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Inside the Colom Watch Party and Columbus Controversies · Between the Headlines: Columbus

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he has come up with today to talk about.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not asking you to hide anything.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, put it out there.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let the people see it.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've never not worked in a hostile working environment.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can't argue with anybody when they're putting facts in your face.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Zach, that's a hard question.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I have no answer for it.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch, this is between the headlines.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: Too close to call, or is it?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: We look at election results for the U.S.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: Senate race here in Catfish Alley and tell you the latest.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: Also, an entertainment director for hire at the tune of$136,000.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see about that.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: And Chad White says to the City of Columbus, you shall retirement looks different if we're going to do it.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: So your plan should be built around first.
• 0:56
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• 1:02
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• 1:07
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• 1:10
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• 1:12
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• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: This episode of Between the Headlines is brought to you by Bank First, a bank headquartered right here in Columbus, Mississippi.
• 1:22
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• 1:27
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• 1:34
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• 1:35
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• 1:45
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• 1:50
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• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: In the heart of the friendly city, we welcome you again to Catfish Alley here in historic downtown Columbus, where history is in the making, I say, where we look at the U.S.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: Senate race, which is too close to call Zach, according to the papers.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: The dispatch may not be calling it.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: The GOP may not be calling it, but David Chisholm is calling it.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: You can say hello to U.S.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: Senator elect Scott Cologne, who is going to beat Cindy Hyde Smith.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me I'm wrong.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: You're not.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're not wrong.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh as more of these affidavits are processed, uh you know, th there was a that lead was 65 yesterday afternoon, and by the time we got the paper out, it had been updated to being eleven hundred and thirty-eight.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's gonna widen as these.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Last I checked, it was 1,500 in where you check in some places and 1,800 in others.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: And as you and I both know, if you're waiting on affidavit ballots to come in, that's kind of a losing strategy.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, I agree.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: I agree uh totally.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: So you're you're kind of red-eyed today.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: A little bit, a little bit.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I uh you weren't out partying, were you?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: I I wasn't I wasn't partying, but I was around other people who were having a good time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh went down to the uh watch party uh for uh the Cologne campaign's watch party on election night.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it was in uh it was in an event venue in Jackson.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it was it was a good time.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: There were there were a lot of people having fun, um, lots of folks there, uh lots of uh lots of Cologne family members, a few people from Columbus, uh saw William Morley Bird there, um, among others, and uh a good bit of media there.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, that night it was a lot of excitement.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, if you're at a Cologne watch party and you're not a member of the media, you're you know, you're a a Democrat that's watching for the other results.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: And they were pretty excited about what was happening nationwide, but of course, there wasn't much happening.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna tell you, I was to the point with about 70% of the vote in, I was looking at those margins and saw, I think uh Hyde Smith was ahead at that point by maybe four or five points.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, yeah, this is what, this is what we all thought.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: AP's gonna call this imminently.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then they didn't, and then they didn't, and then they didn't.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, at about 10 after eleven, after this thing cinched up real tight, Scott came out and said, Hey guys, everybody go home.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're not gonna know anything tonight.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to keep y'all.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then that place emptied out.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: But it wasn't like Hillary Clinton and the city.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, it wasn't it wasn't like that.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh there were a lot of people who left very hopeful that night, and now you kind of see why.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's probably about like the Keith Gaskin watch party.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: A little bit, yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, probably so, because that was a tight election.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Just some general observations that don't have anything to do with anything, but uh uh but but some of the highlights of the night were Andrew uh Cologne, Scott's twin brother, who'd helped you who's helped him with his campaign along, of course.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: He shaved his head.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: He was wearing, you know, the the type of clothes that you might mistake him for.