Rent’s Still Too High, So a Former Candidate Is Back

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It’s finally a mayoral race. Jimmy McMillan, bewhiskered avatar of the Rent Is Too Damn High party, entered the scrum on Wednesday with the “Rent Is Too Damn High” anthem, a song and video produced for him by the folks at the blog AnimalNewYork.

Musically speaking, the song, a martial fanfare that swings for the fences in a cheap-sounding sort of way, is a bit of a departure from the bouncy, synth-driven soul of Mr. McMillan’s “Rent Is Too Damn High” album, released at the height of his 2010 campaign for governor.

But the message Mr. McMillan has delivered to the electorate since at least 2006 remains reassuringly constant. “The rent,” he intones, “Is too damn high. / My mustache and haircut is too damn fly.”

With a few quick lines, Mr. McMillan sketches out an entire platform: “Rent and the deficit is too damn high / Poverty and unemployment both up in the sky / Wages and education is too damn low / Economic recovery is too damn slow.”

“Animal isn’t in the business of endorsing candidates,” the blog said, “but we did want to help him get that message out.”