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Proposing A New Congressional Map · Newsradio WGAN

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  Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday proposed A
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  congressional map aimed at diluting the state's lone
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  majority Black district, a swift response to last week's Supreme
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  Court ruling that weakened a landmark voting rights law.
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  The new map slices up Memphis, which is a majority Black city
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  and Shelby County into 3 districts and will most likely
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  give the Republicans the ability to flip Tennessee's lone
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  remaining Democratic seat, which includes the the city.
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  Democratic lawmakers, whose opposition means little under
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  the Republican super majority in the state's General Assembly are
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  and Black leaders across Tennessee have compared the
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  efforts to carve up the 9th Congressional District to Jim
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  Crow era voter suppression tactics.
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  They've accused conservatives of a power grab that undermines
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  black voters in Memphis, who have long favored the Democrats.
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  I would pause here only to say this, as we consider this type
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  of thing happening in not just Tennessee, but certainly
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  Louisiana and several other Southern states.
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  Be very, very careful with your accusations here, my friends.
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  Be very, very careful here because I can promise you, I can
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  promise you that if it was a majority White City that was all
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  Democratic and they were somehow prevented from carving up the
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  district politically to advantage themselves and the
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  Republican Party, and then suddenly they were given the
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  opportunity to carve it up. The demographic characteristics
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  of the individuals who are either in the city or the
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  representatives that they elect is never going to matter.
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  This is about politics, and you know that it is.
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  They were forced to draw a district that they never
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  otherwise would have drawn in the 1st place.
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  They're allowed to be political everywhere except for when
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  you're talking about the compact racial categorization that takes
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  place, or did take place under Section 2 of the Voting Rags
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  Act. So in other words, they created
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  a map they didn't want and they split up the politics of cities
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  in other districts. They split them up all over the
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  place. They were just prevented from
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  doing so, legally speaking, by the prior iteration, an
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  interpretation of the Voting Rights Act.
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  So they had to swallow having a Memphis area district in order
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  to protect the sort of African American only kind of vote
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  representation in the area. They no longer have to do that.
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  So they're doing what they do everywhere else and what the
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  Democrats are doing to Republicans in Virginia, which
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  is to take their strength, their strongholds, and split them up
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  into little pieces so that they cannot collectively combine to
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  create a district. They're going to dilute them to
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  all the places that are now in, say, Northern Virginia heavy
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  districts, you know, split into little tiny pieces so that
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  they're spread across all of them, making them borderline
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  irrelevant. The literally exactly the same
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  thing. The only thing different here is
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  that you're talking about a district that never would have
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  otherwise been a district but was forced into reality through
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  the prior interpretation of that particular law and now it's
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  gone. So, you know, if you want to
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  accuse this of Jim Crow or racism, it's the thing that you
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  escape and run to all the time, every single time something like
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  this happens because you think it's an effective weapon in
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  politics. But it shouldn't be.
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  There should be a neutered weapon in politics that we don't
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  take seriously anymore. And it should stop, and it will.
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  By the way, this is not going to affect anything in Tennessee.
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  They're going to elect exactly who they're going to elect, and
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  it's going to be 100% Republican.
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  I can pretty much guarantee you that after they do this map.
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  And by the way, what does this mean?
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  As my voice clearly fails me, It means that there's another one.
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  There's another D to R change in another state.
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  And how many more of those states are there?
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  Oh yes, very many of them, lots of them.
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  So again, I congratulate the Democrats on picking this fight
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  that they were guaranteed to lose.
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  Matt in Wyndham. Matt, how are you?
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  Good. How are you, Sir?
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  Very, very good. Awesome.
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  So after Tuesday night and Bobby Charles did not show up for the
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  candidate, of course, the governor.
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  Well, thank you for bringing that up.
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  By the way, thank you for bringing that up 'cause I did
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  kind of mean to go there, so keep going.
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  And I wonder what do you think about him?
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  Do you think he lost votes by not showing up?
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  And Garrett Mason kind of I think one, one or two
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  immediately when I think 2, I think got 29%.
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  What do you think about that? I'll hang up and listen.
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  Yeah, I know. I think you're referencing the
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  Flash poll that was done afterwards about who won the
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  debate. And yeah, I think Mason did
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  pretty good. Midgley did very good.
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  Question was ultimately, do I think that Bobby Charles harmed
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  himself by not doing it? And I do.
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  I do think he did. I think it's a bad look.
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  It is. I mean, I think skipping debates
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  is OK when you have like 30 of them and there's, you know,
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  there's too many of them and like, you can't go to all of
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  them and you don't want to go to all of them.
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  Like it's, you know, like your job as a candidate is to
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  basically make your case to the electorate and give them the
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  opportunity to consider you. So if you're given that, you're
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  totally forgiven for occasionally taking a pass here
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  or there. Problem though, is that there
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  really aren't that many of these forums and certainly not that
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  many of these high profile forums.
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  You know, there's a difference between the ones that they had,
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  you know, in January or February of this year, you know, when
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  they were attended by, you know, local party officials in a
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  county GOP meeting or, you know, something like that, right?
