Pepper speaks at Democratic dinner
COSHOCTON – David Pepper was the guest speaker at the annual Coshocton County Democratic dinner, which was held at the Moose Lodge in Coshocton on Thursday evening, April 23. Pepper told the audience, “The state of our party is improving. Last year was a bad year for politics in general. There were no debates in Ohio at all and we had the lowest voter turnout for a November election. The election was about an opportunity, saying, “We don’t think people want to elect anybody”. We have a million more voters in Ohio – but right now they don’t think it matters. We need a strategy in 2016 and 2018 – we can’t have this pattern of skipping an election. We are gathering input from everybody.”
“Many are saying, ‘I don’t feel like I’m part of this party’. We have three big things to work on – be in the public serving and build a bench of good leaders. Second is our infrastructure – sometimes our party is really impressive, like the presidential year that got President Obama elected. The whole country is counting on Ohio to protect the right to vote.”
“Third, we have to be so much clearer about why we are Democrats so people know what we’re about. One of our key beliefs is that there should be economic opportunity for everybody – meaning good wages.”
“I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about 2016 and 2018.”
In addition to Pepper speaking, Rick Raach spoke on behalf of the Coshocton County Career Center and the importance of voting for the upcoming levy.
Tom Grier, councilman at large for the city of Coshocton, spoke about the city safety levy which will be on ballots for city residents in the May 5 election. Grier said, “This is one of the more important issues since I’ve been on city council. Our two largest expenses are fire and law enforcement and we’re in good shape with fire protection for a city of our size due to the levy that we have in place. On the ballot this year is a one half percent income tax levy that will put more law enforcement officers on the streets. The state has taken away a lot of our funding and this levy would allow us to bring our city law enforcement back to prior levels.”
Breanne Smith is the current Chair for the Coshocton County Democratic party.
mark@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: Government
