David Karmol Pt 3 of his interview with Fred LeFebvre

Let's go to the talkback feature real quickly. Throw your headphones on there, Dave, for one second, because I think you're going to want to hear this one. Three, two. Friends, if it's name recognition you're looking forward, just change the last end to capture. You get elected to anything, anywhere nearby, Lucas County, no matter what you say or do. So how tough facing that, the name recognition, and everything else? How tough is it for you to get elected? Well, the good news is that most people have never heard of my opponent. In fact, I get asked all the time, are you running against Marcy Kaptur? And I go, no, I'm... People don't know what freaking district they are in. Well, they don't even know if it's state or federal. So I'm running for state representative. She's our, you know, U.S. representative. Actually, when I ran in 1982, Marcy Kaptor and I... ran alongside each other. She was running for the first time. I was running in my last race in Toledo. In North Toledo, the paper there said, well, there's two Polish candidates this year, Carmel and Capter. So I didn't mind, you know, getting that name recognition. Unbelievable. Dear Fred, Dave was doing fine. And then he said, but in the response to the Constitution, there can be no buts. It is the law that all others must not and shall not infringe upon. Fringe means not even around the edges. No one steps in that direction. No gray areas are code pinks. I don't think that you said we should infringe on the Constitution. No, I said that the Constitution sets up the structure. Yeah. And then the federal government, the state governments, enact some laws that... allow us to have a civil society and avoid... And you can enact a state law, but if it doesn't hold up in federal court, then it gets dismissed. I mean, that's the whole reason... Under the Constitution. Yeah, that's the whole reason for the court system, right? That has to happen. If you want to follow along, you can go to Carmel for Ohio.com, K-A-R-M-O-L. So you're as a former prosecutor. and you actually did investigate and prosecute consumer fraud. The federal government has recently gutted the consumer fraud offices. Can the state handle what needs to happen here? Because there's been a lot of talk out of Minnesota, you know, about the daycare centers and all that kind of stuff. Do we have the people and the enforcement capability here in Ohio? Well, of course, most criminal laws are enforced and enacted at the state level. What the federal agency was doing was more about federally chartered banks and that sort of thing. But there's certainly the laws around the books. Now, whether there's enough people in enforcement that are enforcing those laws, that's a question. You really have to go to your county prosecutors and ask. How are they allocating resources? Are they allocating, you know, for

juvenile justice for example or for criminal or whatever um and i think that's as it should be that most of those decisions are made at the local level rather than at the federal level are we not being tough enough on the local level because that's what my listeners say i get calls all the time and emails all the time why is this guy being charged with bam bam bam bam bam bam and then by the time he gets to court All we got is one bam. All the other bams have been, you know, whittled away in a plea agreement. Well, okay, I will say this as a former prosecutor. I've heard some prosecutors say, I don't do plea bargaining, which is what you're referring to. At the end of the day, the job of the prosecutor is to evaluate whether the case is good enough to win at trial. or not. And if you've got somebody you know is a bad actor and needs to be taken off the street and you've got six charges, but you've got one that's solid. Okay. You might want to make a deal and put them away for a few years on that one charge rather than take a chance, go to trial and have the possibility that he goes free. Because the jury would look at all six charges if you brought all six charges. Well, you would have the choice, but you always have a chance that a jury... may not come back with what you think is the right decision. So there's there's always at risk when I go to trial. A lot of lost a jury trial, but, you know, it happens. You never lost a jury trial? I did not. Damn.

