Keep Your Powder Dry

We talk through a hard election result without self-pity, focusing on why getting back up matters more than one bad night of returns. We also lay out what grassroots campaigning teaches you about money, turnout, and the people you meet when you knock on thousands of doors. 
• a rallying message about resilience and staying in the fight 
• what a low-turnout primary reveals about party machines and voter behavior 
• why massive campaign spending raises questions about influence and expectations 
• a contractor’s view of how cash flow and payment delays crush young businesses 
• why the SBA loan process needs reform for real-world startups 
• what door knocking and town halls teach you about trust and leadership 
• five Pennsylvania reforms we want lawmakers to take seriously 
Wanna be a sponsor on my show? Please do get a hold of me, joelmarietta.com, joe or uh Marietta Broadcasting um network.

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Transcript

Rally Speech On Getting Up

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Hey everybody, this is John Marietta, and I'm the Hillbilly, and I want to thank you all for tuning in to my podcast. I appreciate it so much. I appreciate all the views I'm getting. Uh, it's amazing, and I and I'm very humbled by all your response. Um, wanna be a sponsor on my show? Please do get a hold of me, joelmarietta.com, joe or uh Marietta Broadcasting um network. I want to thank everybody helping me. So let's get started. I want everybody to listen to this hillbilly for a minute while the spirits moving in me. Witchie and all your faithful warriors who stood tall in this fight, keep your powder dry, my friend. The war ain't won by one battle. No, it's not. One election don't decide the whole war. The victory belongs to the man or woman, who ain't afraid to stand back up when the dust settles and the count comes in wrong. It ain't about how many punches you take, it's about how many times you get knocked flat, wipe the blood off your lip, stand back up, and start swinging again. I want you to think about one thing. George Washington and them Ragtag Patriots at Valley Forge. They were half frozen, bellies empty, boots worn clean through. Looked like the whole cause was done for. But they didn't quit. They huddled around. They huddled around them like little fires, sharpened their bayonets, attached their coats, and got back on their feet. And because they refused to stay down, freedom was born. And because and like I said, because they refused to stay down, freedom was born. The same fires burn right here amongst us today. So let's turn it up a little bit. Let's throw another log on it. We got the Lord on our side. We got each other, and we got fight left in these bones. The enemy wants you discouraged. Tell him he picked the wrong bunch this time. We're gonna stand back up, dust ourselves off, reload, and keep marching. Al, you keep that head high, that heart on fire. The best days for this movement aren't behind us, they're straight ahead. Keep your powder dry, keep your knees bent in prayer, keep your eyes on the prize. We ain't done yet, not by a long shot. Let's raise the roof and make a little fire of our own right now. Who's all with me?

Turning Loss Into Momentum

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Al, I I got to meet you back in uh oh, I don't know, March uh uh not March, it was probably November, first of December. And uh I could see that uh you had enough of fire in your in your bones to make this happen. Um obviously we had a very poor turnout. Very poor. And it didn't help, it didn't help, it helped the incumbent out because that the the establishment gets out to vote and then the new people don't. We tried to we tried to change that message as hard as we could and as much as we could. I know you did, I know I did in Fayette County, and uh but I I want I I really want to thank you for what you did. You stood up, you took, you took your swings, he even wrote a bull. AI bull. But anyway, he's uh but uh but he did he, you know, it it's something to see people that that uh when they when they get knocked down. But you have to get back up and you have to face you have to face this. I mean you've been in business, and I can tell you you've been in been in places where the track fell off and it's pouring rain, or just you're in three feet of snow and it's muddy, and and but somebody got put the track back on, and that's what you're gonna do. We're gonna get us back on track.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

