Cory Booker among democrats in N.O. for Jefferson-Jackson Day

13th August 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer

Louisiana Democrats played host to two big names in progressive politics August 4 when Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker spoke to a crowded audience at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown New Orleans for the Democrats’ annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, an event duplicated across the country by other Democratic groups that serves as part fundraiser and part political pep rally for liberal activists.

Booker took to the stage amid rip-roaring applause and proceeded to galvanize his fellow Democrats with chants of “I stand with Obama” sprinkled throughout his speech as he vigorously defended President Barack Obama’s record on healthcare, ending the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers, helping to stop a hemorrhaging national economy, and enacting Wall Street reform.

Booker, one of only a handful of Black politicians with national influence and name recognition, has been a top surrogate for the president and other White House causes as Obama seeks reelection and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for governor of New Jersey or the U.S. Senate in the near future.

For now, though, Booker appears content to travel the country as a much-sought-after public speaker who stomps on behalf of the president and buttresses his own brand as part of the future of a Democratic Party with a strong bench of up-and-coming elected officials.

Booker recounted his family’s roots in Monroe, La., and amused the crowd with stories of his grandfather, a former teacher at Monroe Colored High School, who would tease him and state that Booker’s educational success had caused him to achieve “more high degrees than the month of July.”

But Booker grew serious as he tried to underscore the Democrats’ mission to hold on to the White House in the face of an onslaught of conservative dollars being funneled into Republican campaign coffers across the country, which will make Obama the first sitting president to be outspent by his opponent.

“It’s not about them,” Booker said, referring the GOP. “It’s about us.” He stated that conservative efforts to roll back collective bargaining rights and amend voting laws has little to do with the Democratic Party and more to do with the people it strives to represent.

“It’s time that we take back our country from those who are trying to turn it back,” he asserted, adding, “It is not the appalling actions of bad people that are of the most concern, but it is the silence of good people.”

Booker said the fight against conservative policies, like efforts to limit access to women’s healthcare, is about protecting families; and, in his case, the fight boils down to advocating for three women in his life: “my big momma, to my grandmomma, to my own momma.”

Other politicians also spoke at the Jefferson-Jackson event, named for presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, and included local and state luminaries like U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democratic Party chair and state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Land­rieu. The event also drew Balti­more Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, both are prominent Black Democrats.

State Democrats also handed out several awards at the dinner, including a lifetime achievement award presented to Leah Guerry, a longtime justice advocate in the state of Louisiana. Guerry’s award was presented by state Supreme Court Justice Bernette Johnson who received deafening applause as she took to the podium to recognize Guerry’s achievements.

Johnson has been embroiled in a legal challenge to her ability to assume the Supreme Court’s chief justice position and state Democrats have rallied around her highly publicized effort.

Maryland’s O’Malley brought laughs to the Democrats in attendance with his many comedic remarks at the ex-pense of GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney and his deriding of the GOP-controlled Congress, which he called the “constipation Congress” because of its inability to pass legislation. “They wouldn’t pass gas,” O’Malley quipped, “if they thought it would help the president.”

O’Malley, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, led efforts to assist south Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. When serving as mayor of Baltimore, O’Malley helped to send 150 medical, police and fire personnel to Louisiana who arrived in the state in a 50-vehicle caravan in 2005 and then sent medical staff to parts of the state affected by Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

O’Malley remarked that Louisian­ians and Marylanders “share a heritage of being coastal people” and understand the nature of making a living by working on the water. That shared experience, he said, unites people from both states regardless of the distance between the two.

Money raised from the Jefferson-Jackson dinner pays for Demo­cratic operations throughout the state and helps finance party efforts to elect and recruit candidates for state and federal office. Sen. Peterson said “Louisiana needs Democrats now more than ever” and blasted Gov. Bobby Jindal for implementing a “radical conservative experimentation” in the state.

Sen. Landrieu told the audience that she plans to run for reelection in 2014 because “I’ve met people in Washington who don’t believe that government is there to help other people.” She also had harsh words for Jindal whom she called “not in tune and out of town,” making a reference to the governor’s frequent out-of-state visits to raise money for conservative causes.

But amid the politics were mo­ments of levity. Lifetime achie­vement award recipient Sibal Holt, the first Black women to head the Louisiana AFL-CIO, reminded those in attendance of the importance of striving for a just society and the need to have fun along the way. Holt concluded: “Ain’t no party like a Demo­cratic party ‘cause a Democratic party don’t stop!”

This article was originally published in the August 13, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper