Posted on 08/31/2010 2:30:46 AM PDT by markomalley
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Jim Traficant, the ex-Ohio congressman convicted of taking bribes and cheating on his taxes, is close to getting the November ballot, officials said Monday.
The Mahoning County Board of Elections decided Monday night Traficant, 69, has enough signatures on his nominating petitions to get on the general election ballot as an independent candidate in Ohio's 17th Congressional District, WKBN-TV, Youngstown, reported.
Traficant, who represented the district as a Democrat from 1985 to 2002, had started out the day 20 signatures short. The board's review left him with 11 names to spare, WKBN-TV said.
"It's not always easy to tell who signed those petition forms," board member Mark Munroe told the TV station. "And through the work of our staff, and through the Traficant supporters and volunteers, we were able to clear 31 additional signatures."
All that remains between Traficant and a spot on the ballot is a vote by the Trumbull County Board of Elections, which is expected to give its stamp of approval Wednesday, the TV station said.
Traficant -- who was released in September 2009 after serving seven years of a federal prison sentence --would face Republican Jim Graham and incumbent Democrat Tim Ryan in November.
Shucks!
Regardless of his nutty rants while serving in Congress, you could always count on him to provide some levity in that mostly, phony, staid chamber, plus, he used to drive both sides right up a wall, which is a good thing!
Go Jim, he hates taxes more than me!
I would vote for him if I lived there. I have always liked him.
It doesn’t get much lower than Traficant, but if you are enough of a charismatic sociopath, then you will attract your groupies.
“I’m probably going to be indicted, possibly before the [November] election.” Asked why he was being targeted by federal prosecutors, the embattled lawmaker pointed to his 1993 demand that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno resign after the Branch Davidian tragedy, his repeated attacks on the FBI (some agents, Traficant has long charged, are “on the payroll of the mob”), and his regular jabs on the House floor at the Clinton White House (”Sex, violence, corruption, bribery, deceit. . . The whole place is out of control!”)
Although he voted against every single article of impeachment against the 42nd President, Traficant apparently felt recriminations for his many attacks were inevitably going to come from an administration run by his fellow Democrats and he began to vote increasingly on the right. Traficant’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating was 27% in 1998. His ACU rating for 1999 was 52% and for 2000 was 60%. He even signaled his preference for George W. Bush for President over Al Gore. Then in January when the Buckeye State congressman was the lone Democratic House member to vote for Republican Dennis Hastert for speaker, his Democratic colleagues had had enough and retaliated by stripping Traficant of all committee assignments.
When the federal indictment came down three days before his 60th birthday, Traficant vowed he would “fight like a junkyard dog” to clear his name and warned federal lawmen that if he beats them in court, “you’ll be working in Mingo Junction” (a small town in eastern Ohio).
Can Jim Traficant survive this latest in a long string of outrageous adventures? The charges in the indictment are very damaging: that the congressman took money and work on his boat and family farm from different Ohio businessmen in exchange for political favors; that he accepted $2,500-a-month kickbacks from a staffer for hiring him and renting office space from him; that he ordered staffers on the federal payroll to perform manual labor on his farm and boat during normal work hours. If convicted, Traficant faces forfeiture of his property, a fine of up to $100,000 and a possible 40 years in prison.
Congressional Character
Strong stuff, all right. But given his political track record and his ability to connect with his blue-collar constituency, many Traficant-watchers insist he can weather the kind of controversy that has demolished the careers of other politicians. Indeed, some would not put it past the man from Youngstown, if convicted, to repeat the feat last performed by a House member in 1955, when Democratic Rep. (1941-62) Thomas J. Lane (Mass.), after being convicted of income tax evasion and spending three months in Danbury (Conn.) Prison, returned to the House with no talk of expulsion or any punishment from colleagues, and went on to win three more terms.
In 1983, he was indicted on bribery charges after federal officials produced recordings of Traficant’s accepting $163,000 from La Cosa Nostra figures to overlook local gambling, loan-sharking, prostitution and drug trafficking. The sheriff admitted he took the money, but insisted he was conducting his own investigation of the underworld.
Although not a lawyer, Traficant handled his own defense and, after a 17-week trial, was acquitted by the jury. This set off wild celebrations among Traficant’s fans and, as the late Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes (R.) recalled to me at the time, “[Traficant] went before the microphones and cameras after his acquittal and, in proclaiming victory, started spewing profanity. The networks cut him off, apologized, and then their switchboards lit up with irate calls demanding the man be allowed to have his say.”
As Rhodes predicted to me three months before it happened, Traficant rode his folk-hero status to a stunning 18,000-vote defeat of Republican Rep. (1978-84) Lyle Williams in November. The results were all the more impressive because they occurred while Ronald Reagan was sweeping Ohio by more than one million votes.