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because he looks they're identical twins.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and so he starts walking through the room with the public in the media, just walking through, saying hi to everybody at one point.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: And when it when people came up to him, he would look at him and say, Now I'm not Scott.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then there would be whole groups of people that would be like, Yes, you are, yes, you are.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, oh, you think I'm Scott?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, no, no, no, no.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm not Scott.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you walked up to Andrew and talked to him that night, he would turn around and say, I'm not Scott.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: And if you knew it, you're like, I know I know you're not Scott.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: But these are he fooled a lot of people, and that was a fun that was that was fun to watch.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: Conspiracy theories begin with stuff like this.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: Oh God, can you imagine?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um another thing, and and this was this was a really fun experience because uh it it it it just was.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm going out, there's there's a couple of rooms that are available to the public, and then there's a a bunker upstairs where they're keeping Scott, and I don't know who all was in that bunker uh with him, but uh bunker.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: None of those people were Brandon Presley.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm coming, I'm I'm coming out, and there's a the there's so there's I guess three floors, and then there's the upstairs to the bunker where Scott is, and then there's the downstairs to the four-year where you go out, and the middle level is where most everybody was.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm just sort of walking through and I'm right at the landing of the uh steps from the four-year when Brandon Presley hits the top of those stairs.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I look, I'm like, hey Brandon, I shake his hand, and Brandon Presley doesn't know me from Adam's House cat, right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that he does probably as good a job as anybody I've ever met, short of Bill Clinton, of treating strangers on demand like a second cousin at a family reunion that he hadn't talked to in a while.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: So he just starts talking to me.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: He has no idea who I am, he has no idea if he's ever met me.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: He just starts talking to me like we've known each other for 20 years, and he says, We're gonna win, we're gonna do it.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: And there was no we, but you know, I'm like, oh, what makes you think this guy's gonna do?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, oh, it it's this and this and this.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: And by the way, how's your family and all of that?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: And he is just on all of the time like that.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so we had a nice discussion out there, and he comes back later after I think maybe he he'd been to the bar, and he sees me from across the room, and he comes up and he's like, he's got his phone in his hand.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, let me show you what I'm talking about.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: He's got his phone pulled up and he's got all of the county numbers that he can come to and zoom in and all of that, and he's like, Look, here's where the votes are out.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Scott's fixing to win this thing.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Scott's fixing to win this thing.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Look at Forest County.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And this is a direct quote.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Look at Forrest County.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: Scott's winning by more than I did.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I was the first one to flip Forest County since Moby Dick was a minor.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: And this and this and this and this.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: And uh then he's like, Will you take my picture with uh Dorothy and Will?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: And there they were, so I took his picture with uh Dorothy and Will.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: But uh but uh I want to say something about that that I thought was kind of endearing.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Brandon Presley ran for governor and he ran with Tate close.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like that that was that was not that wasn't a runaway.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Tate beat him, but it wasn't a runaway.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: Brandon Presley could have come in there and made his presence there be about Brandon Presley.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: He could have gone into the bunker with Scott as a very important Democrat and not milled around with the public at all.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, he and his wife were just walking around all night talking to anybody who would talk to them.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that that was just really endearing and uh something that will was a was a good thing and a right thing for him as a Democratic leader in the state to do in a situation like that.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that would have been the case if Scott was losing by 20.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: So it's he's not gonna lose by 20.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think he'll lose at all.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: How do we think this is going to end?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um do you think the court's gonna have to decide this thing?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: I hope not.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: I I don't know that the lawyers have the appetite to settle this thing.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: I think the state of Mississippi has no statutory recount process.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's not a recount process that triggers automatically.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so if if they challenge it, it would have to be individual precincts and rebits.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And all of that would be going on right now as they're as they're challenging the affidavit process.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: All of all of that would be have to be happening yesterday, today, and tomorrow as courthouses.