President Obama faced his toughest competitor in West Virginia this week and barely came out ahead. Mitt Romney? Guess again. Keith Judd won 10 counties in West Virginia and 41 percent of the vote against Obama. He was not on hand, however, for interviews because Judd is Federal Inmate No. 11593-051 and was sitting in his prison cell for the duration of the campaign.
Judd was not even in the state. He is currently housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana serving a 210-month sentence for extortion. Judd is serving 17 years for extortion after being sentenced in 1999 for making threats against the University of New Mexico. If successful, he would have to serve until June 24, 2013 as president while serving as a federal inmate. However, he could give himself a presidential pardon, which might be a practical necessity since it could be dangerous not to be able to reach the Commander and Chief during a lockdown or prison movie.
Judd is now qualified to have a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, because he won at least 15 percent of vote.
Notably, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia wouldn’t say whom he voted for in the primary. He just might want to put in for that Judd delegate position.
West Virginia’s Democratic governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, has also not revealed his vote.
In fairness to Obama, Judd is an experienced presidential candidate.In the 2008 Idaho Democratic primary, he finished third behind Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton with 1.7 percent of the vote, per The Charleston Gazette.
In all seriousness, the situation in West Virginia does not look good for Obama with many Democratic voters casting their lot with Judd. It was obviously a protest vote but even major Democratic leaders are expressly uncertainty over whether to support Obama.
With such an impressive primary behind him, I think we should help Judd with a campaign slogan. Here are my suggestion:
Experience Counts In Politics: Elect A Felon.
It has the best appeal since Bin Jule declared in Guys and Dolls: “I’ve gone straight, as has been proved by my record: Thirty-three arrests and no convictions!”
Source: CSMonitor
pete,
Personally, I passed on posting “Things sure have changed for Winnona since the band split up” but I’m glad someone got a The Judds joke in.
Raff, “If he is in prison out of state, isn’t he ineligble to run in West Virginia?”
Requiring all candidates for a presidential primary to be residents could get kind of tricky.
For some other offices, e.g., for Senate, residency isn’t required either. Supposedly residence is required by the time you take office. At least in some states that’s the case.
Mother of all mullets.
::
i do wonder how many that voted for him thought he was related to the other judds