According to BuzzFeed.com (Note: Article’s comments may be NSFW) West Virginia resident Keith Judd, currently serving a sentence at the Beaumont, Texas Federal Correctional Institution for extortion, won about 41% of the votes cast during the state’s Democratic Primary.
Accordingly, Mr. Judd is entitled to at least one delegate at the Democratic National Convention. However, it’s expected that the DNC will revoke or reassign his delegate(s) – I suspect because he’d still be in prison during his election campaign.
Frankly, based on history I don’t see how Mr. Judd’s incarceration should be an impediment:
- Matthew Lyon (D) – Elected in 1797 to the Sixth US Congress while serving time in prison for sedition.
- James Michael Curley (D) – Not only was he “…elected to Boston’s Board of Aldermen in 1904 while in prison on a fraud conviction…“, he ran an unsuccessful reelection bid for Mayor from his prison cell while serving time for committing mail fraud as mayor.
- Eugene Victor Debs (Soc.) – Socialist Union Organizer from Indiana ran for President in 1920 while serving a 10-year sentence at the Atlanta State Penitentiary for sedition, receiving 3.5% of votes cast.
- Kemp A. Harrison (D) – Mayor of Warner Robins, Georgia, was re-elected Mayor in 1960 while serving prison time for federal bank fraud.
- Marion Barry (D) – Mayor of Washington DC, was re-elected in 1994 after serving a six-month sentence for possession of crack cocaine.
In my opinion, Mr. Judd clearly went about this the wrong way: He should have attained political office first, then gone to prison – just like many of our Congressional members!
Hold on… Seems Keith Judd ran the Idaho State Democratic Primary back in 2008. Maybe he did do it the right way.
Thanks for reading!
