Transcript
57 segmentsWhat does one trip to Israel do? One trip changes people's faith, their identity, their perspective. One trip changes the response when people chant from the river to the sea. One trip changes how people see right and wrong. One trip changes the idea of home. One trip changes everything. And one donation is all it takes. Talking about data centers earlier and the power that they generate. Vivek Ramaswamy, who is the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, says data center should pay Ohioans electric bills or be banned. Now, I guess these would be data centers that would be, or I don't know, residents, residents who would get their electric bills paid, who would live in proximity, I guess, nearby. Vivek Ramaswamy's plan would also end property tax abatements and require data centers to follow strict environmental standards. His Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, has called for a conditional moratorium on new data centers, and seven and ten Americans oppose the construction of AI data centers in their local areas. As I said earlier today, this is the fastest political turnaround ever, the way people feel about data centers. Greg Lawson's senior research fellow at the Buckeye Institute, a right-leaning think tank that's been supportive of data centers. I don't know if I've seen an issue gets so politically toxic in such a rapid period of time. The campaign to ban most data centers is collecting signatures to make the November 2027 Ohio ballot. But Vivek Ramaswamy, of course, he's running, and that's tight in Ohio. I mean, I'll tell you whether Republicans have some real challenges in Ohio in this political cycle. We may get to that with Bob Babbage here today. Rob Swamy didn't specify a particular radius, but wrote that most of Ohio's counties would entirely fit within a benefit zone. He wants to end property tax abatements for new data center, follow air and quality, water quality standards without receiving special exemptions, encourage building data centers on formal industrial sites known as brownfields rather than on farmland. If one of these three conditions is not met, the data center won't be built, period. Vivek Ramaswamy wrote that banning data centers would be a terrible idea. Well, the governor stopped short of doing that yesterday with his executive order, and we talked about that earlier. Let's get to the political scene with Bob Savage, our political analyst, who's standing by right now. Good afternoon, Bob. Good afternoon. Cruiser. Good to be with you, sir. Thank you, sir. Good to be with you. Even President Stivers yesterday said, yeah, the governor did the right thing, came out with an executive order, didn't ban data centers, leaving it up to local communities, but that certain standards have to be met. This has become really a politically contentious issue in a short time, hadn't it, Bob? Like nothing we've ever seen. Tremendous fear, opposition, rage.
However, some data center function is needed everywhere. And they've been around forever. I mean, we've had, as somebody pointed out today, there's been two data centers on the UK campus since the 50s. I mean, Lex Marks always had a data center out there. Now, of course, the company that bought it wants to expand it and make it one of those hyper ones. But it's just, is it fear? Do you think, Bob, it's we're afraid of AI or do we've just? I don't know. Maybe we've taken to our political camps. It does seem like Democrats are more against it than Republicans are. So maybe it's our tribal political nature these days, or perhaps people are concerned about being near one and having to deal with the hum all the time, the noise that seems to be constant from some of these centers if you are nearby. Yep. Water quality is a factor. Use of land. That's a lot of land, and it's pretty darn permanent. seen one. It's there to stay. So the fearmongering has... What does one trip to Israel do? One trip changes people's faith, their identity, their perspective. One trip changes the response when people chant from the river to the sea. One trip changes how people see right and wrong. One trip changes the idea of home. One trip changes everything. And one donation is all it takes. The U.S. soccer podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingeberg. And after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. women's national team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite. platform gone over the top but there are a legitimate concerns heck when we were bringing up data centers in frankfort my team and others five six years ago nobody even knew what we were talking about what do you mean yeah and then it sort of went quiet for a while in the state then it's exploded everywhere And you're in touch with Frankfurt all the time. You're lobbying. You're talking to people all the time. This state does not allow the data centers to construct their own grid. which some of these tech companies have said, look, we can do that. We'll just generate our own electricity, build our own grid. That's not allowed here in the state. And so the legislature may need to alter that. And the legislature did punt this last session on some restrictions or some qualifications for some of these data centers. Are they starting to talk about maybe bringing that up again in the next legislative session? I don't see how they can't.
It has to come back up. There'll be a hue and cry everywhere. What are you going to do about it? It'll be talked about through the campaign season. I'm not exactly sure what that would look like. But come January, it will be a hot topic. I mean, it's going to stay hot. It's hot. It's hot now. But there'll be pressure to do something. And legislators, I think, will sit in caucuses and conversations and committees and say, you've got to do something. We've done a bit, but people want more and more assurances. perhaps can't all be set aside, but there will be action here and all around the country. Yep. There will be. Let's get to some politics. A new internal poll obtained by the Herald leader shows a dead heat in the Central Kentucky 6th congressional district race. Now, this poll was conducted for the Democratic congressional campaign, and Bobbitt shows the race tied between Republican Ralph Alvarado and Democrat Zach Dembo, 47% for each of those gentlemen, 6%. undecided the poll comes a month after another survey in the sixth district gave alerato a narrow lead over denbo 42 to 39 with 19% either undecided or preferring a third party candidate well i guess we'll see if this uh poll is accurate or if they believe it at the democratic congressional campaign because if they can maybe they can't but you think they might shove some money into this uh campaign this would be a flip obviously uh from a republican seat bob bob What's the feedback on this poll? You and I kind of had a feeling that this race might be interesting and certainly appears that it's going to be. Word everywhere is it's a very competitive race. And this poll, if it's accurate, screams that. To have only 6% I decided is pretty low. And that could move around a little bit. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Things progress through the fall. A lot depends on how President Trump can capture the voters' mind share on Iran and economy and provide, you know, less rhetoric and more assurances about how things will take a turn for the better. Democrats will have to, you know, fend off some of the criticism of... two or three races that we've seen where a so-called socialist Democrat has won. How pervasive will that get? What does it mean? A lot of a lot of conversation yet to come. We really haven't seen the ads, the messaging or the definitive. goals of both candidates, although they've expressed them in different environments. Voters are more concerned about getting back to school next week and UK starting and what you do in traffic and how do we kind of turn the corner from one season to another. Well, yeah, this race is going to be interesting. If you look in the 6th District, Andy Beshear who has endorsed Zach Dembo, not surprisingly, has a 59% approval rating in this district. Trump, who won the district in 2024, now has on only 37% approval rating in Central Kentucky. 53% of likely voters in the DCCC poll expressed their disapproval. So Republicans will have a challenge. They're going to have a challenge everywhere getting their vote out.
