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Primary Election Breakdown & The Repoed Ballot Box · Between the Headlines: Columbus

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Between the Headlines.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: This is Peter Imes, publisher of the Dispatch.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: One of our hosts of Between the Headlines is the managing editor of our newsroom.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: The Dispatch remains committed to journalistic integrity and our reporting will always reflect that.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: And now Between the Headlines that.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: And now, between the Headlines, out with the old and in with the new.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: Today, on Between the Headlines, leroy Brooks taken down by Stephen Jones with just a sling and a stone and Mickens buries, himself alive, no longer in the race.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: We will break those numbers down.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: And lastly, what does a repossessed ballot box mean about the integrity of our local politics?
• 1:11
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• 2:04
  Speaker 4: And now a message from political candidate, Bill Strauss.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I want to thank the Commercial Dispatch for this podcast, bringing different views in an open discussion.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I'm Bill Strauss, humbly asking for your vote as next mayor of Columbus.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: You deserve transparency and accountability for your tax dollars.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I'm business friendly and charitable.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Vote Bill Strauss Mayor of Columbus 2025.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Paid for by campaign to elect Bill Strauss.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: And now a message from political candidate Jason Spears.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: I am Jason Spears, candidate for City Council, ward 6.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: Over the past 20 years, I faithfully and effectively served our community in many different ways.
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: If elected, I will bring structure and strategy to the city's finances, help develop a blueprint to capitalize on the growing economic activity in our city and work to strengthen relationships with Lowndes County officials, the Golden Triangle Development Link and, most importantly, you, the citizens of Columbus.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: I approve this message and on April 1st, vote Jason Spears for Ward 6, paid for by the campaign.
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: Vote Jason Spears for Ward 6.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: Paid for by the campaign to elect Jason Spears.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us today.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: You are listening to Between the Headlines hosted by owner of the Repo Depot and managing editor of the Commercial Disclash, mr Zach Player, and I am David Chisholm.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: The big headline today the mayor's race.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: The mayor's race First off.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: Are you okay?
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: You don't look well today.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It's a late night.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: That's probably my 12th or 13th election to cover, so I'm used to it by now.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm glad we don't have video today.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: Maybe that's the next thing.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks, David, I appreciate that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: So tell us about the mayor's race.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I thought from the beginning that this race could go either way.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Obviously, leroy has a political legend here.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Stephen has a record in the council.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: They were both strong candidates.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a runaway.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I expected this to be closer and I expected Leroy to compete better than he did For me.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: When you look at Leroy's campaign, he leaned heavily into the experience angle.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I can do things that nobody else can do.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Just ask your father, ask your grandfather Like he's literally telling people on facebook who are questioning why should I vote for you?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: What, what, what have you done for columbus?
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: What have you done for lowndes county?
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And his answers are ask your dad, ask your grandfather, you know, kind of answers.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: So maybe he leaned a little too heavily into that.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Maybe you know it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Nor did his assertion that everyone could just sit back and watch him make miracles.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I'm Leroy Brooks and I bring you these miracles.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I bring you this government efficiency.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I bring you this better city hall.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: People didn't buy into it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And talking about buy-in, there were people who literally financially bought into Leroy's campaign.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You know he outpaced Jones in fundraising three to one.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: We talked about that Didn't seem to matter At the end of the day, stephen, by contrast, he effectively cast himself somehow as both young and new.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Now Stephen's 50.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: That's obviously a good bit Leroy's junior, but you know, not 30.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: But he's not new to city government.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: He's a two-term city councilman.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: He's been in the seat but somehow casting himself as new and young.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: He mobilized a lot of young folks and he talked about that, you know when he talked about it on Facebook.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: He talked about it to me last night.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: He said he thought young people decided this election and young people decided the election, or at least the Democratic primary, in Stephen's favor.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Well, we talked actually last episode about how interestingly he had somehow morphed into this establishment candidate, even though he was marketing heavily against that.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: Do you think pride cometh before a fall?
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, is that the story of Leroy Brooks here?
