(April 21, 2016) Top local Democrats outlined their platform for the 2016 election during the 2016 Kennedy-King dinner in Berlin Saturday.
The event, held at the Atlantic Hotel on Main Street, raised money for the Democratic Central Committee of Worcester County, and including speeches by Berlin Mayor Gee Williams, Sen. Jim Mathias, and former Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton.
Ireton, who is running for U.S. House District 1 in the state – a seat currently held by Republican Andy Harris – emceed the evening’s festivities, which included a presentation by the Snow Hill Honor Guard, and a keynote address from Fred Mason, the president of the Maryland and D.C. chapter of the AFL-CIO.
“Worcester County needs you to be fired up,” Ireton told the crowd, largely made up of Democratic Party donors. “Our schools need you to be fired up. A woman’s right to choose needs you to be fired up. People who believe that the minimum wage should be the living wage need you to be fired up this evening.”
“Won’t Jim be great?” Williams said. “It’s going to be so much fun to have a congressman again.”
Two years ago, during the Kenney-King dinner at the hotel, Williams said Democrats in attendance all agreed, “We didn’t have a congressman; we don’t have a congressman – we have Andy Harris.”
Williams said the crowd then elected, by unanimous consent, to adopt District 7 Congressman Elijah Cummings as its representative.
“If Berlin has a problem, and we need congressional help, do you think I’m calling [Andy Harris]? No, I’m calling Elijah Cummings,” he said.
Williams said he was also supporting Del. Chris Van Hollen in his bid for the U.S. Senate.
Mathias arrived, a little late, but no less fired up, and addressed an enthusiastic crowd just after dinner and dessert was served.
Several times during the evening, he spoke about his late wife, Kathy.
“Kathy couldn’t make the ride up, God rest her, and she blesses us all and she sends her love to the Worcester County Democrats,” he said. “If she was alive, I think [her] TV would be smashed – with that Donald Trump – because she would have thrown the kitchen chairs through it and everything else at it, and that’s the truth.”
Mathias said he and Kathy sat together and cried on the night Barack Obama was first elected, in 2008.
“It was a beautiful evening, and we want to keep it that same way in November,” he said.
He also touted an expansion of the state’s equal pay laws, passed on April 9 by the Maryland House of Delegates, teased a third access route to the Eastern Shore, and spoke about the violence last year in Baltimore.
“This time last year, Baltimore was in an eruption,” he said. “We’re working to make sure that that dignity, that that respect, that those civil rights are held in the highest esteem for every citizen in our state, and I thank you for allowing me the privilege do that.
“The equity, the civil rights, the justice is what you allow me to go and fight for every day,” Mathias continued, adding that his district was “a very challenging place,” performing at roughly 34 percent Democratic.
“I’m going to ask you, tonight, to change our district, one by one by one,” he said. “Give me something to work with. You want a third bay span? You want school after Labor Day? You want another expansion on the convention center? You’ve got to give me something to give back.”
Mason spoke about growing up in rural Virginia during the 1950s and 1960s.
“Many women with families would travel north to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, to work as live-in maids, taking care of the elderly and the families of the wealthy folks,” he said. “These were women who that left their families, because the crops had been harvested, [there was] no more money coming in, and the only way that they could bring in money was to leave their families in those far-away places. Such was the life of my mother.”
Looking back on what he experienced, and what people in his family have experienced, Mason said he is dismayed when he hears someone say, “nothing has changed.”
“We have to put truth to that lie, because I will tell you that 2016 is not 1964,” he said. “Social and economic conditions have changed – maybe not as rapidly and as thoroughly as many of us would like, but they have changed nevertheless. America is a better place now than it was in 1964. And despite what Donald Trump and his ilk say about the whole ‘again’ thing – you know, those are code words.
“We have made progress, and there is no need to apologize for the progress that we have made. We are a more inclusive nation,” he added. “Our challenge, as Democrats, is to figure out how we can share this planet, how we can move forward, hand in hand – not at each other’s throat.
“By your presence here this evening, I commend you, and I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because, tonight, my wife and I get to stay in the Atlantic Hotel,” Mason said.
He went on to say the world in 2016 was “pregnant” with challenges.
“But it is also pregnant with great opportunities, and there is a role for each of us in this room to play,” he said. “Donald Trump wants to take us back to some ‘again’ period, where we have already passed. But, there are some people that want to build a new America, that wants to strengthen and build on our democracy.
“Part of the way we can demonstrate that is by making sure that Jim Ireton is the next congressional representative,” Mason continued. “That is why the Maryland state and District of Columbia AFL-CIO, and the 350,000 members that we represent, we are proud to say that we are standing with you every step of the way.”
