This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 15, 2013 - The Missouri Democratic Party has snagged Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to headline the party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, held in St. Louis and generally the state party’s biggest event of the year.
A party spokesman said that Gov. Jay Nixon invited Patrick to be the keynote speaker for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner June 8 at the Renaissance Grand Hotel.
(Missouri Republicans used the same hotel for the GOP’s statewide Lincoln Days festivities held here in February, which featured Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.)
Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, lauded Patrick as “a passionate speaker and defender of Democratic principles.” The Massachusetts governor won praise for his speech last September at the Democratic presidential convention in Charlotte, N.C.
The choice of Patrick also signals the continued effort of state Democrats to elevate the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, which has been held regularly for only the last decade or so.
So far, the dinner -- usually held in the spring -- has been held exclusively in St. Louis and often attracts the largest crowd of any Democratic gathering in the state.
One of the aims of the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner is to capitalize on the Democrats’ support in the St. Louis region, which as a whole provides the largest bloc – by far – of Democratic votes in the state.
Until the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner began to be held regularly, most of Missouri’s major Democratic gatherings were largely in rural parts of the state, which increasingly have been leaning Republican. Democrat Days in Hannibal, for example, long has been the annual kickoff of the political season, followed by other regional events.
The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner is the exception.
Since taking office, Gov. Jay Nixon often has reserved his only overtly political speeches for the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. In 2011, for example, he attracted a standing ovation because of his recent vetoes of bills dealing with photo ID issues.
