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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Thomas Koch |
| Address | 513 Olive St.
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048, United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Nov 14, 2011 01:34pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | This campaign should be more about issues and less about me or Lynn Jenkins. The big questions are not about experience or even character, but about what policies are going to be good for our district and good for our country. I do believe that I have sterling character and strive to be friendly and helpful. Of course, anybody can claim that, but I have been trusted with keys to a public building for almost seven years.
In Richland Center, Wisconsin I just about had the key to the city. I had the keys to my own store, Koch's Books, to the Press Box Bar and Grill, where I worked as a part-time janitor, to the Pine River Food Co-op, where I also served on the board, and to Crossroads Youth Center, where I was President of the board and volunteered for about six years working 4-8 hours a week.
My own biography and resume are fairly ordinary, containing neither Nobel Prizes nor Olympic Medals (Okay, I did win a state chess tournament in Nebraska, and it was blitz chess (I am reminded of an episode of "My Three Sons" where Ernie found his dad's debate trophy and said something like "but it was really intense debate" to cover for the fact that it was not an athletic trophy.))
In some sense, my ordinariness is an excellent qualification for a representative. I can represent you because I have walked a mile in your shoes. I have been a teacher and a student, a renter and a landlord, an office worker and a factory worker and a businessperson. If you are tired of being "represented" by career politicians or other members of the power elite, then I offer an alternative.
As our representative in Congress, Lynn Jenkins should represent ordinary people more than she represents the top 5%, and she should be honest about the impact of tax cuts on the deficit. She has failed on both counts. You have an opportunity to hold her accountable and replace her with somebody who will represent you. My name is Thomas Koch, and I can represent ordinary working people, because I am one. I have worked as a part time janitor in Leavenworth for the last 8 years and before that at several factories.
I have the same last name as some rich people, but Uncle's David and Charlie Koch are not really my relatives, although I use them as examples of the prosperous people that Lynn Jenkins represents. (My real uncle, ironically enough, is named Lynne, and our family has pronounced the name as 'Cook' since at least 1874.) "Uncle" David has founded "Americans for the Prosperous" to sell us the idea that helping the prosperous will create prosperity for all. He might as well sell bridges in Brooklyn and magic beans that he will trade for a cow. I expect them to endorse Jenkins and attack me. It is typical for such groups to pretend that tax increases on the rich will hurt us all.
I was raised in a small town in the midwest (Huron, SD population 15,000). Like many young people, I had to leave my home town to find a job. Even then I did not have much luck. Because I couldn't get a job with my first college degree, I went to graduate school on a teaching scholarship.
After going to graduate school in Lincoln, NE where my real uncle Wayne worked for Back to the Bible, I went back to Richland Center, WI (population 5,000) where my ancestors had settled in 1854. I owned a bookstore there for seven years, working two jobs for less than $10,000 a year until I sold the building and moved to Iowa where I owned a laundromat for three years before moving near my sister in the KC metro area.
I have taught economics at two Universities, owned two small businesses and volunteered for Crossroads Christian Youth Center and the Salvation Army, among others. I believe I understand both the Federal Budget and also the challenges of ordinary working people and would like to represent the 2nd District.
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