Third-party Congressional candidate Mike Itkis released a sex tape with porn star Nicole Sage as a “conversation piece” to highlight his sex positive campaign platform, according to a report from City & State. 

The 53-year-old Army cyber operations officer is likely to lose to Representative Jerry Nadler in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District but has maintained that the sex tape is to demonstrate his “commitment to the issue”, he told City & State.

“If I would just talk about it, it wouldn’t demonstrate my commitment to the issue. And the fact I actually did it was a huge learning experience, and it actually influenced items on my platform,” he said. 

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Itkis has been running on a platform of legalizing sex work and making “sexual rights explicit – do NOT rely on privacy or free speech rights” says his campaign’s website. Notably, one of the other issues that he is campaigning about is ending government involvement in marriage which includes decriminalizing sex between consenting adults, a definition of consent and an end to adultery laws. 

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The aspiring politician posted the 13-minute video, titled ” Bucket List Bonanza”, which was made in 2021 was his first time having sex on camera, is what he told City & State. The registered Democrat has said that despite the sex tape, he isn’t an exhibitionist and says that the issues he’s trying to address are important, adding, “I  wanted to have my issues talked about in some way.”

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Amusingly, this isn’t the first sex tape of its kind to come out of Upper West Side. They seem to be becoming a political trend in the the Manhattan neighbourhood. Last year, aspiring City Council Zack Weiner leaked his own sex tape to stir up controversy about a mocumentary. 

While Nadler’s campaign hasn’t said anything about Itkis’ commitment to his cause, his Republican opponent Mike Zumbluskas said that he understood the rationale, “The media ignores everybody that’s not a Democrat in the city.”