“The rent is too damn high!” (political party slogan and name)

Jimmy McMillan formed his “Rent Is Too Damn High” party in 1993, but he failed to get on the ballot that year to run for New York City mayor. McMillan did get on the ballot in 2005 and 2009, but he achieved media fame when he ran for New York governor in 2010 and appeared in a televised debate in October 2010.
 
McMillan always repeated in media interviews, “The rent is too damn high!” The political party also supports other (less memorable) issues. The “Rent Is Too Damn High!” slogan was trademarked by McMillan Entertainment in 2010. The “rent’s too damn high” saying has been cited in print since at least 1969 and 1975.
     
 
Wikipedia: Rent Is Too Damn High
The Rent Is Too Damn High Party is a single-issue political party in New York that has nominated candidates for mayor of New York City in 2005 and 2009 and for governor in 2010. Jimmy McMillan was the mayoral candidate both times and a candidate for governor. In 2005, he received more than 4,000 votes, and more than 40,000 in 2010. The party has three registered members in the state. McMillan himself is registered as a Republican (previously a Democrat) for the purposes of running in that party’s primary elections.
 
Platform
As its name implies the central tenet of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party is that rent in the city of New York is too high for its residents; it should be lowered to relieve financial stress, end poverty and increase employment.
 
One of the taglines for the party is “breakfast, lunch, and dinner”, indicating that the party seeks to end hunger and poverty in New York City. The party sought to win “without a single vote from upstate New York.” McMillan surmises that reducing rent would “create 3 to 6 million jobs” (he does not explain how), and increase tax revenue by extension. The party is in favor of writing off all taxes owed to the state, cutting property taxes for homeowners, consolidating the rent boards in New York, seizure of unoccupied apartment buildings, reforming the state court system, tax credits for commuters, and free college tuition. The party opposes any cuts in spending related to education and elderly care.
 
Wikipedia: Jimmy MacMillan
James McMillan (born December 1, 1946), also known as Jimmy Mack, The Black Hulk Hogan, Papa Smurf, Santa Claus on Venus and Rambo, is an American martial arts instructor, former postal worker, private investigator, Vietnam War veteran, perennial candidate, and political activist from Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as the founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, a New York-based political party. McMillan has run for office at least six times since 1993, including in the 2010 New York gubernatorial election on the “Rent Is 2 Damn High” line. He declared on December 23, 2010 that he would run in the 2012 U.S. presidential election as a Republican.
 
Political career
Early campaigns
McMillan’s first run for political office came in 1993, when he ran for Mayor of New York as an Independent on the Rent Is Too Damn High ticket. In the course of that campaign, McMillan was at one point tied to a tree and doused with gasoline; he would later climb the Brooklyn Bridge and refuse to come down from it unless television stations broadcast his message. He was ultimately disqualified from the ballot for coming 300 petition signatures short of the 7,500 needed to qualify for the general election ballot.
 
RENT Is 2 DAMN High
Official “PARTY” and MOVEMENT Web Site
       
Google Books
A Man in the Middle;
The journal of a young priest in conflict with himself
By Stephen Russell
Dayton, OH: Pflaum Press
1969
Pg. 104:
“Besides,” she said, “the rent’s too damn high.”
 
Google Books
City on Two Rivers:
Profiles of New York—yesterday and today
By Stephen Longstreet
New York, NY: Hawthorn Books
1975
Pg. 153:
We did look at a place John Singer Sargent had lived in on 10th Street; the rent was too damn high.
       
Google Groups: alt.music.nirvana
Newsgroups: alt.music.nirvana
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Jill)
Date: 31 May 2001 06:39:45 GMT
Local: Thurs, May 31 2001 12:39 am
Subject: Re: posting at nearly midnight (uk time)
 
>Really, it’s all
>about New York City, the eastcoast girlie, the eastcoast!
 
i must add tho, those damn New Yawkers!! their rent is too damn high as well!!
 
13 August 2001, Newsweek, “Coming Home to Harlem” by Anna Kuchment:
Nearby, a man stood at a folding table with taped-up fliers that said rent is too damn high.
 
Gothamist
Rent is Too Damn High!
By Jen Chung in News on October 26, 2005 10:49 AM
Gothamist was reading our NYC Voter Guide for Manhattan when we noticed an unusual party in the profiles of the mayoral candidates: The Rent is Too Damn High party. Intriguing! We went to James McMillan’s profile, and his answers (to the three questions posed to all candidates) were extremely on point.
 
New York (NY) Daily News
THE RENT REALLY IS TOO DAMN HIGH
BY E.R. SHIPP
Sunday, November 6th 2005, 6:53AM
As Mayor Bloomberg and former Bronx Borough President Freddy Ferrer bloody each other with their most blistering rhetoric and a barrage of ads and endorsements en route to Tuesday’s election, they need to heed the message of Jimmy McMillan.
 
“Rent is too damn high,” he says. McMillan, 58, a Vietnam War veteran and former letter carrier, is among seven others running for mayor. He’s the candidate of the Rent is Too Damn High Party.
 
“There’s nothing else to talk about. Absolutely nothing,” he says, noting that both major candidates are skirting an issue that should be a priority to anyone interested in making the city affordable to people who are its lifeblood.
 
“It’s not a joke you’re about to get Evicted from this City,” he says on his Web site (http://www.rentistoodamnhigh.org), which comes with this disclaimer: “We apologized for the BAD, Grammar, Spelling, and anything you might find wrong with this web Site. We Deeply apologize. But ‘RENT’ is Still Too Damn High.”
 
New York (NY) Daily News
Jimmy McMillan, ‘Rent Is Too Damn High’ candidate for NY governor, calls campaign a ‘revolution’
BY Glenn Blain
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
Wednesday, October 20th 2010, 8:55 AM
ALBANY - Jimmy McMillan’s notoriety is getting almost as high as the damn rent.
 
The fringe gubernatorial candidate’s debate-stealing performance Monday night made the Rent Is Too Damn High Party founder an instant celebrity - and a hot topic Tuesday on cable news programs and radio talk shows.
 
“This is a revolution,” McMillan told the Daily News. “I didn’t know it was going to explode like this.”
   
(Trademark)
Word Mark RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH!
Goods and Services IC 021. US 002 013 023 029 030 033 040 050. G & S: Coffee cups, tea cups and mugs; Coffee mugs; Cups and mugs; Mugs; Porcelain mugs
IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: Apparel for dancers, namely, tee shirts, sweatshirts, pants, leggings, shorts and jackets; Athletic apparel, namely, shirts, pants, jackets, footwear, hats and caps, athletic uniforms; Body shirts; Button down shirts; Clothing for athletic use, namely, padded shirts; Clothing for babies, toddlers and children, treated with fire and heat retardants, namely, pajamas, jackets, shirts, pants, jumpers; Collared shirts; Dress shirts. FIRST USE: 20100101. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20100101
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85178160
Filing Date November 16, 2010
Current Filing Basis 1A;1B
Original Filing Basis 1A;1B
Owner (APPLICANT) McMillan Entertainment, INC CORPORATION NEW YORK 1996 NOSTRAND AVENUE Brooklyn NEW YORK 11210
Attorney of Record Marni Weiss, Esq.
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE