Kentucky Democrats came together Saturday to rejuvenate themselves as
national polls suggest uncertainty about the party's policies on health care
“We are on the right side of history,” U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, told a gathering at a Democratic picnic at The Red Mile racetrack in Lexington.
He acknowledged that Democrats in Congress have seen their approval ratings fall in the past year, “but we aren't anywhere near as low as the Republicans in Congress and we're not as low as (Republican U.S. Sen.) Jim Bunning's and we're not anywhere near as low as (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell's.”
The picnic preceded the party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, where retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who ran for president in 2004, was the event's headliner.
At the picnic, Clark told the crowd to “stand up for your values. … We know what we stand for as Democrats.”
He
talked about providing health care, jobs and education and called on
President Barack Obama to continue a new national defense policy in
which the idea is “not to just carry a big stick but to make more
friends than enemies.
Obama swept to victory in November and brought with him huge majorities in Congress. His election followed eight years of the presidency of Republican George W. Bush, which saw a war in Iraq that some view as a quagmire and an economy that went bust just before the election.
Republicans have complained that Obama's policies have made the nation's economy worse and have criticized his delay in deciding whether to commit more troops to Afghanistan.
“It is ugly absurd … for them to say that he's (Obama) responsible for the fix we're in,” said U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District. “All he's done is try to get the truck out of the ditch.”
All of the state's top Democrats, including Gov. Steve Beshear, spoke, often criticizing Republicans for their stands.
Colmon Elridge, vice president of the Young Democrats of America and an aide to Beshear, told the group, “We need to show Mitch McConnell that we can say no, too. We can say no to Republican ideas that seek to divide us rather than unite us.”
Perhaps the sharpest words of the night came from former Sen. Wendell Ford, who urged Democrats to hand Republicans defeat again next year at the polls. “We've got two dummies up there now we're going to change,” he said.
After his comments, Ford declined to say who he was talking about and, in fact, claimed he didn't say “two dummies. … We have a lot of dummies up there.”
The event came as the party is gearing up for the 2010 election, when it hopes to take back Ford's old Senate seat from the Republicans. Bunning replaced Ford after he retired in 1998.
Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo and Attorney General Jack Conway are the two big-name candidates in the Democratic Senate primary. But there were no fireworks between the two in Lexington as Mongiardo spoke early at the picnic and left for an event in Shepherdsville before Conway arrived.
Both Conway and Mongiardo gave their typical stump speeches, telling about their backgrounds and why they think they are best suited to be senator.
Mongiardo took a minor shot at Conway, noting that he was not “born with a silver spoon,” his usual attack on Conway, who is the son of a successful lawyer.
After he spoke, Mongiardo refused to comment specifically on recordings that have appeared recently on the Internet that purport to be him criticizing his boss, the governor.
Mongiardo said the tapes are “heavily edited” but in a brief interview, he refused to say what in the recordings he said, and what he didn't say.
Conway used his speech to call for tax credits for those who create jobs in the United States and outlined his work as attorney general, specifically his effort to stop cyber crime.
In an interview later, Conway acknowledged that he loaned “just over six figures” to his campaign during the last quarter of fundraising to push his total raised above $2million.
Conway leads all candidates in money raised, including Mongiardo, who has raised about $1.25million. Conway said he wanted to show potential donors “that I've got some skin in the game” but he acknowledged, “I wanted to top $2million pretty doggone bad.”
Two other Senate candidates — Darlene Fitzgerald Price and Lillie Johnson — also attended, as did Gatewood Galbraith, a perennial candidate who is running for governor in 2011 as an independent. “I'm not going to say anything bad about the Democrats,” Galbraith quipped as he left. “I'm going to need their help when I'm elected.”