For sure, for sure. I uh appreciate it. I appreciate uh you let me come on the podcast. Um it's a humbling experience for me. Just meeting all the people. Uh everybody had a concern, an issue. Some were crying, some were praying for me um at the roadside. All the new friends that I've met. Uh it's just humbling all the way around. Um, even though the numbers for the election show that I lost, uh, I I gained so much. So much in uh just respect for people. They need uh they need to have somebody to look up to, a real true leader. And hopefully my opponent will take that responsibility on seriously this time. I I strongly believe that um these people are just incredible. I've never had an experience like this before in my life. Ran for office before, but it was nothing like this. Complete strangers uh will come up to you just hope with hope.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

You're yeah, I and I and you're right. You're right. I mean, I'll be walking down the street of Uniontown and somebody will come up to me. And uh there were there was a girl come up to me just last week and gave me a big hug. She says, Please don't stop. She's we need you to keep on doing what you're doing. Yeah, and I and and it it's humbling. Yeah, I mean I mean, you almost tear up because of it.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

And and I I was, you know, at our our victory party that we had, you know, everybody's like, Are you down? Are you sad? Are you mad? I'm like, No, look what we've accomplished.

The Price Of Politics

SPEAKER_00 6:27

I mean, we've made history with court rulings. I mean, that's case law, it's going to be forever in history books. Yep, where they tried to sue me. Well, they did sue me two or three times, and um that that just goes to show that we were in the fight heavily, and they were afraid, or else they wouldn't have been doing it. Um, but you know, there was more than than just the history books. I mean, I was endorsed by an incumbent house rep. That's never been done. That's historic in itself, you know. And let's not forget about, you know, I had a budget of 780,000. I came under that, and my opponent, you know, he pretty much I'm gonna say spent $350 a vote. I spent about 70. She's she's gonna end up spending over $4 million on campaign. $4 million. This that's an another historic thing. Um, I don't think there's ever been that much money spent, you know, on a campaign ever in history for a state senate seat. So that that makes you wonder, you know, and that'll put that wonder in the back of people's minds from here to the end of uh time. I mean, why would somebody spend four million dollars on a seat that only pays $100? I think she gets $129. So I'm uh I'm kind of I'm really happy with what we did. Um, to come within, you know, 1900 votes or whatever it is, you know, almost 50% of a three-term incumbent that spent four million dollars on this trailer park kid to beat. Um, I'm pretty happy. And it and let me just elaborate, it it goes to show you where this party's heading. You know, my my own party went against me, spent a quarter of a million dollars. At least, at least well, that we know of maybe twice. Yeah. And you know, that in itself speaks volumes to you know how they're running the organization, and it's not good. Let's not forget how the Democrats ended up where they're at, going the same avenue as this is. So um I'm not happy with them. They've tested a lot of people's loyalty, and uh, we'll see where that goes as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

So well, I'm I'm I'm looking at a lot of different things, and uh when you analyze numbers, uh and you know you can crunch numbers to make them fit however you want to. I mean, you've been in business, and uh uh when you when you needed that extra fifty thousand dollars to buy a piece of equipment or something to make the bank look at that different if you're if you're a good enough person. Right. Um I I'm thinking that you did something you you came close. I mean, there's no doubt about it. You came more than close because taking a take on an incumbent, an entrenched incumbent, right, with a lot of democratic roots. Extreme. I mean, yeah, extreme. And I I'm sure that uh probably if if we did a little digging, you'd find out that the DNC probably had some pushed some money, pushed some money that way too. I mean, there's no doubt about it. Um we we we know that uh we know that this has turned out not the way we wanted it to, but uh, you know what? I always feel like God's got a plan for everything. And um hey, maybe that uh maybe this is where we're at. Maybe we we have to just like I said, gotta get back up and you gotta try again.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

