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Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
Mayor Jay Ruais: Early Lessons In Service And Second Chances
A premature birth. Seventy-eight days in the NICU. A city that showed up with flowers, cards, and care. That’s where our conversation with Mayor Jay Ruais begins—on the human ground that shapes everything else. We trace the path from a young dad’s sleepless nights to a leader’s clear-eyed focus on homelessness, addiction, public safety, and housing that real families can afford.
Jay opens up about recovery and the decade he spent trying to join the military before finally earning his commission in the National Guard. That persistence shows up in how he governs: after-action reviews, data-informed choices, and a willingness to veto his own budget when it isn’t right. We dig into the hard math of housing—like why 127 affordable units can cost $50 million—and the creative moves cities can make, including selling surplus property to raise over $1.3 million for an affordable housing trust fund that kept a winter shelter open without spiking taxes. He shares how partnerships with nonprofits and state and federal allies turn vision into results, and why the best local solutions borrow smart ideas from everywhere.
We also talk about campaign skills that transfer to life—listening, making a clear case, answering tough questions—and how authenticity plays out in a state where voters expect to meet you more than once. The lighter side surfaces too: a chorus nickname he’ll never live down, a proposal speech delivered perfectly except for the actual question, early morning workouts to country and Metallica, and a bilingual home filled with Spanish storybooks. It’s a portrait of leadership that is as personal as it is practical: empathetic, iterative, and built on community.
If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who cares about local change, and leave a review to help others find it. What’s the one local issue you want solved next?
Anything But Politics is a groundbreaking new podcast that is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers. Co-hosted by former journalist and media expert Tiffany Eddy and seasoned lobbyist and ex-politico Tom Prasol, this video podcast dives into the personal lives, passions, and pivotal experiences of notable figures, offering a refreshing and intimate look at who they are beyond the public eye.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Eddy.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm Tom Freisal.
SPEAKER_00:And we are so pleased to welcome you to another episode of Anything But Politics. And we have an awesome guest today. I am so excited about the conversation that we're about to have.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think, you know, our guest today is someone who's not new to politics. Uh he's certainly uh been around the block, although he's finishing his second year in elective office. But you know, prior to that, you know, I think he's worked on campaigns. He served as a campaign manager, served as policy staff down in in Washington, D.C. He's worked for a number of nonprofits, he's in the National Guard. But before we get through everything, we've introduced uh just recently re-elected the current Manchester Mayor, Jay Rue.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you very much. I'm thrilled to be here. I know we've talked about this for a long time since I got well, probably a year now we've been talking about this. So I'm thrilled to actually be here with you. And I love the idea, especially two weeks post-campaign of anything but politics. I'm all not imagining.
SPEAKER_00:Congratulations on your re-election, though.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Yeah, very excited. I think we made some good progress over the first two years and really fired up to see what the next two can bring. So very exciting times.
SPEAKER_00:So um tell us a little bit about yourself. I know that you're a dad, you're you're married, and so I saw I saw you speak, I think it was at the um Boys and Girls Club breakfast uh about a year ago, and you were talking about the fact that your daughter, I believe, um had you she'd had some um maybe challenges early on, and you were able to bring her home for Thanksgiving. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, close. Yeah. So uh you hit the nail on the head. So uh our daughter, my wife and I, our daughter was born on February 1st uh this year, earlier this year. Her due date, though, was April 19th. So do the math, right? She was significantly early. So she was uh born 78 days, or she was born three months premature. She spent 78 days in the NICU at uh the Elliott, and I could not sing the praises enough of the the NICU team at the Elliott. But yeah, that was it was a really trying time. I mean, I remember that. So that week I I was launching my re-election uh for mayor, and we hadn't told anybody really that that she was pregnant. And uh so I'm at the I'm at the hospital every morning uh with her prior to her giving birth. She went into early labor, and then prior to her giving birth, she was in the hospital for a week where they tried to, because she was so early, uh they tried to keep her in the hospital for as long as possible to delay the birth because every day matters when you're that premature. So I was uh in the hospital with her and you know, working, um, but in the hospital with her, and that was when the OMB put out the memo that we're cutting off all uh grant funding uh to well, cutting off all grant funding. So I'm working with our department heads trying to figure out what this is gonna mean and is this gonna go through. And then that Thursday was when I launched my re-election. So I left the hospital bed, got permission, left the hospital room uh and then went to the GOAT to launch my re-election and then went right back to the hospital. And then our daughter was born on uh that Saturday and then spent 78 days in the NICU. Um but we are so blessed because just about 10 months after her being born, she'll be 10 months um on December 1st, but just about 10 months after being born, there's no, you know, knock on wood, but there's there's no residual impact from it. Um the Moore Center, which is another amazing, talk about nonprofits, but another amazing nonprofit in the the state, they come in every two weeks and check on her and making sure that she's continuing to make progress. Uh, we read to her every single day. They check their motor functions and dexterity and making sure she's uh you know hitting all those benchmarks that a normal 10 month old would. And she's almost made up. So when you when you have a premature uh child, they have their their actual age, which would be 10 months, but their corrected age is whatever the the term that they spent being premature. So her corrected age is seven months, and then they they try and divine like what what her actual maturity level is based on the what they see. So is she crawling? Is she looking around, those kinds of things? Um, so she's almost gotten back to her natural age now. So she's almost corrected um in just that 10 months. So we feel very, very blessed. Um and but you know, talk about like the good people around you in your life, and uh just I I like to think that as mayor, I have a responsible to help oversee and take care of the city, obviously, it kind of comes with it. But but when she was born and it was clear that she was born premature, just the outpouring of support from the city, it meant so much that I, you know, I I take care of the city in a way as mayor, and the city really took care of us. And it sounds cliche, but it just it meant the absolute world to us. Uh everybody reaching out and sending flowers, people I didn't even know were sending cards to the office, like, hey mayor, we've never met, but uh wishing you all the best at being a new father. And yeah, so it's it's been an incredible time.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think that sounds cliche. I think it sounds beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:Uh well, uh we I think about it a lot because I mean the the best part of my day is when I get to come home and hold her, and the hardest part of my day is when I leave to go to work. Uh, because she's so uh it's such a blessing. She's so sweet, she's always laughing. Uh I left my phone over there, but I got these like big deep belly laugh videos of her. Like my wife sent me a video on on election day of her in her uh like high chair, and she is just uh cracking up over something. And it's just being a dad is the best thing in the world.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Being a parent's amazing. What's her name?
SPEAKER_01:Brielle.