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: Do you I mean you don't hear I mean it's happening, but you don't hear about it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of those challenges, those votes, those votes that are coming in that you're seeing make that margin greater, what those are is those are mail-in absentees that are getting counted, and those are affidavits that are being cured and put into the total vote count, which is hey, you had to vote affidavit because maybe you didn't have ID, or maybe you weren't on the poll books, or maybe you were at the wrong precinct.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: And we have now validated your ballot and can count it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: So the numbers that you're seeing roll in now, that's what those are.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that they're very much gonna favor Scott more and more as this goes on.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of them in Hines County.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, buddy.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, there are.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and and on just the election day votes, I think Scott was up 60 points in Hines County.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I I seriously doubt the affidavits and mail-in absentees are going to cut uh terribly differently than that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: So if we're looking at the tables right now, um we are seeing a vote margin of 1,724 votes as of record time.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: What's the source of that, Zach?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: Associated press.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: So uh that's not getting tighter, that's getting wider.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right, and that's just gonna keep happening.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh do you think that at any point between now and, you know, Jesus coming back, that Cindy Hyde Smith gets in front of a microphone and concedes the election to Scott Cologne?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think she'll tell you that that she lost.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_03: I think that that she will concede from the standpoint of of there's just there's just not enough evidence or there's not enough resources to turn this thing around.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: I don't see her as as doing like what Trump did him and old old what's his name, former mayor of New York City, just coming up with all kind of stuff that that Bill DeBar called bullshit and you know, all that.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't see it turning into that.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: But um I don't know.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: I uh my heart kind of hopes that, you know, if in fact she loses, that she will just do the right thing like the politicians of old did.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, maybe have a concession call.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Congratulations.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um I don't think that she'll do that, David.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um uh I th what I predict that she will do is nothing.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I predict that she'll exhaust her challenges and when it becomes clear that she's gonna have to uh that she's either gonna have to concede or file suit.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think that she's just gonna go to Brookhaven and we'll never we'll never hear a word from her about it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: The the talk about concession and the talk about things being tight reminds me of what happened in Florida back in 2000.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Oh Lord.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, George W.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: Bush won the election in Florida and therefore got Florida's electoral votes and ended up becoming president by a margin of five hundred and thirty-seven votes, which were assigned to him by order of the U.S.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: Supreme Court, if you remember.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: They said, stop the recount, this has gotten way out of hand.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: I hope we don't have to live through a bunch of hanging Chad type stuff.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't me too, man.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Me too.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: I I really hope that if she doesn't concede publicly, I hope that she at least lets there be a peaceful transition there.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: And and that and at the same time, I hope that if if as the this as these ballots are cured and and and more it and after all of the legal ballots are counted, if she's ahead, she wins.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I hope that Scott will accept that as well.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and if that happens, I will bring a literal crow in here with a a fork and a spoon and I will eat it in front of you.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: I just don't see that happening at this point.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: But I want to acknowledge something.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: These are these are some facts.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: Scott Cologne will be the first Democratic U.S.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Senator uh elected in Mississippi since John C.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Stennis in 1947.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: He will be the first black U.S.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: senator elected by voters in Mississippi ever.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: He'll be the second black U.S.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: senator from Mississippi, the first being Blanche Bruce, who was a Republican appointed by the 1874 legislature.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: And he will be the first senator from Columbus since 1845, that fellow being Jesse Spate, who lays to rest in Friendship Cemetery.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a historic thing.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: Did they mention any of the historicity of this at the watch party?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: They did a little bit at the uh uh did a little bit at the press conference the day after.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I kind of like Scott's response to that.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: He I mean, he acknowledged that these things were true, especially the, you know, the first black senator since Reconstruction, and his answer to that was that he didn't want to be the last.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: He wanted to behave as a senator in such a way as to where uh there would be a line behind him.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you you I no matter who you are, you've got to respect an attitude like that to a question like that.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope that he pulls through in his pledge to be a moderate.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm hoping is David Chisholm.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: I hope for God's sakes he makes friends with John Fetterman.