Damn. A lot of talk lately, data centers, property taxes. Vivek Ramaswamy just the other day has said he's getting rid of all the property taxes, and now he says he's got restrictions on the data centers and stuff as somebody who would be in the legislature if you get elected. Where do you stand on the property taxes as it regards people like us? because I'm 75 now, seasoned citizens. I didn't. I didn't hear that Vivek Ramaswamy said he wanted to abolish property taxes. I would not be in favor of that. Okay. I think that, first of all, you have to recognize you're not going to get rid of all taxes, okay? Right. We all understand. You've got to have some taxes. The question is what, which taxes and how much and how much can they be raised and who can raise them? So to me, the property tax is the one tax where you get a vote. on whether you want to increase that tax, whether it's for the libraries, the schools, the imagination station, all those levies. You can vote yes or no. If you turn that power over to the county commissioners or to the state legislature, you don't get a direct vote. They decide whether you're going to have a higher property tax or sales tax or income tax. So I prefer taxes where you have the choice locally to make that decision. Now, I do think that there should be caps on the increase in property tax because mine went up this year over 50%. A lot of people complained about that. Way too much. So would the legislature set that or would the county commissioners set that? Well, the state legislature could cap the increase that the county can impose on property taxes. They could put in place a cap that would say, you know, your property tax can't go up more than X percent, 10 percent or 5 percent or whatever. All right. So they have that ability. And what about seasoned people? What are you going to do for me? Because that's the only reason I vote for people is if they do something for me. Well, I'm seasoned as well, Fred. And so I understand and appreciate that concern. I think what's important is to assure that. you have the ability to anticipate and see what's coming and know that it's not going to go up by more than a certain percentage. I think, you know, I don't, I always, it bothered me when I was in the legislature. I remember specifically, the legislature passed a bill to make seniors.

eligible for a $5 dock fee at state parks instead of the usual $25 dock fee that everyone else paid. I voted against that. Because I thought, well, if you can afford a boat and the gas and everything else, why can't you afford the $25 dock fee? I don't think we should just give, you know, breaks to seniors just because they're old, but because it's necessary for them to live their life. If you're, if you have the money for a vote. But you get more votes, though. If you say that, if you roll up your sleeves, by the way, he has his sleeves rolled up. If you roll up your sleeves and don't wear a tie, he's not wearing a tie, or a suit coat, and say that you're working for the hard working Americans and the senior citizens who have given their all for, you know, 50 years to this great country of ours. And so we're only going to charge you $5 for a dock fee instead of $25. Man, that's like... 10 extra votes right there, isn't it? Well, people call that pandering, and I've never done it, and I'm not going to start now. Okay. Basically, I tell it the way it is. I'm going to... do what I say I'm going to do. Some people won't like what I say. I'm sure there's some things I've said already today that people don't like. Well, you use the word butt and that was enough to tick off somebody. So what are your priorities? As an elected representative in District 43, what are you responsible for, you think? Well, I think number one, and I was on the Judiciary Committee when I was in the legislature before, I was a... author or co-author of the death penalty that's now on the books after ohio's was struck down i helped rewrite the current one and law enforcement is important to me i think we have quite obviously a problem with crime here in toledo and i think it's a it's not an easy problem to fix and it requires everybody to be involved but i have some expertise as a former prosecutor I have expertise in knowing how to write laws and how to enforce them. And I think I can help in working through some of these issues where I hear from police officers who say, we bring guys in and the judges let them right back out. Well, there needs to be some guardrails on that. We can't be just... bringing people in and then letting them out that doesn't send a good message to to the criminals or to the public who's in charge of that though isn't that the county prosecutor decides okay we're not going to bring any charges so we're going to cut you free that's what makes it complicated because the judges have a role here the police have a role the prosecutor has a role and of course the legislature has a role in terms of what the laws are

and what limits are placed on sentencing and release on parole, all those things. So it's too complicated to point the finger at one group or one officeholder and say they're responsible. And unfortunately in politics, people like to make it simple and it's not that simple. It's much easier just to point at a group and say they're at fault or point at one person on the bench and say, well, that person did this. then look at the entire issue. I get that all the time. If you want to follow along, you can go to Carmel4Ohio.com, K-A-R-M-O-L-O-Hio.com issues, contract, contribute, if you like, get a hold of them. Are you willing to go out and talk to groups of people at this point? Are you just scheduling that kind of stuff right now? Absolutely. I've been out talking in the Trilby area. I'm going a lot of church festivals. I'm going to Regina Chaley on August 23rd for their big chicken dinner. So I'll be there. Always available. You'll be walking around during Jeep Fest? I will, absolutely, as I always do. Keeping out for him, he's a seasoned man, gray hair, small mustache, still got a little bit of darken that. He'll have his sleeves rolled up, no tie, no suit coat. I have my carmel for Ohio's shirt. Oh, there you go. Well, that's even easier then. That way he can tell he's working hard for the hardworking men and women in Northwest Ohio. Thanks a lot for coming in. Appreciate it.