San Pete Messenger - Independant Candidate Makes Congressional Run, on Principle

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By Christian Probasco

Joe Andrade, an independent candidate for the 2nd Congressional District, is running on principle, though he knows principle probably won't be enough to get him elected. Andrade, a retired professor of bioengineering at the University of Utah, says he wants to make a point about how most politicians are bought and paid for by special interests before they spend a minute in office.

"People running for Congress have to raise thousands of dollars every day to get reelected," he says. Andrade recently visited Sanpete County, where the Gunnison Valley is now part of the 2nd District. Andrade scoffs at politicians like Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is running for his seventh term and who claims big donations to his campaigns have not, and will not, have an effect on the way he votes. "People like Hatch are either lying or don't have any concept of basic human psychology," Andrade says. Andrade is running with $5,000 of his own savings. He says he won't take donations.

As if that didn't raise the bar enough, Andrade is campaigning through a district with a lot of conservative rural voters in his Subaru, on a platform of raising taxes and shifting the nation's fuel economy away from oil and coal to more "sustainable"
energy sources, which he says won't exacerbate global warming. "I think people are feeling there's going to be a change in the nation's economy," he says. "We're in the midst of a major transition. I think people sense that we're moving to a new, better, more sustainable economic system." In this new system, he says, "We're not going to be using energy as inefficiently as we used to."

Those who believe that nonrenewable energy use can continue at current levels, he believes, are living a "fantasy." Andrade's solution to closing the gap on skyrocketing deficit spending is to raise maximum capital gains taxes, currently at 15 percent. Andrade wants to improve Utah's educational system by "getting the state government out of the way of good teachers." He believes a national health care system is a good thing that has been a long time coming.

Andrade says he is reaching out to "nontraditional" voters such as high school seniors, college students and independents through social media like Twitter and Facebook. Historically, the demographic Andrade is trying to reach doesn't vote much. But Andrade thinks that may be partially because they usually have a hard time identifying with anyone on the ballot.

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