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: Let's think about what's at stake right here in Lowndes County.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: We have MUW that's struggling.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: We have MSMS that needs a dorm in a bad kind of way, also struggling.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: And the way follow me on this, the way he gets help here to the friendly city, to our fine institutions, is by leveraging his vote.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Imagine if he has the the swing power of folks like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Why would Susan Collins be a part of the conversation?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: She should be in the Senate.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: She got beat.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: What I'm talking about.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: All right, dinos and rhinos.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: You follow me?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: Moderate people who critically think.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: If it's right there on the edge, their vote really matters when that omnibus bill comes to the table.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: And and and better still, let me let me go a uh let me go a step further with you on that.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh this is a situation where I I see very clearly where uh Scott Colomb is meeting with Roger Wicker or vice versa, and they're saying, okay, we represent the same people.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: What can we do for them?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think that they're going to be worried about abortion rights when they're talking about those sorts of infrastructure things.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I see a situation where you've got joint press releases coming from both of their offices where they're both acknowledging those conversations.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because Scott's willing to have them.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I got a$5 bill says Roger Wicker in the right circumstances is going to be willing to have them too.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because when it comes right down to it, if they can issue a joint press release where they said we leveraged our votes for Mississippi to get Mississippians this, I I don't see either one of those guys turning down that opportunity.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, and I Roger Wicker's not a rhino.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I would not say that he's a rhino either.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: I will, however, tell you if there's a lot of folks on the internet that think he's a rhino.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I I want to I want to back up a second and talk about I w I want to uh uh I want to acknowledge my wrongness in something and I want to explain why I was wrong.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: After Scott Colomb sat in here and announced his candidacy on between the headlines, which by uh which by the way, uh I got uh uh confirmation from him, he sought me out to tell me uh Wednesday at the pre after the press conference that as soon as the as soon as this election is called, he wants to come back on here and and do a post-election interview with us and we'll welcome him warmly.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: But he came on here to announce his candidacy, and I said that I didn't think he could win.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: I remember getting an anonymous email, and now I I think I know who the anonymous email came from, but uh I got an anonymous email that uh I can't uh I I can't remember exactly what it said, but uh among the things that it said was give me a break with your negativity.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Cindy Hyde Smith's campaign, probably more than any other of the Republican campaigns that failed, really dug into this idea of I can tell my constituents what to be afraid of, and they'll do it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And what we learned and what I learned, because I thought she was right, I thought that Cindy has it because any time that I said that I didn't think Scott Cologne could win, um, and this may be offensive to say, that wasn't an indictment on Scott ever.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: It was an indictment on the Mississippi electorate and their ability to see the forest for the trees, uh, or their willingness, rather, to see the forest for the trees.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: And Cindy Hyde Smith believed the same thing about them that I did, and the Mississippi electorate proved us both wrong.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now, one of us is happy about that.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: You can guess which one.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: I can tell you that Cindy Hyde Smith's approach was to take all of the hyper-conservative talking points and all of the dog whistling and all of the things that she could possibly gather up in that in that realm.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: We got the transgender defender, we've got all of that others, we've got the open borders, we've got the the the uh her in her uh egregious and uh obscene inability to pronounce the former vice president's name correctly, and we don't like her kind around here, or whatever it is that she said.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've got that.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that works, I suppose, when things are normal.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: But there's an old saying from James Carville that or that James Carville coined in the 1992 presidential election that Bill Clinton won, and it's the economy, stupid.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't think that that was even gonna matter anymore.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't think it was gonna matter anymore.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: But I got taught, just like Cindy Hyde Smith got taught, that the same things matter that always have.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's Maslov's uh hierarchy of needs, uh which is to say that when the individual's uh relationship with uh money and goods becomes the collective the collective's relationship with money and goods, then that's gonna define, that's gonna be the defining issue of the election.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: And when people go back and study this midterm, and if they drill down and study the Cologne versus Hyde Smith election, the turning point and the thing that they're going to notice mattered the most was when she got on TV and started talking about alternative proteins.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: That was the D-Day of this election, and the reclaiming of Paris in the dire in this election was Scott seizing on it.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was your Mary Antoinette who actually got that one.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and uh him seizing on it and that pick another protein ad and those things, when people study this election, they're going to look at it and they're gonna say, that's when Cindy lost it.