Posted on 08/23/2004 4:16:53 PM PDT by areafiftyone
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Mayor George McKelvey doesn’t know why he was invited to dinner by President Bush, but described the occasion as successful, “humbling” and a “life-altering experience.”
But leading Democrats in the Mahoning Valley find the whole episode amusing, a lesson in Electoral College politics and how the “poaching” game is played.
McKelvey, a lifelong Democrat, and his wife attended the White House dinner Wednesday night and the mayor was seated next to the president, according to local broadcast reports. The Youngstown mayor’s dinner with the president followed Bush’s trip Tuesday to the city to promote his community health-center initiative.
The visit to the White House merited live reports from Washington by television news anchors Bob Black of WFMJ and Gina Marinelli of WKBN.
Before the dinner, McKelvey told WFMJ’s Black he was “as curious as the next person as to why George McKelvey is sitting next to President Bush in the White House. I don’t know the answer to that. I will know after the meeting is over, but I do not know now. It could be as simple as the fact of the matter that he has grown to like me as a person, and is extending the hand of friendship. Or it could be to the other end of the spectrum, that it is the beginning of a process where they would like me to be a part of something involving the president.”
While dining with the president, McKelvey said he told Bush about the importance of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station to the region, they reported. He said the president was interested in the area, and was familiar with Youngstown State University and its recent enrollment gains.
At the end of the evening, McKelvey said he received a private tour of the Oval Office, and the two showed each other pictures of their children, according to the reports. The mayor described his visit to the White House as “a life-altering experience.”
Democratic Party activists say the president was “poaching” and using McKelvey in hopes of taking votes away from John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee. “The only thing that George Bush has really given the Mahoning Valley is a couple of dinners and a visit to the White House,” quipped state Sen. Robert Hagan, D-33, Youngstown.
Hagan said it’s well known in political circles that McKelvey is considering running for the congressional seat held by Democrat Ted Strickland should Strickland decide to run for governor. “I do know the Republicans recruited him before to run for Congress, he said. “That’s the politics of it, not only on a personal level but it goes to their plan at chipping away at the 65% that Kerry needs in the Mahoning Valley to win the state.”
Hagan took issue with McKelvey’s claim that he was not invited onto the platform when Kerry visited downtown Youngstown April 27. “I personally invited George up to the stage when Kerry was there, and he said, ‘No.’ So for him to say he was not invited is wrong. Should the Kerry people have invited him? Perhaps. But they didn’t invite me either.”
Alan Kretzer, a Democratic Party activist, said the motivation for McKelvey’s invitation to the White House is “transparent and shallow. It was intended to minimize the margin of Democrat votes in the Mahoning Valley,” he said.
Kretzer also said he is amused at the mayor’s statements that he was at a loss to explain his invitation. “George McKelvey’s denial of understanding why he was invited to the White House is at best disingenuous. If he doesn’t understand, after a lifetime in politics, then shame on him.”
Bush came to Youngstown State University May 25 for a discussion that showcased the success of Youngstown-based Ohio North East Health Systems Inc. While detailing his administration’s initiative to expand funding for community health centers nationwide (READ STORY).
Ohio North East Health Systems operates three community health centers in Youngstown, Warren and Alliance, and is expecting greater demand for services in the wake of the president’s visit to the Mahoning Valley. (READ STORY)
During the invitation-only event at YSU, the president praised McKelvey for the “fine job” he was doing in realizing his vision for making Youngtown a thoroughly modern city.
After the event concluded, McKelvey told The Business Journal “he couldn’t be more impressed” with what the Republican president said during his appearance in Youngstown.
The mayor also said he hoped to have an opportunity during the White House dinner to discuss with the president a revision in tax policies that would discourage companies from outsourcing jobs overseas and instead provide incentives for businesses to remain and expand within the United States.
I read that today. Its amazing how many democrats are endorsing Bush.
Before you know it, even KERRY will be endorsing Bush!
As, since the convention, kerry is no longer the 'presumptive' nominee but the actual nominee, can this statement be considered slipshod writing or a prophetic statement?
Will the dems run a substitute at the last minute?
Enquiring minds want to know.
^
Not a spelling error.
Poached, indeed!
You mean after their failed convention the Democrats are still not sure yet?
The dems are such a bunch of whiny babies.
LOL. A lot of Dems will be having epiphanies this year. Interesting to know the Dem party doesn't think those folks are capable of independent thought.
Let me see. Someone who was not invited up to the stage by the Kerry people invited the Mayor up to the stage. I guess he is saying that the two of them could have crashed the party up on the stage and no one would have stopped them (with Secret Service security I don't think anyone gets anywhere near the candidate unless specifically invited.) And this is is supposed to rebut the claim that the Mayor was not invited up to the stage by the Kerry people. It all seems a bit minor, but these are the little things that Kerry's campaign screws up every time.
If Kerry is in front of an audience that wants him to say it, he'll say it. Like everything else, it will mean nothing, and he will forget it the next day, and a month later, will threaten to sue anyone who reminds him of it.
Okay, who can tell me how many Dem elected officials have endorsed Bush?
Now how many Republican officials have endorsed Kerry?
Actually Kerry was for Bush, before he was against him.
I hear Kerry served in Vietnam, did you?
um...
North Vietnam I believe,,,,isn't there a pic of him with his comrades?
Jane Fonda was in North Viet Nam. He hung around her a great deal.
My mother always said "bird of a feather flock together", some truth in that somewhere.
All the people at the dem convention were spitting at the vets when they came home. Now they try to honor a faulty "vet" they claim as their own. Keep watching. Kerry has a very, very big problem.
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