Latest / Newsradio WGAN / Aaron Chadbourne- Segment 1

Transcript

Aaron Chadbourne- Segment 1 · Newsradio WGAN

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  For over 2 decades, Inside Maine has been your trusted source for
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  political analysis and candid conversations with Maine's most
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  influential leaders, bringing you the issues that matter most,
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  straight from the experts on 98.5 FM, AM 560, and wgan.com.
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  As The Rolling Stones famously said, you can't always get what
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  you want. You can't always get what you
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  want. You can't always get what you
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  want. And yes, we're bringing you
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  exactly what you need this morning on Inside Main.
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  That song means it's Aaron Shadbourne day on Inside Main.
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  Thanks for joining us. And you know, I have said, I
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  said it at the beginning of the year when Janet Mills was not
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  running for anything. What I most was looking forward
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  to was for her leaving public service.
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  She's done her time. I thought she was leaving.
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  Then she announced she was running for Senate.
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  So we were going to have Janet again.
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  And once again, there is no Janet Mills running for office.
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  She is heading into the sunset for retirement.
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  I haven't been on the airwaves since that announcement happened
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  last week. And so here we are to to
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  celebrate and commemorate the the service of Maine's current
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  governor, Janet Mills. She's done.
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  She's that. That's it.
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  That means that we will be finished with Janet Mills at the
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  end of this year. Jeremy.
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  And I don't know if you've heard me say it before, but you can
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  always tell when Janet Mills is running for office based on the
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  content of her governor's radio addresses.
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  And they're always about like, when she's running for office,
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  it's about like, I did this and I delivered that, and I got this
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  money for these people. And here's a favor for those
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  people. And when she's not running for
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  office, it's all like Maine is beautiful, like apple pies.
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  I really appreciate her making yesterday George Hale day.
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  I do too, but I thought that was weird.
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  The topic of a radio dress. Today was Mother's Day.
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  Oh, Mother's Day is great and for all mothers and mother
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  figures and blah blah blah and like that was all fine and good,
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  but you can tell that she's not running for anything.
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  I do agree it was very classy of her to designate yesterday
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  George Hale Day. George has been a radio icon and
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  legend. Good friend of of our our
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  station here. Good friend of mine, good friend
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  of you know, I, I've been on that show a number of times.
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  Gone to their studio. They let me borrow their studio.
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  That's right. George has been around forever.
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  And it's funny, my dad is like, George was old when I was in
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  college. How old is?
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  He now my dad said the same thing when he he spoke at my
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  college one day and I asked my dad, you ever heard of George
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  Haley? He's like, yeah, why?
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  I said, oh, he spoke in my class tonight and I, I got to shake
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  his hand. My dad said why he's still
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  alive. Yeah, and he's in his 90s.
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  This was in 1999 and my dad saying wow he's still alive.
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  And so here we are all that 27 years later.
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  But so congratulations to George on a great career.
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  Don't love the way that he was ushered out while he was in
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  Florida. They were doing some sort of
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  revamp at the station. That's the thing that sometimes
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  these radio companies and I won't I won't include the one
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  that I'm sitting in in this criticism, although you know
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  that they're listening. But but sometimes they make
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  these decisions like George Hale, like what were they paying
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  him too much? He probably would have done it
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  for free, you know, like do it with dignity announced.
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  They give him time. Just be like, oh, sorry, you're
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  out. He's not really a like unless
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  there had been like a reason and it doesn't seem like there was a
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  behavioral problem or stat problem.
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  It sounded like they just want to make changes at the station.
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  You could have given him time to plan his like farewell and a
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  final. And you get good viewership and
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  listenership and audience engagement when you do that.
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  To do it this way where they just kind of called him and said
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  you're done, like it's just short sighted in my opinion.
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  Well, I'm I'm glad Danny Cashman came out of retirement with his
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  TV show to do a special tribute to George, which I was hoping to
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  attend, but unfortunately I was not feeling well after banging
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  my head really bad so I figured driving up to Bangor wasn't a
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  good idea. They already taped it so it'll
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  be on what? I actually was on last night,
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  OK. And I think that's why Janet
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  Mills ended up designating yesterday as George Hale Day.
