Greg Harris was an American politician of the Democratic party and was a member of Cincinnati City Council. He lost the November 2009 election to keep his seat on Council.

2004 Congressional race

As director of a local public policy organization, Harris was well known in political circles but had little public name recognition. He focused his 2004 race on voter registration and turnout, and his surprising performance encouraged the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. They play a critical role in recruiting candidates, raising funds, and organizing races in districts that are expected to yield...

 (DCCC) to target the race in 2006. Harris decided against another race against Chabot despite support from Paul Hackett and then-Congressman and future Ohio Governor Ted Strickland

Ted Strickland

Theodore "Ted" Strickland was the 68th Governor of Ohio, serving from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing ....

.

Late in the 2004 campaign, Harris was named to Howard Dean

Howard Dean

Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...

's "Dean Dozen," although this "net-roots" support was too late to affect the outcome of the election. While Ohio's First congressional district is largely Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 and right of center, Harris ran as an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq and in support of such causes as universal health care, energy independence, campaign finance reform, and increased education funding. Harris was endorsed by the progressive Cincinnati weekly newspaper, CityBeat

Cincinnati CityBeat

Cincinnati CityBeat is an independent local arts and issues publication covering the Cincinnati, Ohio area. It has the second largest readership in the Cincinnati area behind the daily Cincinnati Enquirer.-History:...

, as well as the region's African American newspaper, the Cincinnati Herald.

2007 City Council race

Despite a strong showing, Harris was unsuccessfully in his run for Cincinnati City council in the November 2007 election.

2009 City Council appointee

After John Cranley stepped down from his seat on the Cincinnati City Council, Harris was sworn in as his replacement on January 12, 2009.

Councilman Harris lost his seat in the 2009 Cincinnati City Council election. He finished in 10th place, with a total of 23,943 votes.

External links

• Greg Harris for Council 2009 Campaign Website
• Transcript from the CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight profile of Harris' candidacy:
• Transcript from ABC affiliate on Howard Dean appearance on behalf of Greg Harris,