SPEAKER_00:Brielle.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so uh Brielle Grace, uh my my wife's from Peru. So she has five, my wife has five names. Yeah, because they keep the the father's, I'm gonna get it wrong, but I think they keep the father's paternal name and then the the mother's name as well, and so everything's hyphenated. So my wife is Veronica Olivos, uh Veronica Milagros Olivos Delgado, and now it's Ruy at the end. Yeah. Um so our daughter is uh Brielle Grace Olivos Rue. And we uh we were thinking of what the nickname, what we were gonna call her in the house, or whether we're just gonna say Brielle. But so we we went back and forth and it has many iterations to get to this ending point. But uh her name's Brielle, and then Bri is cheese, right? So cheese in Spanish is queso, yeah. So we call her quesita because anything with a little ita or ando is like a term of endearment, so we call her quesita, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Our little quesita.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So what's your favorite part about being a dad? I mean, we're coming up on almost a year.
SPEAKER_01:Where do you start? I think every day there's something new that she's doing, and you can you can pick it up. And so now she's crawling. That's an obvious thing, right? But uh there was a period of time where um she did her first time rolling over, and you knew that that was a building block to her then being able to get up on her haunches and and start to look around or start to crawl a little bit. Um, but every day it's something different. And I can pick out now, because she's 10 months, like, oh, that's my wife. I can see that face is my wife. And um and she's got her own little attitude now. And uh yeah, I think watching her grow. I mean, she's only 10 months, but watching her grow over that uh that time period has been amazing. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So you're not you're at that swiffer point where they just like crawl all over and get all the little dust bunnies on everything. We used to joke like when my kids were little, we should put little swiffers on them and like Yeah, and didn't clean up while you're on your way.
SPEAKER_01:It's actually really smart. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, put them to work, why not? Right. I'm curious because you you mentioned your wife is from Peru. So how did you guys meet?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. I was working at uh you mentioned my background in nonprofit. Uh so I I had been working for Congressman Ginta when he was in office. And in 2016, when he lost, I went to go work for a nonprofit in DC that helped people with addiction issues. And she was the finance director for that nonprofit. And I was uh I I held multiple titles there, but I was basically the chief of staff for that nonprofit. And we met through that. And um, you know, over time having worked together, and then um, you know, I ended up going into the military after that, but she stayed with me while I was doing all my army trainings, which took a year and a half to get done between basic training and officer candidate school and then infantry basic officer leadership cool at school and then ranger training assessment course. And so she's she stuck by me throughout that whole uh time period, and yeah, it was uh I'm very, very fortunate. Um that's amazing. Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:And what what led you to um enlisting in the military?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I mean we're we're the same age. So I was uh sophomore in high school when 9-11 happened, and I always wanted to join the military. I uh just had a burning desire to serve. And uh, but when I was growing up, I also had a pretty bad drinking problem. And I had uh two DUIs in my background, and um, you know, for the but for the grace of God, I was very fortunate. I got blo uh I got sober March 9th of 2010, uh got sober and started to put together a good career. But every time I went to apply to join the military, I would get rejected. And uh, but over a 10-year period, I continued to try, continued to try and uh get in. I applied to multiple different national guards, I applied to big army uh as well. I was gonna go active duty at at one point, and I kept trying and uh, you know, kept getting rejected. And then uh the this it's wild, talk about like uh unbelievable circumstances, but the the chairman of the nonprofit that I was working for was the district attorney in Essex County, Massachusetts. Both of my DUIs happened in Essex County, Massachusetts.
SPEAKER_03:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm I'm the chief of staff for this nonprofit. The uh the chairman of the board of the nonprofit was technically the guy that prosecuted me as you know a 23-year-old, uh, just because I would have gone through that, his office. Uh and so we're having dinner one night, uh, and he told me the story of his son. He and his son had gone to uh Annapolis to go visit John McCain's grave. And his son was like 39 at the time, police officer, and he said, you know, if I if I don't join the military, it's gonna be something that I'm gonna regret for the rest of my life. And so he ultimately joined the military. And I'm sitting here listening to this story, and I'm like, that's me. That's my story. If I don't try this one last time to get in, I'm gonna regret it for the rest of my life. So I reached out to a recruiter. I I knew I wanted to come back to New Hampshire at that time, and I reached out to a recruiter and and I told him my story, and I said, Look, I can handle rejection, I can handle no, but I can't handle not trying. And I'm gonna take one last stab at this. And he worked with me. Um, and ultimately, obviously, I was able to get in. And then when I became an officer, uh, there's a thing when you become an officer, you get a first salute. So somebody on the enlisted side is the first one to give you a salute as an officer. So the guy that was my recruiter gave me my first salute. Yeah, and it came full circle through the whole process. But so I always wanted to join a uh to me, public service, there's no higher calling than that. And I think it gets a bad rap and it's unfortunate at times. You know, we were talking about this before, but you know, I think when we were when we were coming up in the political world in 07, 08, you could have disagreements and you still go out and have a beer with them afterwards, right? So we we could disagree, but you're not a bad person. Nowadays it almost feels like sometimes, not all the time, it's not uniform. I'm not a pessimist by any stretch of the imagination, but nowadays it feels like not only do we disagree now, but you're a bad person for holding different beliefs than I do. Yeah. And that is so corrosive, and it stops our ability to get anything done. Um, and it's really unfortunate. It's gonna have it has had, you know, dramatic repercussions, I think, for policymaking, both at the local level, but all the way up to the national level, too. It's just it's frustrating to see.
SPEAKER_00:And that's why we do this podcast because we want people to be able to get to know each other. And you know, I think already just hearing the story about your daughter and how she was born, it's like, wow, I didn't know that about Mayor Rue. Like that's that's amazing and all the different things you went through. Um, I'm just wondering this this uh devotion to public service. So where does that come from? I know you can't.
SPEAKER_01:My mom and dad.
