From RFK Volunteer to Punk Rock Drummer

By Nicole Duran
Roll Call Staff
July 6, 2004

A lot has been made about his stint as the drummer of a controversial punk rock band, The Rotters, but Democratic Congressional hopeful Kimon Kotos can boast of upholding “family values” with his music as well.  The first gig for Kotos, who hopes to topple six-term Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R) in Michigan’s 2nd district, was as a drummer for the Hawaii-based Allright Family Band in the 1970s, long before he joined The Rotters in 1991, which was well past their heyday.

“We played rock, some country and western and jazz too,” Kotos said of his years — 1976-1979 — with the Family Band.  Kotos said the fuss about his time with The Rotters really is much ado about nothing.  ...He left the Rotters in 2000 after playing some shows with them and working on a never-released 1998 album called “Hillbilly Boy.” “I joined The Rotters after their controversial stuff was released,” said Kotos, the youngest of three sons born to Greek immigrants. “I didn’t write any songs,” he added, acknowledging that many of the lyrics are risqué.... “When I look back now I almost have to laugh about it,” he told the Muskegon Chronicle. “This was a fun rock band doing parody. There was a high level of satire going on.”  ...

Colorful anecdotes aside, Kotos wants reporters and voters to focus on the serious aspects of his bid for Congress and what he calls Hoekstra’s lackluster record. “No one appeared to want to take on Hoekstra,” Kotos said, explaining why he decided to run. “He was going to get a pass. I thought I could unify people and had the right ideas.”

Kotos thinks that he can win by tying Hoekstra to President Bush, focusing on  his reneging on a pledge to not accept political action committee money or serve  more than 12 years and mentioning that Hoekstra’s leadership PAC is under scrutiny by the Federal Election Commission. However, Bush won the 2nd district with 59 percent of the vote in 2000, and Hoekstra appears to have struggled to win a leadership position in the House ... . ...

“I plan to build a broad-based organization,” Kotos said. He will reach out to senior citizens, young people, teachers, union leaders and minorities, he said, and will focus on working-class issues such as jobs — Western Michigan has seen its high-paying manufacturing jobs flee south and abroad over the decades — and health care.

“I will attack Hoekstra’s record, not him,” he pledged. Kotos knows he has beyond an uphill battle on his hands. Hoekstra had $165,000 in the bank as of the last FEC filing, while Kotos has yet to report any contributions and is reluctant to say how much he has in his campaign kitty. “Money is going to be tight in Michigan,” he acknowledged. “The state party is focusing on state races,” and the Great Lakes State’s status as a presidential battleground means most of the Democratic money in-state will be sucked up by the party’s presumptive nominee, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.).

Kotos promises to run a grassroots campaign, but Hoekstra is no stranger to that approach. In 1992 he knocked off then-National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Guy Vander Jagt — a 26-year incumbent — in the GOP primary by riding his bicycle across the district while on vacation from his corporate job with a furniture manufacturer and spending only $55,600.

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