Before They Were Stars: Jerry Springer Runs for Governor of Ohio!

It always takes people by surprise when they learn that another lifetime ago, Jerry Springer was once a fairly successful politician. In the early 1970s, he was elected mayor of Cincinnati, but (appropriately enough) found himself in a major scandal when it was discovered that he had hired the services of a prostitute. The reason he was caught? He had paid his hooker with a bounced cheque! However, because Springer came clean and was so open and honest about making a mistake, his career actually recovered and he even went so far as to run for governor of Ohio in the early eighties. In fact, the very first thing Springer mentions in this campaign ad is the whole “paying a hooker with a cheque” incident. However, his honesty didn’t win him the race, effectively ending his political career. So if you lived in Ohio in the 1980s and hate The Jerry Springer Show, you could have prevented it all if you had just voted for him!