Picture this: You’re sitting in your house, looking out onto your yard, and you notice your lawn more closely resembles a jungle.
Or, another example — you’re in your kitchen, dishes stacked high, and you don’t really know where to begin.
You’re feeling too lazy to do these household chores, and you’ve got some loose cash. There’s someone you can call on, but it’s not a lawn maintenance service, and it’s not a maid — it’s a man who’s running for city commissioner of Gainesville, Ozzy Angulo.
Most political candidates raise money with fundraisers and speeches, but Angulo, a 30-year-old Democratic candidate running against Susan Bottcher and Rob Zeller, wants to do things differently.
The aspiring commissioner said he wants to perform household chores or other services to people in exchange for political donations.
“It’ll help develop a more intimate rapport between the community and myself,” he said. “Here’s a guy who wants to be an elected official, but he’s not above cleaning a toilet or coming to help you with your lawn,” he said about himself.
Angulo is not just limited to household work. He is willing to provide other services in exchange for donations.
Cooking is one of those, he said, citing his seven years of experience in food service as one of his qualifications. He also said he was willing to offer people rides if they need them, or even give ballroom dancing lessons.
He said a reason he wants to do this is to get to know people, but he also wants people to get to know him.
“That’s been one of my greatest challenges,” Angulo said. “I can’t tell you how many times people have hung up the phone on me or shut their doors on me simply because they don’t know me.”
He is yet to be taken up on his offer, which he has posted on Craigslist, but he’s still ready and willing to provide these services for people.
“All I really want is the opportunity for the people of Gainesville to get to know what I’m about and to know who I am and see that I’m the real deal,” he said.
Using Craigslist isn’t the only quirky thing about Angulo’s campaign strategy.
He has also blended his political aspirations with aspirations in a different department — entertainment.
He recently collaborated with a local hip-hop group, Swaghouse Ent., on shooting a music video that surrounded several of the city’s issues, including scenes of a Students for a Democratic Society protest against the shooting of Kofi Adu-Brempong.
Angulo is still raising money the regular way. He makes the phone calls and he holds the fundraisers normally associated with political campaigns.
The only difference is he holds his fundraisers at places like Mars Pub and Laser Tag.
Despite his unconventional approach, Angulo is, in essence, a solution-oriented candidate.
“He’s very enthusiastic about tackling problems,” said Larry Bruce, the owner of The Laboratory, which Angulo calls his campaign headquarters. “He doesn’t mind going into the issues himself. I think that’s one of his stronger points.”
