Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015

Tags

Cass County, Jim White, missouri, Patty Johnson, Scott Sifton, Wes Shoemyer

Cass County Democrats held their annual Back to Blue Dinner in Belton on Saturday evening. As is their custom, they had a full slate of candidates and guests speaking to the crowd. A sample:

Jim White, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District.

Jim White (D): …And this is what I’m running on, investing in our citizens. We want to invest in their economic well-being. Fifteen bucks an hour and a union. A living wage for all workers. [applause, cheers] At the poverty level today there is only one household that can work for minimum wage and even reach the poverty level – and that’s a household with a single person and only if they work forty hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year, which, of course, they’re not gonna get to do. Uh, we all know that the path to the middle class has always been led by organized labor….

Patty Johnson, former Democratic Party legislative candidate.

Patty Johnson (D): ….We’re here because we care about the Democratic Party and because we care about Democratic principles. And how many of you here tonight have worked on someone’s campaign, made phone calls, walked door to door, or did parades? So you all believe, too. And I’m just here to remind you tonight how important your work is and to thank you all so much for all that you’ve done for all of us who’ve run for office and how much we still need for you to do. Jim [White] is going to need all your help. And I know we have a candidate for Attorney General here – and he’s going to need your help. So I’m asking you here tonight to remember why you’re here. The reason that you’re a Democratic is because you care about people, because you want everyone to have the same opportunities that we had growing up. You want your children to have an education, you want good jobs for them when they get out of school, and you all, we all want to have a decent retirement… [….] …We need your hard work. We need you to keep going. And I think that it’s already been referenced that you all realize there’s an election coming up in November of twenty-sixteen. The work for that election starts here tonight. You all have done something toward that because you’ve contributed money for tables and advertising and we appreciate that because that money goes to help us to help our candidates. And here in Cass County, God knows, we need a lot of help. [laughter] And I also want to recognize Janet Burlingame, too. And I want to recognize her for her courage and integrity in running her race for County Clerk and remaining a Democrat and staying true to her principles. For her [applause]…because that’s what makes us different than Republicans, we actually believe in something. We actually work towards those things we believe in. And I wanted to leave you all with a small visual tonight. We are surrounded by Republican darkness. And we can sit here and curse the darkness or we can light a candle. I choose to light a candle. And I hope you’ll leave here tonight with me and take that light out to the people who are sitting still in the darkness and who need our help and guidance to come back to light and the Democratic principles we believe in. So, thank you all so much for being here. [applause]….

Senator Scott Sifton, a Democratic Party candidate for Attorney General in 2016.

Senator Scott Sifton (D): ….And I, I gotta tell you, I know that the previous speaker was asked, uh, to keep her remarks brief. I was thinking of maybe showing you what a Senate filibuster is like, but I, I’m actually saving it for when the “right to work” bill comes to the floor of the Senate. [applause, cheers] There is only one way that bill is gonna come to a vote in the Senate and that’s if the Republicans exercise the nuclear option. I am proud to have been the last Democrat standing against the seventy-two hour waiting period, which was the last time the Republicans exercised the nuclear option. [applause] And there is no way in the world they will get me to sit down voluntarily when “right to work” comes to the floor. I will debate it all night long. [applause]….

Former Senator Wes Shoemyer (D): ….I don’t think that an insurance company that runs around calling their name Farm Bureau represents nobody in the agriculture world. [applause] [….]

….There are some things that really torque me about, uh, what Republicans have claimed and claimed to be….I recall when I was in Jeff City there was a piece of legislation that came up and, for, drug testing for TANF recipients. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Think about it. Now this was the only folks in the whole State of Missouri that got a check signed by the state treasury or federal treasury that we thought ought to pee in a cup to get their money. Think about it. I mean, I’ve had, the day I pee in my cup to get my farm payment probably it would be a good time we could do it for the folks on TANF, wouldn’t it? When Clark [inaudible] wants to pee in a cup for his forty million on his stadium [inaudible} I’ll pee in a cup, too. [applause, cheers]….