MARIETTA – Desserts were not the only thing up for bid or topic of table conversation as politics were on the minds of many at the 2016 Lincoln Day Dinner.

Held at the Marietta Shrine Club on Thursday, the Washington County Republican Party provided a platform for local candidates to speak to their constituents as well as the keynote speaker.

Those in attendance were in anticipation of the night’s guests and hoped the speeches would help them decide which candidates deserved their votes.

“I’m interested mostly in the keynote speaker,” said Beverly Stacy, 69, of Marietta. “However, I’m also looking to listen to those running for the judge of Court of Common Pleas. It’s important to select a candidate that can make clear decisions that affect people’s lives so greatly.”

Stacy said she was closely following the race for county treasurer and wants “continuity of experience” within the office.

Both Republican candidates running for county treasurer, Tammy Bates and Douglas Dye, were in attendance and made closing remarks. Bates and Dye wanted to make updates to the office’s technology by offering easier options for payments (i.e. credit cards, bank drafts).

While several of the dinner’s attendees wore their presidential picks on their sleeves – or rather their shirts donning stickers – others had words to say to convey their candidate of choice.

“The most important thing for us nationally is to get our finances under control; you can’t run a business without balancing the budget,” said Lloyd Cowell, 76, Vincent.

Cowell added that while he was still making his mind up on local candidates, hoping tonight’s closing remarks would sway his votes, the attendee already knew who he plans to vote into the White House.

“John Kasich is the best candidate we have on the books…look at his record,” said Cowell. “I’m passionate of the idea of running our country like a business, and I think he can do that.”

The keynote speaker, Richard Vedder, Ph.D., had another take on Ohio Gov. Kasich.

“John Kasich seems to be everyone’s ‘second best choice’,” said Vedder during his speech on America’s decline and how to turn it around. “We may be seeing him on a ticket, though (as a vice president).”

Vedder, who is a distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University, has a successful career as an author producing books and articles that have appeared in publications like USA Today and Forbes.

He has advised numerous national and world leaders from Kasich to President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Thursday evening, Vedder compared the importance of 2016’s elections within the state and as a nation to that of the year of Abraham Lincoln’s election.

“We are in a crisis with two visions (Republican and Democratic) clashing for control; this is a pivotal turning point of a year for us and we, as Republicans, must gain control of the Senate,” said Vedder during his time at the podium. “If we lose the presidency and the Senate, America could become a shadow of its former self.”

Highlights of the evening’s rhetoric were the economist’s “Seven Points of American Decline” including issues like a drop in economic growth rate by two percent per year since 2000, the mediocrity of education in America, and a dissolution of social cohesion as parties stand more divided than ever before.

To combat said decline, he said taxes needed to be lowered, national resources (like the Keystone Pipeline) should be unleashed, schools in the United States need reform, and a change in leadership needs to occur.

Republican candidates with competition within their party were given the floor for two minutes each to speak to the audience.

In addition to county treasurer candidates Bates and Dye, three attorneys running for Judge of Court of Common Pleas addressed the guests: Flite Freimann, a former magistrate; John Halliday, a Marietta attorney for 23 years, and Mark Kerenyi, a former juvenile probate court magistrate.

Those running for Member State Central Committee Man or Woman of the 30th District introduced themselves. These candidates were Glenn Newman, Jim Carnes and Marilyn Ashcraft.

Amidst talk of political parties and aspirations of “making America great again,” a dessert auction took place with money bid going toward the Washington County Republican Party. Washington County commissioners and those running for local office baked and bid on the after-dinner sweets.