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  Got it. That makes sense, but I'm sure
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  there will be plenty of clips on the the night show main YouTube
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  page. OK, we'll have to go and find
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  the the YouTube page so people can check that out.
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  All right, so let me talk about what we're doing on today's show
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  and next week's show, because this is a special.
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  May is one of those special months where there are five
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  Saturdays and so there are four of us who are regular host, but
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  when there's a fifth Saturday, we do something different.
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  And So what I'm doing is I'm going to host this week and next
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  week. So if you like listening to me,
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  great, I'll be back next week. If you don't like listening to
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  me, well, I mean, you got two weeks that you can either suffer
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  through it or go do something else.
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  So here's what we're going to do, though.
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  I as as Jeremy, you may remember, every year I try to
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  get you to set a New Year's resolution.
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  And every year you fight me on it, despite the fact that last
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  year your New Year's resolution was to work on your health and
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  you did. You got a primary care doctor.
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  You started making investments. See, this is good.
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  Good to have New Year's resolutions.
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  My New Year's resolution this year was I was going to try to
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  finish interviewing each of the major candidates for governor.
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  I think at the time, I don't think I had Rick Bennett on.
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  I've since had Rick Bennett on, but the ones I hadn't had on yet
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  were Garrett Mason, Angus King, the 3rd, and Doctor Nirav Shah.
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  And so I am pleased to announce that today's show, we're going
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  to focus both this week and next week on gubernatorial
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  candidates. And coming up at 10:30, we have
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  Garrett Mason, Republican candidate for governor.
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  He'll be joining us by phone. And then at 1110 in the top of
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  the 11:00 hour, Angus King, the third will be on.
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  So that's two of the three that I had to get done.
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  And then next week, I've been told by the Shaw campaign I'm
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  waiting to nail down a time, but that he's going to be on with me
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  as well. So that will bring us to the
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  full set of gubernatorial candidates for the primary
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  having been interviewed by me. And then because we're in the
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  the season close to election, if you have one on, you got to let
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  them all come on. You got to give them equal,
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  equal access or equal opportunity to come on.
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  So I've I've reached out to all the candidates that are on the
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  Democrat and Republican primaries and offered them the
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  opportunity to come on inside Main.
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  So we are going to be talking with a lot of gubernatorial
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  candidates coming up. So today's show, we start with
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  Garrett Mason, then Angus King. The third will be followed by
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  Ben Midgley and Owen McCarthy. That's today show we'll take
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  your calls and and by the way, if you have never texted it on
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  the text line, the text line is the same number as our phone
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  line here 879-9426 that's area code 207-879-9426.
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  If you want to text me any of the questions that you want me
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  to ask the candidates, I'll read them.
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  I'll try to get them in again. 1030 Garrett Mason 11 top 11:00
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  hour. We've got Angus King the third,
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  then we'll have Ben Midgley and Owen McCarthy coming up toward
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  the end of the show. So we'll have those for today.
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  And then next week so far, we've got a pretty good line up going
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  there as well. We'll have Bobby Charles,
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  Jonathan Bush, Robert Wessels is confirmed, Shanna Bellows will
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  be calling in. And then I believe that we're
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  going to have Doctor Shaw next week as well.
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  So I still not heard back from a few of them.
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  If they get back to me, great. If not, no worries.
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  I'm going to focus on the people on the primary ballot.
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  If we have time, we'll get some of the independence on too.
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  But we're we're getting close to the primary election.
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  So I feel like it's time that we should be having them on and
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  getting their kind of, I don't know if it's their closing
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  argument, but it's their, it's their argument, their argument
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  for why them, what they would do and why they should be elected.
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  So text me your questions throughout the show, 879-9426.
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  I'd love to hear what you think about the debates.
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  There were debates this week. I can react to those.
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  And I'll have time at the end of the show at the 12:30 segment to
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  tell you more of my thoughts. But let's go to the phone line.
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  879-9426 Looks like we've got George from Washington County.
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  What's up, George? Aaron, good morning.
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  I'm so happy to hear your voice on the radio.
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  Yeah, do you? Do you get excited when you hear
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  The Rolling Stones? Come on.
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  I, I, I do every Saturday that you're on and, and I was
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  thinking about, you know, when you're talking about when, when
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  if WGAN were to ever fire you. I know that's never going to
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  happen, but I hope if they do, they at least do it the right
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  way. By by by angry mob.
