This seat was held by the Republican Party for 16 years. First time I ran I lost by 3 votes in 2004. In 2008 I won with 64%, in 2012 I won with 71%, this year I was unopposed.
I make no apologies for being a Democrat in this heavily Republican county and defend our record vigorously, enthusiastically, and doggedly.
following is the text of my speech at our local fundraiser, "The John Mitchel Dinner."
My name is Mike Kohr and I’m running for a 3rd term for district 18 of the Bureau County Board. I’m so happy to be here tonight. I am reminded of the words of my Grandmother, Sarah Taggart Kohr, “Don’t be picky with anything in life except the company you keep. And by God isn’t this the best of company here tonight?”
I am tonight both humbled by the legacy of John Mitchel and honored to stand alongside those that would ensure his commitment to working people is never forgotten, and never forsaken. It has been said that greatness skips a generation. I am proud to share the stage tonight with two exceptions to that rule, Representative Frank Mautino and Lieutenant Governor Shelia Simon.
Many of you here tonight know I lost my father on March 3rd of 2013. Dad, a former precinct committeeman, had encouraged me first to run for this seat. He lost his father at age 5 in 1936, during the Republican gifted Great Depression. Once a month, the relief wagon came to Cherry. By the end of the month, the only thing left in the cupboard was a 5 gallon tin of lard and a sack of flour. They ate lard sandwiches the last week of every month, but they were grateful that FDR and the Democrats cared enough to see that they had something, anything to eat at all. His oldest brother John volunteered to serve in the Navy on PT boats off the waters of Guadalcanal and the Philippines during WWII and was awarded the Bronze Star. My father volunteered to serve in the Air Force on a SAC base in Goose Bay, Labrador, during the Korean War. His youngest brother Bill volunteered for service in the Army. Their 3 sisters married, raised families, and one died a millionaire. FDR and the Democratic Party extended a hand when they needed help most, knowing that investing in people is the wisest bet a nation can make and one that pays the biggest dividends.
But what did our Republican friends say about FDR when he was wresting this country from the misery of the Great Depression? They called him a communist! They called him a socialist! They called him a Marxist! They said he was destroying the fabric and institutions of this nation! They said Social Security would bankrupt the nation’s treasury and the moral fiber of the American People! Does that sound familiar?
What they said about FDR then, they are saying about our current President now. Like FDR before him President Obama inherited a colossal economic collapse from his Republican predecessor. Like FDR before him his economic policies stopped the frightening slide into the black hole of recession and depression. Those policies saved the auto industry. They have produced a record 56 straight months of private sector job growth. They have reduced George W. Bush’s yearly deficits, the greatest ever recorded, by an amount greater than every other president combined. All this accomplishment without a shred of co-operation from the 112th and the 113th Congress, that under Speaker Boehner, has been recorded as both the 2nd least, and the least effective House of Representatives, Ever!
The orange man with no plan has tried 53 times to kill the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but has not passed a single jobs bill. Congress has tied their pay to the cost of living but refuses to do so for minimum wage workers. That action would be the greatest single step in helping reverse the historic disparity in the income gap that exists in this country today.
The day before my father died he told me he was glad he had lived long enough to see President Obama re-elected. He knew the “Bottom Up,” Middle Out,” Democratic economic policies were righting a ship ran hard aground on the rock headed policies of Republican Trickle Down Economics. Dad was confident in this belief, because he had seen it play out before.
I wrote the President a letter expressing to him my father’s thoughts. The President wrote back on September 3rd, 2013.
Dear Mike:
Thank you for the moving letter you sent this spring. I was touched by your words, and saddened to learn of the passing of your father, Patrick.
Stories like your father's remind me why I ran for this office in the first place, and I trust you take great pride in his legacy of service and in the values he passed on to you. Please know your message will remain in my thoughts, and I will not stop fighting to build a brighter future for our nation.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
The President’s critics have deserted the interests of the Middle Class and chosen to give aid and comfort to the enemies of prosperity, hoping that American failure is their path back to power.
I see their lives as failures, their politics a farce! They play at false outrage, lies and low ideals because they don't get it, and they never will!
Just look at who the Republicans have driving their clown car here in Illinois. Mitt Rauner wants you to trust him with the keys to the Governor’s mansion, but he doesn’t trust you with his tax returns. What’s he hiding? His budget has a 4 billion dollar shortfall in it that he promised to explain 15 months ago. He still has not. If what he is peddling sounds like a con job, it’s because that is exactly what it is!
If you want a preview of what Illinois would face under Rauner just look at what Governor Sam Brownback did to Kansas. Brownback’s Voo-Doo economics has pushed Kansas so far into the red that they are auctioning off a warehouse of sex toys to pay off their debt. What’s wrong with Kansas! I’ll tell you what’s wrong with Kansas! They elected a Republican Governor! And God help us if we elect one here in Illinois!
Misery is easy to create. It is the tool of the malicious and the lazy. And no one is better at creating misery than the Republican Party.
Republicans have been in charge for 9 of the last 10 recessions. Over the last 70 years they have managed to average only 78,000 jobs created per month. Democrats average 174,000, more than double! There is not a single economic metric that Democrats don’t far out-perform their Republican counterparts. Not A Single One!
Happiness on the other hand takes work. Happiness is the reward of a life well lived. Priorities well placed. Democrats are happy warriors. We always have been. We always will be. Whatever winds blow our way it is the power of our faith in people that sustains us. We put people before profit, and principle before privilege. John Mitchel had that faith and shared those priorities.
In closing, Margaret Meade once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever does.”
You, we, are that small group of thoughtful committed citizens. Let’s go out and change the world.
Thank you and May God bless you! God Bless John Mitchel and may God bless the Democratic Party!
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Clearly conveys the principles the Democratic Party stands for. That's the kind of message all of our candidates should be communicating. 
