CRJ200 Captain experiences a cracked windshield and elects to divert to the nearest suitable airport for an over weight landing with the First Officer flying.

Narrative

We were level at FL310 about 40 miles southwest of the nearest airport when there was a loud pop and a fine series of cracks appeared on the left windshield and we received a L WSHLD HEAT CAS (left windshield heat computer alert system) message. I contacted Center and advised them of our problem and requested lower and a deviation to the nearest airport. We ran the QRH for the CAS message. The cabin pressure was behaving normally so we made a continuous descent with vectors to the nearest airport. On our descent; I talked to the Flight Attendants; explained to the passengers what was going on and contacted company through ACARS. As the left windshield was cracked; the First Officer flew the aircraft...and would be flying it throughout the rest of the flight. I set up the aircraft for landing with the ATIS; FMS and RTU's and gave the approach brief to the First Officer since he had his hands full flying the aircraft. We flew the ILS and landed normally...albeit in an overweight condition. We felt the need get the plane on the ground outweighed the need to circle around for a couple of minutes to burn off 200 lbs of fuel. After block in we talked to Maintenance; Dispatch; Crew Scheduling; etc.