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  I don't think I actually work here.
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  I think I just show up sometimes and they let me out here.
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  Well, you used to live there, I thought.
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  Yeah, I don't know if you moved, but I don't think they're going
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  to let you go anywhere because you've got a great face for
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  radio, my friend. I appreciate that.
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  Should we do predictions? We're a month out from the
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  primary. Should we quickly do them?
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  I don't know. I think I will do predictions
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  in. I think I'm hosting the show
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  right before the primary. I'll do it that day.
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  I'll do it that Saturday. I think I have the Saturday
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  before the primary. And I will say I am going to
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  host a special election night results show.
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  So the night of the primary, the primary is what, June 9th?
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  I'll do a result show that night.
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  But I don't know, I don't really have predictions so much.
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  I think it's, it's interesting. I'm not sure if you saw there
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  have been some developments this week.
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  This is a ranked choice election.
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  And of course, Democrats have kind of been playing nice with
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  each other because they're worried about alienating people.
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  2nd place voters and things are a little bit close there, so
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  anyone could be the first one eliminated.
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  And that's been interesting to watch them all play kind of
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  nice. The Republicans until recently
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  haven't given much thought to rank choice strategy.
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  And most Republicans that I know prefer not to rank.
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  Some of them are worried like what if I only put one bullet
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  and then someone ranks the rest of them for me.
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  So some of them will fill in with the all of the ranks for
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  the same candidate. Others just don't believe in
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  ranking. So this week, this interesting
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  thing happened. In advance of one of the
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  debates, Robert Wessels announced that he signed on to
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  be the grassroots chair for the Jonathan Bush for Governor
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  campaign. And Robert Wessels is still
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  himself a candidate for governor.
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  And so people are like, well, are you dropping out?
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  Are you endorsing him? And he was like, no, I'm still
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  running, so you should still vote for me.
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  But I'm going to rank him #2 and if he beats me and he becomes
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  the nominee, then I'm going to be his grassroots chair in CD2,
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  which that's complicated. But I think it, you know, is
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  signaling to the Wessels supporters that if you're, if
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  you are going to still put Wessels first, that he wants you
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  to put Bush 2nd. And so that but, but doing it in
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  this way where I'm still a candidate, but I'm going to join
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  the campaign team of my rival. I've never heard of that before,
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  have you? I have not, but can we both
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  agree that ranked choice voting will likely play a role in all
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  of these races? I mean, it's like without a
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  doubt, probably. I think it's going to be, I
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  think it's going to be hard for anyone to get across line.
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  And so then the second thing that developed after that
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  happened, you saw the other Republicans saying like, oh, so
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  I'm not sure what happened. And so then you had this other
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  alliance that could announce to the debate.
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  And I maybe it was just to make news and take over some of the
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  limelight at the second debate for Republicans this week.
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  But David Jones in the middle of the debate says, I've decided
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  I've got an alliance with Ben Midgley.
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  I'm going to rank Ben Midgley second.
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  And Ben Midgley says, yeah, I'm going to rank David Jones
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  second, which I think David Jones is going to get eliminated
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  before Ben Mitchley. So I'm not sure it matters who.
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  You know why? You know why I'm most excited?
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  Because after years of people saying they didn't get how
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  ranked choice voting works, I I think they finally get it.
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  Aaron, you and I agree. I think the candidates are you.
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  Got to play the game. It's the game, right?
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  That's the way. That's the way the game's.
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  Set up the candidates are now trying to embrace it.
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  But I mean, I don't know, it's that dissimilar from Republicans
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  for a long time didn't like the clean Elections program for
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  taxpayer funded campaigns. And then you saw you've, you've
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  seen increasingly that legislative candidates rely on
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  the clean elections program and taxpayer funded campaigns.
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  Garrett Mason famously used it in the gubernatorial campaign
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  last time. Maybe I'll ask him about it when
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  he comes on at at 10:30. But the I, you know, then they
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  realize, all right, it's around. It's here to stay.
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  If we let Democrats use it, we don't use it.
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  We got to do something. So Republicans have always
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  thought about like how to use ranked choice voting.
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  I'm not sure they've figured it out yet.
