Government : County Democrats honor new Hall of Fame members, hear from candidates

Van Horne—The Benton County Democrats came together Saturday, October 3 to celebrate and recognize long-time supporters and activists for the party’s Hall of Fame Induction. The evening’s tone was set early when after dinner, Chair Rosemary Schwartz inducted Warren Richart, Kent and Colleen Stufflebeam, to the family of late Richard Schoonover to the Benton County Democratic Hall of Fame.

After the comments from the inductees, candidates or candidate representative spoke to the large crowd gathered. Each of the speakers shared with Benton Democrats their vision for the future and their personal reason for running for office rather than speeches tearing down the opponents. Those speaking were: Rep. Timi Brown-Powers from Black Hawk Co. representing Secretary Clinton, Seth Cohen representing Gov. Martin O’Malley, U.S. Senate Candidates Tom Fiegan, Clarence and State .Senator Rob Hogg, Cedar Rapids and 1st District Congressional Candidates, Gary Kroeger, Waterloo, former State Rep Pat Murphy, Dubuque and Monica Vernon, Cedar Rapids.

Candidate remarks were followed by the evening’s keynote speaker State Senator Liz Mathis of Cedar Rapids. Senator Mathis shared insights into her career as a television journalist where she excelled at political reporting before going into a discussion about the trials and tribulations of trying to govern the state under extremely partisan conditions. In addition to her role as State Senator, Mathis is also the Chief Community Officer at Four Oaks in Cedar Rapids