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: I mean, we all know he takes great pride in his humility.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: You always love to see great pride and humility.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I think he clearly miscalculated something.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: He still has a job and that's one thing that Leroy has said from the beginning is if I lose, I still have a job.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Now he would not agree with this.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: If he was sitting in this room he would adamantly disagree with this.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: But it really started with a negative tone.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: He was going after Leroy.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of yeah-yeah between the two of them candidate for him.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Their interview in here was very spirited, where they very clearly had some things to say about each other.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: The last two weeks have been a lot cleaner for Stephen Jones.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: He focused a lot of his messaging on the positive.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: When the messaging looked like it was going to go negative, he usually very obviously took the high road.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he moved.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Right and he moved toward that high road type of campaigning, whereas in the last two weeks Leroy looked like Joseph Mickens was running his campaign.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: He had a press conference talking about absentee voter fraud that didn't really exist and then he kept just banging that, just banging that gavel.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: He was like, hey look, this voter fraud is happening in absentees.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I'm going to report it, I'm going to keep, I'm going to get an investigation.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: He wanted everything investigated for the last two weeks.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: People are tired of that.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: People are tired of it and the last thing that voters saw from Leroy Brooks was probably one of the and going back and talking about the voter fraud like we looked into that.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: It just didn't exist.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: It was a misunderstanding.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: All of the people who voted those were legitimate ballots.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: One of the I think the worst things he did, one of the worst missteps that he made, was the very last thing voters saw before they went to the polls.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: You know you've got Joe Brooks, who's on that Tom Bigby Waterway board, applying for reappointment.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: No one is applying against him.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: This is a pass-through vote on the Lowndes County Board of.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Supervisors, he tables it.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Not only does he table it, but when pressed on why he tabled it, he was honest.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: He said well, you know, this guy is supporting Stephen Jones, so I'm not going to support him and that kind of tit for tat, quid pro quo sort of politics in the city.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: People are tired of that junk.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Stephen shied away from that messaging, particularly in the last two weeks, and Leroy leaned into.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: There's corruption everywhere and I'm going to reward people who support me.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And whether that's what he meant to do, whether that's the kind of mayor he would have been.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: That was the last.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: That was the last thing you saw from the Leroy Brooks campaign and I bet you that left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths?
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Well, for sure it was.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: It was absolutely ugly, it was petty, it was unnecessary.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I mean, what else can you say about that?
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: I mean, that is something that just simply did not have crap to do with the agenda at hand.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: And Leroy is better than that.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: He is better than that, is better than that he's shown himself to be better he doesn't have to raise his hand and yes, I vote, I, and I'll tell you why I vote.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: He could, just, you know, maybe even not even raised his hand, just kind of raised one finger well, he was trying to make a point to joe brooks that I am, I am in this, I have the power in this situation and, at the bare minimum, I'm going to make you sweat this out, and it was dumb Pride cometh before a fall Pride does come before a fall.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: The political defeat of Leroy Brooks.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: To me, it solidifies the end of an era, that is to say, the 1960s, baby boomer politics, that's entrenched in racial identity and this, and that I think that's done.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: I mean, you look back in the recent history and he was the victim in the Harry Sanders fiasco, no question about that, and then he was kind of the victim again, or at least he played the victim, when he was not appointed as chairman of the board of supervisors and I, to be honest, I really thought that this victimhood that he took upon himself would carry him across the finish line in this primary.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: But Columbus is tired of hearing that stuff and they spoke out against it.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: They want change and I'll tell you this, they want the amphitheater finished and that is something that you know he took the—.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I don't think the amphitheater had anything to do with last night.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Well, he didn't make a—he did not take a stand for it, and Stephen Jones was the one that said on day one we're going to make that happen one way or another.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: But speaking about with the old Mickens his in Ward two.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: His political career seems to have been retired last night.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: What do we think about that, david?
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: He was put out to pasture and that was absolutely of his own doing.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't want to take away credit from any of these new candidates that have jumped in here, but they absolutely, in my opinion, did not have the swagger or the experience to pull out an upset like this.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: I'm not trashing them, I'm not at all.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: I've met Roderick.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: I think his heart is in the right place.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Haven't met she, she, but hey, by the way, where's the signs?
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: If you, if you've driven through that ward?
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Remember last week we talked about how the?
