A new political actor plays the role of the invisible man in this year’s Iowa Congressional election.

Jay Marcus, a Natural Law Party candidate for the 3rd District, hopes that voters don’t see him as invisible because he is a third party candidate. He calls himself invisible because he thinks the press and public overlook third party ideas.

As one of three third party candidates in the race for the U.S. Representative seat, Marcus has challenged the traditional two-party system.

For example, he filed a lawsuit that contested Iowa Public Television’s debate, which allowed only the Democratic and Republican candidates to participate. Although the district court ruled in favor of IPTV, Marcus has appealed the case.

Marcus, a graduate of Rutgers University and the University of Virginia Law School, resides in Fairfield, Iowa. Marcus has been a lawyer for 25 years and has written three books and other professional articles on reforming business, ethics and criminal justice.

Education is cost-effective, Marcus said, because it results in more contributions to society. “Anyone who wants to go to college has the opportunity to,” he said. However, the Natural Law Party candidate said the educational system needs to be revamped. “Problems are not cured by money,” he said.

Marcus thinks a new system needs school vouchers, a program that allows children to attend the schools of their choice. This would be especially helpful for disadvantaged children, he said.

Going to a different school may give children more discipline, he said. “The schools that have been the most successful are the regulatory ones.”

Education should also be reformed to focus on student capacity to assimilate information, he said. The non-traditional practices of yoga, transcendental motivation, diet plans and natural medicines “enlighten and develop consciousness,” he said.

Currently, Marcus said, most students are not learning, they are simply taking in more and more information. The non-traditional practices that Marcus proposes would allow the mind to get beyond stress and anxiety, he said.

Marcus thinks this “intelligence through rest” plan should be focused on in schools, but the problem is this thinking isn’t used much in the American culture.

In other issues, Marcus favors rewarding police for preventing crime and using meditation to reduce anger, domestic violence, other violence and drug and alcohol abuse caused by stress.

The candidate also plans to prevent abortions by using education to influence moral behavior. Government outlaw of abortions, the Marcus plan says, would lead to “back alley” abortions. Government should only be involved if medical problems exist and in cases of rape and incest.