FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) – An obscure two-time presidential candidate has been jailed without bond on charges of threatening to assault a police officer and kill the officer’s canine partner.

Robert Edwards Haines, 57, of Manchester, N.H., is being held at Rappahannock Regional Jail after telling a police officer that he would “kick his ass and cut off his dog’s head,” police spokesman Jim Shelhorse said.

For two weeks, Haines had been passing out fliers here declaring his presidential bid. Police have escorted him away from several places after people complained he was bothering them, Shelhorse said. Last week, he was arrested on a public drunkenness charge, Shelhorse said.

On Wednesday, Haines was grabbing women as they walked by and inviting them to a private, female-only meeting, police said.

Officer Brian Bettis told Haines that his car had been parked for four hours in two-hour parking, and he was going to get a ticket, Shelhorse said. That is when he threatened Bettis and his police dog.

Haines took off his coat and cowboy hat and put his fists up, Shelhorse said, which prompted police to spray him with pepper spray before he surrendered.

His latest presidential campaign isn’t his first, and neither is his jail stint. Haines ran as a Republican against President Bill Clinton in 1996. He was convicted of felonious assault on the campaign trail in 1995 for pointing a rifle at a man in Manchester, according to court records.

In November, Haines was arrested in New Hampshire on a parole violation stemming from that conviction. He was released from prison on Dec. 23, said Jeff Lyons, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Corrections.

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Information from: The Free Lance-Star

AP-ES-04-09-04 1813EDT