SPEAKER_00:So tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I'm uh when I was growing up, so I grew up in Salem and my mom was a nurse. Uh, she was a registered nurse for 35, 40 years. But I grew up in Salem and she worked in Boston. So I remember, you know, every morning she would get up at 04, she'd be up at 4 in the morning and uh she would, you know, hop in the shower, get ready, and she'd be on the road by 4.45, and she'd be in Boston. She used to joke that if she got on the road by 4:45, it'd be a 40-minute ride into Boston. If she was on the road at 450, it'd be a three-hour travel, yeah, trek down there. Uh, but she she took such deep pride and got such a a good feeling from helping others. And I just I remember watching that. Uh and then when I when I got older and was playing sports and you know, I play basketball and some kid would sprain his knee in a game. My mom was the first one to run down from the stands. I'm a nurse, I'll help, I'm here to help. Uh and then my dad, uh, he was in the fishing industry when I was group when I was growing up. And so I remember, you know, I spent my whole life on boats growing up. And I went fishing with him when I was 11. And he was basically like a lobbyist for a fishing company. So he would go and work with state reps and state senators and then federal reps, federal senators, um, governors, and uh he's got this great picture with George H.W. Bush from some fundraiser at some point. But uh I we were getting off the boat, and the first mate on the boat yelled at my dad and said, Hey, make sure I get enough quota next year for this boat, make sure I can catch enough fish because I got to feed my kids. And I was 11. It's funny the things that stick with you when you're young, but I was 11 thinking, what an incredible responsibility my dad has to make an argument, to persuade individuals to help these people out. And I always thought public service was a way to help people. And then when uh after my second DUI, I got sober and I still had to go to, it was a two-week DUIL program uh down in Tooksbury, Mass. Um, so I had to do a two-week rehab uh over Thanksgiving. Um it's quite a time. Uh but when I was getting out, there was a guy that I I was talking to, and I said, you know, what's uh what do you basically like, what are you going back to? Like, how's your life? How are things going? And it he was talking about a really difficult circumstances that he was getting back into. He had a lot or become estranged from his family and had lost his job, et cetera. And I remember thinking, there's no difference between me and him. We both suffer from the same affliction of alcoholism. And but the only difference is that I've had opportunities in my life. And I've had people who have looked out for me and helped me find my way. And it reminded me of the quote that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. So for whatever talents I might have, I've had a lot of opportunities in my life. And I had already worked on a couple campaigns at that point. I I had already gotten the job working for now Congressman Ginta down in Washington. So I knew I was going to be fine, but I knew that then that I wanted to spend the rest of my life in some form of public service helping those people who didn't have the opportunities that I had.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I think, well, and public service called you at a young age, too. I mean, when you talked about when you were 11, but I think your first elective experience was in third grade, right?
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I figured you were gonna bring that up. So I I ran for student council in third grade, and I won student council. Uh, but then the the opportunity to run for president of the school came up, and I was like, look, if you're anything worth doing, it's worth overdoing. So if you're gonna run for a school to student council, you might as well run for president. So I ran for president and they allowed to they allowed us to put up like eight post, whatever it was, eight posters around the school. Uh, and you can put anything you want on it, vote J, do whatever. Uh and for some reason, at eight years old, I came up with this slogan. It was, I have big ears to hear your ideas. It's all around the school was big ears to hear your ideas. Yeah. Did you win? No, I got slaughtered. Uh yeah. I mean, I was a third grader. All the kids in the fifth grade were the vote for that. Uh, but so I I I lost that race, and then I lost. Uh I'm a competitive guy. Yeah. I lost student council in sixth grade.
SPEAKER_03:Oh no.
SPEAKER_01:But those are the only two races I've ever lost. That's so. But I was in student council from third grade to eighth grade. And I still remember Shannon Griffin. I'll I'll send this to Shannon after this, but she owns the Green Griffin now. She's a flower, um, she owns a flower shop. But uh I remember she's the only one that's ever beat me.
SPEAKER_02:It's it's funny because uh, you know, I ran for class president and uh my slogan was vote for Thomas. He'll keep his promise. There it is. Which is terrible for any politician to say, make a promise. I clearly didn't mean my HW butch. But no, that's that's great. And so, you know, you talked a little bit about campaigns. Um so you know, you graduated from Salem, uh you went to Gettysburg.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Gettysburg for undergraduate. I always knew that I wanted to be, you know, talk about like public policy or public service, like DC is the the place to be uh for that, at least to cut your teeth. Um so I knew I wanted to be down in DC at some point. And so I went to Gettysburg, um, which, you know, backing up, uh first thing I ever did in politics was uh working for then mayor Ginta. So he won in 2005.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:I went to work for him in 2000, went to work. I was an intern in his mayoral office in 2006. And then I I kind of parlayed that internship to work for John Sununu in 2007 down in the Washington office, which led me to work on his uh re-elect in 2008, which was my first job. And that's when we met after, and that's when we met. Yeah. Uh so 2008 was my first job in politics, uh working for for Senator Sununu and his re-elect, which I then uh obviously it was unsuccessful, but then in 2010, I went to work for Congressman Ginta or or then Mayor Ginta running for Congress, and then kind of the rest is history. And I I did every job on the way up. So I was you know an intern in the mayoral office all the way up to his chief of staff when he was a congressman in 2015. So I ran the campaign in 14. In between that, though, this is a podcast for interesting stories. So in between that, uh to 2008 we lost. 2008 was what? The height of the recession. Yeah. So you know, I got a college degree, just worked on a campaign. You know, I thought I would have a decent resume, but not when people are with doctorates or applying for the same jobs as as you are. So I went to my dad and I said, you know, after being unemployed for a month or two, I said, Look, I I gotta get a job. Uh I can't stay home all day, every day. And like, get me a side on a boat. Like, I'll go scalloping, I'll go long lining, I'll go fishing for a couple months. My mom quickly put the kibosh on the the seen the perfect storm. Yeah, like quickly put the kibosh on the Grand Banks in October. She wasn't gonna allow that to happen.
SPEAKER_00:I don't blame her.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I went to work uh at a it's called FJ O'Hara, it was uh a fish plant in South Boston. So I would get on the, I would um, I would do one of two things. I would take the bus from Salem to Southie every day and then go cut the heads off fish, drive box trucks around. It was just a big freezer and it had fish product from all over the world that would get shipped there, and then it would get dispersed out from there. So um, so legal seafoods or whatever. But I was driving box trucks around for a year in my my overalls, and I would take the the bus home from Southie uh back to Salem every night at like 10 eleven. I worked the second shift, so like 10-11 at night, and I had like fish guts all over me, and they would give me a wide berth on that bus on the way home. So do you still like to eat fish? Oh, I I live for it. Yeah, I love sushi and yeah, love cod, haddock, pollock, yeah, all the ground fish. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So what uh how did you transition out of the fish world into the the next uh the next career?
SPEAKER_01:I I did it long enough to know that I have a deep and abiding respect for people who are able to do those jobs in the long term. And so 2008, um you know, I worked all of 2009 basically there from January to November. And then as we talked about before, like campaigning gets in your blood, and Frank uh announced that he was gonna run for Congress. And I reached out and I said, Look, I don't know what your budget's like, I don't know when you're hiring for field staff, but I would be honored to join your field staff if I could. Um so in 2010, that's when I was able to jump on that campaign, and that's what led me to to get down to Washington in 2011 working on his DC staff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And and I don't know if you felt the same way I did about campaigns, but I tell everybody if you're interested in politics, you should really work on a campaign because for me, it really created a a good work ethic in the fact that your life is eat, drink, yeah, breathe campaign candidate, and you really are don't have a life outside of that.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Somebody described campaigning to me one time as running a thousand miles an hour into a brick wall. Yeah, election day is that brick wall, and then you kind of wake up after and you're like, oh, what happened? And now you gotta piece together the relationships that you forgot about the last 10 months. Uh, but I I would actually even go a step further. That campaigning, I I think the skills that you need to be a good campaigner are the same skills that can be transferable to just about anything else, whether it's you know, being uh uh working in a lobbying firm or um a public affairs firm or communications or really sales, anything. Because what do you have to be able to do? Talk to people, knock on doors, so you can't be shy, you got to be extroverted, you have to be able to make an argument, a compelling case, you have to be able to answer difficult questions. Like those skills are transferable to just about anything you can imagine. So for me, what I've always said is that any kid coming out of you know college that's interested in getting into any kind of profession and you don't and you're not sure what you want to do yet, how about a campaign? Yeah, eight months, yeah, then and then take it from there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, great life experiences.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That you never want to do again. I agree.
