One of the area’s local newspapers, the Morning Call, just released an article “Running on a Shoe-string Budget” by Scott Kraus. To my surprise, the article was on the front page at the top of the newspaper and also took up all of Page 2, and included two photographs of myself and campaign volunteers last week at one of the petition kick-offs.   Of course, I am thrilled to see front page coverage at this point in the campaign.

This evening is a “Towne” Hall at Bethlehem Township Community Center, 2900 Farmersville Road, from 7-9 pm, which was announced back in January.  Directions are linked here. At the moment, the campaign is still focused on placing petition boards in the hands of campaign volunteers to collect signatures but I am pleased to report we are already well into the triple digits.  However, there is a lot of work to be done to reach the required 3,629, and the safety margin of 7,000 signatures.

This Sunday, March 21st, the campaign will be handing out literature along the parade route (before it begins) of the St. Patty’s Day Parade in Allentown.  We will have a social event following the parade for those attending.  The meeting location and gathering time (11:30 AM) and details are here.

My sincere thanks to the restaurant and cafe owners in Catasauqua, Allentown, and Bethlehem that allowed the campaign to use their places of business last week to distribute petition boards.  Thanks for the great food (and live music in one case!) as well!

My sincere thanks to the volunteers who have made this independent campaign possible – without them, this Morning Call article would not have even been written.  Your encouragement and support is highly appreciated.

For a future with a constitutional republic of laws with mostly democratic elections,

Jake Towne

March 15, 2010

Running on a shoestring budget

Independent congressional candidate Jake Towne and some of his volunteers collect signatures for his petition at Pie’s On Pizza in Catasauqua. Bob Dandl (right) of Center Valley looks on. (Michael Kubel/The Morning Call / March 11, 2010)

Jake Towne’s yard signs say: ”Who is Jake Towne?”

The Lower Nazareth Township chemical engineer and independent candidate for Congress has been hustling to make sure local voters know the answer by November.

Towne has held ”Towne hall” meet and greets and began circulating nominating petitions last week in a series of public appearances at local pizza and sandwich shops, hoping to gather the 3,629 signatures a third-party or independent candidate needs to place his name on the ballot in the race for Lehigh Valley’s 15th Congressional District.

”I’m out-gunned and everything, but a lot of times, people like an underdog,” Towne said.

If he succeeds, he’ll face Democratic Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan and three-term Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, or his primary challenger Mat Benol, a tea party activist from Palmer Township, in the general election.

Towne’s campaign is rooted in his outrage over the the 2008 bank bailouts, which the 30-year-old says motivated him to quit his job working in China for Ablestik Laboratories — a division of chemical giant Henkel International — to run for Congress full time. He’s hoping to tap into voters’ disaffection with both major parties to score a major upset.

Earnest and folksy, the former high school track team captain has promised to accept a salary that is equal to the median income in the Congressional district — about $58,000 — and to sleep on a cot in his office if necessary to make it work financially. He said he’d donate to rest of his $174,000 annual paycheck to charity.

Towne’s positions on the issues are all over the board, simultaneously winning him fans among conservative tea party activists and getting him a spot on a local progressive radio show.

Formerly a Republican, Towne believes terrorists have targeted the U.S. not because they hate America, but ”because our armies were already over there, occupying their countries.” He supports pulling all U.S. troops out of foreign countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and even friendly nations such as Italy, and redeploying them along the nation’s borders.

The move would save billions and redirect the military’s energies to its original purpose, protecting the nation’s borders, Towne said.

When Joseph Stack crashed his single-engine plane into an Internal Revenue Service office in Austin, Texas, Towne shot out a press release that condemned the attack as a ”cowardly act of murder” but sympathized with Stack’s disenchantment with the income tax, saying it should be abolished, along with the IRS.

Campaigning door-to-door, he hands out booklets containing the text of the Constitution, and a pledge that he’s personally signed to uphold its language. He has detailed position papers, and his supporters leave comments on Web sites that run stories about the 15th District race, even when they don’t mention Towne.

