Mo. Libertarian candidate not running from felony record

ST. LOUIS -- A Libertarian Party candidate seeking a U.S. Senate seat doesn't believe separate prison stints for marijuana possession, stealing and identity theft should preclude him from holding federal office, calling his time behind bars an educational and "humbling experience."

Jonathan Dine, 31, spent four months in state prison after police found a marijuana operation in his Kansas City-area apartment about four years ago, following his four-month prison stay in Kansas on the stealing and identity theft charges.

"Once you become a part of the criminal justice system, you see how corrupt it really is," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch quotes Dine as saying in a story Tuesday.

Dine's felony record makes him ineligible from elective state office but not for a federal post, given that the only requirements for U.S. Senate involve age, residency and citizenship.

Dine, 31, advanced as his party's nominee in the race to replace retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Kit Bond by getting more than 2,000 of the 3,500 votes cast in the Libertarian primary for Senate, defeating Cisse Spragins -- the state party's chairwoman who also owns a small business in Kansas City. Dine had a coveted edge in such low-turnout contests; because he filed before Spragins, his name appeared first on the ballot.

For Dine and the Libertarians, a lot is riding on his showing next Tuesday. Under state law, the party needs more than 2 percent of the vote from either Dine or its other statewide candidate -- auditor nominee Charles Baum -- to maintain ballot access. Falling short of that threshold means the party will have to submit a signature petition to have a statewide candidate in the next general election.

Along the campaign trail, Dine figures his life experience -- and the legal trouble -- give him special insight, insisting during a recent Senate debate at the Lake of the Ozarks that "I'm not a politician. I see life from the ground level."

In July 2006, according to police reports cited by the Post-Dispatch, Dine called police after his girlfriend's father "trashed" his apartment unit. Police who responded found evidence of drug use and a marijuana-growing operation, and a day later detectives who returned with a search warrant seized from a bedroom closet components of that drug cultivation, along with more than 500 grams of marijuana and two digital scales.

Dine spent four months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing a controlled substance.

The Post-Dispatch said Dine recently told the newspaper the drugs belonged to his roommate, who a police report says paid Dine to store the drugs.

In 2005, Dine spent four months in a Kansas prison on a conviction he says stemmed from his buying a car with a bad pedigree and using his brother's driver's license.

Spragins, Dine's former opponent, says she is "extremely opposed to the drug war" and isn't bothered by Dine's marijuana conviction, through the theft conviction is "not a libertarian thing to do."

"Libertarians are extremely supportive of property rights," she said.

Still, Dine presses on, not shying away from his criminal past.

In a recent campaign video, he asks, "Do you live in Missouri and smoke marijuana? Are you tired of feeling like a criminal?"

The race's ballot also includes Constitution Party candidate Jerry Beck.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com