 "Photo: EUGENE GAVRILOV–THE DIAMONDBACK")
A stranger in a colonial era wig burst unannounced into a conference room yesterday where President Dan Mote sat flanked by some of the university's most powerful administrators.
The room went silent. Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs, was appalled; Mote utterly flabbergasted. The stranger, Daniel Vovak, announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate. With the president's tongue stuck to the floor, a quick-thinking aide informed Mote he had a phone call and the meeting rapidly dispersed.
Such helter-skelter campaigning is old news for Vovak, 33, who is challenging Lt. Governor Michael Steele in the primary race for one of Maryland's seats in U.S Senate next fall. He donned the wig in 2003 when, at age 31, he ran for President of the United States (indeed, keen reader, it's unconstitutional to run until age 35).
Without government experience or sufficient funds for a glitzy campaign, Vovak now relies on the $40 Founding Fathers-style wig to generate publicity at his public appearances.
"If I met you like this," Vovak said, peeling off the wig to reveal a head of brown hair, "No one would care. But this wig attracts attention."
And with attention, Vovak hopes, will come scrutiny of his issue positions. He considers himself a moderate Republican who favors small government, an immediate withdrawal of the troops in Iraq, and giving every citizen a copy of the law, just like a phonebook.
Vovak, who didn't take any political classes during his two-and a half years at Baldwin-Wallace College near Cleveland (he graduated early by taking up to 29 credits a semester), said he developed a passion for politics while working as an editor for a newspaper in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and being blacklisted by the local mayor.
Vovak's occupation as a ghostwriter - sprucing up manuscripts for authors who need help with their autobiographies - meant he could take his show on the road, so for a month he rented and lived in a Ford truck - "Air Ford One," Vovak called it - while campaigning for president in Iowa. He said he took 1 percent of the vote before pulling the plug on his campaign.
A later U.S. Senate candidacy in Illinois didn't pan out, but at the Stamp Student Union yesterday afternoon, Vovak, undeterred, made his case to students why he will defeat Steele Sept. 12 for the Republican nomination. Many students were too shell-shocked to respond. Several asked him about his positions on tuition and the new state smoking ban, while others doubled over laughing.
The Steele campaign has been likewise amused by Vovak's candidacy.
"It's a joke," Steele spokesman Leonardo Alcivar said, according to The (Baltimore) Sun. "He wears a blond Victorian wig." (Vovak counters that the wig is white and represents the colonial era).
After introducing himself to a few dozen students, Vovak needed to re-energize himself. He headed for McDonald's and asked if there was a dollar menu. Vovak finances his own political campaigns, which stretch his purse strings as far as they can go. He is unmarried, shares an apartment in Rockville with a roommate, and has no health insurance or car.
Vovak is simply a man with a lofty goal, a self-made politico who attracts attention to himself but wishes voters would focus on his issues.
"I made some decisions in life and I'm pursuing a goal to be in federal government," Vovak said, "even though I don't like federal government, which is odd."
Contact reporter Brendan Lowe at lowedbk@gmail.com.
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