In the middle of his campaign to secure the Democratic seat in the 5th District for Congress, Wade Jodun was faced with redistricting. In order to continue to seek the nomination to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, he moved from Mill Hall to Patton Township so he could stay in tune in the new 15th district. Now, even after losing in the primary, Jodun said he is here to stay.
“This is home now. We are close to my family, we love it here in State College and are debating the next step,” said Jodun.
After a seven-month campaign, Jodun is not ready to call it quits just yet. He is still determining whether he is able to run as an independent in the election and is exploring other options.
“If I am eligible to run as an independent, then I plan to do that, but we are still determining if that is possible,” Jodun told the Gazette on May 20. “If we can’t, then we have some other things we are interested in.”
Jodun said his team has checked with the U.S. State Department on whether he is allowed to run as an independent after losing the primary, and was told that he could, although he said he feels the rules state otherwise.
“We are going to rule out the possibility before we look at other options,” he said.
Pennsylvania election law generally prohibits candidates who run in a party’s primary election and lose from running as independents in the general election.
Jodun lost the Democratic primary to Susan Boser, of Indiana County, and said he has come away from the process even more dismayed with the current political environment than when he started. He said he does not feel confident voting for Boser and has gone against election edict by not endorsing her after the loss. He said this has rubbed some people in the Democratic Party the wrong way.
“Congratulations to Ms. Boser on her win, but I have not endorsed her and I have no intention to endorse her,” said Jodun. “I know folks will say that I’m a sore loser and that is sour grapes, but the fact of the matter is that Ms. Boser and I have wide differences on policies and what representation should look like. If I can’t vote for her, then I have a hard time going out endorsing her and suggesting other people do. That is not to say that I have any warm feeling for her opponent, Mr. Thompson.”
Jodun is critical of the two-party system, saying it is not helpful for democracy and leaves many people feeling as if there are no candidates for them.
“I ran as a Democrat because the system is broken and I didn’t have an option. And, there are elements of the Democratic Party that are core to my belief. I am for protecting the environment, I am pro-labor unions, I am about protecting a living wage, and those are things about me that are Democrat to the core,” said Jodun. “At the same time, I look at the Republican Party, and this is the party of Lincoln, this is the party of Teddy Roosevelt. I see pieces of me in both parties.”
If Jodun is unable to get on the ticket as an independent, he said developing a third party for a further run or starting a local rural activist organization in Centre County are other options he is considering.
“There has been some talk about establishing a new third party. Out in California, they reestablished the old Bull-Moose Party. We just found out about this the other day when someone asked me who my hero was, and I said Teddy Roosevelt was one of them. And, the Bull-Moose Party platform is virtually identical to my platform.”
Jodun’s team has reached out to the party in California to see about starting a Bull-Moose Party in Pennsylvania. If he can get it established in the state, he may run for a seat in the future as third-party candidate, but would be ineligible for this November’s election.
Jodun said he became just as disillusioned with the Democratic Party as the Republicans during his campaign.
“We ran a great campaign and got 7,000 votes with only $5,000, so I am very proud of that, and it shows that the message was working,” said Jodun.
Critics feel that after a long fight to take down Thompson, Jodun now is now helping the Republican by not backing Boser. But, Jodun is not budging.
“If you can’t overcome this, then it just shows that there is something wrong with the party,” said Jodun.
He said he was inspired by the grassroots effort by people in Spring Township who opposed the proposed Nestle Waters bottling facility.
“That was something. That thrilled me. That is where I felt like democracy was working. I stood there with the community, not as politician, but as a member of the community, and I feel like we made a difference.
“That is what real government looks like. That is what real citizenship looks like. That was fun. And I don’t think anyone in the room asked if you were Democrat or Republican. To stand with them, maybe that is the next step. So whatever happens next, I want to continue to work toward that kind of change, because the two party system is not doing that,” said Jodun.
