I'm in the midst of reporting gig, so blogging's been a bit slow lately. But I rushed to my computer when I saw the news: Tareq Salahi has announced he's running for governor of Virginia.
If you don't know of whom I speak, well, you're obviously wasting your time not watching Bravo reality television. Tareq and his then-wife Michaele famously snuck into a 2009 White House state dinner without invitation. More impressive, a Bravo film crew that was following them for the show Real Housewives of Washington D.C. filmed the couple as they got ready for the event and then went through various checkpoints. (In case you were wondering, it's the only one in the Housewives franchise to not get renewed for a second season.)
But that's not even close to all. After the state dinner fiasco, there was the fake-kidnapping in 2011. Tareq believed his wife had been taken, only to discover she'd run away with Journey band member Neil Schon. Earned media, I'm guessing, will not be a problem for Salahi.
His decision to run for office-as a Republican incidentally-comse after Virginia Attorney General Ken Cucinelli brought a lawsuit against Salahi around his winery business. Evidently that was all it took. Since Cucinelli is also hoping to be the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Salahi chose to run against him.
"Its not part of reality TV,'' Salahi said, according to The Washington Post. "It's not a stunt ... It's real." I'm assuming Salahi knows that in politics, as with TV, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