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: signs did not have that disclaimer on them, right, or they did have it and but yet her campaign finance report um showed no it showed all zeros and I said that's a violation and now, lo and behold, all the signs have vanished like a fart in the wind.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: They're just not.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: They're gone.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: Well, we appreciate people listening to us obviously the word is getting out.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: But but all that aside, I mean, I mean, what can you say about mickens?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, well, I want to start with, I want to go to reverse here.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I want to start with the uh two that are advancing.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Here again, you do have two much younger candidates, as you noted, and unlike Stephen, who isn't new, these two actually are new to the scene, but I predicted weeks ago that the road he was on he was going to finish.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Third, and it may be the only prediction that I got right on right, right square, but I got that one square.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: You did.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: And speaking of that road, it's kind of like back in 2000-ish we used to go mud riding behind the Blue Cut post office.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: And I'm thinking about Mickens and it's like when you commit to go across that muddy area, we had no business doing it, but oh my gosh, that was fun.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: We had no business doing it, but oh my gosh, that was fun.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: When you commit to go across you better keep it in forward and keep going.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: But right before you go off in there, there's this moment where you think should I really do?
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: this.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: You got to make a decision.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I better make it.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: If I'm going to do it, it's either forward or reverse.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he put it in forward and lo and behold, there is water absolutely covering his hood and the engine is totaled.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: So we appreciate your service, but as far as this campaign goes, good riddance, it's done.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Well, this runoff looks pretty interesting.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: You know Roderick Smith, first of all, he's been to every council meeting.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: He's been to every council meeting.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: He's been to every city event, all of these community ward meetings that they're having about crime.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: He's showing up.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: He's mobilized.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: His campaign is more mobilized than I believed it was and I knew it was.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I knew there were a lot of folks out there, but it's a lot more than I thought and he's hungry.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: He's truly excited about being in this race and the prospect of being a councilman.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And you can see that, you can feel it when you're talking to him.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: That guy was happy last night and it was a joy to watch him celebrate.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: It was a joy to watch him take it in because you got to see, you know, a young person coming into politics, having some success and starting to see himself, you know, in that spot as a leader, and he's one step closer.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was refreshing.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, In fact, when they put the numbers across the screen there, I will tell you, stephen Jones had a tremendous organization there.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: Like there were a lot of white T-shirts, oh yeah, and like everybody started cheering and I think Roderick to a certain extent said, oh, they're cheering for me and it was a festive occasion.
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: Last night it was, I think it's notable, who all we did not see?
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: I didn't see she-she there.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Well, right, and I want to make a note right here, here, especially where this runoff is concerned, you don't see her anywhere and I'm not seeing or feeling the same energy from her, uh, that you see from rodrick and, uh, nowhere to be found.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Last night and I, you know, I talked to her and when I talked to her she gave me quotes and things, but she seemed just altogether uninspired, disinterested, and she didn't seem to think that talking about this was worth her time.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: She had just made her way, she just earned her way into a runoff for a city council position and her energy was I don't really have time for this.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Well, and she also kind of got down in the trenches.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I've seen some stuff that she's posted that just kind of got into the garbage of absentee and mail-in ballots and she ran a campaign much like Mickens and if you look at the numbers she didn't do that much better than he did.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: She finished second, all right, but she was a lot further behind Roderick than she was ahead of Mickens.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Before that last dump came in, I thought Roderick was a poised to win that thing.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he was he was.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: He was almost there and uh, she, she lowered him, uh, a little further.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I think he ended up with 46% and changing you need 50% plus one vote.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: But I think that Roderick takes the lion's share of Mickens votes in the runoff and I think he wins this thing handily.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: So let's talk about these other primary winners.
• 17:14
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• 18:26
  Speaker 4: So let's do a little bracketology.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: First, the mayor's race.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: We've got Stephen Jones.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: He will advance to face the independents.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: That will be Bill Strauss and the Apostle Darren Leach.
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: Okay, we've got that.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Ward 1, ethel Stewart wins handily.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: Not the woodshed, I thought it was going to be, but Tommy Smith is out of that one.
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: She'll face Keith Gaskin for that seat in the general.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: We have a runoff between Roderick and Laisha for Ward 2, and that will be the winner.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: That takes all.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: There will be no general other than the mayor's race for the precincts there.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Number three is unopposed Ward 4.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: Levon advances LeVon Harris to go against independent Pierre Beard and the Republican Robert Johnson IV.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: Ward 5, gary Jefferson wins pretty handily.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: He'll face Mary Beth Jeter in the general.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: And lastly, we had a pretty overwhelming victory for Jason Spears against McCarty Davis in the Republican primary.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Jason will face Independent Donald Pope in the general.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: So where do we take this?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Let's start with the mayor's race and first of all, I've said from the beginning that the primary Democratic primary winner was going to take this thing and I still believe that that hasn't changed.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Stephen just beat the longest serving public official in Lowndes County history and he did it with authority, again, not a runaway, but convincingly.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Looking at Strauss, he's making inroads, getting beyond downtown.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: That was always the knock on him that you know.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: For him, the city was that six-block area on 16th section land that is downtown but you see him getting out and about and he's listening.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: He's doing a little better with his campaign but he doesn't have the apparatus that Stephen does and he doesn't have the savvy, doesn't have the experience.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: So it's going to be a hard road for him.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Darren has that problem.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Plus, he has a different one.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: He's seen as Keith Gaskin's chosen successor and Stephen Jones is about to exploit that.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Stephen has a lot to say about Keith and his administration.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: He's said it all along.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: You know he's about to use Darren Leach as a stand-in for Keith in this campaign.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: And there's a reason Keith isn't running for re-election as mayor and it ain't his cholesterol, the Leach-Gaskin tandem.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: And then you look at what Leach and Gaskin are doing.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: They're not doing anything to mitigate that attack point.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: You know they're not doing anything to defray the image of Keith being the man behind the Darren curtain and they're in really even much of a curtain.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Keith's everywhere that Darren is.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: They're grilling hamburgers together out in front of Pole Gymnasium at meet and greets on the weekends Keith follows Darren to civic club meetings.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Well, when Darren is talking about running for mayor and he's prompting him on talking points and asking him questions and different things like that, stephen is about to lean into that and Darren is going to have a very hard time finding room to be his own man in this between his own wizard of eyes that he's got in his ear and Stephen Lobin bombs at him saying that's the case.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: He's got to eventually look at Keith and look, I think Keith has obviously there's been some issues with his administration and the effectiveness of it.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I think they come down to political savvy.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think that they have to do with his human being.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Keith is a decent human being and he had some great ideas that, for political reasons, never got across the line, and you know political reasons on both sides, pride on both sides.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I don't have any problems personally with Keith Gassner, but Darren has got to look at him and say my guy, my friend, I love you, but you've got to back off because I'm going to get my head handed to me in this general election, probably anyway.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: But I'm certainly going to get my head handed to me if I'm being cast as Keith Gaskin in black and I don't ever get to be Darren Leach.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: I don't know about that, simply because I think that that Keith Gaskin's let's call them failures to advance certain agendas, such as the forensic audit, et cetera, et cetera.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: He just didn't have the votes.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: OK, one could say that that he needed to form a broader coalition.
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: He needed to strike maybe a different tone or this or that needed to strike maybe a different tone or this or that, but he didn't have the votes and the city council shot down the majority of his agenda.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, there is plenty of blame to go around on the log jam that has been the last four years in city government.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Well, that said.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Keith bears some responsibility and the city council bears a good bit of responsibility.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Keith hasn't been very accepting of that.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: And I think that he's trying to be a kingmaker with Darren Leach and he's got to.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: He's got to give Darren room to be his own man, and Darren has got to.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And if he won't do it willingly, darren is going to have to force him to back off.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: I think that the Keith Gaskin agenda is still very, very popular among.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Then why isn't Keith running for mayor?
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Well, you said it's cholesterol, but I guess I guess we we ruled that out.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think that that Keith Gaskin really and truly loves this town.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I think he poured his heart and soul into it.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: He worked his tail off in this position and I think that history is going to be kinder to him than the present is.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he didn't run for reelection for a reason Again, just to me it's the agenda, and I think the agenda and the he's got a really good brain, Very smart guy.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: He's got a good heart too, the he's got a really good brain.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Very smart guy.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: He's got a good heart too, but he's got a good brain and if whatever characteristic about him it is that made him, let's just say, unable to bring his agenda across the finish line, if his agenda gets transferred over to the apostle Darren Leach, I think it really will help him.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: So then, why is Keith using Darren as a stand-in?
