One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Prince von Anhalt Wants to Legalize Prostitution & Tax It
Via Prince Frederic's campaign website
Via Prince Frederic's campaign website
Prince Frederic von Anhalt, Zsa Zsa Gabor's eighth husband, is expected to officially file papers to run for Governor today, according to KPCC. Once completed, expect to start seeing his "Return the Good Life to California" campaign that includes a variety of ways to solving the state's budget woes.
Most notably, von Anhalt wants to have a "sin tax," which would add more taxes to alcohol and cigarettes, but also prostitution and marijuana, which he would work to legalize. "Marijuana is a big industry already," he told the radio station. "Let's legalize it, tax it, make some money and put less people in jail." An initiative to legalize and tax marijuana is already expected to be on November's ballot. Cuban cigars would become legal and taxable, under his plan.
The Bel Air resident also wants to lower annual vehicle-registration fees, but tax "bad drivers" and open the U.S.-Mexico border.
Von Anhalt's past is sketchy at best, but he says it's time to focus on California's future. He apparently was born into a poor German family, but later adopted by a German princess who gave him the title of Prince Frederic von Anhalt of Munich, the Duke of Saxony. Some, however, say he paid for the title.
He recently had claimed he might have been the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby after a 10-year affair with her, but parental tests later disproved that. In 2007, he said three women mugged him when police found him driving his Rolls Royce Phantom naked. He once sued Viagra, "saying the treatment for erectile dysfunction left him unable to perform unless he took the drug," but later dropped the case. His marriage to to the 93-year-old Gabor is his seventh.
His campaign website is translated into German and Spanish. "I'm running for Governor and no one can stop me," he says in a video posted on it.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
