Professional and Political Career
While in college at the Ohio State University, Carper worked on the presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy, the Minnesota peace candidate. In Delaware he worked as the campaign treasurer for University of Delaware professor James R. Soles in his unsuccessful 1974 bid for the U.S. House of Representatives.
After receiving his MBA degree in 1975, Carper went to work for the State of Delaware's economic development office. In 1976, after developing good relationships with members of the state party leadership, he took out a $5,000 personal loan to fund his campaign for the Treasurer of Delaware. After convincing the party leaders, and later the voters, that he was the right person to be Delaware State Treasurer, he defeated the favored Republican Party candidate, Theodore Jones. He served three terms, from January 18, 1977 through January 3, 1983, during which time he oversaw the development of Delaware's first cash management system.
Encouraged by local politicians, Carper successfully ran for Delaware's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. He served five terms in the House, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization. In 1992 he arranged a "swap" with term-limited Governor Michael Castle, and the two were easily elected to each other's seats. Carper governed for two terms as a moderate, business-oriented "New Democrat", following the lead of the two previous Republican governors. He successfully prevented the closing of a General Motors automobile plant and won a bid for the headquarters of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. He led a tax-reduction campaign and helped improve the state's credit rating from among the worst in the nation to an excellent "AAA". He pushed for standards-based education, among other reforms.
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