At the Republican Convention last week, there was a lot of talk about small towns. Speaker after speaker asserted that Republicans have their fingers on the pulse of small-town America, and that Democrats somehow don’t. Jon Stewart knew that was a line of baloney. And so did people like me, who grew up in small towns and have seen firsthand that, for all their lip service to small town values, this crop of Republicans has little interest in solving the very real problems facing America's small towns.
That's why I'm spending a lot of time this year writing about my brother, Jeff Morris, the Democratic candidate for California’s Second Congressional District – a district made up almost entirely of small towns.
Jeff and I grew up in the small town of Weaverville (population 3,554) in Northern California’s rugged Trinity County. Trinity's citizens struggle financially, but they are wealthy in more important ways – they have strong personal communities, beautiful surroundings, and a safe place to raise their children. Like many young people, my brothers and I moved away to go to school. But unlike most of us, Jeff went back. He and his wife Judy started a small business. Then Jeff ran for a seat on the county's Board of Supervisors and won. And he's done a great job. In California's June primary, local constituents showed their support for Jeff's Congressional run by giving him over 79% of their votes.
So, last weekend, Jeff invited them all to "Pancakes for the People," a 99-cents-per-person pancake breakfast in Weaverville nearby Lewiston (population 1,305). It was a fundraising breakfast, yes, but at 99 cents, the money was not the point. Jeff threw this party to thank the people who know him best – his local supporters whose votes put him over the top in the primary election.
"If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, then I’m proud to be serving it up for the folks in Trinity County," he said.
After breakfast, Jeff jumped in his car and drove 190 miles – that’s one hour over winding mountain roads and two more hours down the I-5 corridor – to the much bigger small town of Woodland (population 49,151) to attend the 32nd Annual Bean Feed sponsored by Yolo United, the Yolo County Democratic Central Committee’s 2008 campaign. The event was attended by a variety of elected officials, including Rep. Mike Thompson (D) from CA-01, who had some nice words to say about Jeff. Sure, the event was a fundraiser and the prices started at $35 per person instead of 99 cents, but it was a bean feed at the county fairgrounds! Not exactly the kind of thing you think of when you hear the word "elite," is it? And at the end of the day, Jeff Morris still had a long drive home ahead of him.
That’s part of being a candidate in CA-02 – at nearly 22,000 square miles, the district’s vastness means a lot of hard work if you want to make sure each voter knows who you are and where you stand. Back in the 1930s, when our Granddad was running for county clerk/recorder, he went door-to-door to meet each of his constituents, which sometimes meant going by horseback where roads were too rough for his Model A. Like our Granddad, Jeff has put thousands of miles on his car and spends several hours in any given day just getting from one town to the next.
Being a candidate in CA-02 also means happily eating pancakes and beans because events like these are important small-town traditions – and besides, what’s not to love about pancakes (or beans)! They’re delicious and affordable when the prices of food, gas, and housing are crushing small-town America, increasing the harm already done to fragile local economies by vanishing jobs and disappearing federal dollars for rural schools and other local services.
While Jeff was eating pancakes and beans with the locals, District 2’s incumbent, Wally Herger, was fretting to a reporter about the Democratic plan to rescind the Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy. If I were Wally, I’d be a lot less concerned about keeping my wealthy friends wealthy and a lot more worried about helping the people in my district keep their jobs and their homes and find funding for their schools, fire departments, and hospitals.
Call me cynical, but I’m guessing that Wally didn’t invite his hometown to a pancake breakfast the last time he won in this district, nor would he have been seen at a fundraising dinner where the featured food was beans. This is a man who has been in office for over 20 years, yet claims to be ecstatic about the chances of John McCain – who has been in office for 26 years – shaking up the Washington "establishment." Neither of these fellows seems to realize that the establishment they’re so excited about shaking up is a creature of their own making – indeed, they are the establishment. What Jeff Morris and the Democrats understand is that shaking up Washington means shaking these fellows out.
Jeff Morris knows small-town America; he's got beans in his belly and miles on his car to prove it. He's running a people-powered, grassroots campaign, and he's getting support from Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and decline-to-states. He understands that the people of District 2’s small towns are going to need strong leadership with an emphasis on local involvement if their issues are going to be heard – much less addressed – in a tight economy where paying lip service to small-town values trumps actually solving their problems.
If you’ve met Jeff Morris once or donated to his campaign, chances are he'll remember your name the next time you see him. Not because he’s a politician – it’s more than that. Jeff has always remembered people’s names and remembered their stories. That’s just the way he is. Trust me – I knew him back when he was just another small-town kid who played trumpet in the marching band and really liked pancakes.
(Cross-posted from Calitics)