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: He sees, the writing on the wall.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: He sees himself maybe potentially as not particularly electable.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: He does not want to stomach another campaign, and he also sees the sunshine on the horizon of a whole new staff on the Columbus City Council, and so I mean the other thing to consider is we have a very strong charter that favors the city council, and he may honestly get more done if he's able to unseat Ethel Stewart.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: So if you can beat them, join them, I guess.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: Join them.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: If you can't beat them, join them.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Join them.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, speaking of Keith beating Ethel in Ward 1, that's not happening.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: And it's not because Keith isn't a good candidate.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Ethel is too strong in Ward 1.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: She just is.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: Is it by virtue of her seniority or?
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: It's by virtue of the fact that 60 to 70 percent of the voters vote for her.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Ethel Stewart is an intelligent woman that has gotten a lot of stuff done on the council and she's a voice that people listen to.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Keith, in any other ward, if he hadn't gotten redistricted out of five, he's probably the ward five council person next term.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: But we've seen a theme of out with the old and in with the new.
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: Is that not going to help him at least a little bit in the general?
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I mean it depends on how you define old and new.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Ethel just has one more term of experience in city government than Keith does.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I mean she's certainly not an 11th term person like Leroy is an 11th term person over in.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: District 5 on the Supervisors Board and she's not a four term incumbent like Mickens was in two All right Ward two.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Well, we talked about Ward two in the runoff.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I think Roderick's got that.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I think, moving on to four, I've got Pierre in a route.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Lavon Harris took advantage of marty turner fatigue.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Marty turner has has run several times for city council.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: He's run a couple of times for some other stuff.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: He's won some.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: He's lost more than he's won and I think that there was just marty turner fatigue in the primary.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Why don't we give levon har Harris a chance to go be sacrificed to Pierre Beard?
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Pierre fatigue is real too, I think, not so much in Ward 4, but Pierre's record on the council is equally real.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that his record is beyond reproach.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: If you take his arrests aside.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: His arrest aside, his counsel service has not been terrible, I think.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: If you look at Robert Johnson, people don't know enough about him.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: You know he's his uphill battle, is he's?
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: He's going to have to.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: He's going to have to fight for name recognition and fight an incumbent all at the same time.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: So he's got to get a message out of what he's going to do for the city and what he's going to do for the ward.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, this is who I am and oh, by the way, I'm a Republican running in Ward 4.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: So that's a pretty high hill to climb for him.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: That's not taking anything away from him as a person or a candidate.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: It's just Pierre's very strong in Ward 4, and I think he's going to.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I think he's going to win.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Do we have any concerns that perhaps RJ4, as I've been calling him, and LeVon Harris will kind of cancel each other out and give Pierre Beard the upper hand in terms of splitting the vote?
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, I think that that's exactly what happens.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I think that what you're going to get, I think that what Robert Johnson is going to get, he's going to capture the.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of Pierre being arrested all of the time vote.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: LaVon is going to get some of that.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: She's going to get some votes on her own merit because she's been around a while, people know her.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: But I think between those two things it clears a path for, you know, pierre winning in a plurality anyway.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: What do you think of Gary Jefferson?
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: You know Gary Jefferson did exactly what I thought he would do.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: He wiped the floor with everybody in the Democratic primary.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: He's going to Jeter's going to run him closer than either of his primary opponents, but it's not going to be close enough.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Jefferson is very strong in Ward 5.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Uh, than either of his primary opponents, but it's not going to be close enough that uh.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Jefferson is very strong in ward five.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Uh, jeter's kind of had a one trick pony uh Republican, uh candidacy, which is, you know, I'm, I'm.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: I'm very worried that about people breaking my window.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I'm very worried about all of the children that are walking around on the sidewalk after dark.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: It makes me feel unsafe.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: And that's all I got.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: And Jefferson has a little bit more than that to his campaign.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: I think he's going to win regardless.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: But if Jeter wants to have a chance there, she's going to have to broaden her message and she's going to have to get out more.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: I don't want to throw too much disdain on that message itself, though there are a lot of people that really feel unsafe to the point that they're willing to sacrifice their liberty in the sense that we've got police cameras coming up in all manner of places like they're watching us, but like we're OK with that because it means we're not going to get shot or stabbed.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Or they'll at least catch the person who did it.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Now, I'm not saying that crime isn't an issue in Columbus, but I just we've talked about this before that she leans on that.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Jeter leans on that very heavily, and it's the only thing she seems to say.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: I saw Jason Spears there last night.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: He had his whole family.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: His boys were there in ball uniforms, and so he brought the whole family in to experience that.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: It was kind of a beautiful thing.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: I did not see his opponent and I did not see Donald Pope there last night.
