Porn Star to Attend
President's Dinner
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, June 9, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 8 -- The
annual President's Dinner, a Republican Party fundraising event featuring
President Bush, could get an extra dash of spice this year with porn actress and
former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey planning to attend.
The porn industry and Republicans may seem like strange bedfellows, but Carey
said she sees Tuesday night's dinner as a good opportunity to learn more about
their policies and do some networking. She plans to run for lieutenant
governor of California as an independent next year.
Carey acknowledges that some people just think of her as a busty blonde who does
porn films.
''I also have a brain and political aspirations,'' said Carey, whose priorities
include legalizing gay marriage.
Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee,
which is co-hosting the dinner, had no qualms about Carey and her boss, adult
film executive Mark Kulkis, attending.
''Their money was donated to the NRCC. The NRCC's job is to elect
Republicans. We'll take that money and use it to elect more Republicans,''
Forti said.
Carey was one of 135 candidates on the ballot to replace California Gov. Gray
Davis in the 2003 recall election. Voters picked another actor -- Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
Kulkis, a self-described ''Schwarzenegger Republican'' who is fiscally
conservative and socially liberal, was invited to the dinner by the NRCC and
paid $5,000 for his and Carey's plates.
Carey and Kulkis said they want to prove stereotypes of porn workers wrong.
''We're not going to show up with coke spoons around our neck,'' Kulkis said.
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