Tonight as I write this diary, I am contemplating what this county wants and what is really important to us. I am Sherri Welsh; I am the Congressional Candidates Wife.
The wife of Barry Welsh, who will be the Congressional Candidate for Indiana’s 6th District, I have no doubt about that after tonight. The Bear came out of hibernation and was in top form.
Barry and I just came home from the 82nd Annual Randolph County Woodrow Wilson Banquet. Barry was invited to speak at their function along with State Senator Sue Errington. Indiana Governor Candidate Jim Schellinger was also there. We had to get to the site early as Jim and Barry met privately for an hour before the event. It was a good meeting and when they came out, both were smiling and looking confident, and Barry shortened his speech to give Jim time to talk.
This is the forth time Barry has spoken at this event. The first year there were 30 people in a private dining room of a restaurant. Tonight they sold over 160 tickets!
Barry was the first to give his speech, Fred Davis, the County Chair is a big supporter of Barry’s and he draws a great crowd when he tells the county that Barry is coming to speak. I love sitting and listening to Barry speak, his speeches are always thought provoking, crystal clear on his stand, relatable, funny and one comes away remembering a line of his speech or some point that some of us haven’t seen presented that way before and wonder why one didn’t notice before?
I love to watch how his speech is being listened to, sometimes that’s the best part, watching people react to what he’s saying or what is important to them – it’s so interesting to watch people express in their faces what their feelings are on a topic. Then I watch as some may whisper to one another and both nod when listening to a particular point. He often get’s interrupted with applause or ovation when he speaks. Yeah your thinking this is so sappy I have a toothache, but it’s the truth. Barry speaks to each person in the audience as if speaking directly to that person. People will drive from miles and miles away to hear him give a speech. He draws people to him so easily and he makes the time to listen to anyone that wants to talk to him. He’s direct and people seem to like him.
But I digress, Barry gave his speech tonight and it was well received and one of the really big points that he spoke about was that of unifying the district among other things….
“I want to speak just a moment on some myths. One myth is the Republican Party is the only one that can raise money. It is a myth as all of the Democratic Presidential Candidates proved in out raising all of the Republicans. So do not keep repeating that myth.”
“We had 75,000 votes in 2006, and if each one of those voters would have given just 10 dollars, we would have raised 750 thousand dollars, and with the TV that would have bought, I believe we would have won. We lost by between 20 and 40 votes per precinct and that can be overcome.”
“Another myth is that Democrats can’t win in Indiana, or in Randolph County, and that is not true, so do not keep repeating that myth. We have more Democratic Congressmen than Republicans. We have more new Democratic Sheriffs and county officials, soon we will have more new Democratic Mayors and city officials, and next year we will have a new Democratic Governor.”
“So do not keep repeating the myths of old and the False Republican Party. It is time to walk with the new Democratic Party of the People and to shine a light on the TRUE Republican Party and what they really stand for. NOW is time to work to take our government back.”
They had a 50-50 drawing and we won! It was 108.00 and we gave 50 back to the county party and 50 to Jim Schellinger for his Governor’s campaign. We kept the 8 bucks for gas.
On the drive home, Barry and I spoke about what our future holds and what we want to do. His “myth” points in his speech spoke a lot to me, so I asked him when we arrived home about the history of the Woodrow Wilson banquet and then we talked about the Jefferson Jackson dinners that were held by every county and around the country. Barry had told me the history and traditions of these dinners/banquets in the District that he has grown up in and what it meant to have those types of events to local politics. I found it interesting; we have the longest annual Woodrow Wilson Banquet in the country, right here in our district. Barry told me about Wilson’s Vice President Thomas Marshall from Indiana and how Barry is related to former Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh, as this had been mentioned at the dinner this evening as part of his introduction.
We talked of how much we both liked Jim Schellinger and that we thought he’d make a great candidate and Governor. We talked about how much we really liked his speech and how great he was in front of a crowd. He was not only likeable but also articulate and relatable. We will enjoy working with Jim, and Barry will be formally endorsing him soon I imagine.
When the dinner had finished a lady in a Red Hat sweater came up to Barry and said “Your Uncle Matthew had dinner at my house!”…. Barry smiled and said “How Cool is that?!” she then proceeded to make sure we knew that not only Governor Matthew Welsh, but Representative Phil Sharp and his wife, Ki Ki, were dinner guests as well as Ki Ki’s editor from a New York publishing empire. Barry looked at me and smiled, “we now know that every time either before or after a parade in Parker City we need to call Dorothy Beeson (as he points his thumb to Mrs. Beeson)”. Mrs. Beeson just giggled and gave me a hug and told me that we were welcome to her home any time. I’m thinking to myself at the time, “I’m trying to LOSE pounds NOT GAIN THEM!!!”. I see that I will have to muster all sorts of internal fortitude to make sure I don’t HAVE to eat at every event, etc. I’m going to look at this as a challenge and a positive for me. I’ll show myself that I can resist every kind of cherry pie made with real butter in the flaky pie crust, and that I CAN resist peanut butter fudge or the Chocolate layer cake made with butter cream icing and about 4 lbs of sweet bakers chocolate. Sigh…I have decided instead of driving the parade truck this time, I’m going to run the parade route like Barry does.
Anyway, it was a good night and I feel like this is a new beginning for the Democratic Party this time, it feels like there is more awareness, more eagerness to get involved, more eagerness to participate.
I noticed when we were talking and remarking on the events of the evening about how much stronger the Democrats looked tonight, how many more youths we saw in the audience, how something is about to happen – like the wake of a Tsunami. I’m beginning to think of the atmosphere around here as the 2nd wave of a Tsunami, the 1st one was last November, the Mid-term Elections. This is the big one and there is a lot of change I feel is going to happen. I can’t help but feel good about it, it’s like there is hope, the kind of hope that Jack and Bobby Kennedy brought to this nation politically. I feel like there is hope, much needed, much awaited hope for the future.
I keep asking Barry, “So when are you going to formally announce? We need to get busy.” He keeps telling me, “As soon as we get the committee and people in place.
I am not coming to a gun fight with a paring knife again, if I am going to do this, this time we are bringing big guns.” He is talking to two very popular, and prominent people to manage the campaign, and he is putting together what he is calling “The 6th District Dream Team”, which will be a very strong effort if everyone comes on board.
So I guess you can say, I’m confidently resurrecting my Congressional Candidates Wife title and writing diaries again.
This is my diary and I write from a personal and close up perspective of a Congressional Campaign. This diary is written by me and not vetted through the campaign.
Thank you for taking the time to read this diary and I welcome any and all to comment, just remember that I apologize for all and any grammatical and spelling errors.
Love,
Sherri Welsh
Congressional Candidates Wife
