Campaign 2002 is in full roar for Hollywood stars supporting liberal Democrats. NBC's fictional “President Bartlet” of The West Wing, Martin Sheen, spent the weekend stumping in Florida for one of his “heroes,” gubernatorial candidate Janet Reno. On Monday, Sheen, whose real name is Ramon Estevez, was scheduled to headline a $1,000 per person fundraiser for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Last week, Alan Horn, President of the Warner Brothers motion picture studio hosted a fundraiser for Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic Senate candidate in New Hampshire. That event featured the first Hollywood appearance by Al Gore since the election.
In Monday's Tampa Tribune William March reported that Sheen “appeared at several rallies in South Florida and Orlando and helped her raise nearly $200,000 in badly needed campaign cash.”
In the Orlando Sentinel on Sunday, Mark Silva relayed how “Sheen provided at least one tangible boost for Reno's campaign, more than $150,000 raised Friday night in Coral Gables at the biggest fundraiser to date for Reno, a $250-per-person concert with blues-rocker Bo Diddley. The duo raised $200,000 more for the Florida Democratic Party at the Miami-area home of Hugh Westbrook, a health-care executive hosting donors at $10,000 a head.”
“Sheen called himself a 'huge fan' of Reno,” the Miami Herald's Beth Reinhard noted on Sunday before relaying this effusive praise of Reno from Sheen: “One of the great things about being the acting President is that I got to meet one of my heroes.”
The Tampa Tribune's March also caught Sheen's hero worshiping of Clinton's former Attorney General, as Sheen gushed: “She's one of my heroes, one of the most impressive public servants I've known in my lifetime.” March added: “Asked why a southern California resident is interested in the Florida election, Sheen said, 'I'm a member of the human race; I do it so I can live with myself.'”
The Orlando Sentinel's Silva quoted Sheen as enthusing: “I've always been inspired by her public service, her wit, humor and humility.”
A story on Monday's Inside Politics on CNN showed Sheen introducing Reno: “Ladies and gentlemen, a nation's pride and Florida's next Governor: Florida's own Janet Reno.” In another CNN soundbite, Sheen proclaimed: “She's a public servant. There isn't anybody more qualified. There isn't anybody more gifted.”
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)