The next mayor of Florida's most populous county could be ... the former frontman of 2 Live Crew. Luther "Luke" Campbell is one of 11 candidates running in the May 24 special election to replace Carlos Alvarez as mayor of Miami-Dade County. Despite building his legacy in what some would call smut—producing sexually explicit songs that were the first to require parent advisory labels, and R-rated music videos that set the benchmark for rap and gyrating women—it's not his "Uncle Luke" rap persona that's running for mayor in Miami-Dade. Campbell's campaign is built on decades of community involvement in his hometown. He insists it isn't a publicity stunt or vanity campaign.
Local elections such as the Miami-Dade County mayor's race often come down to name recognition, and according to a Florida political science professor, voters may cross ethnic lines to vote for the former rapper because they remember him standing up for First Amendment rights. Campbell, now 50, says he learned politics through the court cases his rapping seemed to inspire. "You have to know the issues, the law of the land. It's a test. I understood that," Campbell says. "When you got a Senate subcommittee hearing on the lyrics, you get really lost if you're not politically savvy. So I became a political junkie of sorts." (More 2 Live Crew stories.)
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