The Right Man For The Job

Is West Ashley’s Jeremy McLellan really running to become Charleston’s next mayor, or does he just want to become the next Pat Paulsen? Or even worse: Stephen Colbert?
Paulsen was a comedian who became famous for running four sham candidacies for president between 1968 and 1996, originally at the behest of the Smothers Brothers. When first asked, Paulsen replied, “Why not, I can’t dance?”
Colbert hosted a basic cable political show before retiring to grow a beard, spread Catholicism, and take over as host of the Late Show from David Letterman. Along the way, he ran for president, but only in South Carolina.
McLellan, born and raised in West Ashley, currently works as an accountant for the Disabilities Board of Charleston County, where he makes it his mission to protect the dignity of those with special needs.That’s his day job.
By night, the West Ashley High graduate is probably the city’s best standup comedian, having won the title outright this year in a competition at downtown comedy venue Theater 99.
Equal parts funny and hyper-informed; McLellan launched a Facebook page announcing his candidacy.
But, so far, he has yet to inform election officials of his intention to run, much less submit the required paperwork to be included on the ballot.
“I’m telling people who want me to be mayor to vote for me, or to abstain from voting altogether, and I’ll tally them together,” said McLellan, who sees those who stay at home election night in November as part of his mandate.
Paulsen had a simple campaign slogan: “If elected, I will win.”
McLellan’s slogan is a little more complicated: “Together we can take Charleston back to the way it probably was at some point.”
Where “traditional” mayoral candidates from West Ashley, like state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis (D-Charleston) and businessman John Tecklenberg, have had to vie for support and donations from local businesses and voters, McLellan claims to have taken the high road.
On top of claiming to have spent millions of his own “considerable fortune” to fund his campaign, McLellan has accepted donations from the “forgotten” Koch Brothers, Fred and Bill, who shun politics for more prosaic pastimes, “like collecting yachts,” he claims.
Tyler Jones, a former state Democratic Party official who has moved to Charleston to manage Stavrinakis’ mayoral campaign, says, “That McLellan guy is a total joke. No further comment.”
It is surprising McLellan, who grew up in “slave-free Shadowmoss Plantation,” would accept outsider “dark money,” considering that his first campaign plank is closing Charleston’s borders to outsiders. Even people from Summerville and Mount Pleasant, who, in his view, “take our jobs and welfare.”
In one Facebook post, he chastises Mayor Joseph P. “Reilly” for porous borders with a photo of a shark swimming freely in the ocean.
McLellan’s other top two issues are banning the consumption of alcohol altogether from the city, as well as gluten. His hatred of gluten dates back to a supposed “outbreak” in 1993 that he claims killed many of his grammar school classmates.
It should be noted, that no information could be found related to such an outbreak of gluten allergies.
Veracity issues abound on his Facebook page, like the post where he has obviously and badly Photoshop’d his image into a picture of world leaders marching in Paris following the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
McLellan also claims to hold endorsements from “rain and fog,” as well as Waffle House. Like his supposed link with the Kochs, no proof of these statements could be established, either.
He has also staked out other controversial positions, like decrying lower gas prices as bringing more “outlanders” to Charleston; chastising panhandlers in a post where he solicits donations; or instructing his faithful to set their clocks back 100 years “to abolish Daylight Savings Time.”
Former College of Charleston communications professor Chris Lamb, who has published a collection of political putdowns and insults, says to “call me when a comedian doesn’t run for mayor of Charleston.”
Lamb, who now teaches journalism at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, says, “It is time comics got equal time.”
Comedians, like U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), succeed because of their skills “breaking through the fog of an issue” and sum up an issue in a few words, says Lamb. (“I can see Russia from my house!”)
McLellan has a serious side, too.  “Charleston is suffering from a ‘Hunley gap’ with North Charleston,” he says, listing his political inspirations as “the Hueys – former Louisiana Gov. Huey Long and Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton.”
This isn’t McLellan’s first dalliance with public life. A few years ago, a local media outlet erroneously reported that McLellan had attacked Weather Channel anchor Jim Cantore during a downtown storm broadcast.
McLellan for weeks claimed it was he who attacked Cantore, leading several letter writers to a local paper to savage him before the ruse was revealed.
So is Charleston ready for a comedian/serial liar to become its next leader? Let’s hope so.