How the meltdown of the financial system has damaged our country, destroying small businesses, decimating retirement savings, wiping out jobs and hurting homeowners--and why I am running for US Senate.

This has been an exceedingly difficult time for our country. Americans and Idahoans from every walk of life have been hurt by the economic earthquake that hit in 2008. Millions have lost their jobs, their homes, and their sense of optimism and pride. For many, the aftershocks will reverberate for years to come.

I, like most of you who will read this, experienced this breakdown directly. I still can't get out of my mind the almost overwhelming sense of powerlessness that I felt in the wake of this economic storm. It was humbling, bewildering, and angering.

I know firsthand what it is like to work tirelessly, build assets, and provide for a family, only to watch as the biggest banks, insurance companies, and Wall Street investment houses who held our savings and retirements collapsed under the weight of their own fraud, abuse, and greed, taking our economy and the economic stability of much of the world with them. This is the shocking but in hindsight, predictable result of years of widespread and unchecked greed, masked as financial wizardry. Our economic system, which has always depended upon the entrepreneurial zeal of ethical people for its energy, and which has also always required a reasonable system of checks and balances that trusts but verifies that everyone is playing by reasonable rules, broke down.

At the heart of the question of why I have decided to run for the United States Senate is this: I never again want to experience that sense of powerlessness; I never again want to see my country laid low by the unethical and unchecked actions of the powerful and self-interested few. What happened was not only the result of flagrant irresponsibility and incompetence on the part of many of America's most trusted business leaders: it was also the result of an unconscionable failure of political responsibility.

America is a system in which private enterprise provides the means of achieving economic prosperity, and the government provides the assurance of fair play. It is a system of checks and balances, opportunity and enterprise, that has served us well. But in 2008, years of inattention to the integrity of that system finally resulted in catastrophic failure. A failure of reason. A failure of ethics. A failure of governance.

I am choosing to enter politics at this stage in my life because I simply can't sit idly by and hope that someone else will chart our course for the future. I choose to run for the US Senate to unseat a man who has been too long seated; a man I believe has allowed himself to trust without verifying the integrity of the financial system it was his explicit duty to oversee as ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on Financial Institutions; a man who could have been a powerful voice for the people, but chose to align himself most closely with the forces that brought this country to its knees. I choose to run because my own sense as a citizen is that I'm in a position to help my countrymen, my Idaho neighbors, my friends, and my family with energy, common sense, discernment and the tireless dedication that is necessary to find thoughtful, intelligent and effective solutions.

In every crisis there is opportunity-we have only to choose it. My candidacy offers you a clear choice on Election Day.

I've Lived It

In 2008, I sold part of a self-sustaining and profitable business I had started in 1999. I paid off the business's debts, began work on a promising new venture, and with the proceeds of the sale, purchased a piece of income-producing commercial property. I had an excellent financial track record, fine working relationships with two major banks, and ready access to credit. It was this access to credit (the engine that drives our economic system) that would allow me to both develop my new product, and cover the taxes on the sale that would be due the following year.

We had developed a new product and we were multiplying quickly. We employed a growing staff of sales and support professionals. Things were moving in the right direction.

Suddenly-almost overnight-I could not access credit to run my business. The banks that held my credit lines both failed and were taken over by the FDIC. The profits I had reinvested lost value and the cash I invested was inaccessible. I had to work with the IRS to devise an extended payment schedule to pay the taxes I owed for 2008. More than 70% has already been paid. I am lucky to still have my home and a healthy family. I know many others in this country have not been so lucky.

Credit, in reasonable amounts to people who are able to pay their debts is one of the great lifelines of our economy. It allows people to purchase homes and improve them; it allows small businesses to develop and grow jobs and value, which make our economy stronger.

When banks, insurance companies like AIG, and Wall Street investment companies manipulate our economy through fraud and abuse, and when our government regulatory agencies fail to do their job and stop them, the stability of our economy and our country is put at risk. We are all hurt as a result of their greed, fraud, and incompetence. The economic landscape became so tragic in 2008 that many known brands including Circuit City, Levitz Furniture, Linens & Things, Woolworth's and many more companies failed as a direct result of the financial meltdown. This is a result of the credit markets being frozen; businesses become squeezed for cash; jobs are lost; homes values fall.

Suppose you have paid off the first mortgage on your home and are relying on your home equity line of credit or other bank credit to finance needed repairs and maintenance. All of a sudden the roof needs to be replaced, but your bank refuses to lend on your credit line. You can't fix the roof, so the value of your home steadily declines. Your cash is tied up in your home and you can't get at it except to sell. So you sell at a very depressed price. A large portion of your savings and security is gone. Your home is gone. To purchase a new one, you will need some type of mortgage which, if you can get it, will likely be costly in terms of fees and the interest rate. Or you move in to a rental. However you look at it, value is lost and people are suffering.

