TAMPA [TBO.com]- Joe Redner yearns for acceptance.

The hunger comes from years of rejection in all aspects of his life as a student, father, businessman and candidate.

Classmates rejected Redner, a slow learner who finally gave up and dropped out of high school. The parents of his daughters’ friends rejected him, refusing to allow their children to sleep over at his house. City leaders rejected him, trying to shut down his adult businesses.

And voters rejected him six times, always choosing the more mainstream candidate over the nude club king.

Redner is sticking his neck out again, and this time – as the man who bested four others for a shot at city council incumbent Gwen Miller – he has his best chance in 25 years as a candidate to get what he wants.

“I want to be accepted,” Redner said. “I want to be loved. I want to be right. And I want to do things for the world.”

Voters will have to take him at his word, because unlike Miller – a three-term incumbent who has risen to the post of council chair – he has no record as an elected official and has never served in the community leadership roles that often precede a run for office.

But he has name recognition. For three decades, Redner has been synonymous with adult entertainment, parlaying his success with nude dance clubs into First Amendment and civil rights court battles and a business fortune estimated at $18 million.

“Making the runoff is way beyond my wildest dreams,” Redner said during a recent interview. “If I get elected, it’s just the beginning.”

Redner was born in Hackensack, N.J., 66 years ago. His father left when Redner was 2 or 3 years old. When he was in second grade, his mother packed up Joe and his older brother and moved to Tampa.

She went to work at a drugstore. He went to Hillsborough’s elementary and middle schools and then to Chamberlain High, dropping out in his sophomore year.

School wasn’t for him, and the family needed money.

“I’m a good learner but a slow learner,” Redner said. “It takes a lot of repetition. I wanted to learn, but I was always behind. I had a hell of a self-esteem problem.”

He drank. He partied. He took a series of odd jobs: laying tile, working on the carnival circuit and selling furniture.

He did carpentry work for Pat Matassini, who ran a go-go club in the early 1970s on Hillsborough and Rome avenues called Deep South, where Redner often stopped after work.

Matassini needed a manager and approached Redner. He took the job. While driving home one morning about 3 a.m., Redner heard on the radio that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case from Jacksonville that nudity in movies is protected free speech.

“My mind started working,” Redner said. “I thought if they meant what they said, that same principle would apply to dancers. It clicked in my head.”

Dancers at Deep South wore pasties and G-strings. Redner decided to push the limits and feature nude dancers at the Tanga Lounge, a club he opened with a partner, and at Night Gallery, a club he opened on his own.

The strip club king was born.

Lorelei Jackson, formerly Lorelei Redner, met her future husband at a bar where her sister was a bartender.

“I didn’t really like him when I first met him,” Jackson said. “It was the way he looked, I guess. I don’t like mustaches that hide men’s faces.”

But she fell for him. They were married for seven years.

During the latter years of their marriage and after their separation, Redner weathered tumultuous times.

The Tampa City Council banned nude dancing. The police raided his clubs, arresting him and his dancers. He estimated that he had been raided more than 300 times, arrested 70 times and spent a combined 150 days in jail, where he earned a GED.

“I actually kind of liked it,” Redner said. “People go to movies for action. I was living it.”

In 1983, Redner was busted for possessing cocaine at a Buccaneers game. He was sentenced to five years’ probation. As a felon, he was stripped of his voting rights. They were restored a decade later.

He cleaned up and put his life on track. He quit smoking, drinking and drugs. He stopped eating meat. Then he stopped eating cooked vegetables. Then he eliminated eggs, fish and dairy products from his diet.

He opened a gym on South Howard Avenue, where he rides the stationary bike then lifts weights for at least an hour a day. He makes a fruit shake for breakfast and eats lunch at Sweet Tomatoes every day.

But his battles with the government continued.

In the 1990s, Redner operated Club Flamingo in Ybor City. Then-Mayor Dick Greco wanted to shutter the place.

“I said, ‘Sue me. I’m not closing,'” Redner said. “And then we went to war.”

The city shut down the club, saying it violated zoning laws that prohibit adult uses in the historic district. A lawsuit is winding its way through the appeals process.

Redner said Greco was against the club because the backers of the proposed Centro Ybor entertainment complex didn’t want a strip club down the block. Centro Ybor backers were against the club, Greco said, but it also violated zoning laws.

