Keith Judd

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It didn’t take long for the whole Keith Judd fiasco to make national news.

And it didn’t take long for the whole thing to be lampooned on late night TV.

Judd, the Texas convict, grabbed 41 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Democratic Presidential Primary in West Virginia without having any organized support and solely relying on the unpopularity of his opponent, especially in the southern part of the state where coal is king.

The Federal prisoner ended up taking 10 West Virginia counties from Obama, including an 11-point win in Logan County and an embarrassing 20-point triumph in Mingo.

Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, chimed in on Judd’s success this week during his late night TV show.

“He’s serving 17 and a half years at a correctional institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico back in 1999. He’s also serving another five years for that haircut,” Kimmel joked. “It could be something. We had our first African-American president. Keith Judd could be our first president with a super mullet.”

Judd, the federal inmate, who is serving a 17 1/2 year sentence for extortion, was able to get on just the West Virginia state ballot and snared 72,544 votes. Obama carried the state, receiving 105,854 total votes for 59 percent.

Judd’s bid for president might be gaining momentum, according to a recently released video ad from the Washington Free Beacon, via youtube.

The ad makes the case for Judd.

His 15 minutes of fame might not have expired.

Here’s the text of the ad:

“People shackled by debt, their healthcare held hostage… A nation under assault.

It’s time for real change.

Keith Judd.

An American willing to do WHATEVER it takes to steal the nomination. (Extortion)

Keith Judd

A Democrat who serves his country. (In Jail)

Keith Judd

A proven contender with a record of conviction.

Keith Judd

Political prisoner, fashion icon.

Keith Judd

From the Big House to the White House.

Keith Judd

He can’t vote, so you’ll need to vote for him.

Keith Judd

The only bailout America needs…for your freedom…and for his.

Paid for by cellmates of Keith Judd”

More and more has surfaced about Judd in recent days.

It gets even more bizarre by the minute.

As he tells it, Keith Judd, inmate No. 11593-051 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Beaumont, Texas, is a Harvard-educated musician and activist whose mother was a 1920s actress and father a designer of the first atomic bomb.

The 53-year-old native of Texarkana, Texas, states that he’s a Rastafarian-Christian, a movement where most of its adherents worship Haili Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia (ruled from 1930-74), as God incarnate, the Second Advent, or the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Some interesting nuggets of information come from his biography on Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

In it, Judd says he attended college at the University of California at Los Alamos.

Oops, there’s just one problem.

No such college exists.

On Judd’s colorful resume he lists Richard Nixon as his favorite president.

“He got us out of Vietnam,” Judd says of Tricky Dick.

He likes Mozart and horror author Stephen King and he also belonged to the Federation of Super Heroes from 1976-82.

It goes on and on.

Judd also says be can tell fortunes and he’s bowled a perfect game. He’s a talented musician on the piano and the electric base, according to his younger brother Monty Judd of Albuquerque, N.M.

Monty Judd told the Daily Beast he doesn’t believe Keith Judd is dangerous, but he worries about his mental stability.

The Daily Beast says Federal court records show Keith Judd was sentenced to more than 17 years after being convicted in Odessa, Texas, for allegedly mailing a threat to a woman at the University of New Mexico.

The article says David Clyne Greenhaw of Odessa was Judd’s court-appointed attorney. Greenhaw said Judd’s sanity was an issue in the trial, but that Judd was found to be competent. He said Judd has been writing him letters for years from prison in which the return address exclaims, “Keith Russell Judd for President!”

Judd calls himself the “Dark Priest,” according to his Vote Smart bio.

So where does he stand on the issues?

He’s apparently a big opponent of government-run health care, dubbed “Obama Care” by detractors. Wrote Judd on April 10, “Twenty Six States are prepared to secede from the Union if the Supreme Court votes to support Obama Care. The so-called Obama Care is not about Health Care, but rather about taking hard earned money from the Working Slave Class, and giving it to the Wealthy Wall Street Ruling Class. Economic Slavery cracks the whip on even the upper-Middle Class, who struggle to make payments on long-term home Loan Mortgages, Car Loans, and Credit Cards, with the rising prices of Gas, Oil, Food, Clothing, and the increasing cost of living inflation. While the Confederate States attempt to draw Battle lines in the Supreme Court, the true Battle lines are on the Streets.”

