State Auditor Nicole Galloway (D) spoke last night at the Cass County Democrats “Red, White and Blue Collar Celebration” Back to Blue dinner in Raymore.

Video by Jerry Schmidt:

Previously:

Cass County Democrats – Back to Blue – April 28, 2018 (April 29, 2018)

On Saturday statewide candidates were traveling, dropping in, and speaking at events across the state. Judy Baker, the Democtaic Party nominee for State Treasurer, made one such stop on Saturday evening at a picnic sponsored by Cass County Democrats in Belton, Missouri.

Judy Baker, the Democratic Party nominee for State Treasurer, speaking to Cass County Democrats in Belton, Missouri – September 10, 2016.

Judy Baker (D): ….I’m Judy Baker and I’m running for Treasurer of the State of Missouri. A lot of you don’t know me ‘cause I see new faces and I met some new people.

And the most important thing for you to do is remember my name when you’re talking with your neighbors and when you go into the voting booth. So I’m gonna make you say my name. What is my name? [voices: “Judy Baker.”] I’m gonna make you say it at the end, too, so don’t forget it.

I want to tell you little bit about my race, about me. Uh, but mostly I want to talk with you about we’re gonna do this together. Uh, I am the sixth race down [on the ballot] and the most important thing for us to do is, of course, other people go into the booth, right, and they vote for president and they vote for governor and vote for their United States senator and they get all the way down to Gordon [Christensen] [laughter] and then they start dropping off. Our most important thing to do if we want to sweep this state blue, and I do mean sweep it, all, all of the statewide races we’re gonna have to get people down the ticket and care about the person in number six. That’s me. All the way down the ticket.

So that’s what I’m asking you to do, is to talk about folks all the way down the ticket. Okay, not just me, but all of us, all the way down the ticket. And we’ll do our job to help you be proud of who you’re talking about.

So I talked with you back in June or so, when we were at that dinner, about the State of Missouri and the poverty that we have and we have children who are food insecure and we have people who can’t save for their future and what we’re going to do about it. And we talked, remember we talked about, is that the Missouri we want? And you said, no. And that we’re going to build the Missouri that we want together. And I’m continuing that quest.

I’m working under a banner of build access, build lives. I love audience participation, so I’m gonna say build access. You say build lives. Build access [voices: “Build lives.”]. What do I mean by that? I men, a lot of what labor has done for us, what unions and collective bargaining has done for us, is to give us weekends, and to give us paid time off, and to give us health care, to give us retirements, and to give us a collective voice.

Building assets in one’s life is having those things. And how do you save for a future if, if you don’t have health care? How do you save for college if you don’t have a good education? I mean these are the things that are fundamental to us building assets in our lives. As State Treasurer I’m gonna make my whole tenure there about economic opportunity for all and how we help Missourians build assets. Build assets, build lives. That’s what we’re going to do.

Now, my opponent is so very different in this regard. My opponent is talking about Trump, it’s almost like he’s adopted Trump tactics. Do we love Donald Trump? [voices: “No.”] He has Trump tactics. And he’s already started attacking me which probably means that I’m closer than I think to him [laughter]. He probably has internal polling that shows that he’s got to start attacking me so early. Which makes me feel good. [laughter] Sort of.

He has started talking in the same vein as Trump. He’s trying to scare people. He’s trying to make them anxious, he’s trying to make them feel like, you know, Democrats don’t have anything going on. I’m here to tell you today that we in this country, in this state, do not need fear. We need courage. They are breeding fear and anxiety. It’s just making us weak. If they think they’re making us stronger by making us afraid they are dead wrong. We need courage and optimism in this state and that’s I’m spreading everywhere I go.

As state treasurer I want to do children’s savings accounts so children learn to save early and they get financial literacy [inaudible] for K-12 so they can build a future and start talking to their parent’s about it. What I’m I gonna be when I grow up? I’ve heard a, a joke just recently that a person, when asked, you know, uh, some, some folks at an elementary school, what do you want to be when you grow up? And they said, you know, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, and a firefighter, and a police officer, and, you know, kind of all the, the usual and they got to one little kid that was very, very, uh, nicely dressed . What do you want to be when you grow up? He says, a lobbyist. [laughter] That’s what my opponent wishes everyone would grow up to be because he has taken so much money from so many people [inaudible] favors. We’re gonna make sure that the people who vote, are voting know what he does. Hoe he votes for lobbyists and doesn’t take care of people.

