A political season is a long one. You shake hands, you go to a lot of community functions and you give quite a few speeches. Some events help hold communities together. Last night, in Ulysses, Kansas the annual Grant County Home Products Dinner was held.
It is a lesson that children in Grant County have been learning for generations, as their hands are put to work each year to help put on the annual Grant County Home Products Dinner.
Some of those children, now grown, have been scholarship recipients and are now back in leadership roles. Lori Deyoe is one of these. She's the fifth-year committeewoman, which means this year, she was in charge of the cleanup crew for Tuesday night's event.
She's been participating in the event since she was 7.
"I helped serve the senior citizens and shucked corn when I was in 4H," she said. "When I moved back home, they asked me to sit on the committee."
That is a five-year commitment. The first year, she ran the decorations committee, then she was in charge of coordinating all the donut daisy events like the corn shucking. The third year is coordinating and gathering volunteers, fourth is coordinating the overall event and the last is cleanup.
Wrote Renee Jean, in the GC Telegram, linkable below:
http://insurancenewsnet.com/...
It's a great event - not just for the politics but for what it says about the community.
At this event Governor Sam Brownback was asked to hand out plaques and give a short speech.
Gov. Sam Brownback sat at the head table Tuesday and presented plaques to co-chairs and to the citizen of the year, Linda Fort. He also spoke during the event, taking care before doing so to recognize his gubernatorial opponent, Democrat Paul Davis, in the crowd.
There were several other political hopefuls in the crowd, as well. Among them Democrats Jim Sherow (U.S. 1st District), Dennis Anderson (insurance commissioner) and Carmen Alldritt (state treasurer).
What made his speech stand out, however was the overall strangeness of it - combined with an unusual introduction.
The Governor was able to provide the County Chamber of Commerce an introduction. Normally, this introduction is a few sentences "Former Senator, Current Governor" kind of thing. But last night, Sam Brownback chose to mix it up - with a long statement of the success of Kansas. His introduction, which proclaimed the positives of the Kansas job market caught the eye of the Grant County Chamber of Commerce, who while conservative may have felt put on edge.
As a result, the announcer Lisa Lorado for the event made Brownback sit through what had to be one of the most uncomfortable introductions possible, as the Chamber of Commerce inserted:
According to the Governor (his sentence)
By inserting "According to the Governor" in front of most claims, the audience immediately grasped the implication that these were not, in fact, facts. At a certain point an audience member turned with "According to the Governor.. the sun rises in Kansas."
Brownback, however, didn't help himself either with a strange and rambling speech that began with a long introduction of married couples in the room "Stand if you've been married 25 years! Ok, 30 Years.." And so on, until only one couple was left who had been married 67 years (I believe) which resulted in a long applause.
In a speech that reeked of desperation and began with an introduction that implied his 'facts' may actually be 'non facts', it was not a good night for Sam Brownback in Western Kansas.
Update
I want to point out that this story while written tongue in cheek is factually true on all accounts, and there are too many people who were present who could note this. That said, my account of events apparently got under the skin of some Republicans.
Jim Gardner, a member of the Republican Inside staff that has helped counsel David Kensinger, manages to take a swipe at me over reporting, well, the truth. Frankly, there is nothing in this diary particularly over the top - just a cute reference to how Brownback's performance went over last night.
Such an attack by Jim Gardner isn't out of character though - he's the same one who accused Kansas Senate Candidate Keith Humphreys of being a 'teen lover' and stalking his 17 year old daughter, after apparently misunderstanding that a man can take his children to Paris.
Still, the fact that my twitter account and my posts are now being followed by the Republican PR network in Kansas.. well, I'm honored gents. Pull up a chair.
Thu Sep 18, 2014 at 5:29 PM PT: Important Update
For those that have followed my writing over the years, you know I have always valued proper attribution of sources. In the original print of this, I had linked the appropriate article, etc. but after speaking with some who were at the event who are unfamiliar with how quoting has worked on DK, they found it confusing. I have clarified that.
Second, I wanted to point out something to members of the CoC.. this story is NOT about a political move by the Chamber of Commerce. It is about the Chamber of Commerce being put in a very awkward position because Sam Brownback put forward a political document for his introduction when per the rules of the event campaigning is not allowed. While there are several individuals who provided direct sourcing for the way this was received in the crowd, they have asked not to be named, and I of course respect that.