….Question: Um, this is something that’s really important to me and it’s been kind of highlighted in, in the political conversation. And the interest, I don’t mean to make this question longer, but there’s two women running for this spot that you’re running for. Except, one of them, which is not you, their party has, um, come out a lot about women and, in my opinion, the degradation of women in multiple ways. And I find it interesting and I, and I’m curious to see what your take is on, I know, I, I’m registered to vote in this district and I just go to school here. And I remember, and I was sitting watching these comments by, about legitimate rape, about, you know, all these things about women, waiting for my representative to come out and say something that, that that’s wrong or that they disagree as a woman, to say something. And yet, it did not happen. And it took a long time, and I know with your background of being someone that’s fought for women on, in multiple ways, how do you feel about that, and, and, and as a woman representing, um, this, this district, how, what would you do while you’re there to make sure that women’s voices are heard and that they’re not left in the background?
Cass County Prosecutor (and 4th Congressional District candidate) Teresa Hensley (D): You, you know, it was, uh, interesting very early on in this campaign, uh, we had, back in March, um, the House Republicans failed to bring up, even for consideration, the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Uh, very early on they made it clear where, uh, they stood on women’s issues.
And, you know, as a prosecutor, uh, we have, in Cass County, um, a domestic violence case, uh, about every other day. Domestic violence exists. It’s real. We can’t put our head in the sand and pretend that it’s not around. Uh, we deal with it constantly in the Prosecutor’s Office. So, to watch while she voted, uh, to not even bring it back up, to not even consider it when in 1994 it was bipartisan, over forty some Republicans voted for it. In two thousand and two thousand and five George W. Bush signed it back into law. And yet these House Republicans wanted to make it a political issue. And so, it, it is hard for me also to understand, uh, how a woman can choose the issues that they have chosen, the positions that they have taken, uh, when truly there are women that we need to be making sure that we’re concerned about. You know, when we look at the Violence Against Women Act it, it did so much since 1994, uh, to really help us prevent, uh, domestic violence, although we still have a tremendous amount. Uh, it, it helps with the, uh, shelters, the abuse shelters, and with law enforcement, with training, and with investigation. And so it is, it’s hard for me also, uh, to understand how the, the folks on that side can continue to have, uh, such a, a distaste, such a, a disdain, uh, for women’s issues. And women’s issues, uh, you know, we, we sort of outnumber the men, you’d think that we matter this year.
Question: Uh, do you have a sense of the political climate, Democrat versus Republican, since the [inaudible] Akin statement, moronic statement? And, more recently the other moronic thing with Romney and the [inaudible] film clip? My God, I, I do, I, I, do you have any sense of the gaining any, uh?
Teresa Hensley (D): Well, you know, I think what it, what it says, both, both of them, um, both of them said, I was just talking off the cuff. Well, I don’t know about you, but for me, talking off the cuff is talking from the heart. [voice: “Yes.”] That’s how I feel, that’s what I’m talking. I’m talking off the cuff because that’s who I am. And so, to have them use that as an excuse, I was talking off the cuff, I find really offensive. Uh, because they absolutely told us who they were and what they stand for. And so, again, all we can do is hope that people are paying attention. And so, to get to your question about how I think that has affected, uh, these elections, for the first time I think folks are paying attention that don’t normally. And so let me tell you something [….] , you know, all of us here, we’re not really that normal. You guys are here tonight when you could be many other places, but you’re concentrating and interested in politics and I appreciate that very much. But there’s a whole lot of people out there who aren’t paying attention until the very end. But this time, because of those kinds of issues, because of those kinds of comments, um, people who don’t normally pay attention to politics are actually listening, they’re actually paying attention. So all we can do is hope that they understand, really, that, that is who they are. They are absolutely telling us how they feel and what they’d do if they were in office, and Akin is in office, but if he were in the U.S. Senate….
Question: Um, I am a graduate of [xxxx], I’ve lived in Cass County all my life. So, I know a lot of the people there and I think one, well, a couple of issues that are something that we would really be interested in what you have to say. Take the Obamacare and abortion. I think those, since we are in such a conservative county, you know, I would just be interested on your thoughts on those two issues.
