QUOTE
Sen. Kerry pledges support for Sanders, Times Argus
November 7th, 2005
By Louis Porter
BARRE - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in the last presidential election, came to the Old Labor Hall here Saturday night to rally his party as it prepares for U.S. House and Senate elections next year. Vermont will have open seats in both bodies, meaning the elections in the state might be the focus of national attention.
Kerry and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont were joined on stage by U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, another sign that the Independent’s bid for the Senate seat, which will be vacated by Sen. James Jeffords, has the Democrats’ approval.
Sanders, who smiled a lot but didn’t speak from the podium, received one of the loudest rounds of applause from the roughly 300 Democrats who attended the fund-raiser.
“You showed me what the feeling is like for him in the Democratic Party,” Kerry told the crowd.
Kerry and Leahy pledged during an interview before the event to do whatever Sanders asked to help him in his race.
“I will help him in raising money and things of that nature,” Leahy said. “It has to be his choice what he wants.”
“Nobody has to teach Congressman Sanders how to get votes in Vermont,” Leahy added.
Sanders, in turn, has said several times he will support Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Welch, D-Windsor, as Welch runs to replace him in the U.S. House. Welch, who may face Progressive Rep. David Zuckerman and Vermont Adjutant Gen. Martha Rainville, was also at the event.
The Vermont Republican Party also held its fall fund-raiser Saturday night, at the Sheraton hotel in Burlington. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., was the speaker at the event, which was expected to raise about $50,000, party chairman James Barnett said before the event.
Barnett called Sununu “a well respected member of Congress from our side.”
“A lot of people like him in the party. He is a strong voice down there for the Republican Party,” Barnett said.
Kerry also said that Democrats in the U.S. Senate who supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq were duped.
“That vote was based on misleading intelligence ? we were told there were weapons of mass destruction,” Kerry said. “The photos I was shown in the Pentagon with the secretary of defense sitting there did not contain the things they told me they contained.”
The withdrawal of U.S. troops needs to begin after the December elections in Iraq, and benchmarks should be set for the Iraqi troops to take over security, Kerry said.
Kerry would not say whether the series of political events he is attending around the country are designed in part to lay the groundwork for a presidential run in 2008.
“It is far too early to begin election 2008,” he said.
But next year’s mid-term elections are critical, Leahy and Kerry said.
“What Vermonters decide to do in those two races will have a significant effect,” Kerry said. Which party will have a majority in the U.S. Senate “could very well come down to one state that makes the difference.”
“We can take back the reins of this country, and it is just about time,” Leahy told the crowd of supporters.
Sanders caucuses and works with the Democrats in the House, so he is likely to do so in the Senate as well, Kerry said. “We want to win. I want the Senate back,” Kerry said.
Democrats, who earlier in the evening elected Burlington lawyer Ian Carleton as their party’s new chairman, said that the event was expected to raise about $40,000 for the state party.
Howard Dean, former governor and head of the national Democratic Party, was absent from the event. Although Dean has held similar fund-raisers in Vermont, this year’s event on Saturday was organized by the Vermont Democratic Party with Leahy’s help. Dean was at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Sen. Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J., on Saturday.
Both Leahy and Kerry praised Dean, who was a rival of Kerry’s for the Democratic nomination in 2004.
“It’s about as hard a job as you can have when you don’t have the House or Senate,” Kerry said.
November 7th, 2005
By Louis Porter
BARRE - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in the last presidential election, came to the Old Labor Hall here Saturday night to rally his party as it prepares for U.S. House and Senate elections next year. Vermont will have open seats in both bodies, meaning the elections in the state might be the focus of national attention.
Kerry and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont were joined on stage by U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, another sign that the Independent’s bid for the Senate seat, which will be vacated by Sen. James Jeffords, has the Democrats’ approval.
Sanders, who smiled a lot but didn’t speak from the podium, received one of the loudest rounds of applause from the roughly 300 Democrats who attended the fund-raiser.
“You showed me what the feeling is like for him in the Democratic Party,” Kerry told the crowd.
Kerry and Leahy pledged during an interview before the event to do whatever Sanders asked to help him in his race.
“I will help him in raising money and things of that nature,” Leahy said. “It has to be his choice what he wants.”
“Nobody has to teach Congressman Sanders how to get votes in Vermont,” Leahy added.
Sanders, in turn, has said several times he will support Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Welch, D-Windsor, as Welch runs to replace him in the U.S. House. Welch, who may face Progressive Rep. David Zuckerman and Vermont Adjutant Gen. Martha Rainville, was also at the event.
The Vermont Republican Party also held its fall fund-raiser Saturday night, at the Sheraton hotel in Burlington. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., was the speaker at the event, which was expected to raise about $50,000, party chairman James Barnett said before the event.
Barnett called Sununu “a well respected member of Congress from our side.”
“A lot of people like him in the party. He is a strong voice down there for the Republican Party,” Barnett said.
Kerry also said that Democrats in the U.S. Senate who supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq were duped.
“That vote was based on misleading intelligence ? we were told there were weapons of mass destruction,” Kerry said. “The photos I was shown in the Pentagon with the secretary of defense sitting there did not contain the things they told me they contained.”
The withdrawal of U.S. troops needs to begin after the December elections in Iraq, and benchmarks should be set for the Iraqi troops to take over security, Kerry said.
Kerry would not say whether the series of political events he is attending around the country are designed in part to lay the groundwork for a presidential run in 2008.
“It is far too early to begin election 2008,” he said.
But next year’s mid-term elections are critical, Leahy and Kerry said.
“What Vermonters decide to do in those two races will have a significant effect,” Kerry said. Which party will have a majority in the U.S. Senate “could very well come down to one state that makes the difference.”
“We can take back the reins of this country, and it is just about time,” Leahy told the crowd of supporters.
Sanders caucuses and works with the Democrats in the House, so he is likely to do so in the Senate as well, Kerry said. “We want to win. I want the Senate back,” Kerry said.
Democrats, who earlier in the evening elected Burlington lawyer Ian Carleton as their party’s new chairman, said that the event was expected to raise about $40,000 for the state party.
Howard Dean, former governor and head of the national Democratic Party, was absent from the event. Although Dean has held similar fund-raisers in Vermont, this year’s event on Saturday was organized by the Vermont Democratic Party with Leahy’s help. Dean was at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Sen. Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J., on Saturday.
Both Leahy and Kerry praised Dean, who was a rival of Kerry’s for the Democratic nomination in 2004.
“It’s about as hard a job as you can have when you don’t have the House or Senate,” Kerry said.
