Breaking: Brad Harriman has a website

It's a big white screen (did I mention I have a new 23" monitor?) and in the upper left hand corner in twelve point New Times Roman is says, "Under Construction." It might only be ten point font.

Brad Harriman: too clueless for Congress?

While going through Brad Harriman's campaign disclosure forms ("D-2s" in Illinois political junky parlance), I found a contribution from Freeburg High School District 77 for $400 dated October 3, 2010.

Using public funds for political contributions is against the law. This is pretty basic.

Harriman's campaign treasurer was Annabelle Gillespie of Belleville. Guess where Gillespie works? She works (or did work) at the Regional Office of Education.

Doesn't it seem like something should have registered as a problem when Gillespie was entering the information on the D-2? She works at the Regional Office of Education, right? If it were legal to solicit campaign contributions from school districts, why not just tell every school district in St. Clair County to send Harriman's campaign $5,000?

This kind of gaffe shows Harriman to be a weak leader on two fronts. One, Harriman ought to proof read his financial disclosure statements before they are submitted. It's just a few pages. If Harriman can't spot an illegal campaign contribution in a 13-page report (only three or four pages are the contributions), has Harriman got what it takes to be reading the federal budget with a critical eye?

Secondly, Harriman does pick good people. Virtually everyone has areas where their skills are not strong. The way effective leaders deal with this is to hire people who compensate for their own weaknesses.

Harriman seems unable to do this.

Brad Harriman is running in Illinois' Twelfth District (IL-12)

Belleville News-Democrat file photo

Brad Harriman is the former Regional Superintendent of Education for St. Clair County, Illinois. I'd link to Harriman's campaign website or his Wikipedia page, but he doesn't have either.

"Party blessing: Dems endorse Harriman for Congress, Hoffman for House" (Kevin Bersett, BND.com) is dated October 28, 2011. Today is November 28 and there's no evidence that Harriman's campaign has created a website. Also, Harriman is not raising money on Act Blue, a website used by practically all serious candidates running for Congress.

I am supporting Iraq War veteran (Army), Chris Miller in the Democratic primary.

I met Chris when organizing Illinois veterans against the U.S. Senate candidacy of Mark Kirk. I liked Chris from the beginning. He seemed like a good mix of hard-nosed Democrat in politics and thoughtful military veteran on policy.

The more I learned about Brad Harriman, the more I became convinced this guy is a not-especially-talented lackey of the St. Clair County Democratic Party.

From the 1990 to the 2012 election cycles, Harriman never gave a contribution to a federal candidate or political committee big enough to trigger federal reporting requirments.

But Brad Harriman loves his local Democratic Party. He gave the St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee regularly: $400 (Oct., 2000), $200 (Oct., 2001), $280 (Oct., 2003), $280 (Nov., 2004) and $200 (Oct., 2005). But he didn't just give to the SCDCC. In Sept., 2004 Harriman gave $200 to Coroner Rick Stone and in Feb., 2006 he gave $240 to Rosella Wamser's campaign. Wamser proceeded Harriman as Regional Superintendent of Education.

Oh, and Harriman gave $2,000 to his own campaign in July, 2006.

It's hard not to read Harriman's campaign contribution history and not conclude he was a party loyalist and was rewarded with the Regional Superintendent gig. But he doesn't really care about federal politics or even issues.

Serving the district? Caring about issues? These aren't particularly important to Harriman.