You gotta get back up. You you you know, you can't

Why The SBA Fails Starters

SPEAKER_00 10:05

back down. You know, when I started my first business, I was only 20 years old. Most people don't know that. Um, and it failed miserably. It didn't fail because I couldn't get the jobs, couldn't get the work, I couldn't do the work. Um, that's not why it failed. It failed because of the way the system was set up, to where a young guy like me, starting a business, couldn't get the finances. So in construction, most people don't know. When you go to do a job, you don't get paid until 30 days. So you do 30 days worth of work, then you submit a bill, then you wait 30 more days. So you're 60 days out. And that's where you know the SBA needs to be fixed. And that was one of my plans to fix that. Just to spark these young companies into knowing, hey, we have some backing, you know, our business plan's solid, and we can move forward because we know we have the SBA behind us that can help us out. I didn't have that. Um, and the SBA at the time was it was uh impossible to get a loan. You need to be a lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

I bet you had to have a lawyer, you had to have an accountant.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

It was insane. But you know, I'm I'm really happy. I, you know, like I said, I'm not angry, I'm not upset, I'm just I am just humbled how the people rallied around us. Um, you know, to get that close. Let's put it this way dollar for dollar, even playing field, I win 10 out of 10 times. There's no doubt in my mind. Statistically speaking, you look at it, no doubt in my mind. It's just, you know, um it's tough to beat somebody when it's you know they're outspending you five, six to one. So, um, and that was part of my, if you remember, part of my platform is to uh reform our finance uh campaign finance laws. And it needs to be, because I just think there's just too much uh in the way that can be led into corruption down that avenue. I mean, you had, I mean, my opponent was was pretty much financed by one, the Republican Party, two, some private donors, um, a lot of the Senate, um, they know they donated, I believe, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars. Um, and then her biggest one was the win for PA, the gambling association. Those are the ones that gave her the most money. They gave her millions. So that being said, you know, there's got to be something behind it. And I'm very fortunate I had CAP, uh Citizen Alliance of Pennsylvania, and even National Citizens Alliance. That is an extremely good organization. They are, um, if you ever want to donate to an organization, please donate to that organization. They are so conservative, fiscally sound. They will not just take anybody on. They uh they gotta believe in you. You gotta make them believe in you. And um, I was fortunate to have them uh with you know, helping me, guiding me. Um, it was a like I said, again, it was just a humbling experience, this whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

So, you know, I mean um the timing, I I believe you did I believe I believe you did everything you could. Uh what what rolls around in my mind is we spent all that money now what's the payback? I mean, we'll we'll should see, right? We've got to watch to see what the payback's gonna be. Because there's gonna be something. There's gonna be something. They're gonna try to do it quietly. Yeah, but but we'll be watching.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Well, you know, everything that we put out was factual. Um, we did we had people doing research left and right. We didn't want to, you know, defame anybody or make any deflammatory statements. Um, everything was not so much the other way. No, not so much the other way. And that's a story for another day.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, we'll talk about that in a yeah.

Donor Money And Quiet Payback

SPEAKER_00 14:04

But to to you know, to have all that money coming in like that, so we're we're start researching why, who's involved, start connecting the dots. You know, you got Winfrey PA, that's the organization for the good gambling in the casinos and all the other stuff. And then you have um they were bought out by the Saudis, the Saudi Arabia owns them, and then there's 4.5 percent that's owned by BlackRock, and BlackRock is involved with data centers, and you could just go on and on and on, and you know, it all comes back, and um people will see it. Some people it takes a little longer, but as you go on through time, people will realize hey, I might have made the wrong, you know, I might have made a mistake, and but you live and learn. That's that's the only way around it. So, and she's gonna have her hands full this fall. Make no mistake about it, because unfortunately for us, the Democrats get out and vote. They get out and vote in numbers. We don't, and uh, she'll have her hands full.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Yeah, and they and one thing I will say, you gotta give the Democrat Party credit. They they they stick together, they stick together, they stick together, too. And and and they're gonna, yeah, they're gonna that this is gonna be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

