IL-13 has a candidate for Congress

by: richwawronowicz

Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 08:03:51 AM CDT


(Check the comments where Scott Harper joins in the discussion. We should have promoted this sooner. Oh well... - promoted by wegerje)

Last night I had dinner with Scott Harper.  It was a strange path to my door.  He heard about Naperville's Drinking Liberally from some people at YearlyKos and decided to join us last Sunday.  After a couple of conversations, he's hit the ground running.  He was introduced to the State Central CommitteeWoman Julia Kennedy Beckman and she's been running him around to the precincts.

I only got to talk to him for a couple of hours and there was a lot of "what does it take to start up a campaign" conversation.  What I did learn was that he was born and raised in Naperville and sold his media biz a few years ago and decided pursue a PHD.

Starting at YearlyKos, he cant be all bad!  It's a tough district, but if someone is willing to do the work to expose her true record, she can be beat!
richwawronowicz :: IL-13 has a candidate for Congress
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IL-13 has a candidate for Congress | 20 comments
Info (0.00 / 0)
Do you have any other info about him? A website? I tried googling, but "Scott Harper" casts a pretty big net.

ltsply2
He just decided to run Sunday night (0.00 / 0)
He's still trying to build a team (anyone interested?).  You probably have to wait a week or two for a website and position papers.

I'm going to talk to him again tonight, I'll try and get more information.

ive been hoping for a good Dem candidate in this race (0.00 / 0)
and good to hear from you again Rich.  would Scott be willing to join the discussion on here?  also, there is a Green candidate already:

http://www.votesteve...

William J Maggos

[ Parent ]
And a good Dem you've got... (4.00 / 1)
Scott would be willing to join the discussion, and this is he. Fire away with questions.

To start out I'll tell you that my main 3 concerns are:
1. Stop the war
2. Get universal single payer HC (Medicare plus). But I differ with HR676 in that I think we should keep the delivery side private - for-profit or non-profit, but have HHS play the role of a global PPO - cap payments, negotiate (hard) with the drug companies, etc.
3. Take the environment seriously (Global warming, species extinction - especially large mammals, pollution, green space, national parks, national bike trails, ecosystem restoration - especially prairies)

My plan is to sell number 2 to this district by talking about protecting and building the middle class. Not only does the problem of pre-existing conditions (for example) restrict people from changing jobs or starting businesses, but putting health care on the backs of businesses makes them 30% less competitive in international markets than they would otherwise be. And it is a fixed cost rather than the variable cost that it would be if it were funded by a rise in the corporate tax rate.

Fighting for unions is also a part of the plan to stem the decline of the middle class under the Bush regime. Especially in areas of the economy that are not internationalized, like services, government, health care, home care, restaurants, etc.

As to background, I am a manufacturing expert, an entrepreneur and a scholar. My company was Closer Look, Inc. (you can Google for the current incarnation) - in the corporate communication, media and marketing biz. My scholarship revolves around the intersection of science and religion, and my specific research is in the implications of evolutionary biology for social ethics. I'm taking a leave of absence from Oxford University, where I've been the last 3 years, in order to run this race.

I'm happy to join the conversation, and will answer any questions you may have.

Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13

[ Parent ]
Welcome Scott Harper. (0.00 / 0)
First a bit of housekeeping. Since you are using a nom de klavier, fight4fairness, and since you are working directly for a candidate for office (indeed you are the candidate) it is proper etiquette to include an automatic signature line with your comments identifying your role in the campaign.

To do so select the menu item above "fight4fairness's Page", then select "Profile". In the profile area is a box called comment signature. There you could enter "Scott Harper - Democratic Candidate for IL-13", or some such. You can get fancy and make a link to your website appear within the signature by adding html code with it.

As for a question, it sounds like your positions on the issues are a good fit for the folks in this community, so then I guess the real grilling will surround how you intend to convince us that you are a serious candidate?


Jeff Wegerson

[ Parent ]
Etiquette tips appreciated (0.00 / 0)
You will see that I have made your recommended changes and I noticed that they are retroactively applied to my previous post.

