Minutes of July 17 Meeting

Written by: W A Thomasson on Jun 23, 2008 12:21 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Oak Park DFA Meeting

Eleven people were present to meet Scott Harper, running for Congress against Judy Biggert in the 13th district. The 13th district is essentially southern DuPage County, with a corner of southwestern Cook County and part of northern Will County.

 Before Scott arrived, Eric mentioned the Unite for Change event that DPOP and the West Suburban Obama Team are holding at the Oak Park Public Library on Saturday, June 29, 3 to 5 pm.

 Because Scott was delayed in traffic, his Campaign Manager and his Director of Field Operations arrived before he did. Eric suggested that we each outline our previous campaign involvement, demonstrating that we are not exactly “virgins” in this area. Clearly, we aren’t.

When Scott arrived, he introduced himself with a brief biographical sketch. He is a life-long resident of the 13thdistrict and a successful small businessman. His firm, Closer Look, in some ways resembles an advertising agency except that it concentrates on designing Web pages instead of ads for more traditional media. He then turned to why he is running for Congress. Biggert pretends to be a moderate, but she has voted with Bush more than 80% of the time. “It is time we had a representative who will represent the people’s interests rather than the special interests,” Scott said.

 On the issues, Scott supports a phased withdrawal with a definite timetable for leaving Iraq. He favors growing the economy throughout the northeastern Illinois region. Specifically, he favors investment in new technologies that will increase productivity and decrease energy dependence, noting that Argonne National Laboratory is located in the 13th dictrict. He also describes himself as a pro-business Democrat – meaning small business. Scott also promised to fight for the environment and combat global warming. With the new technologies that are involved, this will also strengthen the economy.

 Scott closed by pointing out that his chances are very much better than many might think. Standard techniques say that the district is likely to vote 47% Democratic. Furthermore, 60% of the district’s voters self-identify as independents. A poll shows that shen independents in the district have Scott’s and Biggert’s positions explained to them, they break 2:1 for Scott. 

And, of course, there’s going to be someone named Obama at the head of the Democratic ticket. High Democratic turnout (and perhaps low Republican turnout) is guaranteed. But if Scott doesn’t win this time, he indicated he will run again. Run twice to win once.

 We then went around the room with everyone asking about their top issue. (In many cases this turned into more of a speech than a question. As Eric said, we’re nothing if not passionate.) The first issue was healthcare, brought up by someone who is a single-payer supporter and also supports a progressive income tax at the state level. Scott spoke passionately about the large number of uninsured people and the need for universal coverage. He also indicated strong support for reversing the Bush tax cuts. 

The second topic was global warming, where Scott reiterated his support for renewable and alternative energy sources as well as for increased efficiency standards. He pointed out that this will in fact be an economic plus, especially for our region. The third topic was civil liberties, where Scott indicated his strong support for rigorous maintenance of Constitutional protections. On labor rights, Scott indicated support for card check legislation that would eliminate the need for a separate election after workers had signed up for a union. On immigration, Scott said that we need to protect our borders and support our laws, but also offer decent treatment to those who come here to find work.

 Scott concluded by drawing on his experience as a businessman to point out that business is an overlooked force in working for universal healthcare. Business in general, and small business in particular, would benefit greatly from a system of healthcare for all.

 The question then became, “What do we, the Oak Park DFA group, do?” As Eric pointed out, three and four years ago we were excited about Cegelis. We need another exciting campaign, and it looks like Scott’s could be it.

 Scott’s field director pointed to three things we could do: phone banking, canvassing, and fundraising. Phone banking is something we could do from Oak Park, although it’s not something everyone enjoys. Just as we had fundraisers for Cegelis, we could have fundraisers for Scott. That will be taken up later. But what most of us were personally enthusiastic about was canvassing. There’s going to be a big canvassing event, followed by a barbecue, on July 13. It’s called “13 for the 13th.” Eric suggested we could all take the train from Berwyn out to Naperville on the 13th, going as a group. Details will be worked out at our next meeting, which was scheduled for July 9th (the second Wednesday rather than the first).

 Hope to see everyone on the 9th. Things are looking exciting.

Respectfully submitted, 

Bill Thomasson

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Location: Oak Park, IL