A convicted sex offender has been ruled ineligible to run for Arlington mayor, but his name will remain on the ballot because the deadline has passed to remove it, according to the city secretary’s office.
Jerry Warden was one of eight candidates vying for the position of mayor. The city initially ruled that Warden could remain in the race after another candidate filed a complaint, but reversed that decision last week.
Warden holds a lifetime listing on the Texas Public Sex Offenders Registry after being convicted in 1996 on charges of kidnapping and sexually abusing a 24-year-old woman. Warden served a 15-year prison sentence, according to sex offender registry documents.
Under the Texas Election Code, candidates with felony convictions are eligible to run for office only if they have been pardoned or have had their full citizenship rights restored.
I stated in an earlier post elsewhere here (in Feb or Mar) that this person was ineligible. I’m surprised the city secretary did not know the elections code. If one has a conviction, one is not eligible to be voted into public office.
But if one is on deferred adjudication, the conviction is not final but deferred to the future where the judge will either sign an order to dismiss the charge or convict the person.
Dude, you’re supposed get into office THEN commit the sex offense. Duh!
Don’t worry, because he can move to Florida and be elected to congress!
The ruling against him should be overturned on a technicality because I bet there has never been a person on the registry that has been pardoned by the governor or had their full rights restored. This is just one of the SO Jim Crow laws that they say, “Oh, sure, once you serve your sentence just get a pardon from the governor and you can be part of the representative government”–knowing full well he will never, ever get a pardon. So essentially they don’t have a representative government, because not all citizens can have equal opportunity at representation. Of course, no judge will ever rule in his favor and overturn that ruling either.
When I first heard about this issue, I couldn’t help but wonder what a sorry piece of shit the registrant’s opponent must be if he’s worried about losing an election to a registrant.