Having lost his seat in a tough election in November, physicist and former Representative Bill Foster is telling his fellow scientists: You should run for office, too.
Foster, a Democrat from Illinois, lost his seat, which represents a right-leaning district outside Chicago, after serving 2 ½ years in the House of Representatives. Since then, as reported (subs) in Science in December, he has been thinking of starting a political action committee (PAC) to nurture, train, and financially support other candidates like himself.
Now he says he's "strongly pursuing the idea" of what he calls "Albert's List," a PAC named after Einstein. It's modeled after EMILY's List, the successful PAC to elect pro-choice women. The idea is to recruit scientists, engineers, and other technically proficient professionals to Congress, where he thinks their expertise would pay dividends. (He's unsure about whether to include physicians.)
This week, Foster is in Washington, D.C., for the AAAS annual meeting, where he says he is "gauging interest" for the idea among scientists, lobbyists, and current and past politicians. "The schedule's very tight for getting this up and running in time for the next election cycle," he says about the November 2012 elections.
(Join Foster for an online chat about the idea and the state of Congress tomorrow at noon EST.)
)
