Towne for Congress

P.O. Box 22542

Lehigh Valley, PA 18002

TowneForCongress.com

Dear Residents and Citizens of the Lehigh Valley’s 15th Congressional District,

Please review the attached, which is my professional resume. As your Representative, I will not only be your public servant, but also your employee. As it is customary in my previous career as an engineer to present my resume, I will treat this job as no different in that regard.

However, there are two special requirements for a member of Congress and that is firstly to follow the Constitution of the United States, the supreme law of our country, and secondly represent the people of this district, so I freely offer two pledges to you that will remain in place during the campaign and term of office. The first is derived from the military oath of enlistment, and the second is derived from the oath of office.

1. I do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
2. I will faithfully represent the people of the 15th Congressional district, and will, to the best of my ability, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Yours in Liberty,

Jake Towne (signed)

Jake Towne

Email: jaketowne@gmail.com

OBJECTIVE: I am seeking to represent the people of Pennsylvania’s 15th district in U.S. Congress by winning the next election, currently slated for November of 2010.

EDUCATION: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1998-2002

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Minor in Classical Studies, GPA: 3.7/4.0

Included summer study at the University of Dortmund, Germany in 2001.

Attended Mises University in summer 2009 and studied free market economics.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

• Ablestik Laboratories, Integrated Business Team Process Engineer June 2002 – June 2005

  • Responsible for scale up of new products and troubleshooting of a $40 million product line of die attach adhesives used in array packaging. Troubleshooting emphasis is on team-based problem solving approach to customer problems using six sigma and 8D methodology. Highlights are listed below.

  • Scaled up >10 products from R&D lab benches into commercial production.

  • Identified and helped implement a process change that saved the team’s newest product (now generating a significant portion of annual sales) from market failure.

  • Worked closely with a resin supplier on a process change that saved >$150K in 2004-5, and >$1 million in 2006 in raw material costs.

• Ablestik Shanghai, Process Engineering Supervisor July 2005 – March 2009

  • Led the start-up and commissioning of two manufacturing cells at a brand-new expansion plant in Shanghai, China. Successfully qualified and transferred in over 100 Ablestik and Emerson and Cuming products.

  • Sole foreign expatriate at the facility for the first year and also trained and led multiple functions from production, production planning, logistics, process & quality engineering and laboratory, purchasing, etc. in performing. Hosted over 30 customer audits just in 2006 and led factory tours, answered questions and completed follow-up work so customers would qualify.

  • Awarded the President’s Award for most valuable employee in 2007 for this effort.

  • Second manufacturing cell start-up had expanded responsibilities, traveling globally between Japan, Belgium, and the US to have the equipment manufactured correctly, installed, and combining several quality systems and test equipment into a new unified quality system.

• Freelance Columnist at www.NolanChart.com, www.LibertyMaven.com other websites 2/08-present

  • Write a column “Yet Another Champion of the Constitution” that seeks truth on eco-political topics

  • Sample article “Why the Stimulus Plan Will Fail… and a Better Alternative”

  • Sample article “The Government’s “War” on Main Street“

SKILLS: Very good Mandarin Chinese capability, some Spanish, German. Six Sigma Green Belt+. Experience with Minitab, SAP, statistics. Worked with Cytec Industries as a summer intern in water soluble polymers.

INFO: Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-I), raised over $20,000 over 2 years for cancer research while in college, Martindale Scholar (spent time in Hong Kong studying the eco-political system). Member of Theta Delta Chi, Tau Beta Pi Engineering, Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Eta Sigma Honor Societies. Hobbies include backpacking/hiking, surfing, running, yoga, and weightlifting. Extensive travel in Asia and Europe. Worked at local Habitat for Humanity chapters during my college years and have worked over 40 hours to-date in 2009 with HFH of the Lehigh Valley.  Volunteered over 40 hours at my hometown library, the Nazareth Memorial Library in 2009-10.

My Personal Motivation for Representing the 15th District in Congress

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

While the event that made me seriously consider running was the incumbent and Congress voting to pass the Banker Bailout of October 2008, my journey to running for U.S. Congress really began two years ago on the secluded, rain forested island of Ko Chang in Thailand. While on vacation, I suffered a mountain biking accident that left me with a jaw cracked in three places, a twisted knee and plenty of other damage. When I returned to work as an engineer in Shanghai, China, I found myself needing to rest and recover in the evenings. I started reading a lot, and found out about an incredible American doctor of mixed Arab and Jewish descent who visited her relatives in Iraq after the invasion. After seeing first-hand the conditions her relatives were forced to live through, she left her profession to travel and protest against the American occupation.