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: And when Scott seized on that and made it his narrative, that's when he won it.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I believe that because when people are eating through their freezer to get to payday, they don't care about who's playing what sport where or who's in what bathroom.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when people are at the gas pump and they're like, well, you know, um I get paid Friday.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: I used to can fill up on 35, but now it takes sixty.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder if I just put twenty in it if I can make three more days that way.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: And Cindy Hyde Smith believed that only poor people were doing that.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where she missed, because most everybody's doing that right now.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: There's no question people were mad at the gas pump, people were mad at the prices in the supermarket, uh, they were also mad at the Iran war.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, all those things certainly came into play.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: You say you were wrong about a few things, I was wrong about a few things.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um just just for history's sake, you gotta remember that that Thad Cochrane resigned in 2018 for health reasons, and then Cindy Hyde Smith was appointed by then Governor Phil Bryant, okay, uh, just temporarily, and there was a special election.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: She only beat Mike Espy by 3.6 percentage points, right?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: So that that was pretty tight to start with.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then but in the rematch, she she beat him by more.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: But there was never an open primary, all right, which was honestly a similar problem that Kamala Harris had in the world.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's exactly right.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: Cindy Hyde Smith and Kamala Harris are extraordinarily similar in this exact way.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_03: So where I was wrong is I was I was telling you right here that people are gonna be sitting on their line moors at 6 59 p.m.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: The numbers don't sh don't show that.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: The Republicans went out and they voted.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: For Scott.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: For Scott Cologne.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: We had 51% of registered voters to vote, roughly one-third the population of Mississippi, and Lowndes, Clay, Octibihaw, and Knoxaby carried Scott Cologne by a margin of greater than twelve thousand five hundred votes.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: And we expected that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: That the the golden triangle part we expected.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what I didn't know was whether South Mississippi was gonna go.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't I didn't realize that DeSoto County was conf as conflicted as it was.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um but when every county touching the Mississippi River was blue.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: But I believed that the politics of grievance had overtaken the narrative so thoroughly that six dollar diesel wouldn't get the job done.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that when it comes down to it, the thing you're experiencing, especially with money, is going to be the thing you vote on.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: And let me acknowledge, I mean, obviously the paper on its opinion page uh uh endorsed Scott Cologne.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: We we stand by that for all the reasons stated in that endorsement.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: The editorial board of the dispatch.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: But our newsroom, David, has made every effort to cover the Hyde Smith campaign uh before and after that endorsement.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: David, I think you've made uh you've personally made Salvos to the to the uh campaign to try to get her on the podcast.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've asked to get her on the podcast.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: Look, I joked about the tens of people with the Kamala Harris Cologne rally.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: You're about to talk about the fives of people in Startville.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh so a funny story about that.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we get we get word that she was going to have this rally in Startville at the mill.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we see that, and you know, in in good faith, we're we're trying to cover the campaign, you know, because it's we're trying to cover the campaign.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: The campaign has come to the Golden Triangle, it's three days before election day, let's get out there.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: We ask for a media credential.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: We say, hey, what do we need to do to cover the rally?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: And her campaign guy comes back to us with haste and says, sorry, we're at capacity.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Capacity.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: I saw the picture.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: There was the room of a million farts left in that room for somebody to sit.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: That looked like that looked like a Sunday night business meeting at a dying Baptist church.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's what that looked like.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's short on chairs.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: And the I think the funniest image that I saw related to that entire rally was there was a business that was close to the mill that had a sign out in front of their business for$20 parking for that rally.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: And there was that parking that was empty as hell.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the first time.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: That was the first time that I said, oh hell, Scott may win.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot campaign from a basement.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do that, and you can't campaign.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: Thank God that in this country you cannot still campaign exclusively on grievance.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: Word to your mama.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: Anything else on that one, Mr.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: Zach?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: No, I think that's good.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: So we will pivot now to um we'll take a break first, come back, talk about an entertainment director for the amphitheater, and also Shad White lays down the hammer for Columbus and other towns.