“That’s your historic district,” Greco said. “The reason you don’t have nude clubs in Ybor City is because it’s against the law. I have no quarrels with Joe Redner.”

Redner’s battles reached beyond the city. He and Ronda Storms, the outspoken former Hillsborough County commissioner, clashed time and again.

In the most publicized case, Redner took issue with the county commission’s decision to pass an ordinance refusing to promote, acknowledge or recognize gay pride events, an ordinance pushed by Storms.

Redner sued the county, arguing the ordinance violated his free speech and equal protection rights. He famously amended the lawsuit to proclaim that he is gay, a move many think was devised so Redner would have standing in the case, which was recently settled.

Redner says he never has had a homosexual relationship. He continues to say he is gay.

“I said I was gay to get standing,” Redner said. “I am gay. I’m going to be black; I’m going to be Jewish; I’m going to be a woman; I’m going to be gay if I can do something about it by becoming one.”

Redner believes in the judicial system, convinced that justice ultimately prevails. His favorite TV show is “Law & Order.”
Complicated Family Life

Between his business success and his legal victories, Redner’s wealth grew. Today, he estimates his net worth at $18 million.

Some of the money has been put to good use. For example, he bought, designed and built a park in West Tampa he called Voice of Freedom Park.

Redner’s house is a contemporary one-story home valued at $450,000. The backyard sits on the Hillsborough River. The front lawn is well-manicured. Family pictures adorn shelves in the kitchen and the mirror in his bedroom.

The home shows few traces that it is owned by a strip club owner, though draped on a coat stand in his bedroom are identification tags from adult entertainment conventions he has attended.

He lives in the home with his brother, who has Parkinson’s disease. Redner is the caretaker.

His family life is complicated. He has five children from four women, two of whom he married.

Edie Burns, a former girlfriend, lived with Redner for a while and together they raised Burns’ son and some of Redner’s grandchildren.

“My mom was scared to death that I was dating him,” Burns recalled. “She thought that he was Mafia. At the end of her life, she ended up being one of Joe’s biggest fans.”

Redner’s daughter Teresa Redner-Maida, 32, said her father was “your normal dad.”

“He’s easy to talk to, helps you when you need it. He doesn’t take you to Disney. It wasn’t his thing.”

She was arrested Saturday night and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer after a dispute between her husband and police at an Ybor City club. Redner-Maida disputes the police’s version of the incident.

Another daughter, Reyline Charelle Redner, was arrested last year in a prostitution sting. Joe Redner has said his daughter has mental health problems and has been treated for drug abuse.

His family’s troubles have given ammunition to his critics. Storms attacked him and his family last week on a Christian radio show.

“He raised a daughter who became a prostitute,” Storms said. “This is somebody who is a detriment to the city.”

Redner has helped raise Reyline’s children, including granddaughter Ashley, 17. Ashley says her grandfather isn’t very strict, but he wants her to finish her education.

“That was his only rule: Go to school,” Ashley said. “And don’t bring boys into the house.”Redner is known to show flashes of anger.

In September 2000, he arrived at a council meeting too late to speak about a lap-dance ordinance. He shouted and cursed at council members.

Another infamous incident happened on public television last year. Redner called Tony Katz, host of an Internet talk show, fat. Katz threw a chair at Redner as cameras rolled.

Jackson said her ex-husband’s temper can flare, but he has mellowed.

“He’s got a really bad temper,” she said. “But it’s improved. Now he’s mild-mannered compared with then.”
Redner The Candidate

As a candidate, Redner wants to focus on growth and development, ensuring that growth pays for itself. He wants Tampa to have enough water to meet demand. He wants a regional transportation system in place. He wants low-cost housing.

He is spending the days before the runoff fielding questions from everyone he encounters, whether from a woman at the gym wanting to talk about the Fort Homer Hesterly revitalization project or a stranger calling to talk about fireworks legislation.

His office at Redner Enterprises headquarters – there’s an alcove full of legal journals and an issue of Playboy on his desk – is the nerve center for the campaign. A wall calendar is marked so he remembers when new council member orientation will be held if he wins.

“He should just win already,” granddaughter Ashley said. “He’s not going to stop until he does.”

After 25 years of running for office, Redner says he is “just starting to get comfortable in my role as a candidate, starting to feel accepted.

“I guess that’s what I’m looking for. Acceptance.”