Wow! I remember questioning myself, would I ever believe in my principles so strongly that I would give up my promising and fun professional career to live my life by them, and drive for change? I began searching for answers and I found many in the ideas and logic of Dr. Ron Paul, a presidential candidate from Texas. His straightforward ideas and clear logic showed his faith in the American people to make tough decisions and made a convincing case to return to the foreign policy of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in A Foreign Policy of Freedom. This man bravely told the world that our troops should “just come home.” As a tribute to his ideas, I began writing and named my column after his nickname: “Yet Another Champion of the Constitution.”

As I wrote, I kept trying to discover the root causes of the war. As an engineer, I knew if I could figure out the root causes, we might be able to prevent future conflicts from occurring. I was shocked to find that the foreign policy decisions behind the Iraq War were only a symptom of the root cause – a monetary policy founded on dishonest, fraudulent money.

The FED, our central bank, colludes with the politicians to steal purchasing power from the people by creating new money whenever it pleases. This debases the dollar and causes price inflation. This also explains why a few silver dimes in 1960 could purchase a loaf of bread, and why the same silver dimes can buy a lot more bread in 2009 – the silver is still just as valued, while the dollar has been devalued.  The first book that really began lifting the curtains for me was Murray Rothbard’s “What Has the Government Done to Our Money?” I then found myself mostly reading and sometimes writing well into the night. From this self-taught education in economics, I concluded that by preserving individual liberties, defending economic freedom and promoting peace, the result is prosperity.

In October 2008 after Congress passed the first Banker Bailout, I began to consider returning home, live by my principles, and spread this message. Americans have been unwittingly giving up our liberties and freedoms and suffering the consequences of allowing the government and the FED to plunder us and start two very expensive, unconstitutional wars. To restore integrity to our money, we must return the power to control money from the central bankers to We the People. This is one of the most important duties a duly-elected Representative in U.S. Congress has today.

I also believe that the people of the “Fighting Fifteenth” Congressional district share with me the intelligence, drive, and determination to show the rest of America how a transparent and accountable political office should be run.  What are we fighting for?  LIBERTY. To this end, on your behalf I will create a novel forum-based system named “Our Open Office” to give each individual a public voice, and deliver full accountability and transparency to our Congressional district. All power stems from you, the People. As your Representative, I will be your public servant and employee.

In this respect, I freely offer two pledges to you that will remain in place during the campaign and term of office. The first is derived from the military oath of enlistment, and the second is derived from the oath of office.

1. I do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
2. I will faithfully represent the people of the 15th Congressional district, and will, to the best of my ability, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

For the Republic!

Jake Towne

July 8th, 2009, the 233rd Anniversary of the reading of the Declaration of Independence in Easton’s Center Square

Below is an interview on national media with Judge Napolitano.

http://towneforcongress.com/jakes-bio/motivation

Jake’s Bio

Life began for me 30 years ago at St. Luke’s Hospital. My parents raised me in Nazareth, and I grew up with my three younger sisters and younger brother. During my youth, I loved reading and played team sports year-round. I attended Nazareth Area High School and graduated third in my class. In high school, I played township baseball, football for a couple years, ran cross-country and was a co-captain of the track and field team. I was also on the chess team and the locally-televised Scholastic Scrimmage teams. Then U.S. Congressman Paul McHale also awarded me a Citizenship Award.

While I was growing up, my mother was a homemaker and a schoolteacher and now teaches adult education at a local university. My father works in a machine shop at a local university. My ethic to work hard and deep sense of responsibility came from watching my parents work so hard and sacrifice so much to put food on the table and obtain a chance for us children at a good education. I attended Lehigh University with a full scholarship and graduated with honors, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. My education also included a summer at Dortmund University in Germany as an exchange student, and a Martindale scholarship, where I traveled to Hong Kong and wrote a paper on their political system since the British handover to the Chinese.

Since my graduation from college, I worked as a process engineer for Ablestik Laboratories in the semiconductor industry, first in California, then close to four years in Shanghai, China. Most of my work was very hands-on, I spent countless hours scaling up or troubleshooting products with technicians in the labs and with operators on the manufacturing floor. I was also fortunate to spend time with customers, and the main purpose of my job was improving our products and factories for them.

