Latest / Chuck Douglas / Former Ohio State Rep Bernadine Kent

Transcript

Former Ohio State Rep Bernadine Kent · Chuck Douglas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Greetings, salutations, welcome, my friends, to another edition of the
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  Speaker 1: Power Hour on 610 WTVN. I'm Chuck Douglas, you know
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: who you are, and we take it from there. We
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  Speaker 1: get one hour together, which means I talk really fast,
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  Speaker 1: and you must listen even faster. My number, 821-9886, 821-WTVN,
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  Speaker 1: or 1-800-610-WTVN. All right. Board of Elections, Franklin County Board
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  Speaker 1: of Elections held a meeting, I was two o'clock today,
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  Speaker 1: I think it was? Two o'clock today.
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  Speaker 2: Um....
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  Speaker 1: Because there is concerns, at the very least, accusations, I suppose,
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  Speaker 1: at the most, that there is someone running for office
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  Speaker 1: that does not live where they say they live. And
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  Speaker 1: there were accusations of some campaign funding perhaps going someplace
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  Speaker 1: other than the campaigns. And I thought, okay, they're going
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to do something today, launch some sort of investigation. What
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  Speaker 1: I understand, if I'm getting the preliminary reports correct, is
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that none of that happened. And so one of the
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  Speaker 1: major players or one of the people that have been
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  Speaker 1: associated with this story in the media reports here for,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I guess, I don't know, the last three weeks or so,
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  Speaker 1: Bernadine Kennedy-Hintz, who is a candidate right now. She is
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  Speaker 1: running for the Ohio House in District 3. And Bernadine,
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  Speaker 1: we have not met before, but I welcome you to
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  Speaker 1: the Power Hour. How are you?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. I am great. Thank you for this opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to speak with you.
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  Speaker 1: You have served previously, what, 25th District in the House?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't know if you hit your head and
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  Speaker 1: got some Fetterman sins or what happened. But when you
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  Speaker 1: were in there before, you were on the other side
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  Speaker 1: of the political fence. So right off the bat, I'd
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  Speaker 1: like to know, what was the impetus? What made you say,
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  Speaker 1: you know what, this Democrat thing isn't working out for
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  Speaker 1: me anymore and switching parties?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well, it wasn't my impetus. It was the Democrat
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  Speaker 2: caucus's choice. The day after I voted for Ryan Smith
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  Speaker 2: for speaker, I was kicked out of my caucus because
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  Speaker 2: because I voted for a Republican speaker, and it was
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  Speaker 2: so ironic that the next time they voted for a householder,
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  Speaker 2: over half of the Democrats voted for him to be speaker,
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  Speaker 2: and you see what happened. So that was pretty much it.
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  Speaker 2: And the other thing was I'm really not a part
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  Speaker 2: of a sheep. I'm not a sheep. I have my
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  Speaker 2: own mind. I want to represent my constituency. And so
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  Speaker 2: having been... a person that was a coach of track long, long,
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  Speaker 2: long time ago, I was not on board with boys
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  Speaker 2: or men in women and girls sports. And with the
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  Speaker 2: Democrats' side, they expect you to go along, even though
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  Speaker 2: probably most of the constituents that you represent don't think
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  Speaker 2: that way. And that's the problem for me. So that's
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  Speaker 2: it in a nutshell, Chuck.
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  Speaker 1: This fight, and I'm going to call it a fight because,
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  Speaker 1: you know, whenever you're trying to accomplish a result and
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  Speaker 1: trying to see that right things are done, you've got
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  Speaker 1: a fight on your hands.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: This is regarding Ismail Mohammed. Am I saying that correctly? Yes.
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  Speaker 1: He's the incumbent. Was this your fight or did someone
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  Speaker 1: bring this to you and you're jumping in there because
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  Speaker 1: obviously you're running for the seat?
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  Speaker 2: No, actually what happened was I saw an excerpt of
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  Speaker 2: Jim Jordan during a congressional hearing with Luke Rosiak, and
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if you know him, but he did
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: an investigation in Columbus about the many buildings that had
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  Speaker 2: home health care, and they were getting millions of dollars.
