Just when Governor Charlie Baker’s state Republican Party seemed to be getting its fringe elements under control, Jack E. Robinson has reemerged.

With Baker in firm control of the party apparatus after this month’s state committee races, Robinson, a frequent politcal candidate with a string of sordid allegations and tax-evasion charges in his past, told the GOP this week that he plans to run against National Committeeman Ron Kaufman at the state party conclave April 5.

It is all but a kamikaze campaign, if senior GOP sources can be believed. Kaufman has been publicly endorsed by more than 50 of the 80 state committee members.

Plus, Robinson brings a history to the contest that would have kept most mortals from ever attempting a political campaign again.

When GOP officials paraded him out to run against Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy in 2000, they touted him as a future leader of the state Republican Party. But they had to disown his candidacy after the Globe reported on issues in his private life: An ex-girlfriend charged he sexually assaulted her; and he had an arrest for drunken driving and carrying a martial arts weapon. The charges had been dropped, but his candidacy was doomed.

And when Robinson was able to grab the 2002 nomination for secretary of state, his failure to pay the bills for his 49-foot yacht — a French-built Benetau 50 — helped to douse those ambitions.

State tax collectors then hit him 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.

“I have been adamant that RNC rules will be followed,’’ said Kaufman. “Whoever is the nominee, we all are going to support that candidate.’’

Frank Phillips

UMass won’t renew union chief’s unpaid leave

Barbara Madeloni, the combative president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, never hesitates to ride into battle. But she may be in need of a new steed.

Stick with us, here.

The union’s bylaws — Article VII, Section 2, to be precise — require that any candidate for president or vice president be an active or retired member of the MTA. And any active member, the rules say, must have an affiliation with an educational institution.

The MTA president, in many cases, is a teacher on leave from a school district. But for the past 2½ years, Madeloni’s educational affiliation has come by way of an unusual and, until now, unreported unpaid leave from her former employer, the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

University officials, after parrying the Globe’s questions for several days, made it clear they will not renew the leave when it expires in August. That creates a touch of uncertainty as Madeloni gears up for reelection as MTA president in May and leads the fight against lifting the state’s cap on charter schools. But just a touch, really.

Madeloni calls her expiring affiliation with UMass Amherst a “non-issue.’’ She is confident she can find a new gig teaching at a college or university. And if all else fails, she could “retire’’ as an educator and still qualify under MTA bylaws.

In fact, union officials say, it may be that the requirement of MTA membership is merely an election issue and not a governance issue. Under this interpretation of the bylaws, a president who gets elected in May while she’s still an active member of MTA and loses that status afterward, in August, could continue to serve in the post.

Madeloni’s unpaid leave from UMass Amherst has its roots in a very public dust-up with the school.

In 2012, when she was running the university’s teacher training program for middle- and high-school teachers, she opposed a program outsourcing teacher assessments to a private firm.

Sixty-seven of her 68 students joined in the protest. “We are putting a stick in the gears,’’ she told The New York Times.

Shortly thereafter, she was told her contract with the school would not be renewed. Officials said the timing was an unfortunate coincidence, pointing to documents showing they had long planned to replace Madeloni with a tenure-track faculty member.

In a January 2013 settlement, obtained by the Globe, UMass Amherst gave her a one-time payment of nearly $75,000 and one year’s unpaid leave; Madeloni says the leave allowed her to hold onto her health insurance.

A year later, Madeloni won the MTA presidency and re-opened her agreement with UMass Amherst, winning a two-year extension of the unpaid leave. A UMass Amherst spokesman says the school granted the extension as a courtesy to the MTA, which represents faculty and staff.

It was an unusual agreement between a union president and a major negotiating partner. But four labor law experts consulted by the Globe say it does not raise significant ethical concerns: No money changed hands, and management typically keeps union leaders on staff in some capacity.

Indeed, UMass Amherst’s affiliation with Madeloni may not end with the expiration of her unpaid leave. A university spokesman says the school won’t rule out hiring Madeloni back.

David Scharfenberg

Facebook post draws scrutiny

Human rights attorney Lydia Edwards posted a comment on Facebook back in October that is getting extra scrutiny now that she’s running for the state Senate seat vacated by Anthony Petruccelli of East Boston.

Edwards, one of seven candidates for the seat representing parts of Boston, Cambridge, Winthrop, and Revere, described herself as “progressive pro-life’’ while responding to a thread about gun control. The gist of the post was that young men who buy guns should be subject to same rules, including parental permission and a mandatory 48-hour waiting period, as young women seeking an abortion.

“THIS IS A GREAT IDEA,’’ Edwards wrote on Oct. 8. “I’m progressive pro-life (still working on the description) anyway too Catholic to be pro abortion but too educated to realize you can’t ban them.’’

She also wrote she was “pro life in the real sense of the word . . . no death penalty, no euthanasia, no war, etc.’’

The post got the attention of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, the political arm of the women’s health care provider. The group released a statement that said Edwards’s online post “contradicts the support she clearly articulated for safe, legal abortion’’ in the group’s candidate questionnaire.

“We hope that Ms. Edwards will clarify her position so that the residents of that district who care deeply about this issue are able to make informed voting decisions when they head to the polls on April 12,’’ said Jen Childs-Roshak, the group’s president.

Edwards said Wednesday that there’s nothing to clarify because her position hasn’t changed.

Abortion is an “intimate decision’’ between a woman, her doctor, and “whatever God she prays to,’’ Edwards said. She added that because of her work advocating for immigrant domestic workers, she has a clear understanding of the underlying economic pressure that poor, working-women face because of family-planning issues.

“Everyone who knows me knows my record. I’m pro-choice,’’ she said. “I don’t know how to be more clear than that.’’

To underscore her support of Planned Parenthood, Edwards said she’s a client as well. “I’m proud of the fact that I use Planned Parenthood’s services.’’

Akilah Johnson

Zoning board nominee withdraws

A lawyer nominated by Mayor Martin J. Walsh to serve on the Boston Zoning Commission has withdrawn her name from consideration, according to the mayor’s office.

The lawyer, Jeanne Levesque, is Boston College’s director of governmental relations. She works for Thomas J. Keady Jr., a vice president at Boston College who was an architect of Walsh’s 2013 campaign for mayor.

Levesque’s nomination in December sparked concern among some residents in Brighton, where the college has a campus. The fear was that Boston College would have an advantage at the Zoning Commission.

The commission plays a key role in large developments and institutional master plans required for hospitals, colleges, and universities. If Levesque had served on the Zoning Commission, she would have had to recuse herself from any business related to Boston College, according to Walsh’s spokeswoman, Laura Oggeri.

“Jeanne was nominated because of her involvement in Brighton Main Streets,’’ Oggeri said. “The city was interested in having that perspective on the Zoning Commission.’’

In an e-mail, Levesque said she was nominated because of her professional experience, legal knowledge, and background in government and higher education. “Ultimately, I withdrew my nomination so that the Boston Zoning Commission could focus without distraction on the important work of regulating land use in Boston, while Boston College focuses on the planning and development of its campus,’’ she wrote.

Andrew Ryan