Dead candidate could win in Nevada.
LAS VEGAS >> Nevada’s most famous pimp tried to bring the state’s legal brothel industry into the mainstream by mingling with celebrities, showcasing his business on HBO and staging outlandish publicity stunts.
Dennis Hof’s fame made him an attention-grabbing figure in an otherwise quiet industry. And, despite being found dead on Tuesday, he’s poised to win an election to the state Legislature in less than three weeks.
Hof, who starred in the HBO reality series “Cathouse,” marketed himself as a Donald Trump-style Republican in his race for a heavily GOP Assembly district that includes wide stretches of desert where nuclear bombs were once tested.
His body was found at his Love Ranch brothel outside Las Vegas following a weekend of parties celebrating his 72nd birthday. Guests included porn actor Ron Jeremy, “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss, former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and a mix of local politicians and friends.
No foul play is suspected, and it could be six weeks before a cause of death is determined, authorities said.
In the meantime, it’s too late to change the ballots, which have been printed and mailed. Voting begins Saturday. Even though officials will post notices at the polls that Hof died, he seems likely to get elected.
“Just when I thought that there was nothing else in this race that could possibly shock me, here we are,” Hof’s campaign consultant, Chuck Muth, said Wednesday.
While waging a no-holds-barred campaign, Hof’s incendiary style drew fans and well-known supporters such as Trump adviser Roger Stone and Arpaio. But it also brought scrutiny to Hof’s businesses and alienated him from the state’s GOP establishment.
Nevada is the only state to allow legal prostitution, which occurs at about 20 licensed brothels in mostly rural areas.
Most brothel owners keep a low profile, offering few interviews and buying only subtle advertising. But Hof had a penchant for splashy billboards and stunts that included helping several women “auction” their virginity.
Hof made an unsuccessful run for the Statehouse in 2016 as a Libertarian. Then this past summer, he ousted a three-term incumbent Republican in the primary after putting up billboards advertising his rival’s arrest for disorderly conduct three decades prior and sending campaign emails with a candid picture of the man slumped and asleep in a chair.
After Hof’s win, establishment Republicans refused to back him, including U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, who is in a tight re-election race, and Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who is in a close battle for the governor’s mansion.
Hof then put up a billboard that declared “Laxalt-Hof-Heller” as “the winning team” and said that, if elected, he would set up a luxury motor coach in front of the Carson City Capitol building offering liquor and “free shoulder massages.”
“It’s too bad that he didn’t get to see this through,” Fleiss told reporters Tuesday. “He saw it as going all the way to governor one day.”