Heaton says he is taking moral high ground in his largely self-funded campaign

BRISTOL, Va. – This year’s voters are looking for a common man, independent 9th District congressional candidate Jeremiah Heaton told the Bristol Herald Courier editorial board Wednesday.

“The average man and woman in the district is extremely frustrated with the government that they have,” said Heaton, a small business owner who lives in Washington County. “What they are seeing is a government that is not functioning.”

Heaton is vying for the 9th District seat in the Nov. 2 election against 14-term Democratic Congressman Rick Boucher, of Abingdon, and Republican challenger Morgan Griffith, of Salem, who is the majority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates. Boucher spoke to the editorial board Tuesday. Griffith did so last week.

On Wednesday, Heaton said career politicians are part of the problem, and he wants to help people “connect the dots” between entrenched party politics and job losses, spending deficits and the risks of paying too little attention to what’s happening in other countries.

“Our economy has shifted to a globalistic model that’s not good for our nation,” Heaton said, explaining that he believes Washington, D.C., is beset by a kind of partisan gridlock, where legislation gets caught between two opposing camps that routinely put political interests above the needs of the people.

He accused his opponents of campaigning with the wealth of a few people, a handful of supporters with the flow of disposable dollars necessary to fuel a political machine.

“The problem with party candidates is they are so encumbered by special interest monies, once they get in office they’re not going to have any concern for the average person,” he said. “They’re going to dance with the person that brung them.”

He said he is taking the moral high ground in his largely self-funded campaign, turning down donations from special interests that he declined to name. He called on voters to put matters of ethics above their perception of what’s politically expedient.

“The people that I’m catering to for votes, they just don’t have the discretionary income,” he said. “In this type economy, they’ve got to keep the lights on.”

He also weighed in on the industry that, in common campaign parlance, keeps the lights on in Southwest Virginia while providing thousands of jobs.

The cap and trade proposal for regulating greenhouse gases has flaws and would more than just hurt coal jobs, Heaton said. The higher energy costs that would come with such a program, he said, would drive factory jobs overseas and “could very well be the death knell of manufacturing in the United States.”

“Our government is creating policies that make it very difficult to do business here,” he said. “We are our own worst enemy … and I think cap and trade is another part of that.”

Congress instead should pay attention to China’s strategic buying of U.S. debt, he said, and stop running up America’s debt to a competing economic power. Closer to home, Heaton said, Congress should address Mexico’s use of trade tariffs to influence immigration policy.

“I think the first thing you need to address is exactly the relationship that we have with other countries as far as our trade agreements go, and I think you have to take and deal with our national deficit,” Heaton said. “The debt has not grown just on the Democrats’ watch; it has grown on the Republicans’ watch as well.”

On health care, he said the massive reform bill passed earlier this year should be repealed – and, in its place, Congress should adopt a collection of different reforms. Most important, he said, is to remove the insurance company from the doctor-patient relationship, leaving the ability to challenge payment for medical decisions to an arbitration panel months after care is provided.

He said a host of societal ills, from health care disparities to growing economic inequality, can best be solved by one thing: jobs.

He said an important part of that is avoiding policies that make it more expensive and less competitive to do business in America, such as burdensome environmental regulation and unfavorable trade relationships.

“I think until we address these global economic issues that exist, you’re going to have job loss,” he said.

Among his goals if elected: to bring Americans home from unconstitutional “foreign entanglements” overseas and focus infrastructure and education dollars here instead of in foreign countries; serve as “a voice of moderation” on partisan issues; work on spending and trade issues; and abolish the federal reserve banking system.

“I just hope that people understand that … I’m working on their interest and their interest alone,” he said. “I’m working for the interest of the stability of our country.”

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701