As to the serious candidate issue, I have the following reply:

Although I'm not seriously wealthy, I do have the resources to apply myself to this campaign full-time for the next 15 months. In addition I plan to loan my campaign $50,000 to start the campaign on the right foot. I'm also going to hire seasoned operators for campaign manager, finance director, mail & phone ops, and a couple of junior campaign operatives. In addition I'm planning to follow the textbook advice that a candidate should spend half the day raising money, and half meeting people, and let others do everything else (although I plan to use my management experience to be the Chief Executive of the campaign and make sure that personnel issues do not cause it to go off the rails).

The only other thing I can say is that people I've met seem to think that I'm the real deal and are happy to have a serious candidate to support and volunteer for here in IL-13.

Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13

[ Parent ]
I take issue with your (0.00 / 0)
issue number 3.  Large mammals may be the coolest things to most people, but its the tiny things, bugs, fungus, and other small things that matter the most to an ecosystem.  They are the fundamental underpinnings of any ecosystem.  Large mammals tend to be much more adaptable.

Otherwise, it sounds like a great platform. 

[ Parent ]
On bugs and tigers (0.00 / 0)
I completely agree that ecosystems are built from the 'ground' up, as it were. I'm not deprecating the role of mosses, tubers, insects, bacteria, etc. I'm just trying to communicate how devastating a world without tigers or pandas would be to even people who don't think of themselves as environmentalists. If we are going to build coalitions to make progress on the issues that are important to us, it seems to me that we often need to reframe the terms of the debate.

I'm not sure if this has been documented scientifically in any taxa above bacteria, but it seems that the rate of speciation is higher, the closer one gets to the roots of the bush of life. I'm not sure if there are any ecologists paying attention to this thread, but if there are, please speak up. We do know that virus and bacteria speciate more rapidly than say mammals - they are the disease agents that we worry about in public health - along with the far more numerous species of bacteria that are benign or beneficial.

I guess that's enough bio-speak for now. Does that clarify anything JCCPA?

Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13

[ Parent ]
Judy Biggert (0.00 / 0)
is the incumbent, right?
Yes n/t (0.00 / 0)


ltsply2
[ Parent ]
Wikipedia entry for IL-13 (0.00 / 0)
I am pasting the entire Wikipedia entry because it is short, yet pithy:

Illinois's 13th congressional district is a United States Congressional District that represents the southwest suburbs of Chicago, including portions of the Cook, DuPage, and Will counties.

The 13th district is currently represented by moderate Republican Judy Biggert. This district narrowly voted for George W. Bush with 55% to 45% for John Kerry. However, Biggert won the most recent 2006 mid-term election by a margin of 16%.

Donald Rumsfeld, most notable for being the 13th and 21st U.S. Secretary of Defense, represented the district from January 3, 1963 - March 20, 1969.

http://en.wikipedia....

The interesting element to me here is the fact that the district is almost evenly split between three different counties, each of which will present different organizing challenges/opportunities.  In DuPage you will, hopefully, have some OTDB precinct captains to work with.  In Will you have a Democratic infrastructure that is somewhat moribund, but at least exists.  And you have some elected Dems on the state and local level that can help.  I am not that familiar with the southwest part of Cook County, but if it is like other parts of suburban Cook it means that you have a Democratic party but know one has ever heard of it or knows how to join it. :-) 


Basic stuff: The common wealth should be used for the common good, not to enrich the well-connected few.  

[ Parent ]
Meeting the challenge of IL-13 (4.00 / 2)
Everything that Wikipedia says is true. However, interestingly to me is the fact that Dems have a 10:9 registration advantage in the district according to the State Board of Elections. This is reflected in the number of petition signature that a candidate is required to present to get on the ballot. Dems need 1033, Reps need only 886. That means that there are just shy of 380,000 registered voters. On average of the last 2 presidential years, roughly 300,000 voters cast ballots, or 79%.

Shannon would have won by either turning 17,500 voters or adding 35,000 more votes. If one takes that and multiplies by the 50% differential in turnout between off-year elections and presidential year ones, we need to either change 26,000 minds or add 52,000 votes. Between campaigning harder, raising more money, cooperating more closely with the township and county chairs, demographic changes in the district, a more vigorous registration and GOTV campaign, general frustration with Bush and Co., and the excitement of the Presidential race, winning seems plausible.

