GOP candidate for MA legislature was convicted in 1991 of threats to kill Pres. GHW Bush

[muriel_volestrangler]

Old Phoenician pal Michael Gee sent along the strange and wonderful tale of Ron Beaty, Jr., the official, anointed-by-primary Republican candidate for the state legislature down on Cape Cod, the bicep of the Commonwealth (God save it!). On the surface, Beaty might seem to be your standard Tea Party crank; he's rabidly anti-immigration reform and he wants to eliminate the Cape Cod Commission, the regional planning and regulatory agency for the Cape. But dig a little deeper, and Beaty's biography gets a little more, ah, baroque.

Meaney and the chairmen of the Brewster, Eastham, Harwich and Orleans Republican town committees all endorsed Waters last week. They specifically cited Beaty's past legal trouble that resulted in his conviction and federal prison sentence in the early 1990s for threatening to kill President George H.W. Bush, among other elected officials.

...
The last guy who did that was named Saddam Hussein and Bush's kid launched a war because of it. Beaty's lucky that C-Plus Augustus didn't carpet-bomb Barnstable.

Yet this chap got almost 5400 sentient primates to say that they want him representing them on Beacon Hill.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Voting_Is_Important??src=rss

Indeed:

Beaty is a sometimes prolific e-mailer on topics related to town and county affairs. He’s also offered himself as a candidate for appointment to town committees in the past. In a series of e-mails in December, Beaty alleged, among other things, that individuals including himself, his wife and former town councilor Hank Farnham had been denied interviews by the appointments committee. In one e-mail, Beaty accused the committee of discrimination and violating the town’s rules for interviewing all candidates.

Joakim responded to Beaty that such was not the case, and that he had withdrawn himself as a candidate for appointment in July 2012 over concerns that his status as a convicted felon might preclude him from serving, based on his reading of the charter.

Beaty has since revised his understanding of the town charter, and as a registered voter in Barnstable believes he would be qualified to serve. He said he requested appointment to the Barnstable Housing Committee.

In 1991 Beaty was convicted of threatening then-President George H.W. Bush, as well as other elected officials. He served 16 months in federal prison and is not shy about sharing that information. Nor is he shy about indicating his intent to seek a pardon from President Barack Obama. He believes that among some of his other efforts, serving on a town board would help that cause.

http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31876&Itemid=30

[Ampersand Unicode]

1. Can a convicted felon legally run for office?

I had not heard of this guy Beatty, but Buddy Cianci is running for mayor of Providence, RI again.

Cianci was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison in 2002 on a charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering. He is on the ballot and showing well in the polls (if only for name recognition).

I was under the impression that convicted felons could not even vote. Maybe the laws are different from what I'm thinking of, or they've changed, or this is a state-by-state thing?