Meet John Cox
While waiting for Sen. Sam Brownback to speak at the War on Christians Conference in [the heart of Babylon] Washington today, we came across another presidential candidate who hopes he can seed his '08 aspirations among Christian conservatives.
John Cox has already been to Iowa. He went to New Hampshire, generating more coverage than Sen. Chuck Hagel. He already has an e-mail list. A campaign manager with an Alan Keyes pedigree. A website with comparisons to fellow IL'er Abe Lincoln. A platform. And even a base.
Who?
He was born and raised in Chicago, IL (on the South Side, to boot -- before the renaissance), the son of a letter carrier and a teacher. He made his money as a lawyer and a venture capitalist. He is somewhat well-known to Republicans in Chicago and even ran for Senate in 2002 -- he got a fifth of the vote in the GOP primary.
Craig Bergman is Cox's campaign manager. His opening argument, aimed at those who wonder, is that because Cook County has "more people than Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire combined," Cox is better known than, say, Tom Vilsack, Iowa's governor. That's a base of 2 million, easy, he says. (Cook County has about 5.4 million residents; IA, NH and SC have at least 8 million between them.)
The strategy from here on out is conventional for an unconventional candidate. Bergman scours donor lists in early primary states on the web and Cox pays to send them postcards highlighting his next appearances.
He's headed to South Carolina next week. How is he planning? Bergman bends down behind a desk and pulls out a sheaf of paper. "Right here," he says, pointing to it. "We get the whole map from Mapquest and then I figure out the distances [between cities]. Then we say, "John would come to come to your town." And the invariable response is "who??" [With an extra question mark!]
That's an opening if Bergman ever saw one.
Cox is pro-life. ("The only candidate in the race who is totally pro-life," Bergman claims. He's an NRA member. He's against same-sex marriage and civil unions. He's against government regulation. On trade, he uses the "free and fair" formulation, which suggests he's a mite more protectionist than the conservative consensus.
So -- what distinguishes him from the field? "The rest of the field are career politicians," says Bergman. Cox spent a small part of his late twenties on a Glenview, IL school board. That's the extent of his elected experience.
Cox is on the conservative conference and caucus circuit. He was at CPAC in February; he's been to a dozen county caucuses in Iowa and will return there in April.
Bergman has a scoop: he says Cox will kick off his campaign officially on April 17 in front of the IRS building in Washington. There, he'll call for a complete abolition of the income tax. [MARC AMBINDER]
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/03/while_waiting_f.html