“The only American in history to have defeated the United States in a RICO case” is how Traficant has since styled himself. Not exactly. While triumphant in his criminal case, Traficant was dogged for years by IRS complaints that, since he never returned the money he received from the mob figures, it was income and he was therefore liable for taxes on it. In 1987, a U.S. Tax Court ruled that the congressman owed back taxes as well as interest and penalties on the bribe. Traficant has since been the most venomous congressional critic of the IRS and sponsored legislation that changed the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the federal tax collectors and included penalties of up to $1 million for misconduct by IRS agents. In the two years since his measure became law, Traficant proudly told a group earlier this year, the number of IRS audits has plummeted dramatically.”
I think most Free Republic readers and posters would prefer the Republican candidate in this race, Jim Graham. Though his chances are slim in this solid Dem district, we look forward to Traficant pulling votes away from incumbent Tim Ryan. Having Traficant in will surely make it interesting.
Check out Jim Graham, recently endorsed by the Akron Tea Party: http://www.jimgrahamforcongress.com/
He's not morally fit to drive a truck for UPS but he's morally fit enough to serve in Congress.
Beam me up Scotty!
“Traficant rode his folk-hero status to a stunning 18,000-vote defeat of Republican Rep. (1978-84) Lyle Williams in November. The results were all the more impressive because they occurred while Ronald Reagan was sweeping Ohio by more than one million votes.”
That tells the whole story about his district. Graham’s chances are very slim indeed. Solid union area. And I’d rather see Jimbo win, than Ryan.
(1)He was right on with his criticism of the FBI, which has fallen into disgrace, right along with the DEA, and the home for those too mentally challenged for other duties, the ATF.
(2)He was right on in his crusade against the IRS, which now, during the reign of the Mombasa Moonbeam, needs to be slapped back again.
(3)Jimmy ran afoul of the Clinton Administration when he went against Lesboreno and Hillary.
(4) Jimmy is a low-down no-class crook. His biggest error? Trying to run with high-up, better-class crooks, and expecting a fair shake from the other gang members. He is also nuttier than Aunt Laura's fruitcake.
Northeast Ohio? Hold the RINO, gimme Jimmy.
With Jimmy sure to big-time divide the Demo-vote, the ostensibly "conservative" Graham ought to give a very good account of himself. But this is blue-collar, blue-dog, Democrat land, where anyone with ANY income, gets it from a union pension, or the federal government. Heavy African-American vote, heavy illegal alien registration, tons'o'votefraud. The machine is set to spit out Ryan as the Winnah. Jimmy could, possibly, screw the Dems up.
I do miss James but I also miss A+Bert.
This guy cracks me up. He’s like one of those old time Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em Bozo the Clown punching bags. The ones that wobbled when you’d hit them and bounce back at you.
I’d probably vote for him.
Youngstown is almost like being on some other planet, especially where politics are concerned. It’s Flint and Tony Soprano’s New Jersey all rolled into one. Traficant started his rise to fame as a County Sheriff by the way back in the 70’s, by refusing to serve foreclosures on the homes of unemployed steel workers. Look for a bunch of other Democrats out there to start replicating that tactic.
Because the IRS tried to get him to pay taxes on his massive bribe money, that he kept , Traficant turned against them.
You guys approve of this stuff? You mean that now when I watch a liberal democrat, corrupt sheriff, on the take from organized crime and exploiting his employees like personal servants, but audaciously colorful, in a movie, that I have to know that some fellow Americans that call themselves "conservative" are approving and want to vote for him?
It looks like the liberal, and corrupt Trafficant managed to take the seat away from a 3 term Republican and converted it to a Democrat district.
“Traficant apparently felt recriminations for his many attacks were inevitably going to come from an administration run by his fellow Democrats and he began to vote increasingly on the right. Traficant’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating was 27% in 1998. His ACU rating for 1999 was 52% and for 2000 was 60%.”
LOL. Jimmy, as I made clear in my HO and in my post, is one damn big crook. Sleazebucket though he undoubtedly was, his primary problem was not with the IRS, it was with the Clinton Administration, which felt threatened about other disclosures the wild boy might make. As far as not reporting the swag from the goombas, well, you got to give the boy an A+ for originality. It was, he says, evidence in HIS investigation. When they start cleaning out the "Black Caucus," I'll take the charges more seriously.
But as far as "on the take from Organized Crime," goes: if it weren't for organized crime, Northeastern Ohio, like Arkansas, and New Jersey, among other places, wouldn't have any organizing principle at all. After all, as a Democrat stronghold, someone has to run the place.
Now I happen to agree with you that the voting booth is no place to teach the Republicans their RINO lessons. Don't know a damn thing about Graham, put rest assured, that if I were pulling levers in that district, he would have my vote over Jimmy, as would any other Republican.
Your problem comes in when you have a total candy-ass RINO like o say, Dede Scozzafava, being challenged by an independent Conservative. Then waddayado? Lose?
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