SPEAKER_00:I did one. I I totally hear you on that. Now, obviously you're an extrovert, but was there ever like when you were early on, any little bit of shyness? Did you ever have to overcome anything and to learn how to do that? He's running for president when he was in the third grade. Well, I know, but before that, like have you always just been like this so charismatic?
SPEAKER_01:I I I think you know, it's just something you're you're born with. I mean, I I like people, I I find people interesting. I I love having conversations, I love learning from people. I uh you know, I the old saying that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason, you're supposed to use them in that proportion. So I I've my one of the I say this uh or I I employ this now being a dad, but I read to my daughter as much as I can. I really think that my or charismatic or whatever you want to call it. I really think that comes from uh early on when my parents would read to me. And then I just got fascinated. I I love reading, I love learning, I love being with people and having different conversations. And um, yeah, I mean, I think there's there's also, I think, you know, to to get personal, I guess, but I think there's there's a level of empathy that you can develop when you go through something like getting sober and where you just you wanna you wanna be that guy that gives a hug, you want to be the person that gives a handshake. How are you doing today? How you feeling? You need anything? And I think that's the best part about my job. And and the best part and and the part that can be difficult sometimes, but you go into Hannaford's market basket and somebody comes up to you and says, you know, I I could use help with this. And you know, I just I love being able to to help. And yeah, it's it's it's the best job in the world. It's hard, uh, but it it's the best job in the world.
SPEAKER_00:Is there a difference that um now that you've been on multiple campaigns and now you're actually the mayor, you're the candidate. So what's the the difference making that transition? What have you learned now being kind of a top dog, if you will?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You know, there's uh that's a really great question because it's it's something that I I wrestled with when I was thinking about running, because I've seen other, you know, quote unquote operatives uh run for office before. And some of the some of the people that have done the campaign stuff like like I have, like we have uh in the past, some of them make really good candidates and some of them make lousy candidates because they can't jump over that part where you're not the operative anymore. Like now you got to be the one making the case for yourself and you have to be, you have to provide cogent solutions and um you know you're always on. Um I don't think it was really that big a leap for me. Um I think, you know, when I worked with uh when I worked with Congressman Ginta, I think we have a lot of similarities, you know, both outgoing, gregarious, you know, did it for the right reasons, passionate about helping people. So when I was you know making the case for him as a campaign guy, I felt like I was basically making a a case for the things that we both mutually agreed with. That was the other thing I should say about anybody that wants to get into campaigns, like do it for the right uh person. Uh, because these these, as you can attest to, these jobs are long, they are hard. And if you don't believe in the person that you're working for, it makes it excruciating. But I I don't think it was really that hard for me because I I've when I when I ran, I talked about homelessness, addiction, cleaning up the streets, public safety, like things that I, you know, was so uh ingrained in who I am as a person that for me to now get up and make that case was you know pretty much second nature um because I cared very deeply about those uh issues.
SPEAKER_02:And I think that's really important is when you have a personal uh uh connection to things and and you care deeply, it it resonates and it's it comes out when you speak, and I think it makes it easier to for people to uh take that information and actually help you get things done. So I I think it's uh super important. But you know, you talked about uh your time in the nonprofit world. So what was that transition like from you know working, you know, down in Washington DC, uh, you know, for Congressman Ginta, moving to the nonprofit world?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so it was the so 2016 was when with it was the that last campaign for for Frank, and I was the chief of staff at the time. But we had been working with this group. So Frank started the the bipartisan task force to combat the heroin epidemic. So we started that with Congresswoman Custer. And it to this day, to my knowledge, maybe it's changed, but I my understanding is that it's still the biggest uh caucus on Capitol Hill. And I remember Frank being deeply, deeply proud of that. Because talk about an example where two members from the opposite party can work together because the opioid epidemic really hit New Hampshire, as you all well know, really hit New Hampshire hard. Um but so while we were working for uh putting together that that caucus, we started working with this nonprofit, um, the addiction policy forum. And that's ultimately the nonprofit that I went to go work for. And uh a lot of what I did was basically what I was doing for for Congressman Ginta was advocacy work and talking to other members of Congress, or uh I got to travel around the country a lot and do training and technical assistance for police officers, for uh corrections officers, for district attorneys, talking about the brain science of addiction. And uh I I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was again something that I'm I'm very to this day, very, very passionate about, um, particularly those that because now in my role as as mayor, you know, homelessness is is a big issue, uh, both here in well in Manchester, Concord, Nashua, around the state and municipalities. When I talk to other mayors, you know, Manchester is the state's largest city, but we're all dealing with the same issues. It's just matters of scale within cities like Keene and I, or Keene and Manchester are going through the same things, it's just where orders of magnitude larger. Um but it the the transition to the nonprofit world was it was really easy for me because I was working on issues that I cared about and you know got to to do a lot of public speaking and a lot of training and a lot of working with people. The nonprofit uh specifically helped by patients and families who had been uh impacted by addiction. So I worked with a lot of parents that had lost loved ones and uh a lot of people that had lost loved ones. Most of them were parents that had lost kids. And and then in some of those instances, they were you know grandparents, so they were grandfamilies. They were grandparents taking care of their grandkids. And uh yeah, it was just very, very moving and to be able to help and make a difference and provide meaning. And yeah, it was it was an incredible five, six years.
SPEAKER_02:And it's important work that you did, and obviously it's been helpful and and uh learning those tools and developing those tools to bring to Manchester. I think you've done a good job and implementing a lot of strategies that you learned along the way. So were you based in DC?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. So the office was in in DC, but I did a lot of traveling. We had 50 uh state chapters, so we would travel a lot to the other state chapters. New hampshire had a state chapter, so I was coming back home a lot too, and and that was phenomenal. It was a really great period where I was doing stuff that I really cared about and um yeah, it was it was terrific.
SPEAKER_02:And so what was the what was the decision that prompted you and your I don't know if she was your girlfriend or fiance at the time, um Veronica, you guys to move. I always wanted to come home.
