AN INTERESTING BIT OF CAMPAIGN MAIL

Friday my mailbox included a thick envelope from Edward (Ed) W. Bowlin, III, one of the two independent candidates challenging Republican incumbant Adam H. Putnam for his District 12 congressional seat. Bowlin is in the heating/AC industry and is from Lake Wales, in southern Polk County.

In his letter, Bowlin makes time to ask for contributions for the campaign, but before that he notes that his political ideologies make him different from other political candidates. I quote from the letter:

"In political science, there are two identified representatives: trustees and delegates. A trustee is a person who uses his own best judgement or conscience to vote. A delegate is a person who considers himself obligated to vote the wishes of the majority of the people. I wish to be elected as a delegate: representing the wishes of the people..."

Bowlin also includes two fliers that he apparantly put together. One describes the Jeffersonian Representative, a Delegate (.pdf file), which is the type of representative he wants to serve as. The other includes his platform (.pdf file), and includes:

--- Eliminating the Free Trade policy, saying it has both directly and indirctly injured the U.S. economy.

--- Restructuring Social Security. Bowlin says he has designed a new system "that creates an individual account system in which contributions are invested by lending them to States, Counties, and municipalities for infrastructures. The monies will be non-bankruptable and will earn interest at the rate of prime. This system provides large amounts of capital for both the nation's infrastructure and individual retirements."

--- A Balanced Budget Amendment.

--- Reducing the Public Debt.

--- Curtailing Foreign Assistance. He asks "Do we need to be giving our money away to other nations?"

--- A Campaign Reform Amendment. This idea would limit campaign contributions to citizens only, ending contributing by businesses, lobbyists, and PACs.

--- A Term Limits Amendment.

--- Stopping Illegal Immigration.

--- English as Official Language Amendment. He calls English "the glue of unification", and that language is "the strongest enduring link which unites a nation...".

While Mr. Bowlin seems to be well prepared (although you may not agree with at least some of his views), he doesn't have the name recognition and certainly not the financial backing that incumbant Putnam has. It seems that many candidates simply want to unseat the incumbant, and being encouraged to run for that reason tend to be vague about specific issues, if they have any ideas at all. At least Bowlin presents issues to be discussed, and in some cases offers his ideas for solutions.

The third candidate in the race is former Democratic state legislator Joe Viscusi of Lakeland. He is also running as an independent, and has qualified by paying the fee.