That’s what I’m gonna do and you know that. You know my heart and you know that my heart is as a public servant. And I will continue that as state treasurer.

Uh, so I’m gonna ask you to help. This really important that we get out and do what we need to do. I’m gonna tell you a short story. There was a man that was, uh, talking to his, his grandchildren and he was talking about his farther. And he said, my father used to go in town, um, and sell vegetables. That’s what his mother and dad made money on. We would go with them, we would go in town and sell vegetables and they, they got their chickens from a man named Freddie. And one day Freddie left the chickens while they were in town selling vegetables and all the chickens got away. And he says, aw, when I see Freddie I’m gonna make sure I give him a piece of my mind. He shouldn’t have left the chickens out on the doorstep. I had to send the kids all over the countryside to pick them up. And indeed when he did see Freddie again he says, why the heck did you do that? I had to send the kids out, they gathered up all the chickens, and they could only, they spent all afternoon, they could only find eleven. And Freddie said, well that’s actually pretty good. I only left six. [laughter]

So, that is to say there’s a lot more people who think like we do about these issues out there. We just gotta get them to the polls. We gotta go out, we gotta find them. If we don’t know what our limits are we can do better than we’ve ever done before. I’m asking you to do that [in audible] down that ticket also for the whole slate. All the way to Judy Baker for treasurer. What’s my name? [voices: “Judy Baker.”] Thank you all so very much [applause]….

The Cass County Democratic Committee held its annual Back to Blue Dinner in Belton on Saturday evening. Senator Scott Sifton (D), a candidate for Attorney General in 2016, was one of the featured speakers.

Senator Scott Sifton (D) speaking at the Cass County Democratic Committee annual

Back to Blue Dinner in Belton, Missouri on April 25, 2015. [photo: Jerry Schmidt]

Video by Jerry Schmidt.

Previously:

Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015 (April 27, 2015)

Jim White (D) at the Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015 (April 27, 2015)

Wes Shoemyer (D) at the Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015 (April 27, 2015)  

The Cass County Democratic Committee held its annual Back to Blue Dinner in Belton on Saturday evening. Former Senator Wes Shoemyer (D) was one of the featured speakers:

Former Senator Wes Shoemyer (D) speaking at the Cass County Democratic Committee annual

Back to Blue Dinner in Belton, Missouri on April 25, 2015. [photo: Jerry Schmidt]

Video by Jerry Schmidt.

Previously:

Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015 (April 27, 2015)

Jim White (D) at the Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015 (April 27, 2015)

Jim White, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District, spoke at the annual Cass County Democratic Committee Back to Blue Dinner in Belton on Saturday evening. Before the dinner and speeches candidates circulated among and spoke with those attending the event:

Jim White, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District, at the Cass County

Democratic Committee annual Back to Blue Dinner in Belton, Missouri on April 25, 2015. [photo: Jerry Schmidt]

Video by Jerry Schmidt.

Previously:

Back to Blue Dinner in Cass County – April 25, 2015 (April 27, 2015)

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]….

Former Senator Wes Shoemyer (D).

Previously:

Susan Montee (D) at the Cass County “Back to Blue” dinner on Saturday, April 30th (May 4, 2011)

Cass County Democrats 2012 Back to Blue Dinner: State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) (April 29, 2012)

Cass County Democrats 2012 Back to Blue Dinner: Susan Montee (D) (April 30, 2012)

Cass County Democrats 2012 Back to Blue Dinner: Teresa Hensley (D) (May 1, 2012)

Sen. Paul LeVota (D) – Back to Blue Dinner – Belton, Missouri – April 13, 2013 (April 14, 2013)

AG Chris Koster (D) – Back to Blue Dinner – Belton, Missouri – April 13, 2013 (April 14, 2013)