Episode 75! Post-Election Wrap-Up, A Snake in the Wiregrass, Run-off June 16th!

The People's Voice Podcast Episode 75!!!

Blair and Thomas put a bow on Season 2 of the People's Voice Podcast, the May 19th election and look ahead to the June 16th runoff, August 11th Congressional race, and turn towards the regional political scene. 

Also a brief touch on the snake in the Wiregrass.

Stay tuned for Season 3 coming in hot!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Felice Navidad, I've had a fairly sizable margarita. This is the People's Voice Podcast. I'm Thomas Jenkins and I'm here in the studio with Blair. Blair. What up?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

This is episode 75, you guys. 75th episode. Woo!

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Happy 75.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

It's almost an octoonarian or whatever they're called.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Octogenarian?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yeah. We're almost to 80. Um, we're gonna do a really special 100th episode, but for now, this is episode 75, and this is an important episode because we have not done one since the campaign. So this is our post-election wrap-up from the primaries. And also, I want to remind you guys very big asterisk next to this. There is a runoff on June 16th, which is two weeks away.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

June 16th, she said.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

It's also Tupac's birthday on June 16th, and it is a runoff, and it's very important that you show up and vote.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

What what did he do again?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Tupac, he was a rapper.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah, but I mean the song. Name one Tupac song.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I name a bunch of Tupac songs. I'm a huge Tupac fan. My AOL Messenger screen name was Tupacalypse Now 87.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Name one song.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

How do you want it?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Okay. Just checking.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

There's a bunch. Um, anybody that knows me, knows where I grew up and knows that I'm a legit Tupac fan, but that's beside the point. The point is there's a runoff on June 16th, and you need to get out and vote because there's plenty of races that are still going on. Starting with our Senate race, we're down to Jared Hudson and Barry Moore. That's a decision they're gonna have to make. And hopefully both of them will be on this show to tell you more about why they're the best choice. Hopefully, if they don't show up and that tells you what you need to know about them. But we hope to have them both on again.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

To Barry's credit, he did fall into the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

He did, and we hope to have him in person, and we hope to have Jared Hudson in person. For all you people who think I don't like Jared Hudson, I've never met Jared Hudson, so I don't have an opinion one way or the other. So I would say I would love to have him on, and I would love for either of them to convince me that they are the best choice because I'm very open-minded and I want you to win my vote, earn it. Tell me why I need to vote for you. I'm the average voter who's kind of undecided and pretty neutral. I'm a blank slate. Tell me why you deserve it. And that goes for our attorney general candidates too. We're down to Captain Robertson and Jay Mitchell. I don't know either of them. I've invited them both on. I hopefully they come on and convince me that they're the best person.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I know neither of those names. I'm I'm the low information voter one.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

So going forward, we also have PSC. We're down to Jim Zig Ziggler and Chris Beaker. I don't need to know Chris Beaker to know that he's an incumbent and that I'm not happy with the incumbents on the PSC. Jim Ziggler came to our forum and he's been at the Stockton Town Hall, and we've gotten to know him a little bit, and I think he's a good choice.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

But I can't hear Beaker and not think of the Muppet.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Beep boop out there for some of you.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, irrelevant, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So there's that race. We also have a runoff between Brett Garr and Tater Harris. Both of them have been on the show already, and they will be out campaigning and doing other things. So I encourage you to pay attention to that race. You have, you know, it's gonna be a close race. There's two good choices, so you're open to determining who you'd like to vote for.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

We should get to the hook.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yes. What's the hook besides voting on June 16th? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Well, what about Josh McKee's brother dropping in and saying uh outstanding reporting on our POS little brother? We'll go ahead and drop that little tidbit.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

So, yes, message to Judy Jr. out there. Your family has reached out and let us know lots of things. And it's not our job to, you know, let all the skeletons out the closet. But I will say we're good judges of character.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Damn a bone.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

There's been a lot of information relayed to us that I was like, huh, okay, good judge of character, and everything we thought was accurate. So that's the gist of it. Actually, yeah, we're pretty uh on the code.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Tired of being right all the time.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

