Hampton City Council candidate Jim Nieder changed his position for the third time this week on whether he’ll seek a council seat, saying Friday that he would not take the seat if elected after telling a local television station that he was re-entering the race.
Nieder initially dropped out of the council race on Wednesday, after the Daily Press learned that he’d fabricated a story about earning a Purple Heart — an award given to U.S. military service members wounded or killed in the line of duty. However, he claimed to a TV news reporter on Thursday that he’d had a change of heart and would continue to seek the seat.
Nieder first claimed he’d earned a Purple Heart during a Hampton Youth Commission candidate forum last week. He repeated the claim publicly at at least one other council forum.
Nieder told the Daily Press on Tuesday he was hit in the ankle by a ricocheting bullet while treating a wounded soldier on the first day of the invasion of Grenada in 1983. He said he couldn’t produce the medal because he’d pinned it on a dying soldier he thought deserved it more.
Others have come forward, including Hampton School Board candidate Anne Stephens Cherry, to say that Nieder told them about the Purple Heart as well.
Cherry said Nieder told her the whole story of how he’d been shot and earned the medal after a candidate forum in Olde Wythe on Tuesday night. Cherry said he told her that was why he walks with a limp.
“I felt like I should have been saluting him,” she said.
A day later, Nieder admitted to the Daily Press that he’d fabricated the entire story, that he’d never earned the medal and had never been wounded during his six years in the U.S. Army.
Nieder said he would drop out of the council race and vowed that he would vacate the spot immediately if he did get enough votes to take a council seat.
However, in an interview with a local TV news station on Thursday, Nieder said he had slept on it, then decided to stay in the race.
“…I got up (and) I said, ‘You know what? No. I got this far.’ I’ll meet the consequences. I’ve misspoken about my military record,” he told WTKR reporter Margaret Kavanagh.
Nieder said in an email to the Daily Press Friday morning that he tried to take his name off the ballot but couldn’t, so he’s “going to let it see what happens.”
He also asked in the email sent Friday that the Daily Press write no more stories about his candidacy and that a reporter not call him anymore.
“Let’s just let this rest,” he wrote. “I paid for it and it hurts deeply. I can’t take and handle any more.”
However, in a phone call Friday afternoon, Nieder said he had again changed his mind – that though his name would remain on the ballot, he would not accept the council seat if elected.
“I don’t need the aggravation,” he said.
Four other candidates are seeking election to three council seats, along with a special election for an unexpired term and a race for the mayorship. The election is May 3.
Murphy can be reached by phone at 757-247-4760.
