Carey Torrice has surpassed her 15 minutes of fame.

‘Hottest politician’ has difficult time proving she’s a dedicated official

Thursday, October 2, 2008 6:15 AM EDT

As an actress, model and part-time elected official, Carey Torrice has surpassed her 15 minutes of fame.Some, particularly many attending the last meeting of the 26-member Macomb County Board of Commissioners, would call it shame rather than fame.Torrice, a Democrat serving northern Clinton Township on that board, has drawn attention since the Web site TMZ.com named her the top candidate for “America’s hottest politician” because of photos she posted of herself on the Internet.One photo shows her wearing a police officer’s cap and badge with buttons undone on her blouse revealing plenty of cleavage.

When a film crew showed up at last week’s board meeting, interested only in getting candid footage of Torrice performing her public duties, a number of those in attendance objected, and probably rightfully so, since the board was slashing the budget and eliminating services and jobs.Hoots and hollers followed when her husband, Mike, argued that Carey is a hard-working, dedicated elected official, not a blonde bimbo.Carey Torrice, in a letter to this newspaper sent Monday and published Wednesday, even argues her own case.”I want to set the record straight,” she said. “For those of you may not know, I have been a union actress, model and spokeswoman for many years even before I was elected to the Board of Commissioners.”And then that same day, Torrice was shown on television’s “Inside Edition” wearing a skimpy yellow bathing suit.”Bikinis are my favorite thing to wear,” she told the TV audience.She may portray herself as a serious-minded public official, but she’s having a hard time convincing most of us.