Presidential hopeful Cox makes Council Bluffs stop

Daily Nonpareil

John Cox might not be well known nationally, but then neither was Jimmy Carter when he decided to run for president back in the mid-1970s.

"I know I'm not a household name," Cox said Wednesday in Council Bluffs. "I'm the Republican Jimmy Carter."

Cox, a longtime Illinois Republican leader from Chicago, has announced his candidacy for president in 2008 and made Council Bluffs his very first campaign stop.

He is a lawyer, certified public accountant, real-estate broker and investment advisor. In 2002, he ran for the U.S. Senate and received 22 percent of the primary vote. He later served as president of the Cook County Republican Party.

"I'm not an insider, not a career politician," he said to a small gathering of Republican activists at Tish's Restaurant.

Cox decided to run for president after seeing scandals break out in the Illinois Statehouse for many years, he said.

"Corruption has come from career politicians who go into politics as a career or business," Cox said. "I'm for term limits."

Cox is pro-life and opposed to gay marriages and civil unions.