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: Did you see him?
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: him.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't see him.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: But I didn't see him at the municipal complex last night.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: But I did see him.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: He was at the council meeting.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I know that I talked to him yesterday.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Ward six is a Republican ward, there's no doubt about that.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Because of that, jason is definitely favored in the general election.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: But, as I said, I've talked to Donald Pope several times.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: He's not a lightweight.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: He's a very serious candidate, has a lot to say, very, very well-spoken, a lot of good ideas.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: But I kind of feel by him the way I feel by Keith in Ward 1.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: If Donald Pope is running in any other ward, he could win or he could compete better In the ward where he's running.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: unfortunately, it's hard to see a path for him okay, let's transition into this thing, that that everybody's been really, really waiting on us to talk about, and it's this um, oh, my goodness, this have you got your car note paid up, david.
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: Um, you know I'm gonna go ahead and pay mine off, so I don't have to worry about this happening to me do you have anything important in your truck that that could be carried off?
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: That's right, it's a firearm, and so there's that.
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: Well, hey, you know I'm a republican, I'm not actually.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: I'm really kidding.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: That firearm was lost in the bottom of the river, never to be found again.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: That's just the way that happens did you at least catch a fish in the losing of the gun?
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: um, I tell you what happened that particular day.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: There were three fish tied together and they got stripped off of my kayak.
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: So if anybody out there sees siamese triplet catfish, set them free.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: They're tired of each other, any old.
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: Look this story right here, it tells itself.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, we could make jokes about it all day, but you can't make this stuff up.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: What I will say is that, honestly, I feel sorry for this guy.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: I feel really sorry for this guy.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: Can you imagine having to make the phone call or answer the phone or however that went down?
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, about those ballots.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: We're not going to be able to use those.
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: And also, can you give me a ride?
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's a bad day.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: The ballot box for Ward no 3, wasn't it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: It was a ballot box in 3.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: It was supposed to be for the first assembly precinct so.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: So all of these ballots were the same.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: They had rusty.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: They did not have rusty green, they just had the mayor right uh on that and and the ballots didn't make it because the vehicle wherein they were had been repossessed and taken there from to the city of Northport Alabama.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: No, no, it wasn't taken to Northport, it was.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: It was recovered in a.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: It was recovered in a yard in Columbus OK.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: Regardless, regardless.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: No ballots to be found and the election had been delayed for 30 minutes, about 30, 40 minutes before they got new ballots.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: And then it was four voters that were standing in line and left, and those four voters, per court order, were given till 745 to cast their ballots.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I think they probably did what this does.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I think it highlights a couple of things, and one of the things that it highlights is these election workers are citizens, they're citizens.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: These are people.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: They do get paid, but these are people who are willing to take their time, go through the training, run polls.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: These are good citizens who are trying to be good citizens.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: They're not doing it for the money, because it's not much.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: No, it's $30 a day for training and $200 on election day, so they're not getting rich doing this.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: These are good citizens who are trying to help people participate in voting.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: So that's something that I think that we need to remember first and foremost.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: But the other thing that we need to look at the training here is and the system here, and it works the same in Columbus as it does in Starkville.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: So this only in Columbus part.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: This could happen anywhere.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: That does it this way, and what they do is these election workers.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: They go pick up a locked, sealed box of empty ballots.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: They pick it up five o'clock on Monday from the registrar's office.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: They take it home.
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: And it's a tamper-proof seal, you can tell if it's been opened.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, and they're supposed to take.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: They're not supposed to leave those ballots in the car.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: They're supposed to take them in their house, they're supposed to be able to put eyes on them at any time, and then by 6 am Tuesday morning they're supposed to have those ballots delivered to their assigned precinct.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: And it just didn't happen that way this time.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: This cat left it in his vehicle and didn't.
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: What are the odds?
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: How many consecutive things have to go wrong to make this particular fiasco happen?
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean more than one.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: So you've got 13 people on Monday night with boxes of empty ballots.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: And you've got in Starkville even though it's the same method, you've got seven.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: So you've got almost twice the chance that something goes wrong.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Do we have too many polling places in Columbus?
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: A hundred percent true.
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: I think we need at max six precincts in Columbus, just one for each ward, and, to be honest, you don't even really need that.