SPEAKER_01:I mean I knew New Hampshire was always going to be home for me, and I always wanted to come back. I bought a house in Manchester in 2018, so I knew that my my long-term goal was to come home. And uh the pandemic started, and I was joining the military, and I was like, this is the perfect time to do a clean break and come home. So I went to went into the military. So August 6th, August 6th of 2020, I raised my right hand and got sworn in. September I went into basic training. Uh so I did that. The basic training in the army is 11 weeks, came home for Thanksgiving, immediately shipped out to go to officer candidate school. Did accelerated OCS down at Fort McClellan, Alabama. So they they condensed the the traditional 12 weeks into eight weeks. And then there's well, there's three different ways you can go through OCS. But I did the accelerated version eight weeks down at Fort McClellan, uh got through that, graduated that, and then I think a couple months after that I went to infantry base got. Officer leadership course, eyebulk, and yeah, and then came home. Yeah, when I finished eyebullock, came home.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. That's that's quite a bit.
SPEAKER_01:And then basically turned around six months later and launched a campaign for mayor and did that for a year and then won. And then how do you make that decision?
SPEAKER_00:Like you you you don't have a a child yet, but you're a young family about to start out. And how did you have that conversation with your wife about I really want to do this? Like how did you go through the motions to make sure it was the right thing for you guys?
SPEAKER_01:It was the most important campaign I ever ran. Here are the difficult things that are because I I mean I had worked in campaigns for you know a decade. Uh, and I've worked on four or five different campaigns at that point. And so I was I was honest with her about what that was going to entail. And the long hours, the long days, the weekend. And I think, you know, theoretically she understood, but until it started, you know, you can never fully appreciate what it means to be on a campaign until you are. Yeah. Um, but it was just being honest and forthright that I I believe very deeply in the issues. You know, I saw some challenges in Manchester on the issues that we talked about, homelessness, addiction, mental health, um, public safety. And I wanted to make a difference on that. And um, you know, she she supports me, she believes in me, and uh, we were able to to work together and had a good result on election night that night and the rest is history.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And was this her first foray into politics? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was talking to you before about uh, so she's from Peru and uh Peru has has had some troubling, troubling periods politically. And I think the I'll I'll get the numbers wrong, but three of the last four or four of the last five presidents have either been deposed by the Congress and and gone to jail or been arrested. And so they have a really turbulent political world down there. And uh so that was her view of politics was that you know it's an inherent corruption or um really topsy turvy, and not that she saw the United States like that per se, but but she was like, Are you sure you want to get into this? Like, you know, is this is this something that you you really want to do? And and I told her, I said, Yeah, I I believe very, very deeply in these issues, and I I think we can make a difference. And you know, similar to being in the army, being in public service was something I always wanted to do. And I said, like, if we don't, if we don't take this chance, if we don't, you know, you you don't you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And if I if we don't do this, I'm gonna regret it because I think we can make some good changes here.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. And I I do want to talk a little bit about the na you're in the National Guard, right? You're an officer. Um, so that's you know, one week a month, two weeks a year. Um so I think a story that I think is interesting is back the Manchester chief, Chief Aldenberg. I believe it's interesting the dynamic because you know, obviously you're his boss as the mayor, or you were his boss as the mayor. But when you went to go serve or, you know, do your training, he was the boss.
SPEAKER_01:I went way out of my way to avoid him when we were when we were in uniform. So I was technically in his so Chief Aldenberg. Um so for a year when we were working together, I as mayor and he's police chief. And then on my drill weekends, I would see him every once in a while because technically I was in his chain of command. But I mean, I I reported to the guy who reported to the guy who reported to him. So I was way down. I mean, he was uh colonel at the time, now general. Uh but when I would see him in the hallways, you know, I would try to make a beeline elsewhere. Uh I kid. We uh we were very professional about it. And I would always joke that we just trade up our SERS depending on the zip code. So when we're here in Manchester, it's hey sir, and when I conquered, it's hey sir. Yeah, yeah. But uh he is uh one of the greatest guys that I've ever had the privilege to work with. So humble, unassuming, um, young except when he's in his uniform and he's got his general bars on now. But uh, but you wouldn't know it to talk to him. He's just a really good guy. I said it when he I I was honored, I was able to speak when he was sworn in. And uh every once in a while, you know, people that um that he knows, you know, he'll reach out with just a text like, Hey, how you doing? Or, you know, what's going on? Anything I can do for you, anything I can help with. And in the army, every year we do OERs. It's your officer, basically your officer report card, and you get little bullets like, hey, duh, LT Rue did good when he did this. You know, just stuff like that. But um, you know, he doesn't do that because it's an OER bullet. He doesn't do it because, you know, he wants some commendation because he made a phone call one time. He does it because he cares. And he's just a very, very good leader, very good man.
SPEAKER_00:He's uh he is an incredible man. He's an incredible man and doing good things now with Easter seals, I believe. 100%.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And actually, uh talk about life coming uh for or uh life being an interesting set of circumstances and coincidences. His daughter uh was a NICU nurse at uh at Elliot when my daughter was going through. So I saw her one night. Uh she was she was in interning, I think, at Elliot. And I saw her and I'm like, oh man, she looks really familiar. And then I put two and two together and realized it was Chief Aldenberg's daughter. Uh yeah. But uh talk about a family of service, right? He's in the uh a general and she's getting into nursing. But yeah, uh, incredible person.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Incredible family, apparently. Um, so you had been mentioning uh before we started taping, but you had uh, I wouldn't say a mishap, but but perhaps uh a moment of uh levity when you first got elected a mayor the first time you were doing an interview and realized the power of words.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. I knew you were gonna bring this up.
SPEAKER_00:How could you not? That's too good not just. It's really good. I still like it. Um international audience will love it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You guys have an international audience? Yeah, we're gonna be. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, that's exciting. You see how I'm trying to like politically move off your course. No, so uh, I forget. I mean, I'm I like to think I'm just regular guy, so I forget sometimes that uh being mayor, some of these things get posted or some of these the things I say can get reported on, and you gotta be careful at times. But so I had I had just gotten sworn in and I was giving my uh state of the city address, and then at the end of a state of the city, uh, you sit down and the moderator asks you questions. And so remember, like in municipal politics, the the turnout is usually pretty low. And in in our race, you know, it was 27 and 20 in 2023, it was like 27%, 18,510 voters. So like 27% of registered voters came out. And I had never run for anything before. I wasn't on any boards or commissions, I wasn't an alderman or a school board member. So I'm coming in, and you know, theoretically, 73% of the city has no idea who I am. And so I'm doing my I do my state of the city, finish up, round of applause. I sit down, and Scott Spradling was asking me a couple questions, and it was kind of like get to know you because no one knew me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I talked about being when I was in high school, I was in a chorus, and it wasn't, it wasn't a male-only chorus, it was male and men and women. Um, but my a buddy of mine was making a joke because there were five guys in the back that were singing, and he said, We should call ourselves the testosterones. So I told that story, and the whole place laughed, and I forgot about it, didn't think anything of it. And then I opened the union leader on Saturday. Mayor Rue, member of the formerly member of the testosterones, was like the the head, the lead in the newspaper and the Paul Feely's column. But I was like, Oh my gosh, that's embarrassing.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, uh it's a clever name. It's funny now. I thought it was cute at the time, but So how many people ask you to sing sing for him now?