So going forward, we're about to start season three. We have three people who are gonna be on that. Looking into season three, we do cover Northwest Florida. So there are some Pensacola, Escambia County, you know, Florida races going on that you need to pay close attention to. Even if you live in Alabama, these races affect us because it's directly next door, and we need to have a good relationship between our county and the neighboring county.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

As we've seen with the recent uh mess with Orange Beach and Escambia County, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Right. So many of you that know me may know that I worked for Sheriff Chip Simmons directly, and I worked on the homelessness reduction task force in the city of Pensacola. I was a contractor for them for two years helping with the homelessness issue. So when this came up that day of, I don't know if you know this, but I was on the phone with Chip. I was telling him, connecting him with different mayors throughout the region who may have had issues and he was getting ignored and he was getting feedback from some of them. It, you know, people don't know what I do behind the scenes. I think I'm just a person out here who gets on camera and sometimes takes pictures of stuff. I don't think they understand that I went to law school and I have a very deep political background with over 17 certifications with specific political training from the Leadership Institute, but that's beside the point. Um, so when that happened, I will say that I was disappointed in the reaction from Orange Beach. Y'all may want to like chop my head off for that, but I've worked for Chip a long time. I know him to be a very good person and a man of integrity and honor. And I don't think he would have even posted something on social media had he not been driven to his wit's end with the issue. And having worked on that issue in Pensacola, I understand his frustration because you make a little dent in the homelessness crisis, and then all of a sudden people come from other areas dropping off homeless people and using up your resources that are very like finite in nature. So I understand his frustrations with that.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Argue in the comments below.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, feel free. So, anyways, we need a good relationship between Escambia and Baldwin County. We've been saying that since episode one of this show. If you go way back, you should watch our season one, but actually don't criticize it too much because the cameras don't look that great. But the information stands true to this day. Um, regarding the runoff, so also there's been congressional redistricting. We're going to have a congressional race. There's not a primary, it's whoever wins wins, and that's on August 11th.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

That's gerrymander redrew that map, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yes, speaking of Jerry's and gerrymandering, Jerry Carl, you're welcome on this show as well. Um, it's basically going to be a runoff, or not a runoff, it's a race between Jerry Carl and Austin Sidwell. Since we ran McKee out of town, he's over there against Rhett in the other district now.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

What, the one whose brother wrote in and said, Thanks for covering our POS little brother, who's a narcissistic pathological liar.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

The one who lives in Howell's moving castle.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Oh, yeah, that one's got the little chicken legs on the little trailer.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

He's uh he's over there in a different district.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

That's an anime joke for all of our octagenarians and septigenarians up.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Your grandkids know what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

We want Jerry Carl and Austin back on the show. We want people to remember. Oh, also we learned today there's a whole vote in Stockton on June 30th to vote on zoning. If you live in Stockton, please go vote on zoning. I think you should vote to be zoned so you don't have data centers coming in and solar farms and everything else. Right. Um, there's a lot of votes coming up. It's not the end of the political season, really. It's the end of the main primary season, but there's a lot of stuff happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Can we talk a little bit about how piss poor the turnout was for the election? Like, holy cow.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Not only that, we'll talk a little bit about what I think is voter suppression, which you guys may not agree with me, but let me tell you about when I went to vote. We won't get into the altercation with the police telling me they were gonna arrest me if I tried to go vote at my correct precinct. So my precinct, where Miss Evelyn Sanders, our friend of the show, is over there on um Coastal Gate or County Road Six at the Cultural Center. That's where I go to vote typically.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I go to Have you turned left lately there, by the way? It sucks.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Very much so.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Fix it.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

So I go there to vote, and uh, not only do the police tell me they're gonna arrest me if I drive off and have all these weird excuses about why I can't vote, we won't get into it. It's it's a deep story, but I'm not happy with it and I'm fighting it tooth and nail because it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

It's because of Gulf Breeze's uh traffic trap cameras.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yes. Um my precinct has moved to Foley. Let me tell you, I live in Meyer Park on Gulf Shores, and I gotta go vote in Foley, and that's a whole nother story, but that's where the Anchor Point Church is, which is my new precinct or whatever. That's fine. I went to go over there, but it was not without a ton of hassle. And when I went there, the people said, Oh, another one? Another person at the wrong precinct? Like, it's so confusing to just find your precinct. I know they allegedly mail you a card. I never got a card in the mail, and neither did a ton of other people by their going to the incorrect precinct.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

