Cleveland ? Expelled from Congress a week ago, an unrepentant James A. Traficant Jr. was sentenced to eight years behind bars for corruption Tuesday and made it clear he intends to run for re-election from his prison cell and expects to win.

The 61-year-old former House member was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs after the judge refused to let him remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction on charges of taking bribes and kickbacks.

“Quite frankly, I expect to be re-elected,” the pugnacious former congressman told U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells after she imposed the sentence.

The judge gave Traficant a longer sentence than the minimum 7 1/4 years prosecutors had requested, saying he had undermined respect for the government and lied to distract attention from the charges against him.

The judge also fined him $150,000 on top of the $96,000 the jury required him to forfeit in ill-gotten gains.

Traficant a Democrat known on Capitol Hill for his arm-waving rants on the House floor, his loud ’70s-style suits and bellbottoms, and his thatch of unruly gray hair and shaggy sideburns was unrepentant: “I committed no crime. I regret nothing that I said.”

Defiant throughout his trial and ethics hearings in Congress, Traficant filed earlier this year to run for a 10th term in November as an independent, despite the threat of imprisonment and expulsion.

Traficant said Tuesday he plans to run for re-election from jail, and asked the judge to select a prison in Ohio to make sure he is still eligible to run in the state. He said that if he wins, he will try to abolish the IRS and create an advisory board to oversee the Justice Department.

Traficant was found guilty of bribery, tax evasion and racketeering April 11 after a 2 1/2-month trial in which he mounted a loud, sometimes comic and frequently vulgar defense, serving as his own lawyer without benefit of a law degree.

He was found guilty of requiring staff members to do personal chores for him and kick back a portion of their paychecks and of accepting cash and various favors from businessmen who were seeking his help in Washington.