#1810: Keith Judd

A.k.a. Dark Priest

A.k.a. Mtr. President

Keith Russell Judd is one of several perennial candidates for political office (including Mayor of Albuquerque and Governor of New Mexico), and claims to have run for president in every election since 1996 (he has tried to run at least three times in Democratic primaries, at least). In addition to “Judd”, Judd has run under the nicknames “Dark Priest” and “Mtr. President”. A professed Rasta-Christian, Judd also claims to be a former member of the Federation of Super Heroes. Yeah, it sounds like a joke, but we’re not entirely convinced – hence the entry.

Among his qualifications is being convicted of two counts of “mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or something of value” after sending postcards stating “Send the money back now, Keith Judd, Last Chance or Dead” in a package also containing an assortment of strange items (the conviction is unconnected to a civil rights complaint he filed against the University of New Mexico, though Judd apparently claims otherwise). The letter was apparently targeted at a Texas woman whom Judd apparently believed to be a clone of singer Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac: Apparently Nicks had paid to have that woman made so she could come down between concert dates and run her home improvement company. He also sent letters to jurors after his trial, which is not generally considered to be proper etiquette.

His most successful campaign was in West Virginia in 2012, where Judd – while in prison – won 41% of the primary vote against incumbent Barack Obama, which does not reflect particularly well on certain groups of people from West Virginia (Judd is not black). Judd later claimed that the election was rigged, which is a hallmark of crank candidates. Indeed, Judd even teamed up with Orly Taitz, no less, and filed a lawsuit seeking an order to prevent the electoral college from certifying President Obama as the winner of the election, have him declared a Kenyan and thrown out of the White House.

Diagnosis: We’re usually a little wary of covering people like Judd, but he’s sort of managed to make a public profile for himself. We want to say that he is probably harmless, though the behavior of certain substantial groups of people in West Virginia might suggest otherwise.