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Former ITAA president makes US Senate bid

17.01.2006
Harris Miller was president of the Information Technology Association of America trade group in Alexandria, Va., for more than a decade until he stepped down this month to seek the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia. Miller, 54, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1984. He spoke last week with Computerworld about his new plan to run for public office and Oracle Corp.'s decision to drop out of the ITAA in response.

What motivated you to run for the Senate? My concern about the future. That's really why I was at the ITAA, because I'm perceived as a visionary who's looking ahead. I don't see a good future for our country when we're running unbelievably massive deficits, when we're relying on investment from China. We've fallen into 17th or 18th in the world in science and math scores for our students. We're cutting student loans. Our country is sixth in the world in research and development investment per capita. I'm just afraid the country has gone off track.

Since you're coming from the ITAA, will technology issues be a key part of your campaign platform? I'm running to talk about how you cannot have a technological revolution without investing in people. In fact, cutting college student loans, which is what Congress is looking to do, is actually going backward. You can't have technology without skilled people. You can't have technology without investment.

When your plans became public, Oracle announced that it was leaving the ITAA because you're going to be taking on Republican Sen. George Allen, who is seen by Oracle as an established friend of the IT industry. What is your reaction to Oracle's move? I've always had a good relationship with the people at Oracle. They've been very active in the ITAA. I have no idea what [Oracle's departure] is all about. I was a little surprised by their comments.

So why are you taking on Allen, if he really is a friend of IT vendors? Allen has been part of the problem. He has the third-highest support scores for President Bush's policies among all U.S. senators. Clearly, he's interested in running for president. I'll be a full-time senator for Virginia.

As president of the ITAA, you said in the past that you opposed verifiable paper trails for e-voting systems. What is your stand on that issue as a candidate? I did oppose verifiable paper trails until about a year and a half ago. I was hearing from local registrars, including in Virginia, that they didn't want the additional burden for administration and maintenance that the paper trails would produce with printers and other equipment. But voters want it. It has more voter confidence.