It will be interesting, and it'll even be interesting on uh, you know, Ben Humble's uh side as well. Um, I know the girl he's going up against, she's very smart. Um the dir his democratic opponent. And she's uh he's gonna have his hands full as well. Um people get they get turned off by by a lot of the the negative, you know, yeah, the millions of dollars, you know. I I think we were we were estimating she was my opponent was spending a half a million dollars a week, a week.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Um last four or five weeks.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Oh yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Um $440,000 TV ads a last week alone. Um, not to mention all the flyers and stuff that went through.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

I had a friend of mine that got uh um that lives in actually lives in Fayette County. I probably shouldn't say this because it's a mistake again, but live in Fayette County, they got six flyers from her on one day. Yeah, I believe it.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, I believe it.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

And they got and I got and then I got six from from the other Senate candidate.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Uh that actually isn't well not six, they got three from the other Senate candidate, and I and I don't I don't know what it costs to put out a flyer.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Those flyers are expensive, you know. You you can get the like the half-page ones, um, they're around fifteen thousand dollars for twenty thousand, you know, homes, residents. Um, but when you get those big ones, they're twenty-six thousand dollars. And then when you try to hit the whole district, you're looking at a lot of money. So we we tracked it as best as we could um because we were just trying to see which way it was going, you know, how much they were really gonna spend on this um to buy that seat. And basically, I didn't lose because of the effort, I just got outspent, and that's basically it.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

So it's tough. And and but the whole idea is they want they want to make it they want to make it so that nobody else will try to do it again because they see about how much money was this is true.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

This is true, and you know, an interesting thing, we've had people tracking the uh voter rolls, and now there's a lot of people changing back to Democrat the last two days. Strangely enough, right? That odd. So they went they changed they changed the Republican and then they voted, and now they changed back.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah, we had we had that. We we had we said something like that in Fayette County Fayette County over a different another race. And I I thought that I thought that was cute.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but like I said, I I just had a I had a uh a very very good positive experience.

On The Road With Voters

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Um I like uh I like running around. I like meeting people. It was like 11 months of just meeting so many people from so many different parts, you know, like from Claysville, um, with their their uh fair down there, which I really love that fair, um all over the place, to Beaver County, you know, Peter's Township, Hannonsburg, those people embraced me as if I was part of their family. I'm telling you, I have never had a any anything like that ever happen to me before. It was just incredible.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Incredible. I know it's only been a couple days, sure, and um, but but I know you probably rolled it around in your mind because you're in business. That's what businessmen do. Businessmen say they try to figure out you know what, if I'd have done it this way, I could have saved myself money. There was one thing you would have changed. You had something you would have done differently.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

I mean, I don't know if I would have really done anything differently. I mean, we were very we're very strategic with what we do. Um, I don't know if I would have done anything differently. I mean, I knocked on you know almost 10,000 doors myself, our team did another 10. We knocked almost 20,000 doors, and you know, so it wasn't lack of getting out there, it wasn't lack of town halls. I did more than anybody. I don't think anybody did as many town halls as me. You know, we tried to do the debate, and you know, that just never happened. Um, I just don't know. Uh I don't think, you know, I mean, other than, you know, spreading false information, disinformation, and lies, I probably wouldn't have done anything else at all. I would have actually, I would have liked to met more people if that's even possible in that amount of time. We were we were trying to estimate how many people we met from July when we started the fairs through the carnivals and the parades and everything. And it was like probably 40 to 50,000 people we actually met, had conversation with over that time. And um that was that was the part that I liked. People and hey, can you help me? This and that. I'm telling you, when I was telling when I tell you people were praying for me alongside the road when I was knocking on doors, I'm not kidding you. I've had people pull up beside me. We thought they were you know bad people. I mean, just fly up beside you at a red light or you know, swerve in the other lane, get out, you know, come over, huggy, shake your hand. Thank you for doing this. I can't put a price or anything on that. I mean, it just makes you so it's just incredible.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Um I I I I got to attend a couple of different events uh everything was always uh first class, but I appreciate it. I get getting invited to all these things. I think that with sometimes we get ourselves in a in a situation, and I'm not saying that you did, but because I know you were in Peterstownship and you were all these different places, the Cannonsburg and everything. But what happens is we get comfortable being around the same group of people, and sometimes we don't step outside that circle long enough, shake to talk to the different people. And we're all guilty of that. Yeah, I we we are. I mean, like the fair the the Fayette County Fair and the Bullskin Fair over our way. I I'm really comfortable being there. And I I will tell you that one of my opponents uh uh he said he said I when I seen him at the fair, I realized that I wasn't he said because people were the people were walking up to him and He said they would go from one end of the building and you had the same thing. They'd be yelling at you. You know, they'd be they they did it.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

