Kerry Bentivolio, Congressman Claus
A day with Thaddeus McCotter’s replacement
By Betsy Woodruff
December 25, 2012 4:00 A.M.
Michigan’s Thaddeus McCotter is many things — guitar player, chain smoker, ill-fated presidential candidate, and Led Zeppelin quoter — but he is not an expert at hiring competent people. This year, his staff failed to collect the requisite signatures to put his name on the Republican-primary ballot to keep his House seat. And a race that should have been over before it started got really, really weird.
When the dust settled, only one name was left on the primary ballot: that of Kerry Bentivolio, a Santa Claus impersonator and former schoolteacher who’s served in three wars and owns six reindeer. Thanks to a little help (and a lot of financial support) from his youthful Ron Paulite friends, Bentivolio — dubbed “Krazy Kerry” by Nancy Cassis, the write-in candidate many of his district’s GOP leaders supported — is the congressman-elect for Michigan’s eleventh district.
Bentivolio told me the story of his unconventional ascent to power over a breakfast of eggs over medium, bacon, and hash browns at Dimitri’s Coney Island, a greasy spoon in his hometown (technically, home village) of Milford, Mich. The restaurant’s servers and clientele graciously ignored the fact that we both smelled a bit like reindeer. It couldn’t be helped — no trip to Milford would be complete without a pit stop in the barn Bentivolio built that currently houses his fleet.
Bentivolio, who served in Vietnam and during Operation Desert Storm, spent a year in Iraq as a platoon sergeant during the current conflict there. He was medivaced out after sustaining a neck injury in 2008 and ended up at the Fort Knox military hospital in Kentucky to recuperate. One weekend, as he drove around in a rented car, he noticed a group of what appeared to be Revolutionary War reenactors. Intrigued, he pulled over.
“People told me they were the Tea Party, and I said, ‘You’re supposed to be in Boston!’” he says with a laugh. “And I said, ‘Well, what do you mean by that?’ ‘It stands for Taxed Enough Already.’ I said, ‘Well that’s a good idea!’” Rand Paul was speaking at the rally.