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  Speaker 2: And he had noticed that my opponent, Ismail Mohamed, had
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  Speaker 2: a law office in one of the buildings that And
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  Speaker 2: so Jim Jordan brought that up, and one of the
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  Speaker 2: things he said, you know, we need to look at
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  Speaker 2: this guy's campaign finances. And I'm like, well, sure. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'm looking at them. I'm going to look at them.
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  Speaker 2: So when I looked, I was expecting to see the
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  Speaker 2: pre-primary report, but that hearing was on June 3rd. The
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  Speaker 2: pre-primary report was due April 23rd, but Ismail Mohammed's campaign...
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  Speaker 2: had not filed it yet. So I actually had to
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  Speaker 2: look every day until June 23rd, and then that's when
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  Speaker 2: he finally filed it. And I was pretty shocked because
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  Speaker 2: he had like over $ 97, 000 at the end of 2024
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  Speaker 2: in his post, that showed in his post general report.
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  Speaker 2: So when he filed his pre-primary and his annual report,
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, now we're looking at where that he
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  Speaker 2: is saying this is all he had. And he was $ 93, 729. 71 short.
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  Speaker 2: And so that's really how it all started. And I'm
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  Speaker 2: a digger, you know. If you give me a bone,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I'm just going to dig away. And that's
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  Speaker 2: what I've been doing ever since. I've been digging away
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  Speaker 2: at this guy. And then I suddenly... was talking to
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  Speaker 2: a friend of mine, Tom Soufi, and Tom, great guy,
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  Speaker 2: he sends me an aggregate, you know, and it showed
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  Speaker 2: that Ismael's aggregate shows him living in Delaware at the
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  Speaker 2: 6037 Heather Ridge Drive. Like, whoa, that shocked me. Shocked
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  Speaker 2: me out of my gore. So I look it up,
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  Speaker 2: and sure enough, Ismael and a co-owner, Hoda Adhiz, I
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  Speaker 2: believe that's how you pronounce her name, they had purchased
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  Speaker 2: this $ 587, 000 home. So further digging, I see that they
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  Speaker 2: have applied and gotten owner occupancy. Well, I know how
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  Speaker 2: owner occupancy works because I have, you know, my husband
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  Speaker 2: and I have owner.
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  Speaker 1: Occupancy in our home. You're supposed to occupy it to
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  Speaker 1: get that credit.
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  Speaker 2: There you go. There you go. So I requested through
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  Speaker 2: public records, and they sent me the owner occupancy application.
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  Speaker 2: And sure enough, they're there as the grantees. They have
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  Speaker 2: a representative signed, but it's signed under penalty of perjury.
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  Speaker 2: And they checked that yes box that said that beginning
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  Speaker 2: January 2026, they would be living there as their principal residence.
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  Speaker 2: And so that was unacceptable to me. You live in
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  Speaker 2: that $ 587, 000 home in Delaware, but you purchased it in
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  Speaker 2: October 2025, but you reapplied to be.
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  Speaker 2: State representative to be reelected in February 2026, and you
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  Speaker 2: voted in May 2026, to me, all the while knowing
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  Speaker 2: that you had purchased that property and you had signed
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  Speaker 2: under penalty, you had swore under penalty of perjury that
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  Speaker 2: you would live there. So this is how it all
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  Speaker 2: happened and how it all began.
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  Speaker 1: We've got owner-occupant paperwork for a home in Delaware, which
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  Speaker 1: is a little bit north of the Morse Road northern
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  Speaker 1: boundary of your district. Correct. You've got significantly late turning
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  Speaker 1: in the campaign finance report. Are there no penalties or
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  Speaker 1: repercussions for being late with that? Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Actually, if anyone were to read the Secretary of State's handbook,
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  Speaker 2: which is... I had that same question, Chuck. I read
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  Speaker 2: the handbook, and it says if there are problems with
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  Speaker 2: campaigns with regard to their finances or they're not doing
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  Speaker 2: something proper, then you are supposed to send them a letter,
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  Speaker 2: and then they have 21 days to explain themselves. And
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  Speaker 2: I just.
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  Speaker 2: Don't understand. He, to me, where are the fines?
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  Speaker 1: Where?
