here is Rush's portrait from his law firm's website:
And here he is dressed in character:
Delightful!
Doesn't someone who adopts an outsize fake persona, stands for things that don't really represent themselves, and interacts with others through a bunch of bizarre and intricate rules actually seem like a natural for Congress?
Of course, the controversy goes a bit deeper than just the dude being a geek.
A since-deleted photo he uploaded was captioned "Putting on my rape face," and the blog appears to have found one passage Rush wrote in character as "Chazz Darling":
At first I thought you were just stupid and I wanted to stick my dick in your mouth to shut you up while I snorted a line off my new machete that was blessed by Rui [sic] but then I remembered that you were typing so my dick would really have to be in your hands to keep you from typing but since you are walking in Omaha that's not really realistic right now.I'm sorry, I tried.
Rae tells me that you are a Maiden, and it's your job to be kind of stupid and that I'm not supposed to have intercourse with Maidens.
You shouldn't believe everything that people tell you or you're going to end up naked and sore, tied to the floor of a van marked "Free Candy."
And stop letting people torpor [sic] you.
-Chazz Darling
Power of Discord
Important member of the LS
So he posted some fantasies about doing hard drugs and shutting women up by plugging their mouths with his white Republican penis, thrown in with some casual rape jokes.
Yeah, we can see how that could be tricky to explain.
Rush claims a number of prominent Republicans are ready to back him, but he hasn't introduced any yet. With this news, we're going to guess his chances of becoming a member of Congress are about as real as his coke-snorting vampire fantasies.
Update: Rush has issued a lengthy statement in which he acknowledges that, yes, indeed he does have a role-playing past.
"As a straight shooter, yes, I play and have played video games, role playing games, board games, Yahtzee, Clue, and I have acted in dozens of theatre productions," it starts.
"Bottom line - There is nothing wrong with being a gamer. It's kinda nerdy, but North Central Florida deserves a legitimate debate on the issues instead of Ted Yoho's usual sideshow distractions," it concludes.
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