Rebecca Burgin, Cassie Peters, Valerie Snow, Ethan Snow and Danielle Vogt

Young Democrats of Oklahoma President Cassie Peters and Executive Vice President Rebecca Burgin were guest speakers at the Kingfisher County Democrats meeting Thursday July 22nd.
Cassie said her goal was to reinvigorate chapters around the state.

The Young Democrats membership age is between 13 and 35. Rebecca and Cassie suggests for those who are still in high school, to find an instructor as a sponsor and meet on the school campus. For the young adults they suggest having a social event with their meeting. What works the best is to have the meetings be both fun and informative. Their chapters hold biweekly volunteer nights to help candidates. They may be stuffing envelopes, canvassing or making phone calls but they also have a dinner or some fun activity along with it. There is more information for starting a Young Democrats chapter at ydoklahoma.com .

Both speakers grew up in Republican families. When asked why they decided to become a Democrat Cassie Peters said what made up her mind was being a page at the state capitol. She loved seeing the process and was more impressed with Democrats. They care and want to help all people in the State. Rebecca said her family had open political discussions and that she had always argued for the Democrats.

Lauren Sturgeon was our guest speaker at the June meeting of the Kingfisher County Democrats. Lauren is a legislative analyst to Lt. Governor Jari Askins. A recent graduate in political science from Oklahoma State University, Lauren had changed her major many times before deciding on political science. The biggest deciding factor was her experience as an intern to Senator Jim Inhofe, she said she loved being in Washington DC.
Her job as a legislative analyst is to read all of the bills. She said “I love reading bills”. When asked by an audience member of all of the bills she has read, which one stood out as the most bizarre. Lauren said the bill to sue the Federal government over Healthcare reform was the worst; it is a no win for the State of Oklahoma. Another frustration was the republican blocking of Nick’s law, the bill that would require insurance companies to cover autism.
Lauren also does research for speeches and presentations given by the Lt. Governor. She said “Lt. Governor Jari Askins is giving a speech tonight that includes some of her research on conservation”.
Lauren’s plans are to continue her career in politics and she is considering going to law school.
Other guests in attendance were Lauren’s father Mark Sturgeon and Sandra Stuart a representative of the Garfield County Democratic Women’s Club.

Patrick Cameron, a state finance director for the Friends for Jari Askins gubernatorial campaign was our guest speaker at the Kingfisher County Democrats meeting. He said “as a member of Jari's campaign team I have been all over the state talking with people about jobs and the economy”. He has campaigned at many events from rodeos to rattle snake hunts. He said he believes Jari Askins will be a great governor, that she grew up in Duncan and understands the needs of rural Oklahoma. She has served in every branch of government as a judge, as a representative and as our Lt. Governor and has the experience to get things done and make the best decisions for Oklahoma. Patrick challenged us to pick a candidate and do something to support that candidate, make a contribution, march in a parade or make some phone calls, but most importantly get involved. We had a great turnout for our first food drive and will continue that at our next meeting. Our next meeting will be May 18th.

Ward Curtin , Oklahoma representative for the Organization for America was our guest speaker for the Kingfisher County Democrats. Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering communities across the country to bring about our agenda of change. Ward said the organization would recruit, train and empower volunteers to help engage citizens in their local community.
Ward started his political career as a campaign driver earning $500.00 a month. He later helped manage John Edwards presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008. He also successfully managed Annise Parker’s campaign for the Mayor of Houston. His appointment to OFA has been so recent that our Kingfisher group had the honor of being Ward’s first presentation. Over the next year he will be conducting OFA presentations all over the state of Oklahoma. Our next meeting will be Tuesday April 20th.

We all had a great time at the Kingfisher County Fundraiser. Don Scales opened with information on the upcoming school Bond issue. He said we need to plan for our future while construction costs and interest rates are low, we need to build now. He gave a convincing argument to support the Bond issue March 2nd.
Next up was Third District Chair Mack Miller. He said our district does not have any representation, that Frank Lucas does not listen, and when Frank is confronted with issues all he has to say is "good point" another way of saying he has no idea.
Todd Goodman was not planning to speak so I threw him a curve ball asking him to come up. He did a great job updating us on who is running for the democrats.
Our good friends and supporters from Canadian County Jody Harlan and Rodney Boegel gave us updates for events in Canadian County. Rodney Boegel is the campaign chair for John Morris who is running for Canandian County Commissioner.

Jed Green, Jim Priest, Cassi Peters and Matt Harney

Jim Priest was the guest speaker for the Kingfisher County Democrats Tuesday January 19th. He started his speech speaking of how his father had a machine repair business; Jim admired his father but took his talent in a different direction and was the first in his family to go to college. He became an attorney and has had a law practice for thirty years. He has represented many clients from individuals to corporations but said one of his most rewarding experiences was with a wrongful termination case where his client did not have much money and after winning the case his client told him he had a friend for life and many years later he continues to get a Christmas card signed “your friend for life”.

