  We investigate a simple model where Lepton number is promoted to a local
$U(1)_L$ gauge symmetry which is then spontaneously broken, leading to a viable
thermal DM candidate and vector-like leptons as a byproduct. The dark matter
arises as part of the exotic lepton sector required by the need to satisfy
anomaly cancellation and is a Dirac electroweak (mostly) singlet neutrino. It
is stabilized by an accidental global symmetry of the renormalizable Lagrangian
which is preserved even after the gauged lepton number is spontaneously broken
and can annihilate efficiently to give the correct thermal relic abundance. We
examine the ability of this model to give a viable DM candidate and discuss
both direct and indirect detection implications. We also examine some of the
LHC phenomenology of the associated exotic lepton sector and in particular its
effects on Higgs decays.
