(Another report from the Lt. Governor on the last leg of his tour. Thanks, LG! - promoted by LiberalLucy)
We started out Saturday at the Grand Traverse County Democratic Governor's Breakfast in Traverse City. This is an annual event to kick off Saturday's National Cherry Festival activities. Paul Bare chaired the event this year and Diana Ketola, the County Party Chair, MC'd the breakfast. There was a great turnout this year, which may say something about Democratic energy in 2008. Local Democrats are focused, ready to go, and have fielded some great candidates. Andy Concannon is the Congressional candidate and local Democrats have a great State Rep candidate-Roman Grucz. Like Dan Scripps and the Rep seat to the west, Roman ran a close race last year and this year he is contesting for an open seat.
Senator Carl Levin was the morning's keynote speaker. He pumped the crowd up, and talked about the dramatic moment in the United States Senate last week when Senator Ted Kennedy returned to the Senate floor to cast the deciding vote to bring an end to the filibuster on the Medicaid appropriation. Democrats have struggled the past two years to muster the 60 votes to break filibusters on critical issues that advance the Democratic Agenda. For the most part, they have regularly fallen short, but not this time. With Ted Kennedy present, they broke the filibuster and went on to pass the Medicaid appropriation with a comfortable majority. This all shows you how legislators often hide behind procedural votes; but when you can't hide any longer and the light of day shines strong, justice can prevail.
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