Reader question:

Please explain “heavy hitter”, as in this sentence: He is the heavy-hitter among local candidates in terms of campaign finances: Raising over $112,000 through mid-September and spending just shy of $100,000.

My comments:

“He” raised more money and spent more money, in other words. And since money talks – very loudly as a matter of fact – in elections, he will perhaps win the local election based on campaign finances.

At any rate, he must be a leading candidate, if not THE leading candidate among all candidates.

Heavy hitter is a term derived from sports. Both baseball and boxing, for example, have so-called heavy hitters. In baseball, the heavy hitter is the batter or slugger who hits the ball hard with the stick. In boxing, the heavy hitter is the one who throws the hardest punches.

In American baseball, the legendary Babe Ruth, who hit a lot of home runs in his day, was clearly a heavy hitter. In boxing, Mike Tyson in his prime was certainly one heck of a heavy hitter.

By extension, the best, powerful and awe-inspiring athletes in other fields can also be called a heavy hitter. Zhu Ting, the spiker on the national women’s volleyball team, is undoubtedly a heavy hitter – in the literal sense, too, of course. Rafael Nadal, who won his twelfth French Open over the weekend, is a heavy hitter in every sense. He’s a beast, in a good way.

Further by extension, important and influential people outside the sports field can also be described as heavy hitters, such as Warren Buffett in the stock market and Donald Trump in politics.

Needless to add, Buffet more in terms of genius and success, Trump more in terms of being a domineering brute.

Well, no more ado, let’s use a few media examples to further elucidate this term:

1. All Gary Peters has to do to sit in a plane that Charles Lindbergh once flew is to venture into his hangar at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.

That’s where Peters keeps his growing stable of more than 15 airplanes. Almost all are vintage. Many have ties to the Golden Age of Flying in the 1920s and ’30s, where airplane races often dominated national headlines and pilots were American heroes.

Peters and his wife, Jillyn, are so convinced of what the public can learn from the collection that they are working on plans to display the planes at a 20,000-square-foot aviation museum scheduled to open next year at the Lewiston airport.

“We love the generation and the people. It’s the history,” Peters said.

...

Another one of Peters’ specimens has even more direct ties to the heritage of women in the military. It’s a 1932 Waco UBF-2, once owned by Betty Gillies, a friend of Amelia Earhart. Gillies was the first woman to qualify for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS). She delivered fighter planes to bases in the United States and Canada during World War II.

Like the Speedmail, it’s rare. Only 16 were manufactured and fewer than 10, including Peters’, is in good enough shape to fly. The plane was restored by men who are well-known for that kind of work in aviation, Woody Woods and his sons, Chris and Scott Woods, Peters said.

It initially went to an owner on the East Coast, but when that man was ready to sell he went to Scott Woods, asking who he would trust with the functional artifact.

The Woodses sought him out, Peters said. Chris Woods, a Hollywood heavy hitter who helped film the movie “Forrest Gump,” delivered the plane to him and gave him a scrapbook of the journey.

“We haven’t met a person in antique aviation we haven’t fallen in love with,” Peters said.

That’s not Peters’ only Hollywood connection. His 1941 Ryan PT-22 is the same type of aircraft Harrison Ford crashed on a California golf course in 2015. Peters credits the “Stars Wars” actor with saving lives as he piloted the notoriously finicky aircraft to the ground, landing it upright and largely intact.

- Flying old school, LMTribune.com, May 21, 2017.

2. After caught with two pounds of methamphetamine, hundreds of pills containing fentanyl and a wad of cash, a woman will serve three years of mandatory time in prison.

Shaley M. Rose, 27, last known address 25948 New Guilford Road, Bladensburg, Ohio, was sentenced by Licking County Common Pleas Court Judge David Branstool Friday after pleading guilty to aggravated trafficking of drugs, a first-degree felony; aggravated possession of drugs, a third-degree felony; and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony.

On Feb. 1, Rose and Joshua E. Hager were stopped near the intersection of Ohio 37 and U.S. 40 by deputies with the Licking County Sheriff's Office for a traffic violation, said Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Nathaniel Hurst.

Hager was driving Rose's vehicle, a 2009 Honda Civic, which was searched during the stop, Hurst said.

“During the search, officers located approximately two pounds of methamphetamine wrapped in coffee grounds,” he said.

Also found inside the vehicle was $1,480 in cash.

Rose and Hager were driving to the Comfort Inn in Heath, where Rose was living at the time, and planned to sell the drugs, Hurst said.

Hurst said then on Feb. 5, detectives with the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force discovered Percocet pills had been in the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop and were missed. Rose had gone to the impound lot where her car was and removed the pills from the vehicle.

Lab testing showed the 294 pills contained fentanyl, Hurst said.

During the investigation, Rose told police she was aware the methamphetamine was in the car at the time of the traffic stop and Rose fully cooperated with the investigation, her attorney Sarah Hill said.

“After the initial stop, she did allow the officers into the hotel room and then did allow them into her home later on and was forthcoming after the initial stop,” Hill said.

Hill said Rose takes responsibility for her actions. While Rose was the less culpable person, Hill said Rose is still culpable for bringing drugs into Licking County.

Rose cried during the sentencing and apologized to her family in the courtroom. She said she was “on drugs and made stupid decisions.”

Hager, 34, is facing one count of trafficking of drugs, a first-degree felony. Hurst, who is the prosecutor for that case as well, said he will not accept a plea deal.

“By all accounts he was the heavy hitter,” Hurst said.

The case is schedule for a jury trial at 9 a.m. Oct. 9 in front of Branstool.

- Woman sentenced to three years for trafficking methamphetamine, NewardAdvocate.com, September 21, 2018.

3. Publix is back in the political arena.

The Lakeland-based grocery chain donated $33,000 to Florida lawmakers in February, the company’s first contributions since halting all political giving last year during a national firestorm related to the Parkland shooting.

Last May, Publix generated significant backlash after the Tampa Bay Times reported the company and its current and former leaders and founders had donated $670,000 to Adam Putnam’s campaign for governor. It was the most by far that Publix had ever donated to a single political campaign.

Gun violence survivors and activists were outraged that the popular supermarket chain had thrown its support behind Putnam in the wake of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Putnam, a Republican, declared himself a “proud NRA sellout” in 2017.

Parkland students led by David Hogg encouraged a boycott of Publix and activists staged die-ins at its stores. In its damage control, Publix responded by halting all contributions indefinitely and internally told employees it was reviewing its political giving policies.

That pause, though, ended in February. The company donated $1,000 to 33 lawmakers, including Democrats and Republicans, just before the start of the legislative session.

Publix spokesman Brian West declined to comment on any changes to the company's policies, but he acknowledged company money was flowing to campaign coffers again.

“The important work done by our elected officials has significant impacts on Publix, our associates and our customers,” West said. “As such, Publix has made the decision to reengage in the political process.”

Amid the fallout, Publix distanced itself from the NRA, declaring it supported Putnam because of his Polk County roots and not because of his allegiance to the controversial gun-rights group. Nevertheless, the company halted donations during a contentious governor's race, even after Putnam lost the primary to Ron DeSantis.

Prior to last year, Publix, the state’s largest private company with about 800 Florida locations, was a heavy hitter come election season. Since 2010, Publix had delivered $4.5 million to candidates, committees and parties, both directly and through its contributions to the Florida Retail Federation, a closely affiliated political committee.

- Publix stopped giving to politicians after NRA controversy. Now, they’re back in business, Sun-Sentinel.com, April 01, 2019.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：張欣 編輯：丹妮）