Ex-Rep. Reynolds launches bid for Jackson Jr. seat
In this Jan. 9, 1995 file photo, U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds responds to question in Chicago. / AP Photo/Fred Jewell, File
CHICAGO - Convicted former Congressman Mel Reynolds is running for the job he held before he was replaced by Jesse Jackson Jr.
At a Wednesday news conference, Reynolds announced that he's joining the increasingly crowded field of candidates running for the seat Jackson vacated last week, citing his ongoing treatment for bipolar disorder.
Reynolds will join former Rep. Debbie Halverson, D-Ill., Chicago alderman Anthony Beale and Illinois state senator-elect and former NFL linebacker Napoleon Harris, all of whom have announced their intentions to run in the special election, which is currently slated for a Feb. 26 primary.
Reynolds says he deserves another chance to represent the district and thinks voters will give him serious consideration.
Reynolds resigned from office in 1995 after being convicted of having sexual relations with an underage campaign worker. The Democrat also went to prison after being convicted of fraud for concealing debts to obtain bank loans and diverting money intended for voter registration drives into his election campaign.
Jackson was first elected in a special election to replace Reynolds.
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what would have been nuts would have been to install in the white house a man who openly mocked, derided and insulted fully half this nation as people he doesn't care about. an elitist who prefers to keep his money in a foreign country and not the one he wants to preside over. a fellow who ties his dog to the top of his car for a long road trip. a man who talks about how no one ever asked him where he was born, as a way of fomenting racial strife and division. a man who was born into wealth and privilege. a fellow who advocated letting gm go bankrupt and then backpedaled as always. a fellow who changed his mind repeatedly on, of all things, abortion (i really think that needs to be one where you have some sort of core conviction, whatever that is). a fellow who did pretty much just one thing for massachussetts, the health care thing, and then repudiated it in the campaign. a man who kisses israel's butt and made racist statements about their neighbor being lazy. a man whose postscript on the campaign includes charges that the president bought his votes. so let's don't say the blacks are nuts. whites were nuts for putting that warmonger bush jr in the white house. for putting that crook nixon in there.
yeah, the guy is sleaze for molesting a child. he should not be running and he won't get even five percent of the vote. then again, they put marion barry back in as mayor and that was after extensive video of him buying and smoking crack with a hooker. so who knows?