In a small Texas town called Wilmer, situated roughly 20 miles outside of Dallas, a registered sex offender is making an improbable run for mayor.

James Brian Sliter, 42, was arrested in 2004 by undercover police while trying to arrange sex with a 15-year-old girl on the Internet.  (No, this wasn't NBC's To Catch a Predator.)  Charged with attempting to commit sexual assault of a child, Sliter was placed on 10 years probation and granted deferred adjudication - a legal provision in which a former legal judgment is withheld pending the outcome of a probationary period. 

Because Sliter plea-bargained and was granted a deferred adjudication, he was never technically convicted of a crime in a court of law - although he did have to register as a sex offender.  What's even trickier about the law in this case is that because Sliter wasn't convicted in court, he is still eligible to run for public office.  Had he received a formal legal ruling that convicted him and not plea-bargained for deferred adjudication, he would not be eligible for public office in Texas - he'd have to move to New York for that.

State laws vary widely in their lenience towards letting those with criminal records run for office, though no laws are as lenient as those of Italy, where one in ten senators has a criminal record, making the Italian parliament "more dangerous than the Bronx," according to Beppe Grillo, a popular Italian blogger.   

Only five states flat out deny convicted felons the right to hold office. These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.  Two other states, New Hampshire and West Virginia, only deny the right to hold office to those convicted of bribery or treason while attempting to secure election - apparently they are OK with cronyism, blackmail, and slander.  

Last but not least is South Dakota - the most unique - whose law precludes only potential candidates convicted of an "infamous crime."  Other convicts simply have to have paid "all such moneys due from him" to be eligible for office.  

State that do not bar convicted felons from running for office include New York (and you thought we were joking), Kansas, Vermont, Oregon, Tennessee, and Massachusetts. Three states, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Montana, simply require that the person's sentence be completed before running for office.  Eleven states, including Texas, require that in order to run for office, a felon must have received a pardon or otherwise have had his/her civil rights restored.  

Five states (GA, SC, LA, OK, RI) mandate various waiting periods before granting eligibility to aspiring candidates.  The remaining states simply link the ability to run for office with voter's rights in one way or another.  If a state reissues the right to vote to a convicted felon, the felon then becomes eligible for public office.

So it seems Wilmer lucked out in scoping for teens in Texas where he slipped into the "qualified" to run for office category under Texas law. But does that make it right?  

Wilmer thinks so, stating that he's sorry for what he did and wants a chance to redeem himself by giving back to the community.

"People need to realize that people make mistakes, and they need to look past those mistakes and forgive and move on," Sliter said. "I'm not asking anybody to condone what I did...People can rehabilitate and make themselves a better person, said Wilmer.

These days, public officials have a hard enough time keeping their hands out of the cookie jar.  The last thing this country needs is to fill its public offices with those who've already been busted and watch them take the almost inevitable plunge towards their old, illicit ways while running the county.  Not only would the situation denigrate the miniscule remaining faith we hold in our public leaders, it would also likely create a mountain of debt to high-priced prostitutes deferred to the taxpayers.