Former Representative and ex-felon Jim Traficant may run for Congress.
Traficant told Fox News he is being encouraged to run, just days after being released from prison after a seven year stint.
Traficant was convicted of public corruption (taking kickbacks and bribes, ten counts) in 2002 and was expelled by the House, but not before he gave the chamber a stern, somewhat incomprehensible lecture in a white leisure suit and trademark toupee.
Traficant later made an unsuccessful bid to run as an Independent from jail in 2002.
It would be difficult, but not impossible, for Traficant to win a seat in Ohio. His old seat is held by popular Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, but Traficant could rally some of his old base of support in the now-realigned district, or go up against one of the handful of vulnerable Ohio Democrats in neighboring districts. He could also run as an Independent again.
Traficant is a former sheriff and was very popular among his constituents. His jail-based campaign earned him 15 percent of the vote.
Longtime Washington political scholar Norm Ornstein put it best when he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer this week, that he would “wager against Traficant in an election, but I sure wouldn’t wager a lot.”
The entire House voted to expel him on the night of July 24, 2002 with the exception of one Democrat, Rep. Gary Condit, who had just lost a re-election primary thanks to his involvement in the Chandra Levy case.
If he is re-elected, Democrats would hardly welcome him back (he voted for Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, and was stripped of all his committee assignments). Nothing in the House rules prohibits an expelled member from being re-elected.
