Eric Wolfson, better known by his over-the-top persona Paul E. Amori, was the ‘mayor’ of the Lightning in a Bottle music festival for three years—experience that, he figures, prepared him well enough for his current campaign, challenging Eric Garcetti to become the actual mayor of Los Angeles.
His official campaign wardrobe eschews the typical staid navy blue business suits in favor of red satin smoking jackets, sequins, sunglasses and a prominent moustache—and the burlesque shows and casino nights he organizes around L.A. aren’t exactly typical political rallies.
He considers himself the candidate of love and as silly as his whole persona is, right down to the joke of his pseudonym (say it out loud), it’s also possible that he is really on to something.
“When love is your true north, as I like to say, when it’s your compass setting, it’s easy to see what things you need to stand behind,” he told L.A. Weekly, “And standing behind immigrants and people that make up the backbone of our culture and society… How do you not support that?”
As far as his one-man Love Party is concerned, ‘love’ includes compassion and empathy for all people, and his platform includes housing for the homeless, extending protections for undocumented immigrants living in Los Angeles and encouraging environmental conservation.
Paul E. Amori is certainly not alone in the field of candidates running for L.A. mayor this year—there are a host of quirky candidates from leftist activists to performance artists in the mix—but most polls suggest that incumbent Mayor Garcetti is likely to be re-elected on March 7. Then again, conventional wisdom has been wrong before.
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