ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.
THE NOMINEE WILL be taking on Democrat Rick Boucher, who has held the seat for 14 years, and Republican Patrick Muldoon, an engineer working on a law degree.
A third, independent candidate will be on the Nov. 5 ballot for the 9th District congressional race.
Thomas I. Roberts, 34, a civil engineer in Blacksburg, was chosen during the weekend at a convention of the Virginia Independent Party in Wytheville.
He will be taking on Democrat Rick Boucher, who has held the seat for 14 years, and Republican Patrick Muldoon, an engineer working on a law degree. The 9th District includes the New River Valley and much of Southwest Virginia from Western Roanoke County to Big Stone Gap.
Roberts said he wants to eliminate pensions for members of Congress, believing they should be there for service rather than benefits. He has also said he would decline 50 percent of his salary, if elected.
Party issues that also will be part of Roberts' campaign include balancing the federal budget, setting higher ethical standards for the White House and Congress, reforming election campaigns, setting term limits, putting more fairness into the tax system, restricting both foreign and domestic lobbying of legislators, banning those who have been elected or appointed federal officials from ever working as lobbyists for foreign interests, and putting together comprehensible plans to deal with funding Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Roberts said he became interested in the campaign because of long-held convictions that something must be done about the federal deficit and national debt, that conventional politics has been the source of many of the ills leading to the deficit and debt, and that much unnecessary legislation has been pushed at the expense of the voters and against their well-being.
The Virginia Independent Party qualified several months ago for a place on the Virginia ballot with the Republican and Democratic parties. A party's candidate must have won 10 percent of the vote in a statewide race. Marshall Coleman did that as an independent when he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and, because he was backed by the Independent Party, that gives the party its spot on the ballot.
The Independent Party is an offshoot of the United We Stand America informational organization started by Texas billionaire Ross Perot, an independent presidential candidate in 1992.
Roberts went to live in Pakistan when he was 14 with Presbyterian missionary relatives, attending a high school for missionary children in the Himalayas. A native of Broomall, Pa., he lived in the Washington, D.C., suburbs until his opportunity came to live in Pakistan.
He graduated from Virginia Tech with an engineering degree in 1986. Since then, he has worked as a civil engineer on both public and private development projects.
He has been married for 13 years to Betsey Linthicum Roberts, who opened her own certified public accounting firm in Blacksburg in 1994. They have a 6-year-old son, David.
Roberts is the third Independent Party candidate running for Congress, so far. The first was Gary Thomas in the 5th District. Thomas, a Pittsylvania County high school teacher, will challenge Democrat Virgil Goode and Republican George Landrith who are vying for the seat being vacated by L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County.
Last week, Wade Edmonds was chosen as the independent congressional candidate in the 8th District, including the city of Alexandria and parts of the counties of Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford.
The party will decide June 8 at a convention in Lexington whether to run a candidate for U.S. Senate. George "Tex" Wood, a college instructor from Patrick County, is seeking the party's candidacy.
State Independent Party Chairman Louis Herrink said Tuesday that some party members want to run a Senate candidate while others feel that the party "should sit this one out."
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB