TEXT OF JOHN CHAPMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENT SPEECH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 16, 2014

CONTACT:
Kevin O’Shea
617-615-9135

The John Chapman campaign released the text of his announcement speech, which will be delivered tonight at the Cape Codder in Hyannis at 6:00 PM. John is running to represent the Ninth Congressional district in Congress.

Thank you Scott, and thank you all for being here. Scott, I am honored to have your endorsement. Just about four years ago to the day, Scott Brown was elected as our United States Senator. I am proud to count myself as one of the many volunteers who worked tirelessly to get you elected. Scott went to Washington as an underdog to take on the liberal establishment and Obamacare. He represented everyone and worked across the aisle. He represented the people and offered a fresh perspective. The environment then and today is really not all that different – we need to elect representatives who will make Washington work for us and move this country forward. Let’s let history repeat itself and get Republicans elected to office in Massachusetts.

Let me also take a moment to thank, and introduce you all, to my main support system, my wife, Diane and my son, Alec. Also, two of my brothers are here tonight, Drew and Richard. Thank you for all the support. I could not do it without you.

I am the youngest of seven children. My father was a decorated WWII veteran who taught me love of country and that America was the greatest country on the face of the earth. He also was the person who introduced me to Cape Cod where my family has created generations of memories. He had a medical office just down the street from here on Lewis Bay Road. I grew up spending every summer of my life in Chatham. Diane and I were married there and have owned a home there for 14 years. Our roots run deep, in fact, my older brother Bill was a Chatham police officer and a commercial fisherman in town. Just so you know, Bill is not shy about sharing his opinions with me, particularly about how Washington regulations and bureaucracy are hurting our fishing community.

I am not a politician. I have never before sought or held elected office. I’ve worked in the private sector, in government and in the non-profit area and I know we can be far more effective. My first job out of college was at the White House working as a young aide for the person I consider my political mentor, Ronald Reagan. President Reagan was a man of character and integrity, and he was committed to the Republican principles we all admire. From there, I went on to serve as an enforcement attorney at the SEC where I led investigations into financial corruption and excess. While in state government, I led a reform effort as an agency commissioner to streamline and make more efficient the process of protecting injured workers. And, I am proud to say that I served as the General Counsel at Joslin Diabetes Center, one of the most respected non-profits in the world and an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. I know how to get things done and have proven experience with that at each job I held.

I'm running for Congress because our elected representatives in Washington no longer listen to the people or act in their best interest. A good example of this is our current congressman, Bill Keating. He has defended Obamacare through all its failures. Let’s not forget: Massachusetts had already provided all our citizens with insurance. All we got from Obamacare was higher taxes, cancelled policies and a website that doesn’t work.

Obamacare is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the federal government, from the way it was passed on an entirely partisan basis, to the broken promises about keeping your healthcare plan if you like it, to higher taxes on individuals and businesses, including the medical device industry, which is an important growth sector of the Massachusetts economy.

I believe we can do better.

Reform of the healthcare system should happen at the state level, where local policymakers can devise solutions that work for them, as we did in Massachusetts.

There is so much more we can and should be doing on a whole number of fronts.

The dialogue in Congress needs to shift from the constant partisan bickering to what can be done to create an environment that will encourage job creation and growth. Jobs have to be the number one priority. The Massachusetts unemployment rate is higher than the national average. People are growing so discouraged that many of them are no longer counted in those employment numbers because they’ve simply given up.

That is unacceptable to me, and I won’t rest until everyone in Massachusetts who wants a job has one.

Beyond our borders, I’m concerned with our diminishing influence around the world. Radical jihadists want to cause the collapse of our country. They bombed the Boston Marathon, and they won’t stop there. Government has no higher duty than to keep us safe. We need to maintain America's leadership position in the world through a strong military. As Ronald Reagan once said, "Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong." Like Ronald Reagan, I refuse to accept a decline in America's power and prestige.

Out of control spending and debt are burdening all Americans and future generations. This is a true financial emergency. In light of this spending crisis, we need to look at reforms throughout the federal bureaucracy to deliver services more efficiently and reduce the cost of government.

We need to strengthen our immigration system so that more people can come here legally. At the same time, we must say no to illegal immigration which is unfair to the millions of foreigners who are playing by the rules and waiting patiently in line to come into this country legally.

In our schools, we need to increase accountability, close the achievement gap and give parents more choices. We need to take educational control away from the teacher’s unions and put it back in the hands of families and local communities. We should encourage the expansion of school choice through more charter schools. And we should reward our very best teachers with bonus pay. It is time to send someone to Washington who will look out for the common interests of students, parents and our most talented teachers.

Finally, let me mention what I think should be obvious to everyone. I believe a healthy two-party balance is necessary for government to work effectively. The current one-party monopoly in Massachusetts is bad for democracy and leads to bad decision-making. All six constitutional office holders, both US Senators and our entire congressional delegation are from the same party. This leads to poor policy, one-sided decision making and no sense of accountability to the people who elected each and every one of them. If any one of them had a moment of candor, I imagine even they would agree that one party rule is a bad thing. Sometimes I imagine our congressional delegation almost like a scene out of the show “Walking Dead” –marching like zombies in lockstep to cast votes for the Nancy Pelosi agenda.

