In an election season where one of the gubernatorial candidates from New York is running as a member of “The Rent is Too Damn High Party”, it’s fair to say third party candidates are really starting to hone in on their specific missions.

Onset resident Don Jordan is one of those third-party candidates.  He is running for the fourth district congressional seat currently held by Barney Frank (D-Newton), as a “Tax Revolt Independent” focused on poverty issues.

“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party,” Jordan said about his decision to become an independent.  “The Democratic Party left me, and their longtime held beliefs about representing the working man in this country.”

This is Jordan’s first run for public office, but he has worked on the campaigns of Democrats William Delahunt and Joe Kennedy in the past, and so he is not quite a political newcomer.

“As far back as college I helped congressional candidates,” Jordan said.   “I’m not naïve.”

Jordan worked for many years as a stockbroker in New York.  But these days his sympathies lie with people who are struggling or living in poverty.

“If I stayed I would probably be making 8 to 10 million dollars a year, and I would hate myself,” Jordan said.

Instead, Jordan is a schoolteacher.  He recently returned to Onset from a two-year stint teaching at North Miami Beach Senior High School.

When Jordan recalls the poverty that many of his students there experienced, it is apparent that he takes political issues personally. According to Jordan, there was a large Walmart where a number of his homeless students camped.

“I would watch as my kids came out of the cars an hour before school started, went to the gym to get a shower, and then went to the cafeteria to get their free lunch,” Jordan recalled.  “When it came time to fund the schools two years ago, the city council voted instead to build a new ballpark for the Florida Marlins. There’s kickbacks in construction, there’s no kickbacks in helping poor people find housing, and education.”

Jordan is now teaching classes at the Plymouth campus of Quincy College. He never thought he would ever run for office, but he had an overwhelming sense that the constituents on the South Coast were being ignored.

In Jordan’s opinion “If you run enough slick TV ads…you can buy an election.” With a budget of less than $100, and campaign signs made by hand, Jordan may not be a front runner in this race, but he’s just as passionate about running as if he were neck and neck with the incumbent.