
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 7, 1993                   TAG: 9310070226
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INDEPENDENT BLAMES AMENDMENT

Jobs would come to Western Virginia - and most of the state's and country's other problems would be wiped away - if it weren't for one major roadblock, according to Jerry R. Johnson, independent candidate for the House of Delegates from the 9th District.

That roadblock is the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That amendment, established in 1913, provides for the popular election of U.S. senators.

Johnson, 54, believes that if state legislators were able to again appoint senators - as they did before 1913 - it would bring the federal government closer to the voters.

"Until you control government, you're blowing in the wind - just like me, I'm out here blowing in the wind," Johnson says. "I've got the solutions to most of the problems in this country, but it's all contingent on controlling the government."

Johnson lives in Union Hall and works as an estimator and purchasing agent for Unique Builders. He moved from Georgia to Bedford County in 1986 and moved to Franklin County four years later.

Johnson has not always been an independent. In 1974, he ran in Georgia as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Herman Talmadge. That was the watershed election year following the Watergate scandal; Johnson got 38 percent of the vote.

All of Johnson plans for improving government, as well as his positions on major issues, originate with his opinion that the Constitution should be strictly interpreted and followed.

For example, he opposes President Clinton's health-care plan, because he says Congress does not have the constitutional authority to enact such a plan.

Johnson says he would support universal health care, provided it can be implemented state by state.

"The states can and must again take control of the federal government to prevent our eventual collapse as a nation," Johnson wrote. "The repeal of the 17th Amendment will allow the states to effectively and efficiently solve our problems."

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB