[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 752-753]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          REMEMBERING PAT GRAY

  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, people who work in politics sometimes 
suffer a bad image. People who run for office, obviously, sometimes 
suffer a bad image. But sometimes even worse is the image that what we 
call the political handlers have--those people who have made a career 
of professionally helping people get elected. They are seen as 
ruthless, as hired guns, as aggressive, even soulless, unprincipled. I 
am here to talk about one of those political operatives, but this 
political operative was special. This political operative was my 
friend. He was principled, he was brave, but most of all he was a 
patriot. Pat Gray passed away very recently and he will be missed.
  Pat grew up in Oklahoma. After serving 4 years in the Navy, he moved 
to Kansas City where he took a job with the Kansas City Power and Light 
Company. He also became very active in the Jaycees. He found that work 
as part of the Jaycee organization was exhilarating. He had his first 
taste of working on campaigns to improve the community and he was 
hooked.
  Very quickly he moved into advertising. That advertising job then 
morphed into working on political campaigns. Pat made his bones in 1982 
as a political consultant when he took on the city incumbent county 
executive in Jackson County, MO. Jackson County is the county where the 
person who used to have this desk is from, Harry Truman. Jackson County 
is the county that contains Kansas City.
  It was then and still is a place where Democrats do well. So for Pat 
Gray to take on a candidate to be a sitting incumbent county executive 
was quite brave because, as I am sure the Presiding Officer 
understands, politics is rough locally. When someone takes on a 
powerful person in the predominating party in a community, there is 
usually a price to pay, but Pat was not deterred. His candidate, Bill 
Waris, beat that sitting county executive, Dale Baumgardner, in 1982.
  The following year Pat was hired in an important mayoral campaign 
where he was also successful, electing the Kansas City mayor. Pat was 
low key, but he was aggressive. Pat had little ego but lots of laser-
like strategy. He was very easy going, but he was very hard on his 
opponents. As one Kansas Citian put it after Pat had passed away: Pat 
slid into second with his spikes in the air. So you either had to make 
a very good throw or get out of the way.
  That was his style, very hands-on. He wanted to win badly. Pat was 
instrumental in electing the first woman as Jackson County executive, 
the first woman as Jackson County prosecutor--my campaign for that 
office in 1992--and the first woman as mayor of Kansas City.
  He helped to elect mayors, legislators, city council members, too 
many for me to name, too many campaigns, too many candidates. Nine out 
of ten times he was successful. He helped me throughout my career. I 
remember vividly in 1990, when I was running for the county 
legislature, his coming to my home in Coleman Highlands with a camera 
and shooting a commercial with me sitting on my living room couch, just 
the two of us. He became a trusted advisor and my dear friend until his 
death.
  As I stand at the very desk Harry Truman used in the Senate, I stand 
here in part because of his help and his loyalty. I will be reaching 
for the phone to call Pat Gray countless times in the coming years. 
While he helped many candidates, including me, it was on community 
issues that his record was particularly impressive. The e-tax renewal 
in Kansas City, which many thought had no chance, Pat successfully 
steered; the renewal and invigoration of our sports complex in Kansas 
City, the home of the division champion Kansas City Royals and our 
Kansas City Chiefs. Pat Gray strategized a brilliant campaign to 
revitalize downtown Kansas City through the building of a major sports 
arena, which has now resulted in blocks and blocks of revitalization. 
In fact, real estate in Kansas City--residential real estate in 
downtown Kansas City--is now a hot ticket in large part because of Pat 
Gray; the very first area transportation tax, which gave a lifeline to 
thousands of Kansas Citians in the urban center, allowing them to find 
that way to get to work; a property tax for indigent care at Truman 
Medical Center.
  Can you imagine anything that might be more difficult to pass? Asking 
people to pay more property taxes to help care for the poor who were 
turning up in the emergency room at our major local hospital, Pat Gray 
did that; additional tax moneys for both police and fire and an issue 
very near and dear to my heart. He helped me renew the community 
antidrug tax in Kansas City, which has been so instrumental in doing 
research and development on the antidrug strategies that work--not just 
more police, not just more prosecutors, not just more jail space but 
also prevention and treatment. Pat Gray was there helping me as we 
started one of the very first drug courts in the country in Kansas 
City, as a result of his help with the COMBAT tax initiative.
  Pat adored his family. His wife Brenda always patient and smiling, he 
really adored Brenda. She climbed into the roller coaster with Pat Gray 
in the late 1970s. While she had to hold on hard during part of the 
ride, there was never

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any question that they were a team and she was his rock.
  His children, Christopher, Donna, and Lauren, he was their guiding 
light and they were his pride and joy. Pat loved this country. He loved 
his family. He loved his city. He loved his friends and he loved his 
work. But most of all, he loved this country.
  Pat's biggest secret, as a sometimes rough-and-tumble political 
brawler: he was an idealist who was inspired every day by our grand and 
glorious democracy. He had deep respect for the system he worked 
within. He understood that in America a good idea is sometimes enough; 
a good idea helped along by a professional consultant who was a 
patriot.
  We will miss you, Pat Gray. We will miss you, Pat Gray, the patriot.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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