kansas

It is good to be back to be blogging with you. I enjoyed our last session together and I look forward to answering questions you may have, but before I do I would like to give you an update. Since I've last blogged, the campaign has been picking up everyday. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, came down to Wichita, to present a $5000.00 endorsement from the CBC. Governor Kathleen Sebelius was a special guest at a fundraiser for me, where she endorsed my campaign. I have been on the phone everyday raising money, and meeting with future constituents all over the fourth congressional district. Things are getting very exciting around here, I have even worn out my first set of walking shoes.

UPDATE: Hey all, we're sorry, there seems to be some difficulty in finding Don Betts - as such the event has been canceled.

Tomorrow, July 3rd at 5:00 PM Central Donald Betts Jr. will be liveblogging right here. Betts is running in Kansas' Fourth Congressional District against 7-term incumbent Todd Tiahrt.

This will be the second live-blog from Senator Betts. You can check out his earlier live blog here.

You can also RSVP for the live blog on the Facebook event.

Some background on Senator Betts on his website

Please recommend this diary at DailyKos

Jim:
Hi, my name’s Jim Slattery and I’m running for the United States Senate in Kansas and with me today is my son Mike who is running Kansas Legislature.

Mike:
We’re excited to be here today talking with you about important issues.

Jim:
I first ran for the Kansas Legislature when I was 24 and I’m so proud to see Mike now running at the age of 26.

Mike:
My father has taught me that public service is one of the best ways to serve our community and I think it’s time for members of my generation to get involved in shaping our state’s future.

I believe Kansas and our nation for that matter needs fresh ideas and new direction. There’s been a lot of partisan bickering in and I think it’s time we elect politicians who are able to put aside their differences and work on issues important to everyone like improving our struggling economy, building strong public schools, providing affordable health care, and finding alternative sources of energy.”

Jim:
It disappoints me that the issues I first talked about when I ran for office 35 years go are still problems today- the economy, health care, education, energy etc. The incompetence of the political leadership in Washington is breathtaking. Government just isn’t getting the job done.

One of my biggest concerns is the rising deficit. Politicians in my generation are charging up bills that will have to be paid by Mike and the next generation. I call it intergenerational robbery and I believe it’s morally wrong and should be stopped.

Mike:

Somewhat along the same lines, I think it’s really important that we protect our environment for future generations. I’m excited about the potential of “green collar jobs.” By investing in the research and development of alternative energy technologies I think we have the opportunity to create new jobs for our generation and protect our environment at the same time.

I think we’d be happy to take questions at this point in time.

Update II: Yup, timezone mix up. We should be starting shortly.

Update - Hey folks. To update you, I'm checking with the campagn to make sure we have the right time. I suspect there was a time-zone mix up once again (damn you, timezones!). I'll let you know what's up as soon as I know something . . .
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Quick announcement - tomorrrow morning at 9am we will be continuing our Thursday live-blogging series with young Democratic candidates. Tomorrow we'll be hosting Jim Slattery, running for US Senate in Kansas, and his 26 year old son Mike Slattery, who is running for the 24th House District in the Kansas legislature.

Spread the word and please join us tomorrow morning. You can read previous live blogs here.

This week after the Kansas GOP primary I got a tip off about a piece in a local Kansas paper about the caucus and the comparable turnout. Understandably, there was immense turnout for the Democratic caucus and not so much for the GOP despite the fact that the GOP caucus was infinitely more convenient - being on a Saturday morning which wasn't plagued with a blizzard.

That said, while more people turned out at the Democratic Caucus - more young people also did. I can tell you there are no official numbers, no exit polls, indeed not much other than observable fact that more young people were present at the democratic caucuses.

The last line of the article is a gem:

"Everybody sees a fresh face," he said. "All these college people are really pumped up who probably aren't going to show up in November. It's one of those things that it's really interesting to watch."

The "he said" refers to the executive director of the Kansas GOP. All I could say when I read this was "You hope."

A local Kansas blog picked it up and (God bless them) discovered the youth vote themselves on this day. They mentioned that last week's KS Democratic caucus had

"more young voters participated in the 2008 Democratic caucuses than any other caucus in Kansas history.

I have no data to back this up and I don't know if its true but if it is - boy isn't that cool.

I watched all week to see how the comments from progressives and anti's would unfold, knowing full well that there is truly no youth outreach outside of the local university/college democrats in the state and hoping there would be evidence of an interest on the popular state blog. If there was enough enthusiasm perhaps Kansas is primed for some young voter action. Maybe the progressives there are interested in doing something about encouraging the youth vote.

Read the comments - they are priceless. One from what seems to be a Libertarian, one with more clarifying data about how young people turnout, and one from the KYD president who clearly has been swimming up stream like the many that have come before her.

The best part of this is the quote not included in the article is the Kansas Dem ED saying that he thinks the KS GOP is daring young people to get involved. If young people come out the way they did for the caucus there are quite a few races in Kansas that could swing to our favor. As a result, some of us are in cahoots about a potential state based youth organization for the Sunflower State. Seems they might just be ready.