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  I'm not sure though, what I, I think and I haven't looked at
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  the data. I'll have to do it during the
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  commercial break. I, I'm interested to see how
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  many Republicans actually rank because a lot of them don't.
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  So yes, you go through the round.
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  But Charles doesn't want anyone to rank.
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  You saw that? Yeah, I mean, he doesn't believe
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  in ranked choice voting, and that's fine.
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  I mean, I personally don't mind ranking myself.
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  I like, you know, if my first preference is going to not be
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  counted, do I want to say, and who of the viable candidates
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  could be like, sure, I'm happy if that's the system, I'll use
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  it. Is it my preferred system?
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  No. But if it is the rules, like
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  will I rank? I rank.
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  So I think people should. But if you don't want to, you
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  don't have to. You can put all of your choices
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  for Bobby. But if you're ranking Bobby
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  Charles first, I think you and I can both agree Bobby Charles is
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  going to be one of the top 2 vote getters and so he's going
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  to be one of the last people standing.
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  Right, easily. The real question will be him
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  not going to the debates whether that will actually hurt him in
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  the eyes of some folks. And I think that's to be seen.
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  But I do think it was a surprising decision and also an
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  interesting choice for someone who hasn't locked the race down,
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  in my opinion. But.
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  Well, here's what I think. I think that anyone who already
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  supported Bobby Charles, they don't choose to not support him
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  based on the fact that he he didn't go to the debates, right?
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  He just like deprived himself the opportunity to introduce
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  himself to more, more people and I think.
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  He's a shocking development. That's a shocking.
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  He thought though, right? Which ones did he bow out of,
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  though? He bowed out of Channel 8 and
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  Channel 13. He's still going to do Channel
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  6, which has the, I think, widest viewership.
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  So he's going to the one with the most ratings.
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  He did the main wire debate. I think he just looked at it as
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  like, if he's there, they're all going to try to score points and
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  attention by attacking him. So maybe he'll do it once, he'll
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  handle it once and call it good. But yeah, I know, I think it's
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  interesting because I also think he's a good debater.
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  I think he would have done fine. I think he just, you know, is
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  making a political calculation that why give these other guys
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  the platform to try to, you know, increase their profile
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  when he's kind of in the lead. But I do think you're right to
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  say that I don't think he has 50% on the 1st ballot.
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  So it will go. It just remains to be seen how
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  much more he's able to, to do and, and, and what, what he's
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  able to pull off. Because if he's, you know, like
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  let's say he, he released a poll this week, which I'm not sure I
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  believe that said he has 47%. Supporting him seems unlikely.
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  Seems unlikely that it's that high.
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  I've seen other polling that suggests it's much lower than
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  that. But even if it's that, if it's
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  that he starts at 47%, well, he's going to stay in first
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  place and, and, and continue to be in first place because when
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  people start to drop out. But if he starts at like 27%
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  then it is possible that whoever is not in the lead in the first
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  round could overtake him. So it'll be interesting.
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  Well, I'll keep listening down here in the county.
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  I'm just such a big fan. I'm so excited.
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  I got to talk to you, Eric. I hope you have a good day.
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  Wait, last question before you, before you, before you go, who
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  do you think is leading in the Democrat side?
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  Who do you think is in the in the first point position right
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  now? I think it's a three-way race
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  between Shenna, Hannah and Shaw at the moment.
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  Shenna, Hannah. And so I did think Shenna was
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  funny. She tried to say to Hannah, oh,
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  I'm glad you're adopting my policy position and.
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  Hannah was like. Hannah was like, I sponsored
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  that bill like 30 years ago. It was, it was a really, really
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  funny. You don't remember that, Aaron.
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  I remember. It was good.
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  Thanks for the call, George. Good to talk to you.
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  Appreciate it. 879-9426 We're not going to have time for a lot
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  of calls throughout the show. We will have time in the last
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  segment of the day, but we will be taking your text of the
• 15:43
  questions you want me to ask the candidates.
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  When we come back. We'll be talking to Garrett
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  Mason, Republican candidate for governor, former state senator.
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  He'll be joining us then, Angus King, Owen McCarthy, Ben
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  Midgley. Big show today on INSIDE Maine.
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  I'm Aaron Chadbourne.