You know, I mean, and so I I I tell you, I was when I was knocking on doors in Charleroi, I I actually got frightened because there was people screaming, and I'm like, and my driver, he's he's looking around, you know, because he's like, I'm like, what's going on? And they they they just wanted to see me. They wanted to see me. And a lot of these people never ever seen a senator, let alone a candidate, ever in their in in their life. And um I got to reconnect with a lot of the old bricklayers that I worked with. Um when I was in the union, you know, 15 years ago or whatever it was. And uh I mean, it was it was a really good experience.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

The the one thing that humbles you the most is this and and people this happened to me today. I go into a sandwich shop, right? A lady's name, Ruth Ann. I I probably met her before somewhere along the way. She came running up to me and give me a hug, and she says, Don't you stop? She says, We need to, we need to keep this, we need to keep this movement going. She says, I know you got disappointed. And I said, Yeah, I said, but she says, Don't you stop? She says, We're behind you a hundred percent. And you know, she gives me a hug, and and a lot of times, you know, you don't know these people or you know, you can you're not recognizing and and I I feel like I you gotta watch because you know wives get upset. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I I actually had I actually had a girl come up and give me a big kiss, uh, not on lips, on it on the cheek. Oh, I know your wife, she was she's she's my wife said to me. My wife said to me, she said, she said, uh, she said, why not? She said, she she told her, she says, if you kiss him, I don't have to, then but but and I know these things happen, and it's just because we were in stock, we we raised stock cars, and then like I said, we we I got to see a lot of funny things there, and people people get caught up in the moment. Yeah, and and but yeah, that's good. What was the funniest thing that happened to you? Did you have any cute things happen to you? I told you what mine was.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Oh, let's see. I uh it's not funny, but it was funny, I guess, um, in a strange way. I jumped when I was knocking on doors when I jumped over the snow pile and I cracked my head and had to go get surgery on my eye three times, and I went blind in my right eye. So I have that to take away from this. Um it's just uh there there was some some bloopers here and there. You know what I mean? There always is. Yeah, I mean, there was, you know, uh I lost my list one time and I started knocking on doors. Well, unfortunately for me, it was like the whole neighborhood was Democrat. We're in the wrong neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

I did the same thing in in uh in Bel Vernon. I think it was Bel uh Bel Vernon. Half one side of the street is Fayette County, the other side of the street is uh Westmoreland, I believe I got, or Washington. I forget now, but anyways, it it's funny because I'm knocking on all these doors, and then finally I get to the end of the end of the end of the street, and this lady comes out and she says, I would vote for you no matter what. She says, You're the only person that came to the wrong county to get votes. And I said, Well, you probably still can with the right embow embolas. And she laughed, she thought it was the funniest thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

I

Five Reforms For Pennsylvania

SPEAKER_00 25:29

just hope, you know, all kidding aside, that if there was ever a time that somebody would steal something from me, it would be this time that my opponent, the senator, would take four things from me. Steal them, take them, get rid of the property tax, the death tax, take the money from the casinos and do what it was made for, put it towards reducing the taxes for the senior citizens. Do that, do the the death tax, get rid of it, start that apprenticeship program in tenth grade, consolidate these schools with low census. Right there, you're gonna save billions of dollars, you're gonna help millions of people in this state. You're gonna help the youth, you're helping the elderly. It is a foolproof plan. Do those four things. I hope she still she steals them. I hope they do it. And um I just really think that that would make the world to this not just this area, that this that would help the state because we would that would stop the bleeding of our population life.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

