Democratic Fundraiser speech

 Here's the first draft of my speech for the Chemung Democrats fundraising. Some of this was trimmed out for time constraints.

I’m Ed Bond, running for Chemung County Legislature in the 5th District. That’s in Horseheads from about Watkins Road out to Breesport, down to the area around Lattabrook Road and also that part of Veteran called Sullivanville.

To be clear, I stand for:

• Open government and fiscal transparency
• Upholding the U.S. Constitution
• Dignity and respect for all residents of Chemung County

Ten years ago, a massive shift happened in politics that caught many off guard. It happened in part because of that last bit, dignity and respect. People thought they weren’t being listened to. They thought they weren’t going to matter. They looked at the political arguments that were only “never this candidate” or “never that candidate.”

Politics was all about what to be against, not what to be for. And many voters just sat home. So, beyond the choice of who got elected, what really saddened me was the low voter turnout numbers. Democracy was in trouble. And the best way to save democracy is to use it. 

So here I am, using democracy, as a candidate for office. 

In my door-knocking, I have met registered Democrats who said that they are Republicans, and I have met Republicans who want to see Democrats win. And I have met plenty of independents who just want to know that we will work on the problems that affect their lives. The message is that you can’t take anyone for granted. Everyone needs to be listened to. 

When you listen, you find out that it is getting more costly and more difficult for seniors to get the services they need. You find out it can be difficult to get around this county on public transportation. You hear about the frequent power outages in parts of this county. People are worried about losing health insurance, SNAP benefits and whether they are being tracked by AI on flock cameras. We worry about the future of Elmira and whether we can bring good-paying jobs to this county. 

I don’t make promises I can’t keep, but I will tell you what I can do. I’m a former newspaper reporter, so that affects my skill set. The residents of this county should know what the government does to you and for you. You should know what the government is going to do before it does it. 

We’d like to bring in more jobs, sure. But how about we create jobs here, for ourselves? For example, I started a small business with the help of an agency called Incubatorworks. You should check them out. But what I realized is that we should be helping more people pursue their dreams, open a small business, generate income, hire a handful of people. That may not sound like a lot, but it adds up. By coincidence, one of the doors I knocked out in my district belonged to the chair of the International Council for Small Business who told me it’s really those small businesses of 1 to 10 employees that really make a long-lasting impact. So, let’s get more of those started and let’s make sure the existing small businesses survive and thrive. 

It is also very important for your elected officials to put aside party labels and work together to solve problems, improve the lives of county residents. They just want to know how we are making their lives better. One way of doing that is to put money into the pockets of people who live on a budget. That helps all of us.

So, if we have learned our lessons from the past ten years, we should be doing a better job of listening to people, making sure they know they are heard, pursuing policies that make their lives better and hopefully making sure they know what we’ve done. If the Democrats are doing that well, we may see a Blue Wave.

But understand what that Blue Wave is. It is made up of people, not money. It is especially made up of the volunteers who have stepped up this year. They have helped by going door-to-door with me or with their families. They have made phone calls. They have hand-written more than 1200 post cards for my campaign. They’ve helped get signs in yards. A wave is momentum through the water, and thanks to the volunteers, I can feel that momentum at my back. So thank you all.