On The Record: John Richie

For this episode of On The Record, we speak with John Richie, Vice President of CWA Local 6200 in Wichita County and creator of The Labor Political Report.

How did you get started in politics? Did you come to it in your youth or later on?

I have been raised around it. My uncle is the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, and my grandmother and grandfather Richie were involved in the political structure since way back. It is just kind of a thing in our family.

The first time I worked on a campaign, I was 10 years old. We were trying to elect Arthur Bea Williams, the first African-American woman to Justice of the Peace in our county. My mother took me to the Democratic headquarters to put out signs and make calls to get people out to vote. Arthur Bea won and has gone on to hold other public offices in the area.

I have always been involved in the political process in a statewide or county level. I understood what it meant to vote for Democrats at a young age because it is the Party for the people.

What would you say are the primary issues concerning Wichita County?

We have a large number of indigent health care issues in the county because of the poor leadership in the state Senate and the House.

David Farabee does great in House District 69, but Estes is the State Senator and passes unfunded mandates, which leaves us to have to take care of indigent health care. We have to get some subsidies. The current administrations in Austin and Washington are not delivering.

We have a hard time fighting city and county authorities on prevailing wages especially with an air base here. Constantly staying on top of that and trying to maintain a certain wage scale is trying.

Do you have any ambition for higher office? Do you have plans to run for any other party office, or possibly even public office?

I currently sit as Precinct Chair for Precinct 45 in Witchita County, but running is an intriguing idea.

Who are some of your political heroes?

Ralph Yarborough is a political hero of mine, even though he was out of office before I got involved, but I read about his work. Graham Purcell, a former Congressman, has done many good things for the area.

My middle name is Kennedy, and I grew up knowing about him. He is a big hero of mine. He tried to pioneer things and, unfortunately, he was cut short.

Clinton, while he could have done better on the union front with NAFTA, he achieved many great things while he was in office, such as FMLA. When Clinton was in office, it was a much better time than the past eight years have been.

I have a lot of respect for Edwards. He has done good work, and I wish he could get some more media coverage to highlight his ideas.

My Uncle Boyd has all of the qualities of the people I have discussed and has always run on what should be done. He was emboldened by a lot of those principles from his time working as a U.S. Senate Page.

What are you looking forward to in the coming cycle?

I would love to see us take back the state House. We only need six seats to take over completely. I see people retiring and opponents for the races, it is a good sign.

I would love to see Congressman Mac Thornberry beaten. In my opinion, he is a Tom Delay Junior. I am not sure he even knows what’s going on.

As James Carville put it, I want to see us get the “trifecta;” the House, Senate and the White House. Congress isn’t the problem with not getting bills passed. We expect high things, but we need more votes to get it done.

What advice would you give to young people just getting into politics?

I give out advice to young people whether they want it or not. My advice is always the same, you have to be involved. Don’t wonder about Britney (Spears), Paris (Hilton) or who won American Idol.

What’s going on now is affecting them. I am not sure they are paying attention. The youth have to start voting their self-interests. They can’t vote based on social issues like abortion or the other issues that the Republicans use to take our eye off what is really going wrong in this country.

If you are not involved, then you’ll have to sit and take whatever happens to you. Reagan is an example of that situation. His policies appeared good but once the surface was scratched, it seemed not to turn out well. Look deeper than face value and don't be naïve or gullible.