SPEAKER_01:Not twice. Yeah. We did a uh groundbreaking this morning at uh Parkside Middle School for uh that all these new additions, and the chorus got up there seventh grade chorus, eighth grade chorus um for the middle school, and they were unbelievable. And I joked when I got up that I can't carry a tune in a bucket and here these guys are singing the national anthem beautifully, but no, singing in the shower is about as far as I'll go at this point.
SPEAKER_02:We had a conversation with uh Stephanie Shaheen, and the trick is to turn the volume all the way up. It's really easy to harmonize when she's smart, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um but no, it's uh the last few years have been an amazing experience. It's been a it's been a whirlwind, uh, you know, between army training from 20 to 22, and then running for mayor, getting elected, and then getting uh so the interesting story. So I graduate eyebullock, uh infantry basic officer leadership course. I graduate eyebullock and I have a week to report to Ranger Training Assessment course to get ready to go to ranger school. Uh so I had proposed to my uh then girlfriend, not then fiance, uh, but proposed to her in April on a weekend during my training, and we wanted to get married. So we flew out to San Diego.
SPEAKER_00:How'd you propose?
SPEAKER_01:Uh so I still we still argue about this because uh so it was Siesta Keys. My my folks live in Bradenton now. They sold their house in Salem, they they live in Bradenton. And uh so I drove down from uh Fort Benning in Georgia, drove down to Bradenton, and uh Siesta Keys in Sarasota is like 20 minutes away. So I put together this this great thing uh where I was gonna have I hired a photographer and she was just gonna come up to us on the beach when we're walking along. And I think I I'm I think I'm a lot slicker than I really am. We all do, right? Uh but so we're walking, I hired this photographer to walk along the beach and stop us on the beach and say, hey, I just bought this new camera. Can I take a couple pictures of you guys? So we're doing that, and we're walking along the beach, and I'm dressed in I got like nice jeans and a nice collared shirt, and so she smells a rat. Um, but we're driving to the beach, and I'm texting along the way with the photographer because it's just starting to rain a little, it's just starting to drizzle. And she's like, Hey, I I gotta pull the plug on this. And I said, The hell you are. Uh, because yeah, I got like 12 hours before I gotta get back to base. Yeah, so we're doing this by hook or by crook. So I'm texting, and my my then fiance is yelling at me, get off your damn phone. You we don't have a lot of time together before you gotta go back. Get off your phone, we're gonna go spend this time together. Uh, so I I hung up and uh we get to the beach and the the clouds cleared and it and it was great. So walking along the beach, woman stops us, can I take your photographs? And my she looks at me like, really? Like so she knew. But so as the woman starts taking pictures, I drop down to one knee and greatest flub of all time. It's I I memorize like this two-minute speech, and I'm on one knee, I deliver it beautifully. I didn't miss a mark. Yeah, yeah. And I I take out the ring and I forgot to ask. So I land the plane, I did it the two minutes, I hit it, and she goes, You didn't ask me. That's great. Yeah. So I asked her, of course, and she said yes. But she called me on my my nonsense right away when I didn't ask her the question. I I hit the speech perfectly, except that one most important part at the end. They always try and find a loophole. Right. Right. So we flew out to uh San Diego in between army trainings. It's like classic army getting married in between an army training. But so we flew out to San Diego, got married um in San Diego, then flew back immediately so that I could go to this Ranger training assessment course. And yeah, it was quite the the turnaround there in six days.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Wild times.
SPEAKER_02:I I love a good engagement story because none of them go as planned. Yeah. Best laid plans. I know when I proposed to my wife, I had planned to do it in the golfing because I figured if she said no, at least I got nine holes in it. And uh little did I know I was gonna hit up on the group in front of us, and we got into a little tussle, and then I put the ring box in the cup, and she goes up and goes, those jerks in front of us left a ring box in the cup. But they're a lot of fun. But it all worked out in the end.
SPEAKER_00:She didn't say that there's a cup and I'm just gonna toss it. At least she made the putt, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But so I wanted to ask you about, you know, because now you've got two years under your belt. You uh just were re-elected, you know, resoundingly. I think uh it was pretty bipartisan um the votes for you. I've heard a lot of great things about you from Republicans. So nice things. Yeah, I'll send the invoice. Um but the uh I've heard a lot of great things about your ability to work with both sides of the aisle. Um so what have been some of the unexpected challenges you've seen or you faced um as being mayor? I think you know you've obviously been there before, you know, having worked for you know legislators.
