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"FacebookPinterestMindy Meyer Site Resize.jpg\n\nThe intersection of politics, self-promotion, and internet stardom has a new mayor, and her name is Mindy Meyer. You may have seen tweets about Meyer's hot pink, LMFAO-looping, sparkle-spangled campaign website. You may have heard office conversation about the 22-year-old state senate candidate from Brooklyn, or seen coverage of her on CNN, or even spent some of your own precious time gazing at her \"Issues\" page, with its leopard-print \"Diva of the District\" banner and the DIY Hunger Games tribute photo illustrating the poverty section. \"Mindy is the first young woman in the history of New York to run for New York State Senate,\" the site says.\n\nNeedless to say, we were captivated by Meyer, and with each refrain of \"Sexy and I Know It\" more determined to bring you her story. We'll catch her while she's still small-time, we thought. Spend a day with her and really get a sense of what she's about; see her at campaign events and talk to voters about her allure. But alas, Mindy Meyer, the Katniss of Kitsch, the Tracy Flick of Flickr, is small-time no longer. Her campaign manager informed me that I would have to settle for a five-minute phone call. He gave me her phone number with stern instructions to use it just this once. I was to call Meyer at 5:00 p.m.\n\nShe didn't pick up. Her voicemail box was full. Disconsolate, I began composing an email to my editor, explaining my failure. But wait! Here was my cell phone ringing after all, a Brooklyn area code splashed across the screen. When I picked up, the campaign manager sounded like he had his hands full. \"So sorry about the delay,\" he said. \"I'll put you on with Mindy here in just a minute.\" He did not mute the phone. There was a clattering in the background and a crescendo of muffled human voices. An argument was going on. \"It won't happen again,\" I heard a man say, not altogether apologetically. I heard footsteps going down a hallway. A door swinging open to the street. And then, at last: \"Hello?\" A bit flat. Uninterested. Tired. The voice, truly, of a candidate.\n\n\"With publicity, there's always positive and there's always negative,\" Meyer told me. She spoke with the wrenched phrasing a student debater: \"the site has acquired a lot of attention\"...\"features such as LMFAO's 'Sexy and I Know It.'\" But as she continued, the intensity in her voice mounted like a siren\u2014whether out of passion or frustration I couldn't tell. \"I saw so many senatorial websites around the nation and they really put you to sleep,\" she pressed, \"and I wanted to do something really DIFFERENT.\"\n\nNearly shouting now: \"It HAS attracted a lot of attention. The website's been up for a very short time and we've gotten calls from Israel, Ireland, Russia, and the U.K. I'm getting offers to do reality shows and contract signings. But I'm not doing it for the attention! I WANT TO TAKE THAT ATTENTION AND DIVERT IT TO THE ISSUES!\" A car alarm sounded in punctuation.\n\nI asked Meyer, newly 22, when she got her start in politics. \"It all started when I was 11-and-a-half years old,\" she answered without pause. \"I met Mayor Rudy Giuliani. I was very patriotic; I was wearing an American flag headband. I snuck between all the reporters that were around him and I said 'You're the best mayor we've ever had.' And he said, 'I think I'm the only mayor you've ever had.'\" Later, when Meyer's class from Prospect Park Yeshiva in Flatbush, Brooklyn took a field trip to Washington, it was the conservative Meyer, eager to meet President George W. Bush, who arranged a class-wide meeting with administration officials.\n\nMeyer is now in law school near the district and interning for a real estate attorney's office. Her platform seems to be more adverbial than nominal: it's all about delivering. \"I would take my energy and creativity and excitement and bring it to the Senate,\" she said hurriedly. \"I would represent the young population for once. I would take that drive and motivation and basically work extremely hard in accomplishing my goals.\" She paused. \"My issues are what my people want.\" According to her site, those would include putting an end to \"stop and frisk,\" funding more youth employment programs, providing alternatives to abortion (illustrated with a cartoon baby), and cracking down on domestic violence.\n\nThere are no campaign events on the schedule just now\u2014Meyer and her campaign manager both promised more details soon\u2014but if her Flickr page is at all representative, I want to be there when she resumes politicking. As for strategy, Meyer repeated her intention to pivot from publicity to substance: \"Once I got the got the attention and I captivated America and the world, now I'm going to divert that to the issues.\"\n\n Read more on Death Race 2012\n\nToday's Political Firestorm: Something About Anglo-Saxons?\n\nComing Soon To Hollister! Romney's Vintage Merch (OK, Not Really)\n\nA Rare Sighting of Genuine, Feel-Good Bipartisanship. Weird. \n\nHunger Reads: Mitt's Twitter Problem and Ron Paul's Swan Song\n\nFollow Reid Cherlin on Twitter for more updates from the campaign trail."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/a-word-from-mindy-meyer-the-new-queen-of-sparkle>