Latest / Chuck Douglas / More With Cadidate For Ohio District 7 Bill Mercier

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More With Cadidate For Ohio District 7 Bill Mercier · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Good evening to you. I consider it evening after 6 p.m.,
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  Speaker 1: just as a formality. Chuck Douglas of Power Hour, 610 WTV,
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  Speaker 1: and on LegacyRetirementGroup.com. Phone lines with me right now as
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  Speaker 1: a candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives in District 7.
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  Speaker 1: His name is Bill Mercer. And, Bill, where he is,
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  Speaker 1: give me the boundaries, give me the lot lines here
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  Speaker 1: for District 7. What are they?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah. So we start down at the Arena District.
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  Speaker 2: It's kind of like kind of a teardrop shape, upside down.
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  Speaker 2: So it starts down at the Arena District. down by
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  Speaker 2: Nationwide Arena and kind of runs up High Street and
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  Speaker 2: along the Scioto River. So incorporated in House District 7
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  Speaker 2: is Upper Arlington, Marble Cliff, Grandview, part of the Short North,
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  Speaker 2: the Ohio State campus, and Clintonville and East Beach World
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  Speaker 2: are kind of what makes District 7.
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  Speaker 1: That's difficult. I mean, you've got all those transient votes
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  Speaker 1: at the Ohio State campus and a bunch of, Very
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  Speaker 1: idealistic young people that it's difficult to communicate with them
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  Speaker 1: sometimes because at 19, the world is a much different
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  Speaker 1: place than it is at 39. Have you felt like
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  Speaker 1: you've made some gains? Have you had successes as you campaign,
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  Speaker 1: knocked on doors, and talked to people?
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  Speaker 2: We certainly have because one of the interesting things that's
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  Speaker 2: starting to kind of rear its head, if you will,
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  Speaker 2: out of these redistricting conversations is, you know, you've got
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people who are– genuinely, they don't feel
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  Speaker 2: like they're being represented. And the short north is another
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  Speaker 2: classic example of that, which we do think of as
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  Speaker 2: a rather strong, you know, Democrat area. There are a
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  Speaker 2: lot of transient people that are in that area. However,
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  Speaker 2: you know, back to kind of our basic platform, whether
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  Speaker 2: that is stated at the top of the program, Chuck,
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  Speaker 2: how important public safety is to people on where they
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  Speaker 2: live and where they work. And the short North has
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  Speaker 2: undergone a huge transformation over the past decade or two.
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  Speaker 2: And one of the things that's just so evident there
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  Speaker 2: is that we really need to look at how we're
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  Speaker 2: taking care of public safety in that area. And that
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  Speaker 2: is an issue that resonates with both Democrats and Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: And bar none, nobody wants their stuff taken. Nobody wants
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  Speaker 2: their rights violated. You know, this is a very fundamental
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  Speaker 2: American conversation with a lot of these people. And I
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  Speaker 2: think we've made some significant inroads on that issue alone.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know we still had a crime and violence
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  Speaker 1: problem in the short North. Mayor Ginther stopped Bratwurst after
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  Speaker 1: 10 p.m. I thought that fixed everything.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you and I definitely know that didn't get everything fixed.
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  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things that's amazing to me
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  Speaker 2: is that it's so self-evident. Because, you know, you talk
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  Speaker 2: to the Short North Business Association, and they freely have
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  Speaker 2: reports on a lot of the great work that's been
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  Speaker 2: done by special duty police officers down in that area,
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  Speaker 2: employed by the businesses. You know, taxpaying businesses already are
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  Speaker 2: paying special duty police officers to come down. And the
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  Speaker 2: number of fights that are broken up, the number of
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  Speaker 2: issues that are dealt with By just having that extra
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  Speaker 2: policeman there, I mean, they publish a beautiful report on
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  Speaker 2: it that just makes it so obvious how important it
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  Speaker 2: is to have these brave men and women out there
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  Speaker 2: protecting us. And I think, you know, again, we have
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  Speaker 2: to really start having conversations around that. And that is
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  Speaker 2: an issue that clearly goes across both Republican and Democrat
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  Speaker 2: voters with wide open ears tonight.
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned going into the bottom of the hour break
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  Speaker 1: the undiscussed things, especially in centering around all of the development.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody's yakking about data centers and whether we should ban
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  Speaker 1: them or whether we should give them tax incentives or
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  Speaker 1: whether they're going to use too much water and electricity.
