This was posted earlier today by Scott Harper who is running against Judy Biggert in IL-13 at Kos. I'm going to be crossposting here, MyDD and TPM. If you any questions, advice or comments for Scott please go to the Kos diary to leave them so he doesn't have to chase all over to find them.

Although I have been blogging on Prairie State Blue in the last month, this is my introductory diary in the broader blogosphere. I am a progressive Democrat running in a Republican-leaning, highly educated, independent-minded, suburban district west and southwest of Chicago. The most well-known towns in the district are Naperville and Hinsdale, which anchor the northwest and northeast corners of the district respectively.

I was inspired to run for office at YearlyKos, which I attended because of a tip, yet without the requisite knowledge of the community. My plan to volunteer on a campaign or campaigns took a radical turn.

I loved the environment of having all these decent, knowledgeable, passionate people around. I was inspired by the Future Leaders forum, and I was inspired to want to join their ranks, all of us working to make a difference for our country.

In this diary I plan to introduce to you my background, my plan to win, and my platform, roughly in reverse order. I hope to gain your support, in research, in fundraising, and in buzz. And even, in those rare cases where people are mobile or local, I would like to win sufficient confidence that you might volunteer.

My platform

As you will see on the home page of my website, my platform focuses on the following 4 positions:

1. Stop the war in Iraq

2. Build the middle class

3. Support the environment

4. Build new export industries

I think the important things to add are that my version of building the middle is full of important progressive goals – single payer universal health care, college scholarships for all income levels based on high school performance, secure pensions for all, and union organizing flexibility to raise the income and security of service professionals.

Under numbers 3 and 4, global warming, energy security, and new industrial goals dovetail. Business leaders, union leaders and environmentalists can agree that we cannot miss the golden opportunity to build a world class green tech industrial base. We are behind German and Japanese firms at the moment, but we can lead, and we must.

For more detailed information on policy perspectives, check out this postfrom Prairie State Blue, where I answered the Huffington Post candidate questionnaire.

My Background

You can see my bio and click on my resume there as well. In brief, I am a native son of the district, having grown up in Naperville. I am a successful entrepreneur. I helped start a company and grow it to the size that it could be acquired by a venture-funded internet development company. I have an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago, but took the unusual course for U of C grads, of moving into manufacturing, where I worked in plants, and became a product expert for a software company that sold to manufacturers. I am very much in favor of setting up markets that work, and or for regulating natural monopolies so that they serve people. In the context of the current administration, it means fighting against special interests, crony capitalism, and the irresponsible deficit, or as I like to call it, credit card financing.

I am almost finished with a Ph.D. in social ethics from the University of Oxford, which I’ve put on hold in order to run in this election cycle. I have two wonderful daughters; Natasha (24) is in her final year of Architecture school at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and Briana (21) is a senior majoring in political science at Barnard/Columbia in Manhattan.

My plan to win

I’ve been advised not to be too specific on this point, in light of the public nature of the forum, but it is no great secret that I plan to run a professional campaign with all that implies, including spending half of my time raising money. But I think that there is scope for the spirit of insurgency, outreach to independent-minded Republicans, work with the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples of the district, as well as in the malls, boardrooms and prairies of the district. We are very well networked in with the party organization of the counties and townships of the district, and while that in itself will not assure victory, it seems to be starting in the right place. I also am working very hard in the netroots. To date it has been with an influential local blog site. Click here or here for a sample of the comments, or you can search my name or IL-13 on Prairie State Blue.

Particularly for the Netroots

I welcome your questions and your comments. I have not talked about every policy issue, but rather the ones on which I intend to run in this suburban, affluent district. I will be here on Kos for the next 3 hours to answer your questions. I will check back in tonight, and every night until this diary is no longer current.

I hope to win your trust and support. This is an insurgent campaign against a 5 term incumbent. She portrays herself as moderate, but in fact has supported Bush 90+% of the time, including on all the war votes, and the funding thereof. If you like what you read, please go to my website, where there is a link to my ActBlue page. You can navigate to my page on ActBlue directly as well. Just look for Scott Harper in the IL-13, under US House races. And if any of you are graphic designers or webmasters, and want to help out with the website, let me know.

Thanks, and let the questions begin

Scott Harper Democratic Candidate for US House IL-13

Once again if you have any comments, advice, or questions for Scott please go to this Kos diary.