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  Like it then it's not covered really by the media outside of
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  maybe the main wire. You know, the attention level
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  and the timing was such that, you know, I don't know how
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  important those ultimately were. Bobby Charles showed up to and I
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  think did well in the first debate that I think really
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  mattered this year, which was the one that we threw the main
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  policy instant through and institute through in Bangor,
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  which is now I guess a month hence at least, right?
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  When do we do that? It was April, right?
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  But anyway, that was the first, that was kind of the big, the
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  first big debate that that happened to the cycle.
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  And, you know, he showed up to that.
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  And that was probably wise on his part because up to that
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  point he had ducked a lot of the other debates.
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  And they there was a narrative that had started to be
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  developing that he doesn't want to debate or he's trying to
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  avoid it or whatever else. And I think the Charles people
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  had an unfortunate opinion, which is that like we're
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  leading, we don't need to like it's, there's nothing, there's
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  nothing to win there. It's nothing but risk.
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  Like we're helping you by showing up.
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  And I don't have any obligation to help you, you being the other
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  candidates. Like people want to hear me, so
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  they're going to tune in for me and they'll hear you.
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  I mean, like, that's not, I'm not going to do that.
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  And I found that is that is consultant advice.
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  That is, that is advice that you hear from, from the professional
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  class of political consultants. And I've always believed it was
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  crap, absolute crap. Because it makes you look, even
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  if you aren't scared, even if you aren't weak, even if you
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  aren't a bad debater, even if you aren't whatever, fill in the
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  blank, it makes you look that way.
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  And that's a bad PR move overall.
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  Like I, I think the fear of debates and like the there's
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  only risk there. There's no reward.
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  I think that stuff is so overblown.
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  I mean, yeah. Are there are there debates
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  where somebody like lost their entire campaign because of how
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  bad it was? Yeah.
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  Has that happened in Maine? Yeah, Certainly happened to
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  LePage in 2022. Yeah, it did.
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  Of course, that was the general election against a Democrat, not
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  a primary debate, but it does happen.
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  So, yeah, I get being afraid of risk, I suppose.
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  But you kind, you know, I will say this, I think you have an
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  obligation who who gives a damn whether you're helping anybody
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  else or not. And honestly, if your presence
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  on a stage and there's also and then us as viewers and voters
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  considering all of them is going to make me maybe like someone
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  other than you more when I consider the two of you standing
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  next to each other, then I deserve to see it.
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  And I'm sorry that it might inconvenience you and your plan
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  to win. But if you're so weak that that
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  can't happen, then you're not really that good of a candidate,
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  are you? So I think there's, I mean, I
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  just any argument that says duck the debate is a bad argument to
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  me. It's just a fundamentally flawed
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  argument. Now, that doesn't mean that I
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  think he's afraid, doesn't mean I think he's a bad debater.
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  He's actually perhaps one of the best debaters on the stage.
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  Actually, he's quite good at it. So he that's another reason why
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  I think it's dumb. I think he'd probably do well if
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  he went. So I I don't really think it's
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  about I think it's just political calculus stuff and I
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  don't like the scheming politics of these types of decisions.
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  I don't you know, I don't think that it helps you win and I
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  don't think it looks good and I don't think I don't think I like
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  it. I don't think I like it.
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  So did he hurt himself? Yes.
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  Did he hurt himself to a meaningful degree?
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  Probably not no. You know, if you're, you know,
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  his internal poll thing leaked and he said he was up like 30
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  points. That's silly.
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  Of course he's not. But he's probably up right now
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  and he's probably up by enough that it's a comfortable margin.
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  And I don't know what that means.
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  It could be 5, it could be 10. I don't know.
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  It could be anything. I have no idea.
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  Nobody knows. You don't know.
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  They don't know either, by the way.
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  They might have a slightly better idea than we do, but they
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  don't really know. Nobody does until voting happens
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  because primaries are completely wild in the state, entirely
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  unpredictable and polling is untrustworthy.
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  So you don't know anything. So but if he did have a lead of
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  say 5 or 10 points by not going to the debate, does he now have,
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  you know, is he now in second place?
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  No, no, if he lost anything, it's like a half a percent or
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  you know what I mean? It's not, it's not going to be
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  anything that's going to affect the decision I think that's
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  ultimately made. Honestly, I just would encourage
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  any candidate listening to me, if you are listening to me, just
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  go just do them. Just do them.
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  And honestly too, like I got to tell you the the grandstanding
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  over the Robert Wessel's invitation to the CBS 13 event.
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  I mean, do I think that he probably should have been
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  invited? I guess, I guess.
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  But honestly, they've had the rule about thresholds to get an
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  invitation for the better part of like 20 years.
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  It's the same rule. It's not like a new rule they
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  instituted for those invitations.
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  And that rule came about because people had complained 20 years
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  ago about too many people who no one cared about being at the
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  debates. So you're, you know, when you do
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  an invitation like that, and I know this first hand since I've
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  run debates before, you're damned if you do, if you're
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  damned if you don't, you invite everybody.
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  People are going to complain that nobody has any time and you
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  can only get to 3 questions. You start cutting people off and
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  they're like, you're trying to shout out people in the debate.