So well, we're we we we know that we're in a decline, no doubt about it. And it is true. It's fine. And uh one of the things that uh I look at is we need we need to reduce the size and footprint of our government. Yep. Not and what I don't when I'm saying that it, I'm not telling you we need to lay people off. We need we need to work more efficiently with other things.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yeah. You got to get rid of the redundancy in there. You have to get rid of, you know, uh I mean the nepotism. I mean, it's everywhere, it really is. So you have to get rid of that. I mean, there's a lot of things we could do to uh to save money, you know, to get that gas tax. And this is I'll just do the fifth thing. Cut the gas tax down to where it's comparable to the other states, and you'll bring back that 2.7 billion gallons into this state of fuel that we're losing to the other states, and you will gain more money. See, that's what you will gain more money, you will, but and the volume, and that's what that's what I've said.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

I said if we were to reduce our taxes, you would get because everybody that lives on a border close to the border is buying gas on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Everybody, every not just West Virginia, it's Maryland, it's everywhere around.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Well, I think Ohio is cheaper than us, too.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Yeah, it is. Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

I don't know. I don't know, probably not the New York border because well, their their tax is only eight cents. Yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

But I mean, realistically, it so you got five things you could steal for me. Steal them, please implement them, push for them, lobby for them. You will be the best senator ever if you can achieve those five things, and that was my goal. So um, unfortunately, um, you know, like you said, God has a plan. So we'll see what happens next.

Back To Business And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Um, back to business. Back to business. Up at five o'clock this morning, worked out. Haven't done that in seven months, almost hurt myself, but uh got back in here to the office and uh started doing uh estimates and going through numbers and doing what I do. So, you know, guys are happy to see me back. I bet they are not really.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Now you can track the fuel bills a little quicker.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

In the in the in the credit card. I have great people. I do. I've just been blessed. Um, you know, business is tough, you know. You have fights with family, you have fights with you know, it's just it's not physical fights, you know what I mean? It's just it's personality conflicts and stuff like that. You know, this one thinks that, this one thinks that. But you know, after it's all said and done, you know, when everybody goes to the bank on Friday, they're happy.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

I I have a good friend of mine that's in uh steel fabricating business. He's in Denver. And uh when when when you get hired, him he tells you you get two weeks vacation. That's all you're getting. He says, but you're done on Thursday at four o'clock every week. He said he said, he said, that's that's how we do that. If you want to work overtime, that's up to you.

SPEAKER_05 29:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

And that's how that's how he does. And uh and uh I tell you what, when you walk in his shop, there's 20 guys that works in there, and he and he flies them. He tells them they only get two weeks' vacation, but he takes everybody to Alaska every year for for a big fishing trip. And right and they have and then they go up there and they it it's funny because uh they he takes I said, I said, Do you only give your employees two weeks' vacation? He's yeah, but it's my my my business. He said, I said, but you take two weeks and go to Alaska because you take half of them at a time to Alaska with you.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Well, I gotta be honest, I did the same thing. I bought my home in Florida, and um so me and my brother, we would take, you know, a few of our workers and a client, and this was like every two weeks, and this went on for a couple years, and we just got burnt out on it. I haven't been to my house in two years, and I was just like, and and the people down there, that's another thing. I I don't know what it is with with me and my family and everybody, but the those people in Florida, it was almost like the same as Canonsburg, they're like part of your family, so it it's I've had very good luck, I think, um, with just making friends, you know. I guess just honesty is what it has to be.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