We deserve better of our government. We need a whole new approach, a whole new way of thinking, and that is only going to happen if we send new people to Washington.

Republicans can and should win in this district. The agenda I will pursue is not a special interest agenda. I won’t take orders from the party bosses or the Washington insiders. My only concern will be the people of the Ninth Congressional District.

Thank you everyone for your support and for being here tonight.

I am excited about this race. I promise you that you won’t have to wait two years between elections to know what I have been doing for you in Washington. I will work hard for you, every day. Let’s go win this! We can do it!

For more information, please also see:
Campaign Website: http://www.johnchapman2014.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/johnchapman2014
Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/johnchapman2014

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From The Republican, January 16, 2014:

John Chapman, former official in Mitt Romney's administration, kicks off congressional campaign challenging Democratic US Rep. William Keating

by Shira Schoenberg

Republican John Chapman, who worked in former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's administration, will kick off his congressional campaign Thursday evening.

Chapman is running against incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. William Keating in the 9th congressional district.

Chapman said former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown will attend his campaign kickoff in Cape Cod.

"I am running for Congress because Washington has grown polarized, become more arrogant and lost touch with the people it represents," Chapman said in a statement.

It also points to the Affordable Care Act as "the poster child of everything wrong with federal government."

Chapman started his political career as an aide in the White House counsel's office under President Ronald Reagan. He worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission in the 1990s and was appointed by Romney as commissioner for the Department of Industrial Accidents.

He is an attorney who worked at the law firm Duane Morris and at the financial services firm Tucker Anthony Incorporated.

The ninth district covers Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties and some cities and towns in Bristol and Plymouth counties. Keating was elected to Congress in 2011.

Chapman released an announcement video in advance of the kickoff. The video is mostly biographical.

Original Article at The Republican

From Cape Cod Times, January 6, 2014:

Keating challenger emerges

by C. Ryan Barber

A Republican lawyer who was once a young aide in the Reagan administration and appointee under former Gov. Mitt Romney is now putting his own name on the ballot in hopes of unseating Democratic U.S. Rep. William Keating.

John Chapman, 49, who lives with his wife and 14-year-old son in Brookline and Chatham, filed official paperwork last week with the Federal Election Commission and launched his campaign website shortly thereafter.

He joins a GOP primary field that includes Pembroke resident Vincent A. Cogliano Jr., chairman of Plymouth County GOP, a political action committee; and Mark C. Alliegro, of East Falmouth, a cell biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.

Both have filed formal statements of candidacy, according to FEC records, but neither could be reached for comment.

In a brief interview, Chapman described himself as a "fiscal conservative and social moderate" but declined to discuss his platform in detail, deciding to wait until after his campaign's official kickoff later this month. Chapman said his thoughts on running for office, which have simmered since his first job as a White House aide, picked up to a boil after the passage and rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

From "the way it was passed" to "the false promises that were made" about everyone being allowed to keep their health plans, Chapman said, the law was "really not working." He then deferred to a comment posted on his website.

"I am running for Congress because Washington has grown polarized, become more arrogant and lost touch with the people it represents," he said in the online statement. "Obamacare is the poster child for a federal government that's not working, from the way it was passed on an entirely partisan basis, to the broken promises about keeping your health care if you like it, to the higher taxes imposed on businesses and individuals."

Chapman said he worked in the 1990s in the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, leading investigations into Wall Street corruption and financial fraud. Chapman served in several roles under Romney, including as commissioner of the Department of Industrial Accidents, which oversees the state's workers' compensation system.

Later, Chapman said, he was a partner at the law firm Duane Morris LLP before becoming general counsel for the Joslin Diabetes Center.

Compared with the rest of the deep-blue Bay State, the 9th Congressional District is considered relatively friendly to Republican candidates. Former Sen. Scott Brown and GOP newcomer Gabriel Gomez both found success on Cape Cod and in Southeastern Massachusetts, only to lose statewide.

But Stonehill College professor Peter Ubertaccio, of Sandwich, said Chapman, like the two other Republicans in the field, would likely find it difficult to unseat an incumbent Democrat like Keating, who was first elected in November 2010 and easily won a second term two years later.

"Keating's district was favorable to Scott Brown. It was favorable to Gomez. But that was a relatively low-turnout affair," said Ubertaccio, director of the college's Joseph Martin Institute on politics and public policy. "So (Keating) can't take it for granted, but there's no history of voters in this state turning out a Democratic incumbent without corruption or malfeasance attached to them."

Ubertaccio said a Republican could pick up added momentum from GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker's run, noting that state Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, might leave the Legislature after this year, her last as president. State Rep. Vinny deMacedo, a Plymouth Republican, has shown interest in running for the seat if Murray steps down.

Lauren Amendolara, a Keating spokeswoman, said the Bourne Democrat is focused on his current term, not winning another.

"As the year unfolds and the three contestants in the Republican primary pursue their campaigns, Congressman Keating looks forward to a general election next November," she said. "But right now, he is focused on meeting the needs of the residents of his district on a day-to-day basis."

Original Article at Cape Cod Times