He’s suspicious of the Federal Reserve, saying it has devalued U.S. currency. He wants to make drastic cuts in government spending, balance the federal budget and slash government regulations and interference in the economy. Those positions mirror that of libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, whom Towne credits with helping him understand the economy.

”What we need to do is we need to cut,” Towne said. ”As an engineer, the first thing you do with any problem is you contain the problem. You cut spending and you cut taxes. Congress is continuing to spend more than they have in the past on basically everything.”

When it comes to campaign cash, he’s seriously out-gunned. Towne had raised $16,390 in donations by the end of 2009, far less than Dent and Callahan, who each had about $600,000 in the bank at the end of 2009. But that’s better than any of the 14 other independent candidates running for U.S. Congress.

Towne’s down-to-earth approach and fiscally conservative politics have made a fan of 43-year-old Center Valley real estate broker Bob Dandi, a conservative who backed Mike Huckabee in the last Republican presidential primary but has grown disillusioned with the party as a whole.

”At this point in time, I can’t see voting for any candidate of any political party that has been in power for the last 17 years because they are the ones who got us into this mess,” Dandy said.

Towne’s roots are local. A native of Lower Nazareth, he graduated third in his class from Nazareth Area High School in 1998 and attended Lehigh University, graduating in 2002 with a degree in chemical engineering. He went to work for Ablestik, a company that makes silicon chip adhesives, and helped the company open and equip factories in China.

The trip changed his perspective on politics and the freedoms enjoyed in the U.S., Towne said. Following a biking accident that broke his jaw in several places, he says he read an inspirational book that made him think about whether he was truly doing all he could for his country. He also discovered and took a liking to Paul, a Republican Congressman from Texas with libertarian ideals, and Rothbard, an Austrian School economist known for his fierce defense of an unfettered free market.

Towne’s campaign signs recall the ”Who is Ron Paul?” signs Paul’s used in his 2008 presidential candidacy.

After the bank bailouts were announced in late 2008, Towne, who is single, quit his job and decided to return home to run for Congress. He’s said saved enough money over several years working in the chemical industry to get through the end of this year. To economize, he drives a 2002 Saturn sedan and rents a small apartment.

His promises to rein in all kinds of government spending, from social programs and defense are what attracted Robert Fernandez, a-36-year-old information technology professional who recently moved to New Jersey from Palmer Township. He plans to help Towne as a volunteer, but regrets he won’t be able to cast a vote for him.

”[Congress] just keeps spending and spending and we need someone who is going to say, ‘Listen, we don’t have a balanced budget, we need to stop spending,” Fernandez said.

While voters seem hungry for an alternative to the status quo, third-party candidates face serious obstacles obtaining funding and convincing voters they’re contenders, said Muhlenberg College political scientist Chris Borick.

”It’s pretty clear there’s interest in candidates who represent something fresh,” Borick said. ”What remains to be seen is if that translates into support for candidates outside the normal party structures.”

Callahan’s campaign hopes Towne lures fiscally conservative Republican voters who are unhappy with Dent’s record on federal spending.

”From the examples we have, particularly in the special elections that just happened, there has been some evidence that a fairly significant section of the Republican base is upset with incumbent Republicans,” campaign manager Justin Schall said. ”When given another option, they chose the other option.”

But Dent campaign manager Shawn Millan said Towne’s odd mix of political positions, from his assertion that the U.S. is ”occupying” foreign countries to his view on the Federal Reserve, are out of the mainstream of both parties.

”It is such a mish-mash of political philosophies, it is hard to say,” Millan said. ”I can’t tell if he’s conservative or liberal. He has elements of both.”

Towne’s supporters say they think their long-shot candidate can do more than just ruin the chances of one of the major party’s standard bearers.

”The guy is not a spoiler candidate,” Dandy said. ”He is not anything like that.”

scott.kraus@mcall.com

610-820-6745

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