We need to see more of this– Congressional candidates meeting and interacting with voters in an open, public forum. The Chesterfield Township Democrats hosted a panel
discussion on Tuesday evening with all five Democratic contenders for the District 2 Congressional seat now held by Ann Wagner.
Questions from the audience were curated and presented to the candidates by the CTD leadership, and each was permitted the opportunity to offer their views on addressing real issues that affect our country. Isn’t this how it should be?
The West County Democrats have a policy of not endorsing candidates in advance of a primary, and you won’t find one here. I will say that forums like this provide a great opportunity to get to know our prospective legislators at a personal level and really understand where their strengths lie. In my view, all five candidates represent strong alternatives to the barely visible
and inaccessible Congressional representation we’ve had for the last six years. Despite differences in generation and background, all five candidates bring a passion for effecting positive change through government and compassion for all Americans. All five recognize real problems that face our country and are ready to work for us in Congress.
These candidates have grass roots campaigns, and are self financed and/or funded through in-region, small donations. While they are now collectively raising more individual contributions than the Republican candidate, and they have all committed to supporting the single Democrat who wins the August primary election; winning in the November general election will require great resources to combat the corporate donors that support Ann Wagner.
If you are excited about getting involved and replacing the stagnant and ineffective representation we have in Washington, click on the candidates’ photos to open their website. See where they stand on the issues, and look for more opportunities to meet them coming up. Find your candidate, offer your support and your vote on August 7th.
— Mark Toenjes, WCD Member
I want to thank everyone associated with the Chesterfield Township Democrats and the West County Democrats for organizing an excellent candidates forum. I think I speak for all of the candidates when I say that it was an honor to participate.
I also want to thank Mark for this write-up, the links to our websites, and for the photographs. It’s unfortunate that local media didn’t feel that this (or the LWV Forum held on June 2nd) was worthy of their attention. Forums like these are a perfect way for the public to get to know the candidates.
However, I find it odd that the following sentence was included in the blog post: “These candidates have grass roots campaigns, and are self financed and/or funded through in-region, small donations.”
This is far from the truth. “Grass roots” is a term that is used and abused in politics – and this campaign is no exception. Please look more closely at who is considered the “leading” candidate among the Democrats. His massive fundraising totals are coming from extremely wealthy donors. This includes very large numbers of $2700 and $5400 checks from all over the country. According the the FEC, over 80% of his individual contributions are considered “large” (defined as over $200). This is hardly “grass roots”.
To give your readers the opposite impression is wrong. Though some of us are running campaigns based on small donations, that is clearly not the case for all. The voters in the 2nd District need to know this.
And I think they also need to know that money will not win this election. Message will. Bill Otto proved this. Despite raising and spending seven times more money than any Democrat before him, he couldn’t come close to defeating Ann Wagner. Without a strong message that will attract the swing voters necessary to win, all the money in the world will be useless. And this is true whether it’s money from the grass roots or the top 1%.