Judd also seemed to be against the government’s 700 billion dollar bailout in 2008.

Wrote Judd in late ‘08, “At the Presidential Debate, Obama and McCain were asked about the proposed $700 billion dollar bail-out of Wall Street, to purportedly save the economy. Obama claimed that $700 billion from the people of Main Street was necessary to save Wall Street, or Main Street would suffer loss of jobs and economic disaster. However, the math does not support this contention. President Bush recently pushed a Tax Rebate for Economic Stimulus to put money back in the hands of the people so they could spend the money and help the economy. Now they want to take at least $700 billion from Main Street and give it to Wall Street to prevent a credit freeze so Wall Street can loan Main Street back its money at an interest rate profit. And this is supposed to save the economy?”

Judd seemed to side with John McCain in the debates with Obama leading up to the 2008 election.

“When McCain and Obama were asked what programs would be cut to pay the $700 billion Wall Street bail-out, Obama refused to indicate any cuts at all. Rather, Obama just reaffirmed all the programs that he would make sure would be either saved or initiated under an Obama Administration. Somehow Obama also cites Tax reduction for incomes of less than $250,000.00 a year, but increased Taxes to the Companies that get the benefit of the $700 billion bail-out. Even an idiot can do that impossible math. An economic genius Obama is not … When McCain and Obama were asked what programs would be cut to pay the $700 billion Wall Street bail-out, Obama refused to indicate any cuts at all. Rather, Obama just reaffirmed all the programs that he would make sure would be either saved or initiated under an Obama Administration. Somehow Obama also cites Tax reduction for incomes of less than $250,000.00 a year, but increased Taxes to the Companies that get the benefit of the $700 billion bail-out. Even an idiot can do that impossible math. An economic genius Obama is not.”

Judd continued.

“The proposed and probable $700 billion bail-out of WALL STREET is criminal, and interferes with the FREE MARKET and interferes with Commerce, denying people on Main Street opportunity to purchase cheap stocks which will go up fast as the Market recovers with new blood at the helm,” he writes. “The richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, recently purchased $5.2 billion in Goldman-Sachs because the price was right, and he knows the value will increase over time.”

Judd also talks about the death of the American Dollar.

“With the Death of the Dollar, if you think you invested in Gold, you had better have the Gold in your hand or you will never see it,” Judd wrote in April. “Our Money used to be backed by Gold until we went off the Gold Standard. At this point the U.S. Currency was backed by only the Federal Government. Under this new System, Money will be backed by the People. This is the People Standard. It is People that have value because it is People that work and produce, and create and have ideas. All we need is Money to facilitate exchange of our individual value for other things and services wee need.”

Judd also wrote in 2008 about voting rights for felons.

“Under the United States Constitution, any citizen over 18-years old are eligible and qualified to vote in elections for Federal office. In Maine and Vermont, convicted felons are permitted to vote in State and Federal elections from prison,” he wrote.

Even though Judd gained access to West Virginia’s ballot as a Democrat he seems to be no fan of either the Democratic or Republican parties.

“Both the Democratic and Republican Parties (local and national), are corrupt organizations, that are eating away at the moral fiber of the United States of America,” Judd wrote in 2008.

Judd also says he is a proponent of tort reform.

“I will eliminate guilty plea agreements, as they violate the Sixth Amendment right to a Speedy Public Trial by Jury. Article III requires of the Judicial Branch, that the trial of all crime shall be by jury. There is only enough court space to provide a trial by jury to less than 10 percent of the federal criminal defendants arrested each year, if that. I cannot guarantee something that I cannot provide. If every criminal defendant demanded a trial, 90 percent of the cases would be dismissed for violation of the Speedy Trial Act. I would only arrest the really bad people,” he writes.

Judd ran for president in 2008 and claims to have been a candidate in every election since 1996, but only appeared on the Democratic primary ballot in Idaho. It created a minor fuss as he grabbed 1.7 percent of the vote against Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In his 2008 bid he offered “Judd’s Economic Policy Reform.”

In it he gives his solution, “I would fund the Government with the ‘Free money’ that is given to the private banks of the Federal Reserve System, and eliminate the federal income tax. Government spending would be focused on the bottom line, to get the money working its way up to the Big Corporations and the rich people. This would allow the money to be spent many times before being finally fished out by the Big Corporations and rich people. I would reduce the ‘free money’ to the private Banks of the Federal Reserve System to a trickle, as needed. This would require the rich and the Big Corporations to work for their money, leaving the money in control of the bottom line; the spending population,” he said.

