Harvard Physicist Runs For Congress

When Harvard nanotechnology researcher Michael P. Stopa went to the polls in 2008, there was only one name on the ballot for the Third District of Massachusetts’s Congressional seat—incumbent Democrat Jim McGovern.

Partly in response to what he said he saw as a lack of alternatives for voters, Stopa declared his candidacy for the position, and he held a campaign kickoff event on Sunday.

“I thought, ‘Next time, the least I can do is go out there and collect the signatures so that this guy can have someone to run against,’” said Stopa, who works at the Center for Nanoscale Systems.

The Third District is traditionally a Democratic stronghold, and McGovern has run unopposed in three of the last four elections. But Stopa said that there has been a call for conservative candidates in the district, which includes both “Democratic havens” of Fall River and Worcester and more conservative middle class suburbs of Boston.

In the recent special election to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat, winner and current Republican Senator Scott P. Brown only lost two towns in the Third District.

“The momentum is on the Republican side, but November is still a long ways off,” said Harvard Republican Club President Mark A. Isaacson ’11, who is also a editorial columnist for The Crimson. “There is

certainly a great deal of work to do, especially in those traditionally Democratic districts.”

In the Sep. 14 primary, Stopa will face at least four other Republicans: Robert J. Chipman, who specializes in construction loans at Wells Fargo, lawyers Robert Delle and Marty Lamb, and Chair of the Hopkinton Board of Selectman Brian J. Herr.

Stopa said he plans to focus on fiscal responsibility, health care reform, and immigration. He said that like voters, he is nervous and angry about the current direction of the country.

His experience as a conservative in the traditionally liberal communities of Harvard and Cambridge also had an “instigating effect” on his interest in running for office as a Republican, Stopa said. But he added he often does not discuss his against-the-grain political views with his liberal colleagues.

In fact, his friend Robert M. Westervelt, a physics professor at Harvard, said he was unaware of Stopa’s campaign and did not know Stopa’s political leanings. Although their political views fall on different sides of the aisle, Westervelt said he believes that Stopa would do a good job if elected.

“He’s very patient, and he wants to find out what other people think,” Westervelt said. “He molds what he’s doing to problems people are interested in. Those are the kind of properties you’d like to have in a leader.”

—Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.