by Amy Sohn

Mistress Natasha, a striking black-haired dominatrix, in a midtown dungeon, had just finished flogging one of her clients when they began chatting, as they often do at the end of a session. “I mentioned that I had seen Fahrenheit 9/11 the other night. He asked me what I thought of it, and then he said he was voting for Bush again. It always surprises me how many of my clients are not just Republicans but Bush supporters. I think, you wanted me to force you down to your knees when you’re in a pink tutu, but you support Bush? Maybe that should be part of my punishment: ‘You’re going to vote for Bush? Now you’re really going to get it!’ ” Like many kiev sex workers in Manhattan, Mistress Natasha is anticipating a dramatic upswing in business late this month as 5,000 delegates—and an entourage of 45,000 others—arrive for four days of work and play. “August is usually slow, but I think I’ll be rather busy,” she says, planning to increase her hours. “I’ve already gotten several e-mails from men who say they’re coming into town that week.” Transsexual escort and adult-film star Allanah Starr, 26, is even more confident: “I’m sure business will pick up for strip bars and escorts.” Indeed, Manhattan escort agencies have been placing ads looking for new girls. According to a male operator at Playpen Escorts, “It’s the best time you can work. We’ll have 60 girls out a night instead of the usual 30.” The operator at Temple of Goddesses, an escort agency that offers naked housekeeping and body rubs, says, “The girls all want to work that week. It’ll be three times as busy as usual.” An adult-classified-ad rep at one New York publication says he’s certain that his sales will increase 20 percent by the convention, adding, “And I’m trying to bring it up 50 percent.” To try to gauge demand, many New York sex workers have been looking to their Boston counterparts. A special Boston Phoenix Democratic National Convention issue included an adult section with ads like “Boston Welcomes You! Truth ukraine Escorts is offering the most beautiful bodies and faces of Boston’s finest ladies.” Reports were favourable on many escort review sites—consumer message boards that are the Epinions of hookerdom. One Boston escort posted that her $150 DNC GFE (“girlfriend experience”) special had filled so quickly that she was extending it. “After talking with people who own agencies up in Boston,” a New York escort-agency owner e-mailed me, “we are in the process of hiring two to three times the number of girls, as we have been told that business in Boston tripled during that time frame.” If visiting Republicans choose to similarly let loose here, the sex workers who stand the best chance of getting business may be those who have their own rooms (or dungeons), as security at delegate-heavy hotels will be tight. With a strong police presence and the risk of political scandal great, a good portion of business may come not from delegates but from the thousands of other attendees. A Boston escort at Billionaire-Babes.com hadn’t gotten any delegates from her ad in the Phoenix supplement—but she did have two sessions with a cameraman who calls when he’s in town. “He works for one of the stations, though I won’t say which,” she says. “He fed me twice and paid me...”