I've noticed a rather interesting fact. On the one hand, the
entertainment industry tends to lean Democrat. On the other hand,
virtually every actor or other entertainer who has ever run for and
won elective office has been a Republican. I'm looking for an
explanation for this seeming paradox.

Conservatives frequently decry the "liberal bias" of the mass media,
and there is a certain element of truth in their complaint. The
entertainment and news industries -- television, movies, music, books,
magazines and newspapers -- tend to lean Democratic. When election
campaign giving is tallied by economic sector, people from these
industries give about two-thirds of their campaign contributions to
Democrats, and one-third to Republicans.  The media are different in
this regard from many other leading corporate sectors such as oil,
livestock, trucking, chemicals, tobacco, railroads and the automobile
and restaurant industries, all of which give more than 70 percent of
their contributions to Republicans. There is no shortage of liberal
performers in Hollywood - Ed Asner, Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, Susan
Sarandon, Rob Reiner and Barbra Streisand, to name just a few. While
vocal in their views, however, Democratic-leaning actors have rarely
sought political office and have almost never held it, preferring to
advance their views through activism, lobbying and the arts. By
contrast, acting has been a stepping-stone to political careers for
several Republicans, including the following:

* George Murphy, an actor, dancer and former president of the Screen
Actors Guild, who served as a U.S. Senator from California from 1965
to 1971.

* Ronald Reagan, the former governor of California and two-term
president of the United States

* Clint Eastwood, who served two years as mayor of Carmel, California in the 1980s

* Fred Grandy, who played the character of Gopher on the TV sitcom,
The Love Boat, before serving as a Congressman from the state of Iowa
from 1986 to 1995

* Sonny Bono, who followed his split from Cher by becoming the mayor
of Palm Spings, California, followed by his election to the U.S. House
of Representatives in 1994

* Fred Thompson, who was elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee in
1994 following an acting career that included roles in films such as
"In the Line of Fire" and "The Hunt for Red October."

* And, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's new governor.

Following Schwarzenegger's declaration of his candidacy, Backstage, a
professional magazine for actors, published a story on other actors
who had run successfully for political office.

Source:
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1994710

Backstage listed several Republican performers-turned-politician, but
the only example it cited from the Democratic side was Sheila Kuhn, a
California state senator who many years previously had been a child
actor on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (from which she was fired when
CBS discovered that she was a lesbian).  I was only able to find one
other example that Backstage didn?t mention -- Ben Jones, who played
Cooter Davenport on the Dukes of Hazzard and then served two terms as
a Democratic congressman from Georgia before losing in 1992 to Newt
Gingrich.

This paradox is especially interesting to me because of the way
conservatives complain whenever a liberal entertainer speaks out on
political issues -- as, for example, in Laura Ingraham's new book,
"Shut Up and Sing," whose title expresses what she wishes liberal
entertainers would do. Are attackers like Ingraham the reason why
liberal entertainers don't run for office? Is there a concerted effort
by conservatives to RECRUIT entertainers as Republican candidates? Is
there some other explanation?

Hello Sheldon,

Nice to hear from you again!

I've located a transcript of an NPR program devoted to the exact
question that you've raised: Why have Republican entertainers been
more successful than Democratic entertainers in entering politics?

See:
NPR - On The Media: Acting Conservative, October 10, 2003
http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/transcripts/transcripts_101003_actor.html


I think that the commentators interviewed on the NPR program have
identified number of key factors that explain the discrepancy that
you've noticed.


(1) Republicans often run as the "anti-government," "non-politician"
candidate.  As such, an actor's lack of political experience can
actually be an advantage for a Republican candidate.  This is the
explanation offered by Sheila Kuehl.

"SHEILA KUEHL: --whereas many Republican candidates who get elected
can be more personalities or-- simply anti-government. And sometimes a
lack of experience is considered a plus in a Republican campaign. One
is thought to be, you know, fresh and unspoiled, as it were. "


(2) Geography.
Actors and other entertainers tend to live in places like Los Angeles
and New York.  Those cities are already Democratic bastions.  Because
there's a Democratic party apparatus in place in those areas,
Democratic politicians are not necessarily going to try to encourage
Democratic actors and other celebrities to compete with them for
political offices. This situation is explained by John Solomon:

"JOHN SOLOMON: Geography is another explanation. According to Ron
Brownstein, author of The Power and The Glitter, which examines the
relationship between Hollywood and Washington. Democratic actors
working and living in Los Angeles and New York often find their
ambitions blocked by the lines of Democratic politicians also
interested in running."


(3) Hollywood's reputation.
Correctly or incorrectly, some people perceive the "Hollywood
lifestyle" in a negative light.  There's a perception that
entertainers are more about "Hollywood decadence" than "family
values." By running as a Republican, an entertainer is perhaps able to
neutralize the "Hollywood stigma."  In other words, the entertainer
can say, "Hollywood?  No, I'm not really part of all that.  I'm a
conservative." This phenomenon is explained by Ron Brownstein:

"And there are not many places in the middle of the country where a
liberal Democratic actor can realistically win, because they can be
tarred with Hollywood's culturally decadent reputation. Ron
Brownstein.
RON BROWNSTEIN: It, it may be a little easier for the Republicans than
the Democrats to, to make the jump, and it's for a good Hollywood
reason, in that it's playing against type."


(4) Democratic entertainers often gravitate toward the "left" of the
Democratic Party rather than the "center."  As such, such entertainers
may have less appeal to moderate voters.  This is the explanation
offered by Ben Jones ("Cooter"), who as you've mentioned, is one of
the few Democratic entertainers who has had some political success:

"BEN JONES: The nature of the issues around Screen Actors Guild
politics and things like that sort of push these folks to the left --
to not a moderate or centrist Democratic Party viewpoint, but on the
left fringe. Warren Beatty and Barbra Streisand, people who are always
talking about running for president and have high political profiles,
couldn't get elected dog catcher in this neck of the woods in
Virginia."


(5) Republicans have actively recruited and supported candidates from
the entertainment world.  Democratic entertainers such as Ralph Waite
("Pa" from The Waltons) and Nancy Culp ("Miss Hathaway" from The
Beverly Hillbillies) who have run haven't been particularly
high-profile.  On the other hand, Democratic entertainers such as Tom
Hanks and Martin Sheen who might have the best chance of winning
offices are perhaps having too much success in their current careers
to want to enter politics. And the Democratic Party hasn't actively
recruited such high-profile entertainment candidates. Sheila Kuehl
explains this situation.

"Democrats, on the other hand, have actively solicited celebrities'
financial resources and public support. But the party has not made as
much of an effort to sign them up as candidates. Sheila Kuehl.
SHEILA KUEHL: It would be a useful thing for the party to think
seriously about who might be a good candidate and begin to speak to
them."

Again, the source for the quoted material has been:
NPR - On The Media: Acting Conservative, October 10, 2003
http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/transcripts/transcripts_101003_actor.html


---------
search terms:
democratic, candidates, "ralph waite", republicans, celebrities

I hope this helps.

This is just what I was looking for. Thanks!

Just for clarification, Clint Eastwood is not (to my knowledge) a
Republican, and certainly not a conservative; he's a libertarian.

http://www.lp.org/press/archive.php?function=view&record=379