SPEAKER_01:But so I think it was a great kind of training ground having worked on the political side, having worked on the the policy side. So I I had a good feel for what the expectations were going to be coming in. But you're learning every day. I mean, I had never crafted the budget, right? Because I was I didn't serve on the board, I hadn't been mayor before. So, you know, though those are some of those bigger ticket items, the budget things. I mean that, you know, you should be learning every day in these positions. In the moment that you think you know everything, you should probably leave because you're now the ego is coming into play and you should skedaddle. Um but you know, certainly I think the I guess a surprise, not not a not until you actually get into the job can you fully appreciate like the the depth and breadth of serving at a a level like this. Uh it's literally everything from potholes to trash to more intractable problems like homelessness. I mean, there's no silver bullet for homelessness, it's a little bit of everything. It's law enforcement, it's um addiction and mental health, which of course, no silver bullets for either one of those. And then it's housing. You know, the perfect example in the city. So, okay, so we need more affordable housing so we can tackle homelessness. Well, all right. So there's a a project in the city that's uh 127 units of affordable housing costs$50 million to build. So yeah, I want to bring in more affordable housing, but I mean that that that cost is just so immense. Yeah. So I don't know that there's, I mean, certainly there are a lot of challenges. I mean, a lot of these problems that we're facing, it's it's not something necessarily that a municipality can do on its own. And that's why, you know, having those great relationships with a federal delegation and the governor's office and being able to work with all of our community partners, I think that's where that really comes in handy, being able to work with other people, recognizing that everybody's gonna have a different opinion, different belief. But how do we get to yes? How do we work together? Um, you know, I guess it wasn't, I I intuitively understood that it was gonna be everything from potholes to homelessness to public safety to fires to department heads, you know, everything in between, but not until you get in that office and you know, you get a text message or get a phone call at three in the morning that, you know, God forbid there's been a shooting, or there's a a building burning down on, you know, the west side and it's a three alarm, and um, you know, you're gonna come over and and say hi to the the men and women who are out here doing the jobs. I, you know, there's there's the policy side of it, and then I think there's the important leadership side of it as well, where you have to be there for the the men and women that are working for the city, and and then of course the the people. I love doing the town halls uh to make sure that I'm getting out there. And just like knocking on doors is the best way to learn what people want, town halls are the best way when you're in office to say, all right, hey, look, I've done X, Y, and Z, but what do you think? What do you want? How can I do this better? Where did I mess up? I think the being in the Army has been a really great teacher for after every every time after you run a mission, you do an AAR, so an after action report. Um, so what was supposed to happen, what did happen, what can we do in the future to make things better? And so I try and do that all the time in the office is smart do my own AAR. You know, I had to veto my own my first budget. Okay, so where did I screw up? What did we need to do better to get a better result than this? And so I mean, it's being humble enough to know when you make mistakes and then smart enough to know who you need to bring in so that you don't make those mistakes again. And I I think leadership has to be an iterative process where you're learning every single day and and trying to get better and um yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you've also brought uh you know fresh ideas. I think that was uh one of the most refreshing things um you know I saw it because it's always great to see someone that you know I kind of grew up with a little bit in this uh you know succeed. And I remember when you were first elected and you said we have all this abandoned property that the city owns, and uh let's sell it, right? And use it to, you know, build affordable housing. And I think that type of outside the box thinking I thought was really uh fantastic to watch.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it that ended up working out really well. We ended up raising, you know, over$1.3 million for our affordable housing trust fund, and it's been extraordinarily helpful, um, particularly on the homelessness end, because we've excuse me, we've uh we've had a battle to keep the one of the shelters that we have in the city open, um particularly during the winter months. It's New Hampshire, it gets cold in the winter, you're gonna need a place to keep people warm in the wintertime. So uh we but we were able to use the money that we got from the sale of that property to keep that open. Otherwise, you know, we would have had to raise property taxes to to fund a shelter, which you know it's that's a difficult thing to have to do. So uh it's it's paid off dividends um in the end. But also now we're looking at how do we take that affordable housing trust fund and you know put it more towards its intended purpose and trying to bring more affordable housing, leveraging those dollars to bring in more affordable housing, true affordable housing into the city. But yeah, I think, you know, I have a lot of conversations with National League of Cities and uh working with NACO, uh the National Association of Counties, and trying to get good ideas from wherever I can. Because like I said before, I think a lot of our cities are dealing with the same kinds of things, and not everything is gonna be a cookie cutter. You can take what's going on in in New York City and replicate it here, right? I mean, like orders of magnitude larger. Um, but maybe they got a good idea that we can latch on to from to below Mississippi or, you know, whatever the case may be. But um, but yeah, reaching out, think, trying to think outside the box. What are ways that that we can do things new and and then who in the city can be a really good partner on these things? I think you're always stronger when you're working with partners and not trying to do things on your own. I had a really smart person tell me that uh you know, came into my office sometime after I gotten right after I gotten elected, and he said, you know, like executive positions, you are like the archer. So you're the one that's pulling back that bow and you're pointing it in a direction, so you're setting a vision. And then when you let that arrow go, it gets acted upon by outside forces. And that arrow can go screwy.
SPEAKER_03:So I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for so for me as as mayor, when when you let go of that arrow, like you have to have good department heads guiding it. You have to have good community partners that you're working with guiding that arrow. You could be the smartest person in the world and have the best vision in the world, but if you're not implementing your vision, if you don't have good people around you helping that, you're going to fail. Yeah, nobody does anything alone. You know, you're always going to need help. And and having the humility to recognize that and say, look, I I don't I don't know exactly what we're trying to do here. Here's my end state. That's what we talk about in the army. Like, here's my end state. How do I get there? And that's where I think like being the bipartisan nature of it is um I don't really care how we get there. As long as we can work together to figure out what that end state is. You know, sometimes I'm gonna be right and sometimes you're gonna be right, but we're gonna get there together.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, some very uh weighty issues, um, which has me wondering about the lighter side of J. Rue.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm a pretty boring guy. I don't have a lot of time on my hands.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I don't think you're boring at all. I think you're fascinating. But I'm just wondering like you have to like have some sort of hobby or interest or something to wind down. So is it like listening to music? Is it exercising? It's I you can't say playing with your 10-month-old daughter because that doesn't count. So something else.
SPEAKER_01:Probably exercising. That's that's the uh in the mornings. Um, you know, I try and go, I get up early, I'm just an early riser, always have been. And so my wife and I will trade days where I'll go to the gym in the morning and and she'll you know wake up with the baby at 5 30 when she gets up to to feed her. And then someday she'll go to the gym early in the morning and I'll be the one that that takes care of her. Um but so I love I love I I love going to the gym. It's I mean, I I do it for for the army, obviously, but it's also a really good way to clear my head. It's a time where I can listen to music. No one's texting me, hopefully. No one's texting me at 4 30 in the morning when I'm at the gym. What's on the playlist? Depends on the day. Uh and it depends on what I'm doing. If I'm running, because I love running is one of my first loves. I I liked the I'm a big fan of meritocracy, and I loved running because it there was no BS involved in it. If you wanted to run faster, you run, you ran more and you worked hard, and you got rewarded based on how much how hard you worked. Uh but when I run, I love listening to country and it just it takes my my mind away. You know, lifting weights is more of like an angry mechanism than my musical choices reflect that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Such as oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Metallica Metallica. I mean, that's that's the radio station on my Pandora is Metallica and it plays everything. But um, I also love classic rock. I mean, that's what I grew up on was 105.7 and oldies 103.3 way back in the day. Uh yeah, but that's those are my musical choices.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Diverse.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, eclectic. Yeah. Eclectic. And I love to read. I don't get a lot of I mean, now my reading is uh like uh budget briefings. Yeah, well, yeah. Well with my daughter, yeah. Hasta la luna y las estrellas. Everything in the house is Spanish. So um to the moon and to the stars. Uh so read uh what's the other one? Um gosh. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not gonna think about it. But so do you speak Spanish? Yeah, I'm not fluent. I'm not, yeah. I'm not I can have a good conversation with like an eight-year-old, but I know enough to be dangerous, I would say. But uh all of our books are all in Spanish. Um, some of them are bilingual, um, just so she can get a feel for both. But the way that we've always said is she's gonna be surrounded by English, so she's going to learn English. But in the house, it's primarily my wife is all Spanish with her, um, but primarily it's Spanish in the house. Super smart.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it really is.
