Brad Kessler: Attorney-Cum-Artist with Great Hair and Killer Tats Running for Office

So, it's official. Criminal defense attorney Bradford (Brad) Kessler is running for the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to represent the city's Sixth Ward.

That's the downtown loft district currently represented by alderwoman Kacie Starr Triplett. Since we called out Triplett last week for her ties to City Hall lobbyists, we think it's only fair to cast a cynical -- okay, sarcastic -- eye at Kessler.

Yesterday, the attorney (who now fancies himself an artist) announced to his 85 Twitter followers that he's filed paperwork with the city's board of election. Next he tweeted an introduction of himself that linked to a nauseatingly flattering profile (known in journalism circles as a "blow job") published this fall in the St. Louis Business Journal. 

Some highlights from that piece follow. Warning: You might want to put on a raincoat. It's about to get wet.

Earlier this summer, Kessler, 53, cut his graying ponytail -- "It was a victim of the heat," he said. His hair now just touches his shoulders. He'll meet potential clients at his art studio -- an unfinished upper floor of the Cosmopolitan Building, overlooking 11th and Olive streets -- dressed in his painting clothes, sleeves rolled up showing a tattooed image of his work on each of his forearms.

Oh yeah!

"I'm what's termed an 'outsider' artist."

Tell us more, you bad boy!

"I'm a street lawyer, and that's how I see myself. I'm not a civil rights lawyer fighting for a principle; I just fight."

Someone open a window! We're about to faint!

"I see myself painting every day. And in five years my first term as alderman will be over, and then I'm done with politics. Then I see myself painting somewhere where they speak another language, and my sons will come visit me."

Que romantico!

But wait, there's more! Here's how a fellow attorney describes Kessler to the Business Journal...

"There were four of us who would go to the Downtown Y and work out in the early '80s. Brad looked like the romantic hero of the paperback novels, with his muscles and long hair. But he paid no mind to all these women who were watching him. Of the four of us, Brad was the one who remained focused on staying in shape. He's the same way in court, very focused, a natural born litigator." -- Booker Shaw, Thompson Coburn