Jack E. Robinson, the once-touted future of the Massachusetts GOP before multiple scandals derailed his ascent, appears to be attempting a comeback bid for a spot in the state’s Republican party.
According to the Boston Globe, Robinson intends to challenge incumbent Ron Kaufman for National Committeeman at the April 5 elections.
The Globe equates the run as a “kamikaze campaign” given Kaufman’s endorsements from more than half of the committee members as well as Robinson’s checkered past, which includes allegations of sexual assault as well as a drunk driving arrest.
From the Globe:
State tax collectors then hit (Robinson) up for an $81,000 bill for trying avoid the 5 percent sales tax on the $365,000 boat. Still, he never backed out of public life. He ran as a GOP candidate for Congress in 2006 and tried to run for US Senate in 2013 but failed to make the ballot.
Robinson, 55, told the GOP he wants to replace Kaufman because he is convinced the national committeeman, as a member of the national party’s rules committee, will manipulate the rules to deny Donald Trump the presidential nomination. Kaufman scoffs at the notion.
Robinson’s intentions add another wrinkle to next month’s elections, which already brought intrigue in the form of the national committeewoman race between incumbent Chanel Prunier and Charlie Baker-backed challenger Keiko Orrall.
Prunier said she was disappointed Baker was backing Orrall, after Prunier propped both during their respective campaigns for governor and state representative in 2014 and 2011.
From the State House News Service:
Orrall said she was “grateful” for the support Prunier gave her in her first race for state representative in a 2011 special election, but called the party contest for a slot on the national committee an election “about a new day in the Republican party.”
“She’s been active in the party and helping people get elected. I believe that I bring a new set of skills, a better set of skills and a uniqueness to the position that is desperately needed at this time to grow and unify our party,” Orrall said.
(Screenshot via YouTube) 
