HECKEMEYER CLAIMS, 'MY HOME IS HERE'

A crowd, estimated at over 200 people, bunched together beneath a pavilion at Cape Girardeau County Park Saturday afternoon for a $10-a-plate fish fry on behalf of their candidate of choice for the 8th Congressional District, Tony Heckemeyer.

Heckemeyer, D-Sikeston, is running in the August primary against two opponents for the Democratic nomination for Congress. The winner will face Rep. Jo Ann Emerson in the November general election.

As the favorite to win the August primary, Heckemeyer all but ignored his Democratic opponents Saturday, choosing instead to focus his attack squarely on Emerson and the Republican party.

"There are still more Democrats in the 8th District than there are Republicans," Heckemeyer said, drawing an enthusiastic response from the partisan crowd.

"The governor carried the district, the president carried the district in the last election, and 72 percent of all elected officials in the district are still, thank God, Democrat," he said.

In touting his candidacy, Heckemeyer said that his campaign is centered on three things -- qualifications, commonality of interest and the issues.

He stressed his qualifications by reminding the crowd of his eight years in the Missouri General Assembly, his nine years as a practicing attorney in Sikeston and Scott County, his 17 years as a circuit court judge and a lifetime as a farmer.

Reminding the crowd that he has lived in the district all his life, Heckemeyer promised that he would continue to make Southeast Missouri his home even after the election. He would have an apartment in Washington, but his home, he said, would be here.

"When the people of the district see me, they see themselves," he said.

"I live here. My home is here," he said.

Heckemeyer then issued another invitation to Emerson to debate the issues of the campaign, challenging her to debate him on every courthouse step throughout the district.

"She can even pick the issues," he said.

But most on his mind Saturday were social security, health care, education and what he called the Hoover program of Republicans that will bankrupt farmers.

"It's going to destroy Mom and Pop farms and turn all the farms over to big corporations. You can't defend it," he said.

On education, Heckemeyer came out against a Republican-backed system of school vouchers. He told the crowd that he was a product of the parochial school system. Still, he said that the route of school vouchers will destroy the public school system and will ultimately destroy the parochial system.

"If you want to send your kids to parochial school, do it like we did it. Just do it. Don't look to Uncle Sugar to send help," he said.

Heckemeyer also spoke out against Republican initiatives to privitize social security, pledging to wage a war to defend social security in its present form.

"I am right on the issues at the right time," Heckemeyer said.

"This is my home. This is not just the source of my job. This is the place I defend," he said.