Amber Phillips at WaPo (h/t Carla Howell):
Once upon a time, an ostentatious, outspoken, oft-offensive New York celebrity threatened to get into politics. Few believed him, even after he announced his candidacy.
But they eventually took him seriously, especially since this celebrity’s potential third-party run appeared to threaten the outcome of the race. Some of the candidates distanced themselves from him while others played nice, because of that possibility.
The similarities between Howard Stern’s 1994 run for New York governor and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run don’t end there. Here’s the story of that one time Howard Stern ran for governor — and what we can learn from the whole experience about our latest New York celebrity shaking up politics.