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  Speaker 1: There are ancillary topics, though, including effects on farmland and
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  Speaker 1: the land grabbing and so forth that is happening in
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  Speaker 1: order to make this happen. The sometimes nondisclosure issue. what
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  Speaker 1: they call straw purchases in most industries, where things could
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  Speaker 1: be bought up unless we start regulating, and then there
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  Speaker 1: could be another agreement to sell them off to a
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  Speaker 1: company that's going to develop a data center or something
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  Speaker 1: that the public might not want coming there, but it's
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  Speaker 1: not evident what's happening. Are those on your radar at all,
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  Speaker 1: all of the exterior adjacent issues surrounding this stuff, or
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  Speaker 1: is the yakking so loud about the data centers themselves
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  Speaker 1: that you haven't thought about that?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, no, it's clearly on my radar, Chuck. And I
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  Speaker 2: think one of the things, you know, that I really
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  Speaker 2: like to kind of point out with people is I
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  Speaker 2: think one of the first things we need to do
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  Speaker 2: in the Ohio Revised Code is define what a data
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  Speaker 2: center is and classify them, you know, based on their
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  Speaker 2: size and where they're going to be located. I think
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of opportunities, again, just getting down to
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  Speaker 2: some of the basics and trying to take care of this.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the state definitely... could have done some things differently.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we can put a smoother road forward
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  Speaker 2: on the future building of some of these data centers.
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  Speaker 2: But I believe there's one being built in Pike County,
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  Speaker 2: which a lot of people are upset about some of
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  Speaker 2: the tax deals that they're giving that particular data center.
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  Speaker 2: But with the creation of that data center, I think
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  Speaker 2: it's Meta and another company are going to be giving
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  Speaker 2: up to $ 80 million back to the Pikedon and the
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  Speaker 2: Pike County community by putting that in there, not just
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  Speaker 2: to help with electricity generation, but improving infrastructure, trying to
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  Speaker 2: help businesses thrive down there. So it's not a complete
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  Speaker 2: one-way street like a lot of people are talking about.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's where we need to have a
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  Speaker 2: complete conversation, number one. But number two, I think the
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  Speaker 2: state also could really have some benefit in helping decide
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  Speaker 2: where these are getting put and what areas we're going
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  Speaker 2: to develop or opportunities to redevelop some areas where we
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  Speaker 2: can have some of these data centers. Chuck, you know
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  Speaker 2: this as well as anybody. We all love our phones.
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  Speaker 2: We all love the cloud. We all love the apps
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  Speaker 2: that make our lives easier every single day. Data centers
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  Speaker 2: are going to go somewhere. And there is an opportunity
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  Speaker 2: on having them here in Ohio. And I know a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people are not satisfied with the number of
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  Speaker 2: jobs the actual data center itself creates. But it is
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  Speaker 2: an incredible opportunity for our tradesmen to get actual building
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  Speaker 2: experience to help not just build that data center, but
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  Speaker 2: then to do continued building for residential or business buildings here.
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  Speaker 2: There's so much good that can come from it, and
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  Speaker 2: I think it gets lost in the conversation. There are
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  Speaker 2: tweaks and there are things that need to be done
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  Speaker 2: in the world of data centers, but I– We also
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  Speaker 2: have to acknowledge there's a lot of good that comes
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  Speaker 2: with it, and we just need to strike that right balance.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess what I'm concerned about is as the
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  Speaker 1: conversation gets hotter and hotter and people get more and
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  Speaker 1: more vibrant in their opinions about this thing, some non-above-board
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  Speaker 1: stuff could happen. I mean, Farmer Brown's got 1,000 acres
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  Speaker 1: to sell, and he makes very clear he's not selling
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  Speaker 1: to one of these tech companies, but he'll sell it
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  Speaker 1: to me. I buy his 1,000 acres because I've already
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  Speaker 1: been offered a $ 500, 000 finding fee. from one of the
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  Speaker 1: tech companies. So I buy it and then I sell
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  Speaker 1: it to them and get my $ 500, 000. And old Farmer
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  Speaker 1: Brown took it up the nose, basically. That kind of stuff,
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  Speaker 1: we need to plug those holes and make sure that
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  Speaker 1: everything is above board. I hate to say transparent because
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  Speaker 1: I sound like one of them. But everything needs to
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  Speaker 1: be above board so we can have this conversation legitimately,
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  Speaker 1: get everything hammered out, and no secret stuff going on
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  Speaker 1: in the meantime.
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  Speaker 2: No, 100% correct on that. And I think we need
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  Speaker 2: to have some of that conversation around residential housing as well.
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  Speaker 2: We've got some opportunities where large companies are coming in
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  Speaker 2: and buying houses. And it's creating a really big pinch
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  Speaker 2: on what new couples or new families or people straight
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  Speaker 2: out of college can and can't afford in central Ohio.
