Oz Bengur to Turkish-Americans: "Thank You!"

News
September 15, 2002
Year 13 No. 307

"I plan to stay active in politics and I will look for another opportunity to run for office in 2004."
2002 Primary Elections Update

The Turkish Times - In the 2nd Congressional District of Maryland, Baltimore County Executive Dutch Ruppersberger landed the Democratic nomination, with 32,307 or 50.2% of the vote narrowly defeating Turkish-American Oz Bengur's who got 23,436 votes or 36.4% of the vote. Oz sent the following letter to the Turkish American community:

September 11, 2002
"Arkadaslar: I want to thank everyone for the support and friendship that you gave me in my campaign for a seat in the U.S. Congress. Hundreds of you contributed generously to my campaign. Every weekend and on election day, we had volunteers who traveled long distances from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, DC and Virginia to work tirelessly in the hot sun. You held fundraisers in New York, DC, New Jersey and Chicago for me. You made phone calls and sent emails. I cannot thank you enough for the work that you did, the contributions that you made and the encouragement that you gave to me.

When I decided to run for Congress, some expressed the concern that as a Turkish-American, I would be subject to attacks and discrimination. During the campaign, I was proud to speak publicly about my heritage. I did so because this is an important part of who I am. I want you to know that it was not an issue in this campaign. All of you, proud Turkish-Americans, contribute greatly to American society through business, the arts, medicine, law, education and many, many other important activities. I hope that I have demonstrated that we can also make a contribution to the political life of this great country.

I spoke about many issues in this campaign including the need to strengthen the special relationship between Turkey and the United States. I plan to continue to speak out in the days and months ahead on this and many other issues.

My campaign for Congress is over, for now. However, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, this is not the end of my efforts, rather, it is just the end of the beginning. I plan to stay active in politics and I will look for another opportunity to run for office in 2004.

Together, we have accomplished much that we can be proud of. Again, I thank each one of you from the bottom of my heart.

Selamlar,
Oz"

Meanwhile, in Florida's 29th District the results for that district's Democratic nomination for the Florida Senate was:Corey Alston 12,126 34.1%, M. Mandy Dawson 21,646 60.8%, Tarkan Ocal 1,836 5.2%.