SPEAKER_01:But I love to read it, but and when I'm reading, it's all biographies. I I you know the history doesn't rhyme, but it repeats itself. Um or one of those, maybe I got that backwards, but any of the uh yeah, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. So like there are no all of the biographies that I love to read. Like you can pick out different little things from like leadership styles. Uh like I love learning and and grabbing things that I think work for me. Teddy Roosevelt's one of my favorite presidents. I mean, how many lives would you have to live to be uh a police commissioner, a state rep, a governor, uh vice president, secretary of the Navy, Medal of Honor, uh, and Nobel Peace Prize, president, two terms, right? Or a term and a half because McKinley got shot. But how many lives would you have? Oh, and he he traveled to South America and like charted uh unknown rivers at the time. Heck of a resume. And died at 60. Like, how many lives would you have to live to fit all that in?
SPEAKER_03:Like seriously, yeah, it's impressive.
SPEAKER_01:But so he, and the interesting story about him, well, I mean, of the thousands that there are, but he when he was younger, he lost his wife and his mother on the same day. And he was had kept a diary, and on that day he put an X and he said, The light has gone out of my life. And then he went west, and be I forgot this part. He went, he became a rancher, but he went west. And his quote when he went out west was black care rarely uh travels uh black care rarely catches the horse whose face paces fast enough. So he was trying to outrun the pain that he was feeling. When I first read that quote, I was getting sober at the time. And I, you know, I thought about it like find a passion, find a purpose. What can keep you ahead of the things that are bothering you in your mind? And you know, they talk about that with with PTSD victims or um or people who are suffering from PTSD or veterans who are returning from overseas or AA or NA, a higher power, finding a purpose, something to believe in, something to throw yourself into. And for Teddy, that was going west and then getting into public service. And uh, you know, I kind of saw a a similarity in what I could do with my own life that you know I've I've made some mistakes when I was younger, and now I gotta grow up. And what's my passion? What is my load star? What's my north star? How can I help and and give back? And public service was that for me. That's fantastic. Yeah, so I love to read. I don't get as much time to read as I would I would like. And uh most of them are children's books, but I I love those too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they're fun, they stay in my mind too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Uh uh click clack moo. That's what I was trying to remember. Click clack moo. That's the other one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Remember goodnight moon.
SPEAKER_01:Good night. Oh, yeah. Buenas noches luna. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I like it better how you say it.
SPEAKER_01:There's some really good ones. And then uh she has this uh little piano, and the piano has an English setting and a Spanish setting. Oh wow. So they sing um like Los Pollitos dicen, uh like all the um La Naraña Piqueñita, so the itzubitsi spider. So I know the itzubitsi spider in Spanish now. That's great. Yeah, yeah. Do you want to sing it for us? I don't know unless I had the testostatones with me along the side, right? Then I would have dumped it out. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:It was worth a shot, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's great. Well, I I I just want to say thank you for coming on. It's been a blast. Um I think you've done a great job. Um I'm excited to see what's next. I mean, I know you're just starting uh your second term, but there's always something on the horizon. I think you have a good uh North Star, right? Which is uh, you know, you want to be true to yourself first and you've got a passion for public service and helping others. And I think that's important to any uh I won't I hate to s use the term politician, but um anyone who's in elected office. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think you can't, especially here in New Hampshire. I mean, first in the nation primary and you know, the old joke about are you gonna vote for John McCain? Well, I've only met him once, uh, or I've only met him seven times. Uh like we demand a level of authenticity here, and we would smell a rat a mile away if we knew that that person wasn't being. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Multiple more than once. Yeah. New Hampshire. Yeah, you can only ever be yourself.
SPEAKER_00:No, and I appreciate I appreciate that about you. I think the citizens of of Manchester are really lucky to have you as mayor. And I think you know, New Hampshire as a whole is is is lucky to have you, and I can't wait to see where your your future and career takes you. Um and I'm just excited to have had you on too because I've seen you speak publicly at so many different events, and it always impressed me the authenticity and how you always spoke from the heart and you know didn't bring all these notes and reading off of like you know cards, but you were just you know speaking from the heart, and I just think that that's incredibly admirable.
SPEAKER_01:And well, I I appreciate that. I think uh I I just I derive that from the crowds that I'm in front of um because they you know is because a lot of them I'm sure that we've seen each other at our nonprofits, and they're all doing unbelievable, incredible work. And so people will come up to me at a breakfast and they'll say, Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I appreciate you coming. And I'm like, You I got the easy job. You guys are the ones that are doing the hard work on the ground. I'm the one thanking you because like I the the city of Manchester, like I talked about with the arrow, like we simply could not do everything on our own. Like we need good nonprofit families in transition or Waypoint, uh, the Moore Center, Easter Seals. Uh like we could not do the job that that we have as a city if we didn't have partners like that. So I got the easy job. I just got to stand up there and and say nice things. And because I came from the nonprofit world, I feel like those are, you know, it's coming home when I get to be in front of those groups. So if I couldn't say, you know, something nice or or well-meaning at an event like that, I have no business being in this business. Yeah. But it's the people along your way. I I don't want to make this sound cliche, but it really is the people along the way that you meet that make these things worthwhile and fulfilling. Or like when I'll I'll go into a restaurant and somebody will say, Hey, you know, you you helped me on this, and I I appreciate that. That that's my high. That that's what gives me the juice to to keep going. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Well, Mary Rue, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for having me. I'm sorry it took so long. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we're we're glad we got you now. So it was it was worth waiting for.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You're just playing hard to get. You guys, yeah, right, right. You guys are far too kind. Yeah. I've loved watching some of these other episodes that you have. So thanks for shining. You know, we talked about this before, but uh people who serve in elected office are human beings. And, you know, like we were were just saying, that um that we're not that uh I think that politicians get a bad rap sometimes, and and there there are there is a human side to you know people who are serving. And I think most people get into the job because they want to do right by other people and they have a belief and a passion in in serving others. So I appreciate you guys uh kind of shining a light on that that other side of somebody that you only get, you know, 15 seconds on MUR or 10 words in the union leader to make a point, but but there are people behind those those quotes that you see.
SPEAKER_02:And I'll tell you, uh, you know, everyone we've had on the show, everyone has an origin story, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And every single story that we've had on the show has been different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I think that's a lot of fun to hear about and and learn what what drives people and motivates them.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Well, thank you. Well, continue shining a light on it because it's it's exciting, it's fun.
SPEAKER_00:Hundred percent. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And uh thanks to our audience. We appreciate you tuning into this episode of Anything but Politics.
SPEAKER_02:And we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_00:We thank you, and uh we've got a lot more coming.