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  If I'm a candidate in this, in this whole experience, whatever,
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  I'm just saying yes to the I'm going, I'm just going.
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  And then maybe you might decry the decision by this media
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  channel or that, you know, to choose to invite this person or
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  that. But I'm going to the debate.
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  I'm going to debate and I'm certainly not going to pretend
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  like I'm a hero. I refute.
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  I'm going to stand on principle that he should be invited
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  because you know, that's, that's white knighting.
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  That's white knighting. That's like you're trying to get
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  a, you're trying to benefit yourself, you're trying to get a
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  glow from defending a guy who you have No Fear of being in the
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  debate. If, if someone who could
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  actually challenge you was disinvited from the debate for
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  some reason and you defended them, then I might actually take
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  it seriously. But when you have a candidate
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  who is probably going to get at the very, very most, 5% of the
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  vote in the race and you know they're excluded, and you get
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  the opportunity to grandstand on a soapbox and say you better let
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  him in because it's the right thing to do, it's to me, it just
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  rings. It's hollow and empty and silly
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  and ridiculous. And maybe you actually believe
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  that it's the right thing to do. I'm not going to question
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  necessarily that you do or you don't.
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  But I do think that the performative nature of politics
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  is such that most of that stuff is usually an attempt to get a
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  glow on you, not to try to do a solid for them because politics
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  is a blood sport. I'm glad that that topic was
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  brought up by the way, because I did intend to chat about that
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  the primary in those debates a little bit.
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  And I, you know, I don't want to be misconstrued.
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  I mean, as I've said from the very beginning, I basically like
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  all the candidates. I don't think there's anybody
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  that's truly bad or or wrong or a bad choice or whatever in, in
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  the race. I think there's certainly some
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  that are better than others and some that are more likely to win
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  than others and what not. But you know, I'm just giving
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  you a political analysis from a fairly objective point of view,
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  or at least as trying to do that as much as possible.
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  And when you're talking about the decisions that some of these
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  candidates are making, you know, I, I like a lot of them and I
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  don't like some of them too. And it's just my opinion.
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  You can take it or leave it. Maybe I'm wrong about it, who
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  knows, But I just, I think, you know, some of these things are
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  just clearly a bad idea to be making certain decisions.
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  And so I said so. So, you know, it's the way that
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  it is. 879-9426 Rob is with us next.
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  Rob, how are you? Good morning, Matt.
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  Sound like you're having a good morning.
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  I'm trying to, yes. Good, good.
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  Maybe I can help you out here. Yes please.
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  RSKJR Spasmonic. Dysphonia.
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  Dysphonia. Yes.
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  I forgot about the spasma. Yes, thank you.
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  That is correct. Yeah, I didn't want you to be
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  worrying about that all day. Well, there's a high likelihood
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  I was going to be Googling it so.
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  So saved you that trouble. It's it's caused by a virus and
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  mostly in adults. I don't think children get it.
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  So you have to be at least a young adult before it's before
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  that virus for some reason can affect the vocal cords.
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  Yeah, I, I seem to remember reading an awful lot about it
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  back when Robert F Kennedy Junior was not a popular figure
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  on the right, when he was, when he was an environmental lawyer
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  and he was constantly attacking the George W Bush administration
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  and all that stuff back then. I remember reading a lot about
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  this because he was obviously, you know, he's testifying in
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  Congress and you can hear it in his voice.
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  And yeah, have natural, like, why is it like that?
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  Like what's going on? And then you learn more so.
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  Well, let me on a more important thing if if you have a moment.
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  I do got about a minute left, so go ahead.
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  OK, ask you a question on on the DHHS and the child care things.
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  And I keep thinking about Bill Diamond, who's, you know, was on
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  your show and how hard he worked to try to get the that exposed
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  and what's going on there. That is, is The Wire taking any
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  interest in that kind of digging into that issue on why Maine has
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  the worst child abuse per capita in the nation?
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  Sort of, but I mean, the question of why is a fairly easy
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  one to answer. The question of what goes wrong
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  specifically is the one where I think journalists like The Wire
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  would be looking into and spending time on.
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  And they, I can promise you, Rob, that's definitely on the
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  list of things that they're investigating, particularly as
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  you get really deep into the Department of Health and Human
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  Services and the Medicaid fraud and the autism fraud and all
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  that. This is part of a lot of that.
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  It's just a harder nut to crack, right, because a lot of it is
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  not data on money payments. A lot of it is mismanagement and
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  incompetence. The real answer for you, Rob, on
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  why it's so bad here is that the the oversight that comes from
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  the Department of Health and Human Services is, is sclerotic.
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  I mean, there's there's no good management in there.
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  The lines of responsibility are not clear.
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  The bureaucracy is too big and the the manner in which even the
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  cases are managed is more or less incompetently handled.
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  So it's a harder thing to describe to the public on
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  exactly what's going on or why. But actually Speaking of Bill
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  Diamond, they did a phenomenal report on exactly what's wrong.
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  And we knew then, I mean, it's almost like no more work
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  necessary because of what they did.
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  So I would definitely read that if you have not had an
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  opportunity to.