Attorney General-Elect Derek Schmidt Election Night Remarks

Kansas GOP Election Night Headquarters
Capitol Plaza Hotel, Topeka, Kansas
November 2, 2010

"Thank you all very, very much for your patience in waiting for this moment - both this evening and the last number of years. It's been a long campaign, and we are none of us more grateful that it's over than these two little short people on my left here. I want to thank Caroline and Claire who have been intrepid troopers through the course of this race, and assure me they are still glad daddy's coming home when this is all over. And, also, Jennifer, who has been tremendously supportive throughout this entire endeavor. You all know that a campaign of this sort is a family commitment, not just a candidate commitment, and we appreciate very much your willingness to do that.

"Also, my mom is here. Along with my uncle, my mom has been even more than usual the reliable family babysitter so that I could get out and visit 105 counties and get to where we are tonight.

"Thank you all so very, very much for the opportunity to be in front of you tonight. You have all heard me say before and I will repeat that campaigns are only slightly about candidates. They are almost entirely about supporters, and voters, and volunteers and workers.

"I want you all to know that I received a very gracious phone call from the attorney general earlier this evening. We had a nice conversation. He assured me of his commitment to work with our team in the transition to ensure a smooth transition of power in that important office. And, I want to take this opportunity to thank both Steve and Betsy Six and their family. As I told him, and I will tell you, and I will it say often, because it is true: Kansas history will remember Steve Six for the role he played in bringing stability to an office that needed it and we should all be grateful for their service.

"We're going to relish this moment, for at least the balance of the evening. And, then tomorrow the work begins. We're going to take the rest of the night off, but after that, there is work to do. We will do, over the course of the next months, and then following the swearing-in ceremony in January, the course of the next years the things that we told Kansans we would do in the course of this campaign. We will continue the good work of the office where we believe it is well done. We will redouble our commitment to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation in the important resources it provides for public safety around this state. We will renew our commitment to leadership for public safety in this state. And, of course, we will stand up to the Obama agenda in those cases where it overreaches.

"The night is late; the victory is sweet. I want to thank you all so much for your help and friendship. Let me close by doing two things. First, I want to recognize three people and only three. You've got to draw a line somewhere. And, forgive me, because frankly we could recognize everyone in this room and many more.

"But I want to especially thank our terrific campaign manager Jackie McClaskey, our treasurer Gary Allerheiligen, and last but not least, my longtime chief of staff in the senate office, Eric Montgomery, who made sure the leadership job got done while we were campaigning.

"And, I'll close with this. Our friend Pat Roberts has a saying. He quotes Frank Carlson, I believe it is. I'm not sure who actually said it, but he quotes Frank Carlson. And it is a saying that is absolutely true. That in our line of service – in politics, in elected office – there are no self-made people. We are all only as much as our friends make us. You are all friends in this room and around this state. Jennifer, and I and Caroline and Claire thank you so very, very much for giving us this opportunity to serve. And we will do our best for you each and every day.

"Thank you very much."