James Traficant, the former Congressman and inmate from Ohio, has officially decided to run for his old congressional district, the 17th of Ohio, which is now occupied by his former aide, Rep. Tim Ryan (D). He had considered running in two separate districts, but has apparently abandoned the idea.
Traficant, a former Democratic congressman (1985-2002) who served a seven-year prison sentence for corruption, filed paperwork to run as an independent in the 17th and suggested top Ohio media that he would also file to run in the 6th district, a more conservative and rural district held by Rep. Charlie Wilson (D).
Though Ohio law didn’t prohibit Traficant from filing to run in both districts, he didn’t follow through on that unusual plan. An elections official in Columbiana County — the largest county in the 6th — told CQ Politics that Cory McCusker was the only independent to file in that district ahead of today’s 4 p.m. deadline.
Traficant will run as a member of no party, an independent, a campaign which he has been alluding to for several months now–ever since his release from federal prison.
On May 4, the Constitution Party held its first primary in Ohio. David Ryon participated in the only contested Constitution Party primary. In the closest race, David edged out his opponent by only 8 votes. The Ohio Secretary of State should have official results posted by the end of May or beginning of June. We are expecting no change in the current results.
We want to thank everybody who voted in the Constitution Party’s first primary in Ohio. We want to offer an extra special thanks for those of you who voted for David in his contested primary. David is a Constitutional Conservative which is offering an alternative to the two major party candidates. David has stated he will ask four questions when voting on legislation.
Is it moral? Is it Constitutional? Do we need it? and Can we afford it? if any of these questions are answered with a “No”, David will vote nay.
Good question, Vaughn.
More likely we would have tried to find a way to “spin” the story in our favor.
It’s not like the LP (or Green, Socialist or Constitution) endorsement would account for much. There is a hard core republican running against the endorsed Constitution candidate in the 15th Congressional race. I’m betting the endorsed candidate (David Ryon) loses.
FWIW, Ryon endorsed me in 2008.
PEACE
Would the LPO consider endorsing him?
The last time he ran I think he was in prison at the time so 15% even with name recognition is impressive.
Trent, I suspect that he’ll score in the 20-30% range. He does have a LOT of support.
But the LPO sighed a sigh of relief when he failed to file as a Libertarian. And a lot of folks were afraid he would. He has been helping a local candidate in the Akron area, hosting fundraisers for him (Kurt Liston) and having him on his radio show several times.
District 6 runs from Akron to near Cincinnati along the Ohio River, Traficant is not as well known outside the Akron area.
And he might be trying to be nice by not running against an LP candidate. We have a candidate in the 6th, but not the 17th.
PEACE
I suspect he’ll score double digits.
I don’t think Traficant will get much higher than 15%. His name recognition will be significantly less than last time, when he hadn’t been out of Congress for long. In addition, there is a competing third party on the ballot, taking away some of the protest vote.
I remember before the filing deadline for the primary, I was worried that he would try to run in the Green Party primary. We have a candidate there, Elaine Mastromatteo, who is a write-in in tomorrow’s primary in the 17th district.
So…it will be a four person race if Traficant gets qualified. Ryan got 77-80% in the last three re-elections. In the previous time (2002), Traficant got 15% as an independent. How the race will turn out this year is going to be interesting…