So just to clarify, the place that you went to go vote changed since the just the previous election in August?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yes, it did. And there was nobody there either time. It was dead. I was the only person in voting when I finally got to my correct precinct in Foley. It was a hassle. I did it anyways, because it's my civic duty. But I can see why people don't want to vote because they make it a huge headache. It needs to change. We need early voting just like Florida has. When I lived in Florida, you had like a week or two before the election. Where they have like certain poll precincts open where you can just go vote early.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I mean, don't quote me on it, but I don't think they do.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

I don't think they do.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Argue in the comments below.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

They need it if they don't. They have absentee, but they don't have like a certain like you can go to City Hall and vote early two weeks before. Like, I don't think there's anything like that here in Alabama. Maybe there is, and I'm wrong, but they should have that if they don't, because to vote on election day is super inconvenient, especially when they move the polls all around different spots. I don't like it. Low turnout to be expected. We'll probably have an even lower turnout in the runoff. It's a shame that you people don't get off your asses and go vote because it is important. But on the other hand, I do understand because they don't make it easy.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

But you'll sure bitch in the comments, won't you? So speaking of bitch, and let's talk about this new bridge that they brought in and how it has done F all for the traffic flow.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

The traffic flow is way worse with that new. This is talking about by canal road by the wharf.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, the new round to boot.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

It's awful. Um, whatever, whoever designed that, you must have been drunk at Orange Beach. Well, have margaritas. It's really bad. It is way more traffic going into Orange Beach now, just coming from like the opposite direction.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

I'm just waiting to merge left into somebody that has no patience and that comes right over into that right lane because they didn't think to double line right there. It's a little bit ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

I also want to complain about our data infrastructure again. So my phone goes out. I have Verizon and ATT. I have two cell phones. My Verizon phone goes out every single time there's a concert at the wharf because the data towers for Verizon are so overflowed. And I even like had to check with Verizon and figure out what's going on. And this is what they say: when there's a lot of people in the area, you're not gonna have your MMS or like your data services. It all goes through SMS or you have to be on Wi-Fi or if not, like you can't send messages, you can't call. It's so dumb.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Give me a thoughts taken, selfies.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

You need better data infrastructure here. We need a secondary Verizon Tower. I don't know the solution. I'm not a freaking engineer, but I can tell you my cell phone doesn't work literally every time there's a concert, and I have to switch to my ATT phone.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I shouldn't not paradise until I can upload and download at super speed. I shouldn't have to turn left at County Road 6.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, that's impossible. You're never gonna get that unless they do some cutthroughs and they ain't gonna. Also, I should be able to turn left off Highway 59 into FAs. I shouldn't have to make a huge shout out to FAs, I love FAs. I shouldn't have to do this huge circle to get to FAs and get a Euro. Why is it so hard? Like, why do I have to make this? I have to go into Walmart and then turn right again and then get to the event.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

No U-turns for Euros.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

It's ridiculous. I'm not happy with that either. But um yeah, what else? We're still voting on agriculture commissioner. Christina McGuinness is still in the race along with Corey Hill. Um, there's some other races. I'm trying to think of who else is out there. I think we've covered them all. Um, those are all the people in a runoff. Yeah. If you're a candidate and you want to come on the show, or if you're somebody in the community that has a you know thing you want to talk about, please write us a message. We're not going to stop covering stuff because the election's over. We don't only do elections. We already have three episodes filmed for our next season, which begins right after this episode. So we can't wait to show those. And we hope to cover more and we hope to do more. If you have town halls, if you have issues you're passionate about, please reach out to us. We really value your opinion and want to cover it. This is the people's voice. It is our opinion. We offer people up here to give their thoughts and opinions as well. Nothing we say is, you know, written in stone. We're just here to offer a platform and a voice, so remember that.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

That's right, Jan Shit, if you don't come on the People's Voice podcast. I don't live another country today.