Business suffers as well. By October and November of 2008 the world watched in horror and amazement as the entire economy began to fail. The banking industry collapse took many casualties as a witness to its greed. I watched as neighbors lost homes and closed up businesses. And it continues today; every day I speak to businesses and individuals who fear they are about to lose everything.

For too long, I searched for solutions while using my cash on hand to keep my employees on the pay roll. I began to sell off my assets to keep moving forward. Eventually I was forced to lay off many of my long time employees and halt growth to a snail's pace. I am finding innovative ways to grow in this new market, but the adjustment has not been easy, and the solutions have not been simple.

Like many Americans, if I had known that the banking industry was on the verge of collapse I would have done things differently. I also know that we must change course if we want a different economic future. I am working to rebuild my business and I believe in a prosperous future. But big changes are needed to get there and I want to help shape those changes.

The U.S. Senate is such a place. The legislation it has enacted over the last 10 years, coupled with government agencies asleep at the wheel while abuses in the financial sector were building to catastrophic levels, created the perfect storm. Those who were in charge are part of the problem.

To expect a different outcome, we need to elect new people with new values, who are fiercely dedicated to work vigilantly on our behalf, who have lived this disaster, not those who presided unaware over the meltdown of our economy and our security.

As Senator I will work tirelessly to insure that this type of crisis never happens again. Not on my watch!

NEVER AGAIN.

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Man is a composite of his culture, his country, his life experiences and his family. So, I'll share a little about my family first.

My father, L. Patrick Sullivan, was a Korean War vet. Both my sister and brother served honorably in the U.S. Air Force. My sister served during peace years, but with the advent of the Iraq war, my brother has been stationed in all the hot spots: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, and more. My older brother studied engineering at F.I.T. and worked at NASA. The threads of public service to our country weave a strong fabric throughout the history of our family.

After my father's death, my mother's natural curiosity and adventurous spirit led us from the East Coast to the Midwest to California's most western shores and finally to northern Idaho's panhandle where I spent my teenage years. We homesteaded a 10-acre plot near the top of the Hoodoo Mountains. We hewed a log cabin out of the wilderness with axes and a 2-man saw. The family motto in those years emphasized self-reliance and cooperation.

Overall, these maturing years taught me the importance of understanding people with varying backgrounds. They may have cultural differences, but above all, they are Americans, united in the love of our great country, literally from sea to shining sea.

Education is highly prized in our family. So much so, that when a teacher's strike delayed the graduating class's diplomas, I was encouraged to take the GED exam, so I could enter college in the summer term. Continuing education could not be delayed because of a teacher's strike!

The Great American Dream of entrepreneurship lured me into the business world where I established my first successful enterprise-a paper company, using recycled paper, and built upon the premise that if it was environmentally sound it would benefit our nation. We were one of the first to go green.

With each step, working my way up the economic ladder from my first job as a paperboy while still in elementary school through my teenage years of bucking hay and changing irrigation pipes, on throughout my business career, I have endeavored to think first of what is beneficial for my local community, my family, and my country. To use a very old cliche, I have literally pulled myself up the ladder of financial success by my bootstraps, I am today the owner of a merchant processing firm and a partner in a small weekly newspaper.

It is time to reestablish a fair shake and honesty between big commercial banks and small businessmen! This is one of the reasons I am running for Senator. The 2008 recession hit us all hard. As a merchant banker, I can do little to change the laws which devastated our communities, but as your Senator, I can use my experience and expertise in this field to help promote renewed prosperity for our business community.

I have two children, my daughter Aidan who is 13 and my son Liam who is 10. Both are happy, healthy and 100% supportive of my bid for United States Senate.

Seeing my wife develop a successful career as a self-taught artist has reinforced the principles I learned many years ago: you don't need a degree to make a difference in the world; creative thinking is a simple concept and a powerful tool, and persistence pays off. Watching my wife's career over the years, I recognize the parallels of politics and art. Anyone can have pretty colors on a palette, but they will never create beauty if they can't get them to work together and relate to each other. Kelly has been a driving steady force in my life for over 14 years, and I am a blessed man to call her my wife.

Together, we hope to make an appreciable difference towards the peace, prosperity and the values of our state's, and our nation's, ultimate destination.

You know me. I am Tom Sullivan, a self-reliant problem solver who believes in cooperation and diplomacy at all levels of the human endeavor; a devoted husband, a doting father, a successful businessman, and a good neighbor.

"It takes a village" are more than just idle words. Working together, you and I, as Americans, can make a difference as we step into the future and, hand-in-hand, hold to the values of democracy while strengthening the constitutional goals of our great country.

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