Jim is an ordained minister in the Nazarene church, involved in his community as a director of the Regional Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity. He was inspired to run for public office after reading David Boren’s book “Letter to America” where the author calls for major reforms and responsibility. Mr. Priest sees the Attorney General’s role as an umbrella of protections for lives, liberty and land regardless of any party affiliation and he has the qualifications and experience to be Attorney General for Oklahoma.

The Attorney General is responsible for appeals, consumer issues, insurance, workmen’s comp, rate payers and environmental issues. He said there are concerns for our water being sold to other states and going after the poultry companies that are polluting our rivers. Another role is to educate the people on issues that are important to our state.

One of his motto’s is to always act better than you feel, meaning don’t be swayed by your emotions, be rational. Jim was accompanied by his campaign manager Jed Green, media director Cassi Peters and fund raiser Matt Harney. You can find out more information, volunteer or donate at his website www.jimpriest.com.

Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields was the guest speaker for the Kingfisher County Democrats last Tuesday December 15th. Mr. Fields was born in Pawhuska, grew up in Ralston and had his own plumbing, heating and air business in McAlester before starting his political career as an Oklahoma House Representative in 1992. He was elected Labor Commissioner in 2006 and is up for re election next year. He educated us in his responsibilities starting with asbestos checks, labor and hour division, workman’s comp compliance, child labor laws and OSHA. During his tenure he has cut the operational budget by 52% while at the same time increasing the safety of Oklahoma workers. According to the federal statistics and research divisions he has reduced fatalities by 14% and injuries by 42%. He implemented that all amusement ride operators be certified increasing the safety at all of our state fairs. He also informed us of how Oklahoma is the only state where welders earn a license, which is why our welding schools are so popular. He said he is a working commissioner and runs his department like he would run his own business. We appreciate Mr. Field’s visit, he was cordial and dynamic speaker. Our next meeting will be January 19th 2010.

100% Antendees Arrel and Velma Reed, Senator Corn and Worth Lambert

Lt Governor Candidate Senator Kenneth Corn spoke to the Kingfisher County Democrats November 17th. He said his main goal as a Lt. Governor would be to attract good jobs to Oklahoma. There is a difference in creating jobs and creating good jobs. There are industries you don’t want to recruit because they do more harm than good, bringing pollution and work force problems. We want Industries that create good jobs that have living wages, healthcare and retirement for a lifetime of work. We can recruit those industries if we address the issues plaguing Oklahoma. One issue is the need to modernize our classrooms and increase the number of college graduates. In healthcare we need to keep the doctors and nurses in the rural areas of Oklahoma so patients don’t have to drive for hours to get care. He stated reforming health insurance on the state level where more dollars go to actual health care and less to administrative costs is imperative. His goals also include improving our infrastructure and increasing access to the arts.

When ConocoPhillips moved their headquarters to Houston, Senator Corn flew to Houston using his own funds to meet with CEO Archie Dunham to find out why they chose Houston over Oklahoma. Mr. Dunham told him it had nothing to do with taxes; the basis for their decision was education, healthcare and access to the arts.

Senator Corn was very cordial and gracious, staying for our entire meeting to answer questions and encourage us on building the Democratic Party in Kingfisher County. The majority of his speech was recorded and it can be seen and heard at the www.kingfishercountydemocrats.com website. Our next meeting will be Tuesday December 15th.

Senator Corn's Website

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Matt Latham and Jerry Kadavy

Matt Latham, political director for OK for Justice, was our guest speaker at the August 18th Kingfisher County Democrats meeting. Matt Latham, a Kingfisher graduate, said his love of politics started while on the debate team in High School. His first political campaign was assisting Governor Brad Henry, and has since managed campaigns in Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia.
Mr. Latham said more people get involved with the federal elections but that the state elections are really the most important. The gubernatorial race is really important with the 2011 redistricting, if Oklahoma has a republican governor and a republican controlled congress they will certainly redistrict to their favor. It is also important we elect a Democrat in the upcoming house district 55 special election to replace Ryan McMullen because it will set the tone for 2010. Matt also said to be ready for a lot of State questions next election, there are fourteen so far, since there are not enough republicans to override the Governor’s veto, they keep adding their bills to the state ballot. However some of these like the Voter ID state question, that studies have shown favor electing republicans, are so poorly written that they will be challenged in court before they ever make it to the state ballot.
We appreciate Mr. Latham travelling from Norman to speak to our group and look forward to having him join us again.

Jacque Pope and Joe Dorman

Our first guest speaker at the July 21st meeting was House Representative Joe Dorman. He was a great speaker and very gracious coming at the last minute to replace Ryan McMullen who had accepted a federal position. Joe spoke of having to battle the extremist republicans this past session, he said we were fortunate to have Brad Henry to veto all of these bizarre bills. Visit Joe Dorman at his website, www.joedorman.com.