Plymouth residents support Bill Dixon

Plymouth Councilman Bill Dixon is taking fire because he committed some crimes many years ago and his neighbors are planning a show of support.

Love Bill Dixon Benefit

Dixon backers plan buffet fundraiser

 The question is can someone convicted of a felony or "other infamous crime"  hold office. The thing that muddies this is that Governor Tom Corbett granted him a pardon on the state charges but he  also had a Federal conviction that has not been pardoned.  The people of Plymouth can ask the President to pardon him by starting a petition at WhiteHouse.gov 

 This is a clear example of our punitive laws being so destructive. From all the accounts Dixon went to Vietnam in the service of his country and had a hard time when he came home and did some stupid things for which he was punished. Since then he has been a model citizen CV: Dixon and his wife, Janet, raised two children in the borough. He has worked in substation maintenance for UGI, the regional electric utility, for the last 25 years. He has coached youth sports in the community for more than two decades.

A year after he was  elected as top vote getter in 2011 the Plymouth Borough Coordinator Joe Mazur decided to make an issue of his past. 

  We all remember Mazur for his eloquence when he was the Luzerne County Democratic Chairman and said Register of Wills Dotty Stankovic was "a cancer within the organization. " He was also gleeful" when Petrilla defeated incumbent Controller Steve Flood in the 2005 primary.

 That worked out well.

 The DA or Attorney General could remove him from office but it  looks like they will pass on getting into the weeds of Plymouth politics. 

 The Examiner is all over this story.