Interview with John Cox
Republican Presidential Candidate from Illinois
National Press Club
September 22, 2006

JOHN COX:  ...progress on a grassroots basis.  That's what I've bee concentrating on so far.  So as of this juncture I've been to all 155 counties in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.  Introduced myself to just about every county chairman in those counties.  Been allowed to speak to three district conventions, seven county conventions, three state conventions.  Have met probably just about every elected member of the legislature in each of those three states, actually have met the governor in each of those three states as well, got a chance to talk to the governor...  And of course I'm helping the governor candidates Jim Nussle and Jim Coburn in Iowa and New Hampshire and then of course Mark Sanford's running for re-election.  So we're getting involved in helping a lot of grassroots legislative candidates as a matter of fact.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  What is your mission?

JOHN COX:  My mission is to provide an alternative to the base of the party, the conservative base that is looking for a Ronald Reagan, that's looking for a true social conservative and a true fiscal conservative.  I am both.  I have to tell you I like--all the Republican candidates are all good people, but some are fiscal conservatives, although not many to tell you the truth, and some are social conservatives, but there isn't one that stands out in my mind as someone that I want to really see as the next leader of the party and the next leader of the country in 2008.  I don't see a Ronald Reagan in the field of people that are talking about running.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  What over these past--how many months...?

JOHN COX:  Six month, six months.  It's all been grassroots.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  ...have been highlights or is it just a lot of day to day...?

JOHN COX:  ...I've met a whole bunch of people, I marched in a couple of 4th of July parades in New Hampshire...

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  Which ones?

JOHN COX:  Amherst and Merrimack.  Right behind Joe Biden as a matter of fact.  And I got a chance to tell people that right behind him, that I'm a businessman, I'm not a career politician, and I think we have too many career politicians in Washington, just like the guy you just met, which was Joe Biden...

He's a quintessential career politician and you know in his mind there's nothing wrong with that.  He would tell you that that gives him a whole lot of experience in politics.  Oh yeah he's got tons of experience in politics.  I would submit to you that that means he knows the names of a lot of political consultants, he knows the names of a lot of donors and a lot of special interests, but I'm not sure he knows how to build a business or to risk his own capital or to deal with government regulation or a tax system that punishes savings and investment.  So Mr. Biden will put his experience before the American people I'm sure.  I'm going to put my experience in the private sector before the American people.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  You came out with a book [Politics, Inc., May 2006].  How's that doing?

JOHN COX:  Well I didn't write it to sell; I wrote it to inform people about the campaign and so the response I've gotten from it is excellent.  As a matter of fact Dr. Arthur Laffer, who was the economic advisor to President Reagan, wrote me a very nice note back...in which he says he agrees with what I'm talking about.  He agrees with the notion of my politics which I call progressive conservatism.

And basically I'm looking to solve problems, which is what I think any political leader should do, but it should be done with conservative solutions.  And what are those?  Not big government, but the private sector, free markets, incentives, competition, entrepreneurship--I mean those are the things I think that solve our nation's problems.  Big government was tried and has failed in many ways--we saw it with welfare, we've seen it with out education system, we see it with health care.  The Canadian national health care system is fine for some people; for most people they'd rather come down to America and get their health care.  So I really believe that private sector, private initiative is what we need in this country, and unfortunately in the last few years I think we've gotten way too much government, way to much management, control, and spending.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  Looking ahead--can you spec out through November how is your campaign...?

JOHN COX:  Well our goal is build a grassroots base.  So our goal and I think we'll meet it, is to have every county in those three early primary states fully staffed with a county coordinator, a volunteer county coordinator...  We're well on our way.  We have probably 60, 65 right now.  Another goal that we have is to have every state with a state committee.  We have 11 state committees.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  Haven't heard anything about that.

JOHN COX:  I'm operating below the radar.  No, I've got 11 states committees in place.  We just got two more the other day.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION:  So how do you compete with these big money, big name guys?  What's the bottom line?

JOHN COX:  I'm going to build a quiet revolution in the grassroots and that's what I'm doing.  And at some point in time we're going to get noticed.  Today we're going to start running TV commercials in those three primary states.  Again those commercials are intended to elevate my name recognition in those states, allowing us to better [be] able to recruit coordinators and to recruit workers.

I still believe that despite all the media out there and all the attention that's given to the Mitt Romneys and the John McCains of the world, who are good people there's no doubt, but despite all the attention that's given to the celebrities of the Republican world when it comes down to it, its grassroots.  It's getting the vote out, it's getting the real info out...  And that's what's going to happen.  Ultimately the national media will pick up on me.  There's a L.A. Times article I believe that's coming out next week, a profile.  I think the Wall Street Journal may be picking something up very soon on the campaign and I think from there on we'll start to see it.
 
 
Copyright © 2006  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action