In Maine, Senator Angus King Is Beset on All Sides by Men in Speedos

Angus King is the junior senator from Maine, and has the distinction of being one of just two independents (along with Bernie Sanders) who caucuses with the Democrats. That means that when it’s time for re-election back home, he has to face a challenger from both parties. When he first won his seat in 2012, the former governor faced down Charlie Summers, a classic business-oriented Republican, and Cynthia Dill, a civil rights lawyer and state representative running for the Democrats.

This time? Well, this time Angus King is once again facing a Democrat and a Republican as he seeks re-election. But this time, my friends, he will not be facing a normal candidate. This time, he will be facing two strange men in speedos.

Let’s start with the Republican. His name is Eric Brakey, and though he has a normal looking campaign website where he touts “Liberty for the Little Guy,” there is also a website called EricBrakeyForSenate.com, and it features just a single video. This is that video:

The Harlem Shake music seems to have been added later, as an original video shows him dancing to samba music. (Which, frankly, is less embarrassing than the time he compared an unfavorable political convention to being raped.) Turns out, Brakey used to be a New York City-based actor, and the video was a full outtake he filmed for a Vita Coco Coconut Water commercial. And this paragraph, from a story about how the video got out, is amazing:

An altered outtake of the video featuring only Brakey was posted on As Maine Goes and circulated to the media and church pastors by Mike Hein, a former employee of the Christian Civic League of Maine known for strong conservative views on issues such as abortion and gay rights. Hein, in his email, wrote that Brakey looks as if he was a “demon possessed.”

And later:

Hein posted a comment on Brakey’s YouTube channel mocking Brakey. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Mr. ‘Family Values Matter’ State Senate candidate himself flamboyantly prancing around in his underwear,” he wrote.

So that’s one guy in a speedo. The second guy in a speedo? He’s the Democrat, and he’s a country singer named “Zak Mountain.”

That’s his stage name, anyway. His real name is Zak Ringelstein, and his song “Raised in the U.S.A.”—just like Springsteen, but without any of the irony, or cultural criticism…or talent—features the artist himself wearing (you guessed it) a speedo. The video has unfortunately been removed from YouTube, but here’s a screenshot:

That’s right! It’s not just a speedo—it’s an American flag speedo. You can watch the full thing here.

Anyway, Angus King is currently the meat in a political speedo sandwich, and I don’t see him making out of this race alive.