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  Speaker 2: I don't understand. To date, he hasn't filed his post
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  Speaker 2: for me. I don't get it. I honestly do not
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  Speaker 2: get how he is getting away with, after three months now,
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  Speaker 2: not filing his post primary. And I feel strongly about
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  Speaker 2: this and have thought about this because the whole purpose
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  Speaker 2: The whole purpose of having campaign finance reports during the
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  Speaker 2: election cycle is for the voters to look to see
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  Speaker 2: who's donating to your campaign and what you're spending your
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  Speaker 2: money on.
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  Speaker 1: And that $ 93, 000 in change, has there ever been any
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  Speaker 1: answer as to where that went?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: All right. So Board of Elections meeting today, what came
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  Speaker 1: of it?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what happened was we were ready. We just thought, oh,
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  Speaker 2: we couldn't wait till Monday. My attorney is Kurt Hartman,
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  Speaker 2: so that you know, he's a beast. So it's like
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: we have two, you know, he and I together. It
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  Speaker 2: makes a wonderful combination. But we had been ready to
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  Speaker 2: have the hearing on Monday, and what happened was when
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  Speaker 2: Ishmael was served a subpoena by the sheriff, he was
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  Speaker 2: at that $ 587, 000 home. He and his girlfriend were there,
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  Speaker 2: and the sheriff served him there. And when the sheriff
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  Speaker 2: went to that apartment that he claimed in the district,
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  Speaker 2: it was found vacant. So the day after this, Ismael
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: re-registered his voter registration and voting at a different address.
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  Speaker 2: So now he's at an address on Griffin Gate.
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  Speaker 1: And the Board of Elections today found, what, no evidence
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  Speaker 1: of anything that they can do anything about?
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  Speaker 2: No. What they do is that we have to moot, which,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it is what it is. We have to moot. The.
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  Speaker 2: The protests that we had and it had to be dismissed,
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  Speaker 2: which both attorneys and my attorney agreed on, it was
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  Speaker 2: not a problem. And we are just refiling on what
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  Speaker 2: my attorney referenced as a sham new registration location.
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  Speaker 1: Is there I mean, is that the only avenue that
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  Speaker 1: you're fighting this on as the secretary of state involved
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  Speaker 1: at all?
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  Speaker 2: The Secretary of State, let me just put it this way.
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  Speaker 2: The Secretary of State should be very, very much involved.
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  Speaker 2: And this was the reason that I'm very glad that
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  Speaker 2: I have the opportunity to speak to you today because
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: new information came out that no one knows because I
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: just got it today. And it has to do with
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  Speaker 2: the treasurer. It's like, where's Waldo? Where's the treasurer? Right now,
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  Speaker 2: the Secretary of State sent a letter on August 28th
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  Speaker 2: to supposedly Ismael's campaign treasurer named Denise Spencer living in
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  Speaker 2: New Lebanon, Ohio. And I requested the Secretary of State
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  Speaker 2: gives me the tracking number because I want to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that it gets there because the 21-day cycle does
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: not start until that letter is accepted. But what is shocking,
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  Speaker 2: what I found shocking, was that the letter was, there
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  Speaker 2: was an attempt to deliver the letter to Denise at
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  Speaker 2: that address August 31st. To date, no one has gone
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  Speaker 2: to pick that letter up, and the letter will be
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  Speaker 2: returned to the Secretary of State tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: My gosh.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the other kicker that no one knows
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  Speaker 2: because it just happened today. I had emailed the email
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  Speaker 2: that I saw in the Secretary of State's reports or
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  Speaker 2: audits that they had sent and emails that they had
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  Speaker 2: sent to Ismael and his treasurer. And they had Denise's email.
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  Speaker 2: So I emailed Denise and I said, I just need
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  Speaker 2: to know. You know, because for me, there's no post-primary report.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know what happened to the.
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  Speaker 1: $ 93, 000.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, okay, what is the treasurer doing? So I
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: emailed her and I asked her, are you, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the current treasurer for Ismael's campaign. And she emailed me
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  Speaker 2: back and said, no, I am not the treasurer. What?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Bernadine Kennedy can't stand by. I can't let you
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  Speaker 1: go yet. I'm going to put you on hold here
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: for a second because I got to take a break.
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  Speaker 1: So let's put her on hold. Oh, this is as
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  Speaker 1: the world turns politics style, man.