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: Hot outside, cold inside, that's exactly how we like it for three generations.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: Family-owned BRISLIN Incorporated has been keeping our neighbors comfortable no matter what our Mississippi weather throws our way.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: Brisling Incorporated comfort runs in the family.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Zach.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I picked up the paper the other day and I learned that there is an attempt to hire an entertainment director uh specific to the Columbus Amphitheater under construction.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: There has been a name put on the table.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: And um the gentleman, as the story reads, has already been doing a lot of this work pro bono, but now they want to put him on the docket, and the salary proposed is$136,000.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the rate.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: Nonetheless, the City of Columbus seems to be um, well, some folks at least uh bent toward investing in the entertainment industry, shall we say.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: And and this strikes me as a surprise because this looks separate from the contract we had of these people that were gonna manage that thing.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, yeah.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: And and maybe this is just my ignorance speaking because I don't know anything about birthing no babies or running any amphitheaters or whatever, but we we've got uh a facilities manager marketing something.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Then we're gonna have this guy, and I'm frankly unclear what the difference in these things are, but again, that's probably my ignorance speaking.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um I would say that uh if we get down to deputy director of uh red popsicles, it's too much.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like wood the we I th I think that the city needs to be clearly explaining to people what why why each position exists out there, especially if tax money is going to be paying for it.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I think frankly, I will say of the city right now that they're kind of doing a crap job explaining the uh machinations and moving parts of why this money is being spent for this and that money is being spent for that.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um Well, hey, tips at cdispatch.com, you know, somebody listening that that's on the in the know on this, uh come be a guest because I I need clarity in this matter.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: But I will say this, and and I think that um in fairness and for clarity, and this is something that the city has been very clear about, and that I think that everybody looking at this amphitheater project needs to understand.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: The amphitheater directly is not gonna be a moneymaker.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's not designed to be a moneymaker, it never was.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you're gonna have your Yehoos on Facebook that let's just say that you've got I'm gonna say that part again.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: So let's just say that you've got a uh and these are all hypothetical numbers that I can do the math in my head, so these aren't real.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: But let's just say that the city says, all right, it's gonna take us a million dollars in expenses to run the amphitheater.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the amphitheater directly generates revenue of$750,000 that same year.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: Which looks like on paper$250,000 in the rib.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna have your Yahoos on Facebook that are gonna say, Well, you built it in a floodplain and now it's underwater in a different way.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Get ready.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna hear that one.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um But that's not the entire picture, and that's not the point.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: So you've got so let's just say that same year where you've got that$250,000 direct loss for the amphitheater, that the amphitheater's existence assists in a or causes or creates a$500,000 net gain between the 2% tourism tax and general sales tax.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's a$250,000 positive for the city, all in.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the point.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you're when you're generating tourism and you're generating uh when you're giving people something to do in Columbus, they are gonna do, like I know that everybody says, oh, well, you know, yeah, eating and shopping and all that, but they will actually do that.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_03: And that money stay in the air, B and B, all that stuff.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: And and that money actually is coming to the city.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so But it's hard to track.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: It is, but but it's uh but but it's going to be a net positive in revenue as long as the the tax money that we are spending on it is one accounted for, and two, um, clear in the roles and the purposes that we're doing it for.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, if if this becomes a money grab where everybody uh everybody has a jive at the amphitheater that they're getting paid for, um then you're not gonna get that net gain.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna outkick your coverage as far as the net gain you would otherwise get from from uh tax revenue.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: But this is a tax revenue generator.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't a direct revenue generator, and I think that people should remember that as they're um as they're thinking about the amphitheater.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: But Again, the the city still does need to be good stewards and not hire everybody's brother-in-law Bill to have a job out there.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it if it has an entertainment director, if I if I'm reading the story correctly, stop me if I'm not, um, this guy and his team are gonna have the place ready to book.
• 35:19
  unknown: Okay.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: But Jason Spears is saying that the facilities manager is a different position.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well look we'll look more into it.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's fine.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: I just need to know who's gonna be picking the playlist for the PA system that's downtown.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_03: I thought that was you, David.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: I thought they were paying you$87,000 a year to do that.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: I can't, I don't I haven't even heard it though.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: Have y'all heard it?
