Joseph Morrissey was elected as an independent candidate to the Virginia House on January 13, 2015. Now he is running for a seat in the State Senate, in the regular legislative elections of November 3, 2015. The Washington Post has a very long and interesting article on him here, which contains information on his campaigning techniques.
The article glossed over some details. Morissey’s first resignation was part of his plea deal. Since he copped to a misdemeanor, he was able to leave the jail daily under a work release. At first this was to campaign, and later he would attend sessions of the legislature during the day, and be locked up at night. He was able to drive his car, a Jaguar, which was outfitted with a GPS device and parked in the jail parking lot each night.
The timing of the first special election was to ensure that the special election occurred prior to the opening of the legislative session (the special election was the day before the opening).
One reason why the House of Delegates did not expel him, may have been because his conviction had occurred prior to his election in the special election.
Since he does not reside in the senate district that he is running in, he had to move. This triggered his second resignation as a delegate, since he no longer lived in his house district.
The second special election for the House seat was held in July. An oddity was that the filing deadline for the regular election this November, was prior to the filing deadline for the special election, and the primary for the regular election was in June, prior to the second special election.