Jake Rush is a talented young lawyer who's trying to unseat an ornery old tea party congressman in Gainesville, Florida, this year. Chazz Darling is a dark vampiric gamer with a penchant for rape fantasies. Also, Jake Rush is Chazz Darling. Chazz Darling is the new Carlos Danger.

Rush, 35, is a local boy who made good after working as a sheriff's deputy and attending the nearby University of Florida and Stetson University's law school. A Christian who touts his cred as a conservative straight shooter, Rush has announced he'll run in the Republican primary to challenge Rep. Ted Yoho, a tea party bubba who, according to his campaign site, is endorsed by "Laura P., meatcutter at Publix."

But Rush leads a double life in which he is also really really really into LARPing, according to local muckraker Peter Schorsch at Saint Petersblog:

Rush – as "Chazz Darling," "Staas van der Winst" and a host of other roles – was a long-time member of the Mind's Eye Society, otherwise known as "Camarilla." Mind's Eye, or MES, is a nationwide community of gothic-punk role-players who come together to take on personas of vampires and other supernatural beings (known as Kindred), dealing with night-to-night struggles "against their own bestial natures, hunters, and each other."... Rush, as a member of the "Kindred of Gainesville," is not some teenager playing Dungeons and Dragons in his mom's basement. This is a game for adults, with adult themes.

Sounds pretty silly, really. But then, for a guy running as a solid conservative in North Central Florida, it could raise some eyebrows—which is why he probably deleted a bunch of images connected to him from the LARP group's Wiki between last summer and this March 7:

[I]mages not erased — unlike one deleted photo uploaded in 2009 titled "Put on my Rape Face" — illustrate a disturbing spectrum, ranging from the silly and mild to unsettling portrayals of bizarre, ritualistic scenes of the occult, book burnings — even a succubus.

The remaining images are pretty tame, mostly stock art or random Gothica—certainly nothing incriminating. But Rush's alter ego is still a little unusual, judging from a sexually bizarre 2010 Yahoo message board post that Rush posted as Chazz:

At first I thought you were just stupid and I wanted to stick my dick in your mouth to shut you up while I snorted a line off my new machete that was blessed by Rui (sic) but then I remembered that you were typing so my dick would really have to be in your hands to keep you from typing but since you are walking in Omaha that's not really realistic right now. I'm sorry, I tried. Rae tells me that you are a Maiden, and it's your job to be kind of stupid and that I'm not supposed to have intercourse with Maidens. You shouldn't believe everything that people tell you or you're going to end up naked and sore, tied to the floor of a van marked "Free Candy." And stop letting people torpor (sic) you. –Chazz Darling

Power of Discord

Important member of the LS

Rush's response to the outing of his cosplay life, apparently, was to panic maybe just a little tiny bit. He released a statement to the public that probably doesn't help a Republican primary hopeful:

"As a straight shooter, yes, I play and have played video games, role playing games, board games, Yahtzee, Clue, and I have acted in dozens of theatre productions," states Jake Rush. "My undergraduate degree is in the classics, and I have been raised with a deep appreciation for theatre, costumes and art," continues Jake Rush. "All my life, I've been blessed with a vivid imagination from playing George Washington in elementary school to dressing up as a super hero last Halloween for trick or treaters. Any cursory review of the Internet will show that I have played heroes and villains," continued Jake Rush.

Eight long paragraphs later, the self-referential drama kid-cum-House candidate finally lets his defense rest: "'Bottom line–There is nothing wrong with being a gamer. It's kinda nerdy, but North Central Florida deserves a legitimate debate on the issues instead of Ted Yoho's usual sideshow distractions,' concludes Jake Rush."

No! No! More distractions! Please!