Pottawatomie County Democrats reorganize

The Pottawatomie County Democrats met Sunday in Onaga to reorganize and choose new officers. There were 6 people in attendance, 4 of whom were current officers including yours truly.

The following people are now your current officers through the 2008 election:

Shawn Lane, Wamego - Chair
Patricia Verschelden, St. Marys - Vice-Chair
Michael Oldfather, Manhattan - Secretary
Don Rezac, Emmett - Treasurer

Reorganization meeting...

There's going to be a reorganization meeting for the Pottawatomie County Democrats this Sunday, November 12 at 2:00 pm in Onaga. It will be held at the Onaga Senior Center, 200 Bypass Rd. Anyone that lives in Pottawatomie County and is a Democrat can attend. We'll be electing new officers and talking about any pertinent issues. Yours truly is currently treasurer of the county party.

Kansas House picks up a few Democrats

I haven't been able to find this info anywhere else so thanks to Josh Rosenau's great blog Thoughts From Kansas, we now know that the number of Democrats in the Kansas House of Representatives has gone up from 42 to 48. You can read a little more about it on Josh's blog and check out his other posts and election analysis.

Big wins for the Democrats...

The Capital-Journal just called the race for Kansas 2nd District for Nancy Boyda. Amazing! And Kathleen Sebelius won another term by a big margin and Paul Morrison unseated Phill Kline for Attorney General by a wide margin as well.

So it's a big night for Democrats. The major networks have announced the Democrats have taken a majority in the House. Nancy Boyda joins Dennis Moore as Democrats in the House.

Kansas Secretary of State - 2006 General Election
Topeka Capital-Journal results

I voted...

I went to the Wamego Senior Center this morning at 7:15 and got out of there around 7:30. I live in the Wamego West precinct and that's always the longest line. Wamego East, Wamego Township and Belvue had no wait at all. With all of the problems I've heard about electronic voting, it was very reassuring to be filling in the ovals with a black ink pen.

So don't forget to vote today. Together, we can make a difference.

GOTV...

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Be sure to get out there and vote and remind everyone you know to do so. The polls are open from 7 am to 7 pm.

Polling locations in Pottawatomie County

And if you want to keep track of local election returns:

Pottawatomie County Election Returns

All of the local channels will have coverage of varying degrees throughout the evening tomorrow night.

Vote Democrat!

Coverage of the Boyda rally...

Here are some links to stories and pictures of the Boyda rally:

Topeka Capital-Journal
Lawrence Journal-World
Kansas City Star
WIBW
KSNT
KTKA
WDAF
Thoughts From Kansas

Thoughts on the Ryun rally...

I was tuned into Fox News as I expected them to have a Fox News Alert that would show President Bush giving the same speech in Topeka at the Kansas Expocentre that he's been giving for weeks. I didn't see anything come on so I switched over to C-SPAN and they were carrying it live.
You could clearly see Jim Ryun and his wife over George's right shoulder and Jim Barnett over his left with Rep. Todd Tiahrt right behind him. Also a couple rows back was State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins. Who I didn't see anywhere was Attorney General Phill Kline. I thought this was very interesting. I'm pretty sure he was there as his website said he was going to be.
I don't know if Ryun spoke during the rally as Bush was well into his speech when I tuned into C-SPAN.
So anyway, just some musings and observations of the Ryun rally. The only thing I can see that anyone would have gotten out of the rally was the privilege of seeing the President of the United States as the Boyda rally had a much more positive message.

UPDATE - Lawrence Journal World blogged throughout the event and I see that Kline gave his speech an hour or so before Bush took the stage but from what I can tell, he was a no show during Bush's time up there.

Boyda rally...

I attended the Boyda rally today in Topeka along with about 1000 other people. It was a great time. There were a few speakers prior to Boyda's addressing Veterans' Affairs, labor and education. Also there were workers from the Topeka Goodyear plant who are still on strike after a month. That matters a lot to me as both of grandfathers worked and retired from there. They've both passed away but my grandmother in St. Marys who is a Pott. Co. Democrat still receives benefits from my grandfather's years of service at the plant. She would be directly affected if Goodyear gets its way.
Back to the rally, Nancy did an excellent job and gave a great speech and everyone in the audience was very enthuised. The few polls that have been published about her race and many of the stories in the news have said how close this race is and how it's a toss up.
I forgot to take my camera but I'll link to any stories that write about it. WIBW channel 13 out of Topeka was there and so was WDAF channel 4 out of Kansas City as well so watch the Sunday evening news.
So get out there and vote on Tuesday and just like Nancy says, "Nothing will change until we change Congress."

Morrison pulls past Kline in new poll

I guess I should have more faith in Paul Morrison or rather I shouldn't assume as much as I do about the way things are in this state. A new Survey USA poll shows Morrison over Kline, 56% to 43%. Survey USA had Kline with a slight advantage last month. Quoted in the Wichita Eagle story, Sherienne Jones, a Kline campaign spokeswoman said the only poll that counts is Nov. 7. While I very much agree with her on that, this is very good news with 3 weeks left before the election.

KS-02 is in play

Chuck Todd of the of The National Journal's Hotline has added the Kansas 2nd District race to the list of races that are "in play" noting that Boyda has 41% to Ryun's 45%. And this is an independent poll coming up with these numbers and not an internal one that the Ryun campaign is dismissing. So keep fighting and keep getting the word out and we'll turn this district blue.

Funny story about Anne and Jim Ryun

This story demonstrates rather well what the Ryuns are all about, clueless and religious fanatics. And no, the two do not go hand in hand except for these two. Sorry if I sound judgemental but Mrs. Ryun sure did her part.

Cheney visits Kansas

Vice President Cheney was in Topeka today to help raise a couple hundred thousand dollars today for Jim Ryun's re-election campaign. Almost $209,000 was added to Ryun's coffers. Almost 300 people were there paying $100 to get in and $1000 to have their picture taken with the VP. So doing a little math, almost 300 people at $100 each is $30,000 leaving $179,000 in pictures and I'm guessing other donations. I doubt Dick could smile 179 times or stick around long enough to wait for everyone to have their turn. So if you divided $179,000 by almost 300, that would mean each person would have donated almost $600. Some probably gave a lot less and some gave a heck of a lot more but it just shows what Nancy Boyda is campaigning for and that's getting money out of politics. Nothing will change until we change Congress.

We can make a difference...

Enough complaining and time to start doing something about it.