The event, held at the Atlantic Hotel on Main Street, raised money for the Democratic Central Committee of Worcester County, and including speeches by Berlin Mayor Gee Williams, Sen. Jim Mathias, and former Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton.
Ireton, who is running for U.S. House District 1 in the state – a seat currently held by Republican Andy Harris – emceed the evening’s festivities, which included a presentation by the Snow Hill Honor Guard, and a keynote address from Fred Mason, the president of the Maryland and D.C. chapter of the AFL-CIO.
“Worcester County needs you to be fired up,” Ireton told the crowd, largely made up of Democratic Party donors. “Our schools need you to be fired up. A woman’s right to choose needs you to be fired up. People who believe that the minimum wage should be the living wage need you to be fired up this evening.”
“Won’t Jim be great?” Williams said. “It’s going to be so much fun to have a congressman again.”
Two years ago, during the Kenney-King dinner at the hotel, Williams said Democrats in attendance all agreed, “We didn’t have a congressman; we don’t have a congressman – we have Andy Harris.”
Williams said the crowd then elected, by unanimous consent, to adopt District 7 Congressman Elijah Cummings as its representative.
“If Berlin has a problem, and we need congressional help, do you think I’m calling [Andy Harris]? No, I’m calling Elijah Cummings,” he said.
Williams said he was also supporting Del. Chris Van Hollen in his bid for the U.S. Senate.
Mathias arrived, a little late, but no less fired up, and addressed an enthusiastic crowd just after dinner and dessert was served.
Several times during the evening, he spoke about his late wife, Kathy.
“Kathy couldn’t make the ride up, God rest her, and she blesses us all and she sends her love to the Worcester County Democrats,” he said. “If she was alive, I think [her] TV would be smashed – with that Donald Trump – because she would have thrown the kitchen chairs through it and everything else at it, and that’s the truth.”
Mathias said he and Kathy sat together and cried on the night Barack Obama was first elected, in 2008.
“It was a beautiful evening, and we want to keep it that same way in November,” he said.
He also touted an expansion of the state’s equal pay laws, passed on April 9 by the Maryland House of Delegates, teased a third access route to the Eastern Shore, and spoke about the violence last year in Baltimore.
“This time last year, Baltimore was in an eruption,” he said. “We’re working to make sure that that dignity, that that respect, that those civil rights are held in the highest esteem for every citizen in our state, and I thank you for allowing me the privilege do that.
“The equity, the civil rights, the justice is what you allow me to go and fight for every day,” Mathias continued, adding that his district was “a very challenging place,” performing at roughly 34 percent Democratic.
“I’m going to ask you, tonight, to change our district, one by one by one,” he said. “Give me something to work with. You want a third bay span? You want school after Labor Day? You want another expansion on the convention center? You’ve got to give me something to give back.”
Mason spoke about growing up in rural Virginia during the 1950s and 1960s.
“Many women with families would travel north to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, to work as live-in maids, taking care of the elderly and the families of the wealthy folks,” he said. “These were women who that left their families, because the crops had been harvested, [there was] no more money coming in, and the only way that they could bring in money was to leave their families in those far-away places. Such was the life of my mother.”
Looking back on what he experienced, and what people in his family have experienced, Mason said he is dismayed when he hears someone say, “nothing has changed.”
“We have to put truth to that lie, because I will tell you that 2016 is not 1964,” he said. “Social and economic conditions have changed – maybe not as rapidly and as thoroughly as many of us would like, but they have changed nevertheless. America is a better place now than it was in 1964. And despite what Donald Trump and his ilk say about the whole ‘again’ thing – you know, those are code words.
“We have made progress, and there is no need to apologize for the progress that we have made. We are a more inclusive nation,” he added. “Our challenge, as Democrats, is to figure out how we can share this planet, how we can move forward, hand in hand – not at each other’s throat.
“By your presence here this evening, I commend you, and I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because, tonight, my wife and I get to stay in the Atlantic Hotel,” Mason said.
He went on to say the world in 2016 was “pregnant” with challenges.
“But it is also pregnant with great opportunities, and there is a role for each of us in this room to play,” he said. “Donald Trump wants to take us back to some ‘again’ period, where we have already passed. But, there are some people that want to build a new America, that wants to strengthen and build on our democracy.
“Part of the way we can demonstrate that is by making sure that Jim Ireton is the next congressional representative,” Mason continued. “That is why the Maryland state and District of Columbia AFL-CIO, and the 350,000 members that we represent, we are proud to say that we are standing with you every step of the way.”