Despite the fact he's a relative newcomer to Pennsylvania and has never held an elective office, Dr. Steven Porter says by no means should he be considered a long shot in his race for the 3rd District Congressional seat in 2004.

"I am not a long shot," said Porter, 60, of Wattsburg in Erie County. "I'm certainly not the incumbent and I'm an underdog, but I am not a long shot."

While he might not consider himself a long shot, many political pundits probably would as Porter, a Democrat, attempts to unseat five-term incumbent Republican Phil English next year.

"This seat is vulnerable," said Porter, who recently retired after 37 years in education as a college professor, high school teacher and public school administrator. "I think this is a very winnable seat and when people understand how this guy has voted they'll turn him out. He's done nothing for this area in 10 years. And he has supported the policies that have killed it, hurt it and harmed it economically and in terms of health care."

While Porter said he hasn't officially announced his candidacy yet -- he's waiting for a public endorsement from the Erie County Democratic Party that he said should come in December -- he filed his candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission in July and said his campaign committee has already raised $60,000.

Porter was born in New York City in 1943 and earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in fine arts and educational administration. He has an extensive music background, having published more than 100 pieces of choral music and 15 books ranging in topics from fine arts to political ethics. He and his wife Rita have been married for 29 years.

Porter was the head of the Musical Theater Department at Mercyhurst College in Erie for the 2002-03 school year before the school disbanded it this year for budgetary reasons, prompting his retirement. He still teaches some adjunct courses at the school. Prior to his arrival at Mercyhurst, Porter had served as the director of fine arts for the Binghamton (N.Y.) City School District since 1984.

Porter is a self-proclaimed lifelong Democrat, but said he was inactive in politics for nearly two decades after working as an organizer for the Bobby Kennedy presidential campaign in 1968 on the campus of Queens College.

His political experience primarily starts and ends with four failed attempts between 1990 and 2000 at the 51st District state senatorial seat in New York while he was living in Binghamton.

"What kept me going back was the people I represented desperately needed a voice," Porter said of his four New York campaigns in a district where Republicans outnumbered Democrats 3-to-1. "And I didn't think it was right to give the opposition a free ride."

And that, he added, was exactly what was happening here. After moving to Pennsylvania in 2002, Porter said he noticed there was no Democrat running against English that year. AnnDrea Benson, a Green Party candidate, was his only opposition.

So earlier this year he went to Democratic Party leaders in Erie County, asking if they knew of anyone planning to challenge English. And if so, he told them he would be willing to offer his assistance. Party leaders responded by asking Porter if he would be willing to run if no one else came forward and he said yes.

"English is literally a Bush clone and there are so many issues that he votes for that are abominable, for example what happened (this week) with Medicare," Porter said. "When I saw there was no opposition to him, it just drove me nuts. I felt very strongly all the way down to my socks that if we don't change the direction of the country things are only going to get worse. And they're pretty bad now. We have a declining economy, we are quagmired in Iraq, and the health care system is a terribly cruel hoax perpetrated on the senior citizens of this country."

As for his political philosophy, Porter calls himself a constitutionalist. "I don't believe in tampering with the Constitution," he said.

Regarding his stance on some of the hot-button issues, Porter said he was pro-choice when it comes to abortion, and a supporter of Second Amendment gun rights and term limits, except for the presidency because that limit has been established by the constitution.

You can e-mail Herald Political Writer Jeff Greenburg at jgreenburg@sharonherald.com.