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  Speaker 2: Those are issues that need to be addressed, and we
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  Speaker 2: do need to find fixes for them. And one of
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  Speaker 2: the things, from my perspective going into the legislature, is
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  Speaker 2: I'm also willing to be another sports cliche for you,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm also willing to solve these problems with base hits.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to sit there and demand comprehensive real
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  Speaker 2: estate reform. But if we've got agreement in the votes
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  Speaker 2: to get some of these issues closed and to level
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  Speaker 2: this playing field, by God, we ought to start pumping
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  Speaker 2: these bills through the chamber and shoring these issues up
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  Speaker 2: much more quickly than not.
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  Speaker 1: Well, those base hits, one step at a time, one
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  Speaker 1: piece of progress at a time, but that's becoming foreign.
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  Speaker 1: You know as well as I do, some of these
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  Speaker 1: alleged right-wingers, Republicans out there right now on social media
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  Speaker 1: that are just They're malcontents, and they want their little
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  Speaker 1: utopian everything needs to be right. You can't do it
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  Speaker 1: with us either. The whole political system, one step at
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  Speaker 1: a time. Give me a base hit. It's not going
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  Speaker 1: to be a home run. You're not going to swing
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  Speaker 1: the bat and win the game. One step at a time. Exactly.
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  Speaker 1: That's probably the best advice. That's the best advice, seriously,
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  Speaker 1: you can give anybody about anything. One step at a time.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely. And in a lot of instances, we have
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  Speaker 2: to do that in aviation. You know, as an analogy
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  Speaker 2: I give to people, when the aircraft gives you a
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  Speaker 2: fault light or you find a fatigue crack somewhere on
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  Speaker 2: the aircraft, you don't get, you know, months upon months
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  Speaker 2: to figure that problem out. You first have to mitigate
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  Speaker 2: the risk. And then you've got to figure out what's
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  Speaker 2: an acceptable level of getting that risk taken care of
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  Speaker 2: so we can continue to operate the aircraft safely. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we have... you know, on most you know, aircraft, I'd
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  Speaker 2: say an average between 150, 250 souls on board. We
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  Speaker 2: have to be methodical. We have to be data driven
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  Speaker 2: and we have to be very aware of the situation
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  Speaker 2: and and what is and is not acceptable. And by
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  Speaker 2: having that awareness and those frank conversations and complete conversations,
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  Speaker 2: as you mentioned a little bit earlier, we can't get
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  Speaker 2: just stuck in our divide. We have to understand that
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  Speaker 2: we have to discuss all sides of the problem in
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  Speaker 2: order to get to the correct answer. That's something I
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  Speaker 2: hope I can bring to the Statehouse down in Columbus
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  Speaker 2: is let's have a complete conversation on this. Let's make
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  Speaker 2: sure we are well-rounded in what we're doing so there's
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  Speaker 2: no unintended consequences you know, from from our political stigma,
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  Speaker 2: if you will, and get these problems solved.
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  Speaker 1: I started asking you about the agenda, the vision, the possibilities,
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  Speaker 1: where you wanted to start from the opposite direction here
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  Speaker 1: as we're getting close to the end. Tell me, is
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  Speaker 1: there anything that you have discovered that you have seen
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  Speaker 1: with your exposure to the legislature where you just you
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  Speaker 1: frown and said, this is wrong, we're doing this wrong
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  Speaker 1: or we're not doing it all? And I need to
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  Speaker 1: I need to get loud and get this fixed as
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  Speaker 1: soon as I get in there.
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  Speaker 2: That's a great question. And I think, you know, one
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  Speaker 2: of the things that I guess I could, I would
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  Speaker 2: comment on that is, you know, the legislative process works wonderfully.