Judd says there was no need for Congress to make a formal apology for slavery back in July 2008.

“As a white man, I am not allowed to define myself by my own personal actions, choices, or character,” he wrote on July 30, 2008. “As a white man, I am confronted with an identity defined by a black man claiming to be a perpetual generation of victims. As a white man, I want to define myself by my actions, choices, and character; Not by the words of others. I did not choose to be born, nor did I choose my parents, race, or the neighborhood I was born into. My choices began after I was born. I am not responsible for slavery. Personally, I am opposed to slavery, racial prejudice, and discrimination. I am opposed to race based hate. I am opposed to hate period. No generation of my family ever had anything to do with slavery, on either my mother’s or father’s side. My family either fought against slavery, or suffered as a result of slavery. There is no personal or moral debt owed by me as a consequence of slavery. Respectfully Submitted, Keith Russell Judd, Candidate For President of the United States.”

When asked by Vote Smart to take an issue on abortion, Judd refused.

He wrote, “I did not choose to be born. That choice was made by mother, father and nature. The decision for abortion should be mutual between the mother and father, except in cases of rape.”

Several of Judd’s position entries were marred by misspellings.

He offered an apology and an explanation.

“I apologize for misspellings,” he writes. “These prison typewriters are slow and terrible.”

According to Wikipedia, Judd’s delegate count stands at 12 after his surprising West Virginia showing, although it’s unlikely any will be seated at the Democratic National Convention this September in Charlotte, N.C., as it was uncertain if Judd had completed the required formalities, such as filing a slate of delegates and completing all necessary paperwork.

With the more than 72,000 West Virginia votes, Judd is currently second nationally behind Obama in the Democratic Party’s popular vote tally.

Randall Terry, an anti-abortion advocate from West Virginia, has 22,752 votes and seven delegates and trails Judd. He was able to get on the ballot in four states and won 12 counties in the Oklahoma primary.

John Wolfe Jr. has four delegates and 19,071 votes and was able to get on four state ballots.

Florida blogger Darcy Richardson is fifth in the Democratic Party popular vote at 17,225.

Perennial Presidential candidate Jim Rogers won four counties in his home state of Oklahoma. He grabbed 15,535 votes and has three delegates, according to Wikipedia.

However, according to a report in NewsOK, the Oklahoma Democratic Party is disallowing the Terry and Rogers state delegates due to the two candidates not filling out the proper paperwork.

Will the same thing happen to Judd?

A total of 10 other Democratic candidates have received at least 200 votes nationwide. Most of those were only able to get on the ballot in New Hampshire.

Uncommitted Democratic Party voters have also cast 329,492 votes nationwide. “Uncommitted” beat Obama in five Alabama counties during the state’s primary election.

‘The Kingdom of Judd’

Southern West Virginia counties carried by Keith Judd over Barack Obama in Tuesday’s West Virginia Democratic Primary:

Mingo County: Judd 2,972 (60.2 percent), Obama 1,962 (39.8 percent). Winner: Judd +20.

Wyoming County: Judd 1,428 (56.8 percent), Obama 1,085 (43.1 percent). Winner: Judd +16.

Logan County: Judd 2,786 (55.5 percent), Obama 2,231 (44.4 percent). Winner: Judd +11.

Lincoln County: Judd 1,533 (52.6 percent), Obama 1,382 (47.4 percent). Winner: Judd +6.

Boone County: Judd 2,343 (51.2 percent), Obama 2,199 (48.4 percent). Winner: Judd +2.

Judd also won in Gilmer, Hardy, Clay, Tucker and Webster counties.

The Texas prisoner nearly pulled off Mercer County as well, losing by just 31 votes to Obama by a 2,486 to 2,455 tally.

Judd was also close or at least competitive in about a dozen other West Virginia counties.

Obama currently holds a 32 percent approval rating according to a recent Gallup state-by-state poll. The approval rating, by Gallup’s numbers, is the fifth-lowest in the country.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won West Virginia’s GOP primary by getting 69 percent of the vote. He leads Obama by 17 points in West Virginia in one recent poll.