Rap The Vote's Wack Role Models

TSG doesn't have a manse in East Hampton, so we missed last week's celebrity flag football game to hype the Rap the Vote campaign. The July 2 match featured teams captained by Sean "Puffy" Combs and Russell Simmons, while Jennifer Lopez cheered from the sidelines.

But it turns out the rap impresarios are hardly voting role models.

New York City Board of Elections records show that Puffy is not registered to vote anywhere in town--either from his Park Avenue crib or the East Side address he gave cops when recently busted on gun charges. After his squad won the Hamptons Bowl, Combs announced, "I'm here to support the young vote and to reach the young audiences to get them to go out and vote. We need this vote. It's a positive thing to change the world."

Yes, Puff, "this vote" is important (and thank God for that 19th Amendment granting the vote to all those bitches and hos!). Puff, this one's for you.

For his part, Simmons is registered to vote--twice! These records show the Def Jam boss has active registrations from both the Garment District office of his Phat Fashions label and from his swank downtown loft (from which he registered three months ago, apparently forgetting that he was already on voter rolls).

But since initially registering in April 1992, the 42-year-old Simmons has voted only once, in November 1992. Since then, he has missed about 15 elections, including various Senate and House contests, the 1996 presidential race, and two mayoral elections. Of course, for a guy who now lampoons Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in advertising for his new rap music site, you'd think Simmons might have tried to keep Rudy out of City Hall when he had two chances.

At the East Hampton game, Simmons said, "We want to inspire kids to register to vote because they should participate in the political process." (4 pages)