Elect Al Kaplan North Miami Mayor in 2011

A few years ago a bunch of us decided to go to the February annual camera show at the North Miami Armory (sadly now torn down) and we met up at Jimmie's Place for brunch first. Paul Neuthaler from Hollywood snapped this shot of me in front of Jimmie's Place and posted it on a photography forum. Then James Mitchell, another amateur photographer who is from Washington D.C. and is frequently in Miami on business emailed me. He wanted to use the photo on a T-shirt, Paul said "Go for it!", and suddenly people from Alaska to Europe to God knows where were posting pictures of themselves wearing their "Al Kaplan T-Shirt" on that photo forum. I scanned the photo on the shirt to post it here, which accounts for the texture.

A few months ago people around North Miami were getting fed up with the way the city was being run, about the 1,000% raise the city council awarded themselves on top of a new gold plated pension plan and health benefits better than Obama gets from the feds. The way to balance the depleted city budget? Raise the utility bill! But the water plant is falling apart from lack of maintanance and half the water pipes around town are leaking like seives. The city parks are in horrid shape. The mayor, council, and city manager can afford to drive oversize SUV's that probably get 8 miles per gallon around town while the tax paying residents are losing jobs and falling behind on their mortgages.

People started asking me to run for mayor. I don't want to be mayor. Really! I don't. I'm not on an ego trip. I couldn't run for city council this go around anyway because my district's councilman, Scott Galvin, still has two years to run on his term.

OK, I'm making the announcement! It's official! I'm running for mayor in two years. Vote for Al Kaplan in 2011. Monkette will be thrilled! She's been bugging me to do it for months now! She can't wait to start mapping out strategy and throwing campaign parties withe big platters overflowing with fresh fruit and lots of bananas. With her at the helm there's just no way I can lose. After all, there's just no way anybody would dare to run against me. Can you imagine having to explain to people how you lost a race against a candidate whose campaign was chaired and managed by a toy monkey? It's better to just not run at all.

Now I need YOUR help on a big decision. I'll need a photo to give to the papers, use on posters and handouts, and yes, probably a T-shirt as well. I can't decide on whether I should use this photo or the color shot of me (scroll down) with the cuts on my face and the black eye. Email your vote to preacherpop42@aol.com