So I I have uh we we we used to go, uh I would go down to Florida for just about two weeks every year. And uh we go down for uh go down to Tampa, close to Tampa, uh there's there was a racetrack down there. Uh and we would go there and what we'd watch the races that week and then back up to what speed week, Daytona. Right. And then um, but uh I I enjoy Florida. I mean it just parts I like it in the wintertime. There's parts of it I don't care for. I mean, I want to go there in the summer, too. I'm not an Orlando person, I will tell you that. Me, uh I'm more of a St. Augustine type of guy, and uh, but uh uh I think that uh you know every time every once in a while you have to get recharged, you have to do things. And I and I've been blessed because I've been in every state but two.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

And uh I've been I've been I've been blessed. And the two that I haven't been in, I can tell I tell everybody is Idaho and Oregon. And the only reason I never got to Washington because I had to fly into Washington one time and I had to spend a day there. But anyways, um so you think you do it again?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

I'm gonna have to take the fifth. I'm gonna plead the Fifth Amendment on that. So we'll see. Time will tell. It like I said, if she does those five things, you won't have to. There's no reason for me to have to do anything. Yeah, you know, there's there's senator cardalotta, there's a constituents, there's me. Right where I should be. Right in between them. We'll see. We'll find out. We'll find out. Yeah, yeah, it's the next chapter. I appreciate your show. Um, I'm I'm happy for you that uh it's it's it's picking up. You're really getting good ratings and everything. So a lot of people are talking about it. And uh it's an honor being on here.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Uh now uh I I really have you stepped up, you stepped out, you helped us out with some things, and got some things going, and and I'm sure that that's we're we're gonna be able to work together after going forward. Uh one of the things that uh um I found out you can't be bitter about it at all. I mean you can't. No, you can't let yourself become bitter.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

I was asked this question so many times over the last couple days, and they're like, You have you're not mad, you're not sad. I said, Listen, I've been doing, I work so hard, I do uh you know, million-dollar bids, multi-million dollar bids, take me a month to do them, you know, put all that work in, then you go bid day, and then all of a sudden you get beat by fifty thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars. I've been beat by like ten dollars one time on a multimillion dollar bid. And you just become, I just don't have that uh that gene for that emotional, you know. I'm disconnected from that. I don't I don't have that uh that gene, I guess you want to say, for the that kind of feelings, you know. Um if I did, I wouldn't probably be in business. Get too emotionally tied up to it. But it doesn't, I'm not bitter at all. Um I'm I'm really happy to be honest with you. I just like I said, to meet all those people like that and and just have them talk to you about their personal, you know, personal lives and believe in you. Um I think that gets you know lost in translation along the way through these through these elections. You know, I just I'm just humbled to be blessed with that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Well, I'll tell you what, I I really appreciate what you've done for uh state of Pennsylvania, uh Green County, Washington County, Beaver County. Um I look I looked uh won Green County.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

I don't how did you do in Beaver?

SPEAKER_00 35:20

I didn't uh I I honestly haven't looked. I just go with what they tell me. Um I heard I won Green County, but I I I won also won most of the Mon Valley too, and bunch in Peters, you know. Like I said, it it was a dollar for dollar, even playing field financially. Um 10 out of 10. That's my race.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Yeah. Well, we we we know that that isn't the way it works.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

No, not at all. No, but again, I'm not bitter. I'm happy I got to meet all those people. I got to talk to so many people. That's that's the the best takeaway I got. I was able to give them hope.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Uh, we're gonna see you down at the um whiskey festival.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Oh yeah, for sure. I don't drink, but I'll be down there. Yeah, that's a big deal. It is.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

I think yeah, I think that that is a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

The people in Washington, uh, the people in Washington County, man, they uh they just like gravitated to me, you know, for some reason. And I uh I got to be friends with a lot of people, you know. I mean, so many people. I got 10,000 more new friends, that's how I look at it. So good.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Hey, thanks again for what you did. We appreciate it. And we're gonna sign off right now. Uh, this is I I want to thank everybody for tuning in. And like I said, if you want to be part of this podcast situation, get a hold of me. There's uh lots of ways to do that. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America. I am John Marietta, and I am the Hillboat.