Scantily Clad Musician Wins Scant Majority Of Vote

Brian Raftery | November 8, 2006 9:21 am

Lost amid the clutter of yesterday’s major-race election results was the fact that Democrat John Hall–the former lead singer of ’70s soft-rock band Orleans–managed a narrow victory over his Republican opponent in New York’s 19th District race. Hall co-wrote hits like “Still The One,” “Dance With Me,” and “Maybe I Shouldn’t Be Posing Shirtless With A Bunch Of Other Band Members,” and used to write for Crawdaddy magazine. In fact, he’s still functioning as a music critic of sorts, according to an Editor & Publisher profile from a few months back:

In the final days of the 2004 presidential campaign, Hall saw a clip from a Bush rally in Columbus, Ohio, aired on Lou Dobbs’ CNN show and was appalled to hear “Still the One” playing in the background at the event. His permission to use it had not been sought or given. After wide press coverage via the AP, the Bush campaign promised to cease and desist. So John Hall can make one claim most already-elected Democrats cannot: He got President Bush to back down at least once.

Alas, Bush got him back earlier this year, when he trumpeted his new scaled-back immigration with a the similar-sounding jingle “Still The Juan.”

Cricket.

Rock Star Runs for Office: From Soundchecks to Sound Bites [Editor & Publisher] Musician Defeats Republican In New York [AP]