All of those things take a lot of hard work, volunteers and money.

I've been meeting township chairs across Will and DuPage so far, and it will take another couple of weeks before I've met all of them and the Cook County people. What I've seen so far suggests that Yoda is right about the lack of precinct committeemen. There are plenty of holes in the infrastructure. We are planning to work closely with the organization in place, and try to recruit volunteers and union members to fill in the gaps without duplicating efforts.

We have a fantastic asset in one of our state committeewomen - Julia Kennedy Beckman. She is the model of poise, diplomacy and determination. (I have yet to meet our other committeeman, Kyle Hastings, but plan to do so as soon as possible.)

I want to say here (though a new diary might be a better place to do this), that we would love to have your help - on-line, in person, or on the phone. I'd also be happy to chat with any of you PSB people, or arrange a meeting. Feel free to call me at 630.235.1122, or email me directly at scottharper@yahoo.com.

We hope to have at least the rudiments of a web site up in a couple of weeks, and an active ActBlue page up and running - maybe by the end of the week.

Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13

[ Parent ]
OK (0.00 / 0)
I'm impressed. What a wonderful way to interact with the net-roots.
[ Parent ]
Thanks for that, Michael (0.00 / 0)
I appreciate it. I wish I could interact more. It's usually late at night when I can check in, so I apologize that it can't be even more interactive.


Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13
[ Parent ]
State Central Committeeman (0.00 / 0)
If you get to meet Kyle Hastings, you will probably be the only one.  From what I understand, he makes sure he's top of the ticket (for some reason this is an elected position?), get's elected, and then no one ever hears from him again (I also assume it's a paid position, otherwise why bother?).  I agree that Julia is the hardest working Committeewoman I've ever met and is a great asset to the party.
[ Parent ]
Kyle, where are you? (0.00 / 0)
Well, I'll give it the ol' college try. I did find his number today. At least to his mayoral office. But I didn't get a chance to try him today.

I did have a great lunch meeting with Tinker Harvey today though. She's a great gal with lots of insight into the doings of the District. I think she was state committee'man' for 3 terms.

And I think she's sold on the new candidate. At least she had some nice things to say.

Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13

[ Parent ]
Position on origins of human life (0.00 / 0)
It would be nice to see a pro-life democrat take on Biggert. Studying science and religion with an understanding of natural law have hopefully led to the possibility of a pro-life democrat for DuPage County. I'd like to hear your position. You could also get a lot of support in this district supporting school choice. Any comments? Thanks and best of luck to you.
Sorry menifee (0.00 / 0)
Having a pro-life Democrat was tried last time around with Joe Shannon. I don't know that being pro-life was the issue in the election. Perhaps he would have won with his positions if he'd had or raised more money.

In any case, I am solidly pro-choice politically. I think that this is an agonizing decision for the women I know who have gone through it. Many second-guess themselves years later, and wonder what their would-have-been-children would have looked like, etc. I don't think there is reason to criminalize such a gut-wrenching personal decision. I value life very much, but in the formulation of President Clinton, I think abortion should be 'safe, legal, and rare.'

On education: we already have a system that is so highly stratified by income as a result of our blatantly unfair way of financing public education. Would you seriously want to further segregate it by defunding public schools? The only progressive justification for school choice that I can think of is as a step toward the federalization of education policy with the goal of funding it universally and across the board. I don't see an appetite for that, and won't be campaigning on it. Unless and until Congress is ready to fund public education entirely, I think that the feds should keep out of education and leave it to the states. Vouchers as a tactic to defund public education is deplorable.

Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13

[ Parent ]
Anti-abortion is not "pro-life". (0.00 / 0)
It's anti-woman.

If we want to really be "pro-life", let's start by calling an immediate stop to an occupation that's already killed as many as a million Iraqis.

"In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing -- for the sheer fun and joy of it -- to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose." -- I.F. Stone

[ Parent ]
Amen, Gary. (0.00 / 0)


Scott Harper - Democratic candidate for IL-13
[ Parent ]
IL-13 has a candidate for Congress | 20 comments
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