Cellblock campaign

Sam Brownback launches an unorthodox presidential campaign in an unusual way—by spending a night in a prison cell | Marvin Olasky

First in a series of 2008 candidate profiles

BATON ROGUE and ANGOLA, La.—Dusk at Primo's, an upscale restaurant in a Baton Rouge mall: exactly the place where you'd expect a conservative senator starting his run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination to have a fundraiser. But what's unexpected is what Sam Brownback of Kansas did after that Dec. 8 meeting: He took a night trip to the infamous state penitentiary at Angola, featured in such movies as Dead Man Walking and Monster's Ball.

Angola houses 5,100 prisoners, many of whom are hostile to the tough-on-crime stance that is standard among conservative Republicans. Brownback talked to 700 of the inmates assembled in a prison chapel and answered skeptical questions, worrying guards as he strode into the midst of the prisoners. He then slept in a prison cell and walked Death Row the following morning.