| Local Dems hit the campaign trail |
By: Logan Watson, Press Staff
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Posted: Friday, August 31, 2012 3:23 pm
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Senate candidate Brad Thompson and House of Representative candidate Mark Maddox
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Close to 100 Democrats met over barbecue plates at Miles Chapel Church in Martin Tuesday evening to raise funds and issue awareness for the upcoming election on Nov. 6.
The fundraiser, which was hosted by the Weakley County Federation of Democratic Women, gave voters the opportunity to get to know candidates Brad Thompson and Mark Maddox, who are running for State Senate and State Representative respectively.
Thompson was first to address the group, laying out a platform based on job creation and retention. As Martin’s current director of Economic and Community Development, Thompson stated that his experiences gave him insight into the problems facing the area.
“Over the past 10 years, this Senate District has lost 14,000 jobs,” said Thompson. “That is a lot of ground to make up.”
Thompson also stressed the importance of supporting the backbone of the education system, something he felt legislators had failed to do.
“Teachers have been disrespected,” Thompson told the crowd. “You can’t put students first if you continually put teachers last.”
Like Thompson, Mark Maddox said he felt the 107th General Assembly let Tennesseans down, stating that its legislators “attacked teachers, belittled students, and criticized working people.” Maddox called on Democrats to “rise up” and elect representatives who would look out for teachers and the unemployed while keeping money inside their county.
“Money is being taken from the pockets of Weakley County and given to Union County,” said Maddox, who roused fellow Democrats when he said that the money, a staggering $54,000, was being given to a corporation “run by a felon”.
The money raised during the event will go towards replacing the Obama signs that were vandalized during the president’s election campaign in 2008, with the remainder being donated to the Democratic party’s election fund. WCP 8.30.12
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