Stonington's Scott Bates

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

By RYAN GAINOR

STONINGTON -- Growing up in Mystic, Scott Bates never minded when his Coast Guard officer father couldn’t make it to his Little League games.

“I knew he was serving his country, and that’s where I learned that the greatest thing you can ever do is to serve your country,” said Bates.

After getting a D in algebra at Mystic Middle School, Bates figured West Point and its engineering curriculum were not for him, but remained sure that he should serve his country somehow. He has, and continues to do that.

Bates currently works for the Center for National Policy in Washington D.C. on nuclear proliferation, specifically keeping weapons away from terrorists, and for the National Democratic Institute promoting democracy in Qatar and Bahrain.

These two positions are his latest stops in a career that has included serving under the first elected black governor in American history, being the youngest person to hold the title of Secretary of State in any of the 50 states, relief and democracy work in war-torn Kosovo and work in Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11.

Bates recently found himself moderating a discussion on democracy in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar when the question was posed: What exactly is democracy?

He had a simple answer.

“Tomorrow I go back home and have to justify the budget,” said Bates, who lives in Stonington Borough and serves as a burgess there. “And my neighbors can vote in favor or against it. And then next year they can throw me out of office. That is democracy.”

It is his service in the very local realm that is Borough government that Bates says he has enjoyed as much as any.

“It was my greatest honor to be chosen by my friends and neighbors last May,” he said. “This is where my son is going to grow up. I want it to be the best place it can be.”

Bates lives in the Borough with his 19-month-old son Jacob and wife Lisa.

He was the top vote-getter during last year’s Borough election in his first run for elected office, but it was far from his first go-around in electoral politics. After graduating from St. Bernard High School in 1984, Bates went to Dayton University, graduating early in hopes of joining the Gary Hart presidential campaign.

When that candidacy died almost as soon as it began, Bates got a job with a candidate in his home state with seemingly little chance of success — Joe Lieberman, who was taking a crack at the U.S. Senate.

After Lieberman’s surprise win, Bates set out for graduate school at the London School of Economics. It was after completing that year of study that the world of policy and reality connected.

Bates went to China shortly after the violence of Tiananmen Square, so soon that the blood stains were still on the street.

“That was a real wake-up call. I saw how the real world can be,” he said.

Graduate degree in hand, Bates moved on to Washington D.C., taking a job with an Illinois congressman before moving on to a job at the Virginia capital. There, Bates worked as the Democratic caucus director before moving into the governor’s policy staff.

“It was fun being a Connecticut Yankee in Virginia,” Bates said.

It also gave Bates the chance to work under Doug Wilder, America’s first elected black governor. When Wilder announced a bid for the presidency, Bates went to Iowa for six weeks setting up an operation before his boss realized it wasn’t in the cards.

Eventually, Wilder would appoint Bates Secretary of the Commonwealth (the equivalent of Secretary of State) to fill out the final year of a vacated term.

“I was 26 when I was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth,” he said.

When Wilder left office, Bates moved on to the University of Virginia School of Law, where he earned a law degree. As soon as he graduated, he traveled to Texas, running a successful congressional campaign. Immediately after he worked on a second Texas congressional special election campaign, which was also successful.

“I like a good fight when you can stand for what you believe,” he said.

Bates worked for four years as a political strategist, then became aware of a situation that changed his course again. In 1997, Bates saw what was happening with the genocide in Kosovo.

“I just went there, I didn’t know what I would do,” he said.

He hooked up with the National Democratic Institute to do relief work in Kosovo, and eventually worked as an advisor for the country’s first parliamentary elections a few years later.

“I saw the birth of a new nation,” he said.

During his work with the parliament in Kosovo, the attacks of Sept. 11 happened. He went to Afghanistan in June of 2002, working with delegates to set up a new government there. Eventually, however, he became sick and had to be flown out.

This was decision time for Bates: Go back to Kabul for six months, or marry Lisa and move back to Washington? It turned out not to be a difficult choice.

Bates began work for the House Committee on Homeland Security in the U.S. House of Representatives, eventually helping to draft a plan that would be a precursor to the 9/11 Commission Report.

But by then, he had been too long from home.

“I decided I wanted to move back and raise my family,” he said.

Now, Jacob gets to play in the yard where Bates grew up. And Jacob’s father gets to learn about local government and the immediacy of interacting with your constituency.

“It is some of the most rewarding work, making sure your neighbors are a little safer,” he said.