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  Speaker 2: When you look at, considering this was just kind of born,
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  Speaker 2: you know, a little less than 250 years ago, and
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  Speaker 2: we look at how the legislative process works, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it is the strongest state government. And I know a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people criticize about how long it takes to
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  Speaker 2: move legislation through the General Assembly. You know, that deliberation
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  Speaker 2: is intentional. It allows these ideas, it does allow the
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  Speaker 2: ideas to be heard thoroughly and vetted. It ensures that
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  Speaker 2: laws serve the best interests of Ohioans and protects against
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  Speaker 2: hasty decisions driven by, you know, political passions rather than
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  Speaker 2: sound judgment. But I think term limits has also allowed
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  Speaker 2: us to lose some of the cooler heads. And term limits,
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  Speaker 2: we can shelve that if we've got more time later
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  Speaker 2: to talk about it. But you know, in eight years,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of opportunity to grow. And unfortunately, I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, some of that growth is artificially being pulled
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  Speaker 2: out of the legislature. And it's allowing us to sometimes
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  Speaker 2: have special interest writing legislation, not that that's anything new,
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  Speaker 2: but I think it's increased its presence. And it's also,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we're having a lot of theatrics in the
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  Speaker 2: legislative process, as opposed to actually, like I said, complete
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  Speaker 2: and frank conversations with each other. So I'm hoping that
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  Speaker 2: we can at least, you know, turn the direction, if
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  Speaker 2: you will, and get legislators to do their first job,
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  Speaker 2: which is listening. You know, this job is a representative
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  Speaker 2: of the district, and it is also a representative of
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  Speaker 2: the state. It makes it a very unique and important position.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we need to get a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more geared towards listening to the citizens and those particular
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  Speaker 2: issues and solving those as a general assembly. And I'm
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  Speaker 2: hoping that we can get back to that.
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  Speaker 1: That term limit conversation is one that you need a
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  Speaker 1: lot of aspirin for. There was a time when I
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  Speaker 1: was dead set against it. But to be frank and
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  Speaker 1: probably hurt some feelings when I was against term limits completely,
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  Speaker 1: voters were a lot smarter. And until we figure out
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  Speaker 1: a mechanism to educate and motivate people to actually know
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  Speaker 1: what they're going into the booth and pressing the button for,
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  Speaker 1: I'm worried that those term limits are going to be
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  Speaker 1: a necessary crutch. But like I said, conversation. We're down
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  Speaker 1: to the last couple of minutes. As I've been doing
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  Speaker 1: with everyone else, I'm going to step aside, get out
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  Speaker 1: of your way, and allow you to just kind of
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  Speaker 1: finish the sentence. My name is Bill Mercer running for
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  Speaker 1: House District 7. I'd like your vote because....
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  Speaker 2: Sure. And before I jump onto that real quick, Chuck,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I do want to give a shout out
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  Speaker 2: to Mr. Don Roberts. He is running for Senate District 25,
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  Speaker 2: which my house district is a part of that house district.
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  Speaker 2: I know you've had some conversations with him and Don
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  Speaker 2: has just been an amazing guy. We've done some campaigning
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  Speaker 2: together in this district and what have you. And he
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  Speaker 2: absolutely loves this community. And for everybody listening, please vote
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  Speaker 2: for Don Roberts for State Senate 25. as well as
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  Speaker 2: voting for Bill Mercer for House District 7. Chuck, I'll
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  Speaker 2: just start by saying I'm the only candidate in this
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  Speaker 2: race that brings a combination of both private sector experience
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  Speaker 2: and government knowledge. Well, as we discussed earlier, I worked
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  Speaker 2: in the Ohio legislature while I was in college. I
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  Speaker 2: also have decades of experience working with the FAA from
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  Speaker 2: my career in aviation, maintenance, and engineering. And I'm also
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  Speaker 2: very proud to be endorsed by the Fraternal Order of
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  Speaker 2: Police Association. And I'm also the only candidate in this
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  Speaker 2: race that isn't advocating for higher taxes on Central Ohioans. Chuck,
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  Speaker 2: I grew up here in Central Ohio and began my
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  Speaker 2: career in Central Ohio. My wife and I got married
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  Speaker 2: in this exact district that I'm running for in. But
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  Speaker 2: I've also lived in places that I described that are
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  Speaker 2: great to visit but terrible to live in. And I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to see Central Ohio become one of those places.
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  Speaker 2: I bring a serious track record of getting things done
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  Speaker 2: and tackling difficult challenges everywhere. And one of the most
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  Speaker 2: heavily regulated industries. We're not about empty points or political
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  Speaker 2: buzzwords or chat GPT lines. It's about addressing problems here
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  Speaker 2: in District 7 and the communities across Ohio. And it
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  Speaker 2: would be a privilege to earn every vote from the
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  Speaker 2: citizens in District 7 on November 3rd and put my
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  Speaker 2: experience to work for our community. I'm Bill Mercer. I'm
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  Speaker 2: running for Ohio House District 7. And thank you so
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  Speaker 2: much for your time today.
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  Speaker 1: You are very welcome, sir. He's on Facebook. He's all
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  Speaker 1: over the Facebook M E R C E or C
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  Speaker 1: I E R. I'll put up a link on my
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  Speaker 1: Facebook page so you can check him out. I appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time tonight, Bill. Uh,