Allen Co. Democrats prepare for 2018 race

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April 27, 2017 - 12:00 AM

The Allen County Democratic Party celebrated its second anniversary on Monday with a gathering that included the chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, John Gibson; 2nd congressional district hopeful and former gubernatorial candidate, Paul Davis; and a slab of chocolate cake with a frosted donkey on it.
After refreshments, the 30 or so area residents in attendance — most but not all of whom were from Allen County — participated in an open-forum discussion led by ACDP founding chair Mike Bruner. The theme on the night was “The County Party and the 2018 Election.”
Those in attendance spoke to the ample tsuris that attends being a Democrat in a state as blatantly red as Kansas. But they were not, for now, there to excoriate their Republican opponents. Names like Brownback or Koch hardly arose. No one hung blame on the current legislature. No one spoke through gritted teeth of Trump.
The chief fixation of Monday’s meeting was organization. “There is a decent chance this time to elect a Democratic governor and maybe one or two members of Congress,” said Bruner. “And I don’t think we can do that without the county parties doing a lot of work.”
Davis — who won nearly 50 percent of the vote in Allen County during his run for governor in 2014 but who was trounced in other rural counties — warned of the dangers of not having solid county organizations throughout Kansas’s 100-plus counties. “I think in the last decade or so we have seen an erosion of Democratic activity in a number of parts of the state. When you’re running statewide, that shows.”
The two guests, both affable, young, silver-haired attorneys from northeast Kansas, encouraged Kansas Democrats to come out of the woodwork, wherever they live, to announce their affiliation with confidence — to “wave the banner,” said Davis, “for the values you believe in.”
“There are a lot of places where you go out and you’re wearing your Democrats Care T-shirt,” echoed Gibson. “And, in some parts of the state, some people will be a little surprised to see that. And that’s good. People need to see that we’re out there and we’re active and that we’re not just some three-headed monster that pops up on MSNBC. People need to know that we care about people. That’s why we’re Democrats.”
But none of the T-shirts or bumper stickers or banner waving, counseled Gibson, can substitute for showing up at the polls, which close, county party chair Mike Bruner reminded the gathering, “in 559 days, 3 hours, 48 minutes and 27 seconds. And that is not much time!”

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