Everyone keeps asking me: “Where’s your campaign office?” Our campaign is moving forward, volunteer activity is buzzing, and the optimism and excitement are palpable. So where’s this storefront office with the big BISS sign in the window? Where’s the hub of activity, where do we show up to get involved?

Well, there isn’t an office. We don’t have an address … yet.

The problem is that campaign offices cost a quite a bit of money, and heading into a tough election year against an extremely well-funded opponent, I need to squirrel away as many resources as possible.

But you can help. You can accelerate our ability to open a storefront office by helping to underwrite the costs.

Please contribute $35, $75, $150, or whatever you can toward the cost of getting our campaign a real address.

Obviously, we’ll need to open an office eventually, but if we can raise $2,500 from contributions like yours, we’ll be able to put down roots two months earlier than we otherwise would. If you want to begin spending your time in a humming campaign office, please click here give and help support that cause.

Thank you for your commitment to the campaign. I hope to see you soon, in our office or somewhere else!

Daniel meets thousands of 17th District residents during the course of his door to door walks.  This is part of a series of profiles of people in our community who first got to know Daniel at their doors. Read the most current profile below or click here to see others.

Daniel knocked on my door early in the summer of 2008. The two qualities that made an immediate impression on me were that he’s a good listener and that he is smart. I want smart people in government. I appreciate his mathematical mind—a real asset in government.

We had a spirited and substantive discussion about charter schools in my doorway. That was what I most wanted to talk about because I am very involved in the charter school movement. Our dialogue convinced me that I could trust Daniel’s decision-making process. He consults multiple sources for information, he asks probing questions, and he is open-minded about the input he receives. He wasn’t just willing to hear my viewpoint, he was eager. And he is committed to coming up with creative solutions to problems and issues, to representing the interests of his constituents.

I told Daniel that education is the single most important issue to me. Our education system needs to work for all children, no matter what their needs or their families’ financial resources. Any school setting, no matter how exemplary, might not be a good fit for every child. My daughter is having a very successful experience at ETHS; she receives special education services and is very well supported. But the high school has 3,000 students, and I believe some kids might simply do better in a smaller or different environment.

Lisa Simon Cohen lives in Skokie, her home for 20 years. It’s an understatement to say that Lisa is passionate about education issues. A former special education teacher, she worked for many years as an education consultant and for a charter school management company. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary and childhood education from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in special education from the University of Oregon. Lisa has been unemployed for three years and is working on her recertification exams in elementary and special education. She expects to complete the recertification process in the spring. Lisa has three children; her youngest is a student at Evanston Township High School (ETHS).

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