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: Zach, have you heard Mariah Carey downtown?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was$14,000.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: And you want to know where it came from?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: ARPA.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: That was ARPA money.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_03: Trying to think of a pun ARPA find where it is, because I don't hear anything.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: Let me know if you hear her.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: She's out there somewhere.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_03: Next thing, you ready?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: Mr.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: Shad White in a social media post announces that there are five cities in the state of Mississippi that are not compliant, uh, six cities actually, and they are not compliant in their yearly audits.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: So that three, four years behind between them, yeah.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so we're gonna step in there and force your hand.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: This is something I didn't know the auditor's office had the authority to do, but basically, look, you're not filling out these papers that we've sent to you.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: We don't have the data.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna have to hire these independent firms to come up with that data.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh okay, so the way that the the way that everything is set up, um the state itself cannot audit cities.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: So the auditor's office can't send people to do the audit for or send people from its own office to do the city.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: With a badge saying I'm from Shad White's office, let me look at the books.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: So cities are um directed by law to get independent contractors to do their audits yearly, and then they've got to turn them into the State Auditor's office, and they have to be posted publicly for the world to see.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: Columbus and apparently a few other cities, as we all know, but have not faithfully done that in a timely manner in quite some time and remain three years behind on these annual audits.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: Now, they are hiring independent firm an independent firm to do their audits like they're supposed to, but they're just they're they're they're not getting them done fast enough.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the city's not getting these things done fast enough.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: They had just engaged with Watkins, Ward and Stafford for the fiscal twenty-four.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: The fiscal twenty-three report, the fiscal year twenty twenty-three report is coming anytime now.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're finishing that up.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: For fiscal year twenty twenty-four, they're gonna get that done.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna get started on that as soon as they've as soon as they've put a seal on fiscal year twenty twenty-three.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they've engaged with them and gotten a contract with Watkins Warden Stafford to do that.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: What Shad's office has done is said, we don't care about that.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: We are going to hire our own independent auditor to come audit you and you're gonna pay for that.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_03: Diversion of funds.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna divert from your sales tax to pay the freight for this auditor.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if you look at the press release, because he's he they posted on social media, but they also sent an email out to their media list in a in press release form that they've done this.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: The way that this presents is you cities have been too slow.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're gonna punish you by making you use the person we say, and you're gonna pay the same amount of money for it regardless.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're it's gonna be the same amount of money that they were gonna have to pay, or a very similar amount of money to what they were gonna have to pay Watkins, Ward and Stafford regardless.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if it'll be the same because you've eliminated the competition potentially.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, may maybe so, but it I mean those audits cost a certain range of um amount of money.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that's from what I understand, that's uh the the ones that the city pays for with Watkins Ward and Stafford, and you know that I mean that they're certainly not a bargain basement uh accounting firm.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's going to be fifty to sixty thousand that they pay a year to Watkins Ward and Stafford for that audit.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: They budget up to 75 for it.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: So all right, let me ask you So that's uh that's that's that's I mean that's not nothing, but in a mo the in a tens of millions of dollars budget.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's a cost of doing business.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a it's a drop in the bucket.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: But do you at this point call them up and say, hey guys, we need to sever the contract because Shad White's sending someone else in?
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean I mean it really puts a bomb in there and just kind of blows whatever.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: It really does because there's no criticism of Watkins Warden Stafford in Shad White's press release.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: The criticism is of the city.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: The criticism is saying the this is a penalty for the city because the city didn't do what the city was supposed to do.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: But when it comes right down to it, the city is gonna it's it's they're just gonna be dealing with different people.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: The penalty here indirectly is to Watkins Warden Stafford, and the question is is that is that the right way to do this?
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because if the city has done wrong, if the city is too slow, if the city is the one with the statutory requirement to get its act together, then why is it costing Watkins Warden Stafford money?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: Why is it costing them a contract?
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because otherwise the city's gonna have to pay twice for the same service, and only one of them's gonna count.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, it it sounds a little bit like if if you lose your case in the court of law and you're blaming your lawyer, the lawyer still gets paid.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's just and and the judge uh gives a judgment on the defendant, right?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Doesn't give a judgment on the attorney.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: So they're they're there, but they're kind of irrelevant.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the sense that the Shad White's going after the city.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, you hired these guys.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it's not irrelevant if if the city now has to sever a contract that they've already agreed to pay.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: But but they knew that the high priest knew the Day of Atonement was coming.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: This had to have getting done, and it's still not done yet.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_03: And the price is steep.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: For Watkins Warden Stafford, yeah.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think it's going to be the City of Columbus.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: They may end up getting their money one way or another.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: So Well, if I was that firm, I would I would certainly I would certainly say that that would be my posture.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: But and and let's talk about like the the sales tax diversion itself, uh that sounds like a really nasty thing when they talk about it.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: But let's just say$75,000 is uh around the ceiling of what this would cost.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_02: The city gets between$900,000 and a million dollars in sales tax in its coffers per month.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: If$75,000 is diverted from that over the course of a year, uh I mean, it's it's negligible.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a negligible total in the sales tax itself.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um and again, it's money that the city would have already had to pay somebody else.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: Zach, what do you think of the optics and the timing of this move?
