Heaton the Spoiler?

Jeremiah Heaton is running for Congress as an Independent in VA’s 9^th district.  Recently a web article came out stating that he and Rick Boucher’s wife are business acquaintances.  Apparently her musical group is hired by Mr. Heaton to perform at their general store in Damascus occasionally.  It is a small world, is it not?

Well perhaps it is a small world, but someone with a suspicious mind might wonder about Mr. Heaton’s candidacy and how this issue fits into that effort.  First of all, Mr. Heaton did not make the relationship public.  It seems anyone interested in total honesty would have made it known that a business relationship existed between one congressional candidate and another candidate’s spouse.  Secondly, Mr. Heaton has spoken at a few area meetings and does not make much effort to disparage Mr. Boucher.  With 28 years in Congress, there is much fodder for Mr. Boucher’s opponents, yet I heard no complaints about Mr. Boucher’s voting record or his lifestyle from Mr. Heaton.  However, Mr. Heaton makes considerable effort to disparage Mr. Griffith’s record.  He complains about Mr. Griffith’s occupation (lawyer) and tries to make Mr. Griffith look strange because of his personal actions (Griffith re-enacts a war hero in costume.)  I have heard this from Mr. Heaton himself as well as some of his supporters.

Mr. Heaton is also suspect because he does not seem to be truly trying to energize a campaign.  He himself does not believe he can win.  I heard him say his wife thinks he might ‘screw up’ and win.  So, why is Mr. Heaton in this race?  When accused of simply splitting the vote, he becomes very defensive and falls back on the common man’s cry that apparently a common man can’t be elected if he isn’t in a party.  Yet, he pooh pooh’s the established parties and the fact that they are so organized.  Mr. Heaton doesn’t seem to appreciate that you need a substantial ground organization to get elected, regardless of party.  When asked how one can help Mr. Heaton, his answer is give money.  My answer would have been to recruit volunteers and get my name out there with the voters.  Money helps but so do volunteers.  Perhaps Mr. Tancredo, the Independent running in Colorado for Governor, might give Heaton some lessons.  Tancredo is within a few points of the leader in that race.

If Mr. Heaton’s idea of winning an election is to gain the attention of the press with travel around the globe, it’s not working.  He is still in low single digits in any polling.  So what is the purpose of his campaign?  He hasn’t been to many events and skipped the last forum.  His media efforts have been mostly out of the district.  A suspicious mind might say that his motive IS simply to split the vote.  Perhaps the Democrats and / or Mr. Boucher made sure there is an Independent candidate in the race to do just that.  Mr. Boucher knew he had a valid opponent in the Republican Party who might just win this time.  With the mood of the voters against the big spenders like Boucher in Washington, perhaps the strategy for the Democrat is to use a third party as the only way to stay in office.  Mr. Heaton’s campaign style seems to support that conclusion. 

I recommend we don’t waste our votes on a third party spoiler.