Russo weighing bid for Congress

Erin Neff

Thursday, July 15, 1999 | 10:27 a.m.

Long considered anti-estab-lishment, movie producer Aaron Russo announced Wednesday he was bucking both political parties by becoming an independent and considering a run for Congress next year.

The 56-year-old known by critics as a fringe candidate lost in the Republican gubernatorial primary to Kenny Guinn last year, but said he is willing to spend $5 million of his own money to win federal office as an independent.

Russo announced he was forming an exploratory committee to determine whether he would run for the Senate seat being vacated by Richard Bryan, or for the House of Representatives seat held by Shelley Berkley.

"I prefer running for U.S. Senate," Russo said.

He added he didn't like the idea of having to campaign every two years amid a hypocritic era of party politics.

"When I decided to run for governor, I was told by the Republican hierarchy that I dare not because Kenny Guinn had already been chosen by the powers-that-be, even though the primary election hadn't happened," Russo said to a room full of supporters and media at McCormick & Schmick's restaurant.

Russo said both political parties are equally guilty of controlling elections and disrespecting American people, but he reserved his harshest criticism for the Republicans.

"They even had the audacity to tell me that if I wanted to run for any office as a Republican, I would have to kiss (state Republican party chairman) John Mason's ass," Russo said. "But as you already know, Aaron Russo kisses nobody's ass."

Russo is best known in Hollywood circles for producing the movie "The Rose," which garnered four Oscar nominations -- including one for actress Bette Midler, with whom he had a stormy eight-year relationship as manager and lover.

During the 1980s Russo moved to New York to build his own movie studio, Aaron Russo Entertainment, with $100 million in film-production money. After some box office bombs, he moved to Tahiti for a year before becoming interested in politics.

A former nightclub manager in New York and Chicago, Russo promoted bands like The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Grateful Dead, all of whom are known for drug use and for championing anti-establishment ideas.

The platform Russo presented Wednesday was full of similar ideas, like abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and legalizing marijuana.

"And I admit, I have inhaled," Russo said to cheers from his supporters.

But Russo doesn't consider his potential run for Senate to be a fringe effort, and points to support from what he says are thousands of Democrats and independents who couldn't vote for him in the Republican primary last year.

"As an independent, I will bypass the primary and go directly to the election without treading the minefield of party politics and predetermined outcomes," Russo said.

The day after Bryan announced he would not seek re-election to another Senate term, former Congressman John Ensign announced he would be seeking that seat as a Republican.

Ensign lost a close and nasty Senate race to Harry Reid last year, and was immediately supported by leading Republicans.

Democrats immediately backed the campaign of Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa for that seat.