While abroad in China, I experienced how hard life can really be without the liberties that we Americans often take for granted. I began taking a closer look at the news from America and also what my friends were telling me. Slowly, I began to recognize that civil liberties were being infringed upon by the government, and economic liberties were under attack, especially the silent theft of purchasing power from the dollar.

Instead of the one breadwinner household like back in the 1950s and 1960s, why do we now need two incomes to raise a family? Why is health care so expensive? Why are so many jobs fleeing our country for the cheap labor of poor third world countries like China? Why didn’t the banks have enough money – didn’t they have all the money? How did this economic depression start? Who is responsible? I was shocked to discover that our federal government and the Federal Reserve, our central bank, own most of the blame. I have uncovered enough of the lies that I discovered the truth:

All around my beloved home, peace, freedom, prosperity, and love are under siege.

Their polar opposites – war, slavery, poverty, and hate – are on the march, harshly trampling over our liberties.

All hope for change lies in a rEVOLution fought not with bullets, but with our minds.

Why were we content to sacrifice our liberties through the USA PATRIOT Act among many other acts of Congress? Why are we steadily spreading war and civil strife to Afghanistan, then to Iraq, and now Pakistan? Do we even have a clue when we will “win”? I will be honest with you and say I had accepted the premise that the War on Terror was necessary for about five years. I then realized those who attacked us did not do so because they were jealous of our liberties or our prosperity, they did it because our armies were already over there, occupying their countries. The words of Pennsylvanian Ben Franklin ring harsh and true:

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”

I love meeting new people and seeing new places, and have traveled quite a bit in Asia and Europe. The pleasures of backpacking in Nepal, spending time with tribal villagers on the rain-forested Chinese-Burmese border, and hiking all over New Zealand have changed how I view the world. So has the experience of living in the polluted smog of Shanghai, meeting innocents whose legs were blown off by American-built mines in Cambodia, and living among some of the millions of peasant farmer families in rural China. I’ve discovered that people everywhere are much the same – they want their children to do well and advance in the world, they care deeply about their culture and standard of living, and are generally good-hearted. I believe these experiences have made me a more well-rounded person, able to shift my perspective and listen and see life from the viewpoint of others.

I loved growing up in a big family and look forward to meeting the right person and starting a family of my own one day. That said, I am in no rush and have chosen to devote my full attention to spreading my message. In March of 2009, I returned home to pursue this campaign full-time. On Mayday 2009, I declared my candidacy for my home district’s seat for the election on November 2, 2010. As you can see below, this campaign will not be ‘politics as usual.’

• I am running as a private citizen, not with either major party – As I am highly critical of how both Republican and Democratic politicians have behaved over the past decade, I cannot associate myself as a candidate with either party. I will be running as an independent private citizen under no political party. What I offer to the citizens of the 15th district is a true independent ear and voice. Whatever your age, gender, political party, or beliefs, we are all citizens and a better country for ourselves and our children’s children is in our best interests. As I once learned, the very terms “conservative” and “liberal” are just forms of verbal warfare meant to divide us.
• I will focus on spreading my message, winning votes, and both educating residents as well as being educated BY them – The most important task is meeting people, and listening to their thoughts. The intent of my campaign is to become a Congressman who listens to ideas from both you and everyone to create the best solutions to our economic, social, political, and environmental problems. When elected, I will create an “Open Office” – an on-line forum where anyone can share his or her opinions with me, and makes me accountable to you. This website will serve as a demonstration to prove this Open Office idea is more than possible – it’s already being done and your voice matters to me.
• Not a Career Politician – After I am elected, I would listen to your comments on my performance before running again. I harbor no intentions of becoming a “career politician.” My aim is to serve as a temporary statesman and bring the voice of the people to government with a lot of energy. I am mindful of the sad truth behind “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” As collateral for this assurance, if elected, I promise I will not enlist in the Congressional pension plan, which guarantees members up to 80% of their salary in annual pension. I believe this is fiscally irresponsible and too lucrative. The current salary paid by you, the taxpayer, for a seat in Congress is $174,000, which is three times our area’s median household income. I have announced I will accept only the median household income and will donate the remainder to local non-profit hospitals. How else could you believe Congress will tighten the purse-strings on wasteful government spending if I fail to start with myself?

I hope to meet you personally as I campaign. I humbly hope that you will find me worthy of your vote, and your vote is cast as an informed decision for the best candidate. I will do my very best to serve you, the people of the Lehigh Valley, the Fighting Fifteenth.

For the Republic!

Jake Towne

June 6, 2009, on the 65th Anniversary of the Normandy Landing