Almost Famous

A local music biz vet runs for office ... as a Republican?

by A.D. Amorosi

Robert Neroni SHE'S A MANIAC?: Paolino's pre-politics work included resurrecting Michael Sembello's career. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

unlikely scenarios

Where the campaign trail becomes the champagne trail, that's where you'll find Lisa Paolino.

That's not to say the Radnor Township Board of Commissioners vice president/5th Ward commissioner, who's running in the Republican primary for the 17th District state Senate seat as an "Independent Republican," isn't pressing flesh at malls and bus stations. She just happens to be as much about the penthouse as she is the pavement — a candidate you'd run into at a Bryn Mawr Film Institute gala with Ben Kingsley or the opening of the 17th Philadelphia Film Festival at Brasserie Perrier.

At 6 a.m. last Thursday, Paolino was kissing babies at Radnor's train station. That night she was at the pre-PFF bash being introduced to Perez Hilton.

"Wasn't he a nice guy?" asked Paolino, who was adorned in a black cocktail dress. "He dyed his hair dark."

The next morning Paolino complained about her long day's journey into night: "But that's what it takes."

That, an agenda of regional reform, and a good pair of heels, which the fortysomething mother of two wears well, thank you. In fact, when I first met Paolino, she introduced herself as "the pretty candidate."

"Did I really?" asks Paolino in astonishment. "I don't normally introduce my-self that way. But it got your attention."

In the interest of equal time, her 17th District primary opponent, Republican Lance Rogers, 33, is an admittedly good-looking man.

Mention to Rogers that both candidates are attractive and he laughs. "I'm flattered."

He's a soft-spoken gent with a master's degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Center and a Northwestern University law degree who currently serves as a commissioner in Lower Merion Township and specializes in media law and commercial litigation at Pepper Hamilton LLP.

Along with his educational background and time on the board of the Penn Wynne Civic Association, Rogers feels what distinguishes him from Paolino is a track record of backing up what he says. "She voted in favor of significant tax increases for 2004, 2005, 2006. ... I have not," says Rogers. (Paolino says this misrepresents her record: Most of the Radnor Township budgets she's voted on involved no increases.)

While Rogers' campaign emphasizes fiscal conservatism, community service and promoting business, Paolino's stresses streamlining government, new jobs and public safety.

She's an "independent" Republican because she's running without the party's endorsement.

"I was not allowed to participate in the [endorsement] process nor were 100 members of the voting committee as they were located in the Delaware County portion of the 17th District," says Paolino.

(The bulk of the district is in Montgomery County. County Republican Party Chairman Ken Davis backed Rogers.)

Paolino's a lifelong Republican who graduated from Villanova, served as vice president of operations and marketing for Mace Securities and in 1999 became the first woman elected to Radnor Township's Board of Commissioners. (She's been board vice president since 2003.) Her resume also includes at least one thing we're pretty sure Rogers doesn't have: a past managing the careers of famous musicians.

This isn't an endorsement piece, but Paolino has accomplishments you can hum to.

The Philly native got into music because of her uncle, Joe Valino. A South Philly crooner of the post-Big Band era, Valino first came to prominence when he sang a version of Delores Vicki Silvers' "Learnin' the Blues" that he recorded at his mother's house. But Frank Sinatra made the song a hit first, in 1953. Valino finally got his day in the sun when he signed to RCA Victor, and saw his "Garden of Eden" reach number 12 in 1956. He was working on a new album for years before he passed away in 1996.

"When he passed, I inherited Uncle Joe's studio, recording equipment and music. It was my grandmother's dying wish for his CD to be completed and distributed," Paolino says.

She brought in Frank Sinatra Jr.'s horn section to work on what became the 1998 Valino album Timeless.

It was through one of Timeless' mixers that she came to meet Michael Sembello.

Best-known for the tune "Maniac" from 1983's Flashdance soundtrack, Sembello — an Ardmore native — had toured and recorded with the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5 since he was 17 years old.

After the usual pop-star excesses and a wife/management deal splintered on both sides, in 2000, Sembello was back in Ardmore. "From the ages 17 to 35, everyone did everything for him," says Paolino. "[Had his] clothes cleaned, checks written. Most musicians don't know how to take care of themselves."

So she helped him learn real-life stuff, got his work on track, co-produced his Ancient Future (2002) and Lost Years (2003) albums, and booked him into Trump Taj Mahal.

Why didn't she stay in the biz? She didn't like the lifestyle. "It's too hard. It was a business that I didn't want to continue." It did, however, help her realize she liked solving problems. She found politics — helping people in communities and kids in schools — was more her speed. She says the reason she became an independent Republican (aside from the local chair's preference) is because of her, well, independent streak.

"I'm a rebel in a lot of ways," says Paolino. "Not just because of the music thing. I am not backed by a party machine or beholden to anyone but the people of the 17th. I'm an independent Republican who's not a lawyer, not in the old boys' club and not someone those people wanted."

She doesn't care about getting beat up by the old boys, either.

She takes heat for not looking or dressing the part. The blogs gripe about her spike heels and her Vaseline lens photos (see the blog by "Her Alter Ego" at phillyfuture.org). The boys' club doesn't seem to think she can pull off running for state Senate.

"Yet here I am," says Paolino. "Maybe they don't like my shoes but I think the real problem is that I do my job and I do it well, high heels and all."

In the end, however, good looks and flash may not really matter (strange but true). Against powerhouse Democrat Daylin Leach — backed by incumbent Connie Williams and all the state's Democratic party brass all the way up to Sestak, Casey and Rendell — the Republican candidate will have his or her hands full.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)