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_03: You look at Chad White and you look at his ambitions.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think that everything that Chad White does has to do with optics and timing and his ambitions.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_03: But I couldn't the same thing have been said about like Brandon Presley when when he was going after ATT and sending everybody these letters of these great things that when the government officials do their job, uh-huh, can't the job just speak for itself?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: One one wonders.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, if you're in the if you are in the business, I I I don't really like the way that Chad White goes about doing some of the things that he does from a from a publicity standpoint.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: But uh I will say that if you are in the business of getting people's attention so they remember you when they have to fill in a bubble, better to do it Chad's way than Joseph Meakin's way.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh boy.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_03: Jeez.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well Yeah, and and and to that end, I like What he's doing.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, whether it's for optics or whether he was gonna do it anyway, something needed to happen.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um And no shade to the the Watkins and Stafford folk it just it just is this this day has been long in the making.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: I just hate that if they're not responsible for this and they're not the ones being held responsible for this statutorily, why are they the ones paying the penalty?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're the ones paying the penalty.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: All right, Zach.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Three things to know.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: Number one, IHL released university enrollment totals early this week, and for the second year in a row, the W leads the way as far as percentage growth at 3.6 percent.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: The biggest losers on the list this year were Valley over in Edibena.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: Their enrollment shrank uh 13.2 percent, and Jackson State, whose enrollment dropped 10.7 percent, obviously transferred to Colorado.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, I got that.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: Look, hey, what what do you think that says to those?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, this is just kind of word on the street.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_03: There are those out there who who propose that the legislature would rather be called a chauvinist than a racist, and that's why they go after the W.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_03: But then when you look at that, you think they're gonna want to be a racist instead of a chauvinist.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's a lose-lose situation.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's a lose-lose situation.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean it really makes the case for the W to stay open, yeah?
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: You'd think, but I still think that I still think that the legislature on paper would rather be a chauvinist than a racist.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, in all the election hubbub over Scott and Cindy, we need not forget to congratulate the winner of the local race on Lowndes County ballots.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: Teresa Sanders, unseated longtime incumbent incumbent Jaclyn Gray on Lounge County School Board.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: She will represent District 5, which is essentially West Lowndes.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Best of luck to Miss Sanders.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_02: Number three, Lounge County Sheriff's Office is trying to collect 2,000 turkeys for this year's Thanksgiving Turkey Drive, which is organized by the Community Benefit Committee, along with turkey donations, which can be dropped off at the Sheriff's Office.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: The committee is accepting monetary donations through Venmo and PayPal.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: And when I was talking about this yesterday, I I I I came back into the office.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is a funny story.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: I came back into the office, uh got in about 2, 2.30 uh from being in Jackson since 1971.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I started asking what do we got in the paper, et cetera, et cetera.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna preview the turkey uh drive.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew that I knew that that was on the plan.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: And when I said, okay, where are we at?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: I said, where are we at on the turkey drop?
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: And the reporter that I said that to turn around and said, The turkey drop?
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_02: You just said turkey drop.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: What even is a turkey drop?
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: And what transpired after that was uh the whole group of us getting around the lifestyles editor computer and uh watching that uh clip from WKRP in Cincinnati.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the funniest shows ever, and one of the funniest clips from the funniest shows ever.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know about that?
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm just sitting here thinking we need to let you go home and sweep off some of this hangover.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: You've never heard as God is my witness, I did I thought turkeys could fly.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, turkeys can they can't?
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: Not when they're dropped out of a helicopter at 2,000 feet in the house.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's yeah, now you remember what I'm talking about.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that was a bad day.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for listening.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_03: Please stay engaged.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_03: Please reach out, and as always, stay friendly.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just a simple old country boy, but um, I think that makes sense.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've stepped out and I've said what I had to say.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_03: You've been listening to Between the Headlines with Zach and David.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's what old people do.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: That he is.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is Peter Rimes, publisher of The Dispatch.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: One of our hosts of Between the Headlines is the managing editor of our newsroom.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, we try to keep news and opinions separate, but reporters have a unique insight into the workings of local government, and their analysis can be helpful for readers and listeners.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: The dispatch remains committed to journalistic integrity, and our reporting will always reflect that.