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: You could have one central location, if it were large enough, and just have all of your poll workers and all of your election observers and everybody come to the same place.
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: It would be a little crowded, but I think it would definitely be more secure.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: The unfortunate thing about this particular story is that it gives more ammunition to the election cynics.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: Imagine if this thing were close, close, and let's say, leroy and Stephen were right there, neck and neck, and it was like two or three votes.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: I mean, can you imagine the potential litigation there?
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: Can you imagine?
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don imagine the potential litigation there.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Can you imagine?
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think they'd have a case.
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: But what I'm saying to you is the conspirators are going to conspire All right.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: They're going to come up with this stuff and it's unhealthy.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: It is unhealthy.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: But the whole point being it's a complex system.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: We don't need 13 precincts.
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: No way I'm going to push complex system.
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: We don't need 13 precincts.
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: No way I'm going to push back on you Whether we need 13.
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: We have cars now.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Right, okay, but fewer precincts mean longer lines.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Longer lines mean fewer people vote.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: There was already low enough voter turnout as it was.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: More precincts mean you get to go in, you get to vote quickly, you get to get in, get out, and it processes more people.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: If you drive up to do anything and you see a line out the door, you're statistically less likely to park and get in that line than you are to drive off, come back or just not participate.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: More machines and more tables.
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: That's what you need.
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: You don't need more buildings.
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: You need plenty of parking, plenty of space, plenty of workers, plenty of ballots.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: If you're going to take that away, you better dang well replace it with something that isn't going to disenfranchise people by default.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was waiting for the disenfranchised word to come out I mean, again, we have cars, does everybody?
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: Well, they've got an aunt or an uncle or they know somebody that look, you need to have skin in the game.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: We've talked about skin in the game for the appetiter for this and for that and for the other.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Um, if you're going to your skin in the game for voting is the constitution.
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: It's the constant.
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: Your skin in the game for voting is the Constitution.
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: It's the constant.
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: Your skin in the game is you take effort.
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: Ok, it takes effort to get up and get to the poll and to cast your ballot.
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: I'm a strong believer that, that you need to have some sort of effort if you're going to choose.
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: I mean this whole.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: The word disenfranchised to me is a misnomer.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: Ok, it means that you're telling somebody they can't do something.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: If you make it harder for somebody to do something that they would otherwise do, that is their right to do.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: And if you've got a one hour lunch break and that's all the time you have to go vote and you look at that line and you're going to have to stand in it for more than an hour and you're going to have to take maybe you've got an hourly job and you're going to have to take another shift to make up for it, or you're going to have to go without 30 minutes of wages to stand in this line.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: That's disenfranchisement of a sort make it a uh a holiday, or at least half a holiday.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I agree with that yeah.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: But there is something on this polling place thing that I think can be done.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: That would be helpful.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: There are instances where if you're voting in the county election, you go one place.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: If you're voting in the city election, you go to another place.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: If you're a voter in a local election, you should just have to memorize one place to go Like make that simple.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: So I feel like that that's something that the county and the city can coordinate better on and figure out.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: If I live on 20th Street North or if I live on 7th Avenue or wherever.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: This is where I vote, anytime I vote, and I think that that, even if that does mean that we reduce polling places to from 13 to nine or 13 to 11, whatever for city elections, I think that that's better than people having to remember OK, so this is a county election, I have to go here.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: In a city election, I have to go two blocks over.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I, I have zero disagreement with that.
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: I think that confusion is a joy killer and I think that I think that if our elected officials do things that confuse people, or I mean if, even if it's inadvertently, that might fall under the category of disenfranchisement, right Be that case.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: Yep, I'm all in favor.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: One precinct per district, per ward Sounds like a plan.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: Well, that's it.
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: Anything else, I think we're good If not.
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: I just want to thank our listeners today.
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: I want to thank you for tuning in.
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: I want you to send your comments.
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: I want you to like share rate.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: Our email inbox is tips at cdispatchcom.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: Again, tips at cdispatchcom.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: You can also follow me at Facebook or X at the Chisholm 00.
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: All right, signing off until next week from Catfish Alley Studio in historic downtown Columbus.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: Your host has been Zach Player and I am David Chisholm.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: Until next time.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: Y'all keep it friendly and we will keep it real.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: Opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers and not necessarily those of the Commercial Dispatch.