A got an interview on the Plattsburgh State University television station today on the John Robert's Supreme Court nomination. I was picked because I was at the College Democrats meeting and with my cowboy hat. That interested the reporter— she noted that aren't too many cowpokes out there that are particularly liberal. While I'm not really a cowboy and only play one in Plattsburgh, I have my reasons for my Stetson and my liberalism.

I am a proud resident of Upstate New York. I don't see why the Southwest should have a monopoly on Rural America. They certainly play lots of country music around the college and all over the North Country. If you haven't gotten tired of WOKO yet, then you haven't been here for more then two weeks. If Democratic Rural Conference Chair Stu Broudy can wear his Stetson around town, then I certainly can. I eventually want his seat. I love Rural Democrats!

My cowboy hat keeps some of the sun out of my face, and keeps me warm. Being pulled-wool and black, I don.t wear it on days warmer then 80 degrees even with a bandana to cool my face. It makes a political statement on who I am, and it.s a salute to my rural heritage. If they can play "She Thinks My Tractor Sexy" at the Moorer Tractor Pull in the Moorers, then I can wear a cowboy hat.

I don't think celebrating rural America or going to tractor pulls is anti-theatrical to being a supporter of Democratic politics. As the Clinton County Democratic Harvest Dinner featuring Elliot Spitzer showed, even rural counties have a lot of Democrats. There were close to 200 people there. Some of the people I the party that I know are farmers, and a lot of people up there had full-size pickup trucks. There are rural Democrats.

As the bumper sticker on a pickup I saw the other day said: "Keep Your GUN and Your JOB: Vote KERRY". I think the Democratic Party can do a lot to help out rural America, such as provide better jobs to people through smart foreign and social policy, find ways to make farming more profitable, and clean up some of the pollution that makes our most rural places less then desirable.

I look at people like Assemblyman Darrel Aubertine, the farmer-democratic politician from the Tugg Hill region, and I know from his voting record he is a good democrat, but a rural one at the same time. He's not going to vote against the agricultural community or rural America, but in most issues he supports the party. I want to be a democrat in his mold: one who cares about our world but one that is realistic to the reality of rural America.

As a Democratic Party, we need to stop being the party of Urban America and realize that there are a lot of Rural Democrats out here. We might not control as many offices as the Republicans do, but as Clinton County is showing we are winning more and more seats.