for this that's number one and this race is obviously going to be one to watch and we'll see if any national money heads this way on this race Also, two this week, we learned that independent voter registration increased by a significant percentage in July, according to Secretary of State Michael Adams. In July, over 8,500 new Kentucky voters registered, and there were more independents registered in July than Republicans and Democrats combined. Net registration is reported to have increased by nearly 5,000 voters in the month of July, so a lot of engagement, but nobody wants to commit. Bob, knowing you can't vote in the primaries, really, or at least in the party primaries, if you're an independent. Republican registration makes up 48% of the voters and grew by just under a quarter of a percent. And Democratic registration makes up 41%. It actually fell very, very slightly. Other political affiliation registrants made up of independence make up 11% now, independence, Bob, of the electorate. 11%. This is, again, is this failure, I guess, failure of the two parties to really engage with people. Again, people are registering in a way that they know is going to keep them out of the primaries, but they don't want to identifys either, Republican or Democrat. Yep, and I'm not sure that bothers them so much. Maybe it must not. Simple explanation. Not a deal breaker. A simple explanation is they're disgusted or upset with or mad at or not fully satisfied with either party, so they're not picking it when they have the chance. These are dramatic numbers that we've seen over the course of our time on the air. Yeah, they really are. Yeah, it's more than doubled since we started talking. Yeah. Obviously, this kind of swing is very substantial and see it around the country as well. There are states with, as we pointed out to our audience before, with 20 or more percent marked independent. As long as we have the fighting and the bickering and the feeling that Congress can't get things done, the horrible invective of the last few days, I won't assign it to anybody in particular, but, you know, words we teach our young children not to say. Yeah. And more and more vitriol designed to offend around the world. Folks make you say, I'm not going to sign on for either of them. I'm going to go independent, and I'll vote my preference when the time comes when I get a chance. They're making a statement. We'll be back with Bob Babbage in a moment, talk about what happened in Michigan this week. This is cruiser and crew at 97.3 FM and 590 a.m. WVLK.
Carol writes on the Stugart Motor sex line. Don't forget, some of us are still bad about Thomas Massie's race and Trump and outside money buying that seat. A lot of those of us who are aligned with what Thomas Massie's thought process will be or is will not be voting for Alvarado due to his affiliation with Trump. Fair? Probably not. Payback? Most likely. Many of us are done with both parties. We are back with Bob Average here on Cruiser and Crew at 97.3 FM and 590 AM, WVLK. Well, Democratic primary voters in Michigan may have made it harder for their party to flip the Senate. That's what the Washington Post editorial board said. In the Senate race, Abdul El-Sayed. won by a very narrow margin. And then there was also a representative that lost to a member of the Democratic Socialists of America during the Michigan primaries on Tuesday. He is the sixth Democratic congressman now who's been toppled by a primary challenger. Bob, the polls on this, now I guess maybe younger people have more time to answer polls. I don't know. But the polls on this showed. side with a with a big lead at one point eight 10 points it was it was a bit of a shock when he won by a very narrow margin in fact the race wasn't even called until early in the morning He won by about a point or a point in a half, which that had to be a bit of a morale killer. They were expecting a bigger victory than that. So I would imagine that this victory, the way it went down, isn't going to provide the morale boost that maybe they thought it would. He's also could be at a money disadvantage because he's not taken money from any corporations. Bob, there's been some pressure on some of the Democratic Socialists. You better water down your message if you want to win in a general election in November, and they seem to be resisting that conversation. Nate Silver wrote this week, I always thought people are too eager to derive implications about general election strength from primary results. Part of the reason Democratic voters are moving to the left is that moderate voters are leaving the party. and L side is going to need to win them in the general election. The GOP is pretty happy about its slate top to bottom in Michigan. And that's going to be a crucial state that a lot of people are going to watch. What's your take on what happened Tuesday night there, Bob? Yeah, we'll be watching it all along. When you and I talk late Monday afternoon, you were reading me numbers that were a significant lead for him. Yeah. And then we go through the vote on Tuesday, and by Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, it's too close to call. It was a squeaker. Of course, that could be a morale booster. You say to your team, we thought we were doing great. We won, but we got to do better.
Yeah, he's going to have to raise money, and it's going to be, it'll be an interesting race. Mike Rogers is the Republican candidate. He narrowly lost in the last election cycle when he ran for the Senate. He's running again. The Democrats, or the Republicans rather, didn't have any kind of primary. There, he was the... What does one trip to Israel do? One trip changes people's faith, their identity, their perspective. One trip changes the response when people chant from the river to the sea. One trip changes how people see right and wrong. One trip changes the idea of home. One trip changes everything. And one donation is all it takes. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake C. Toll. See, now it's on demand. My podcast is kind of a radio thing, I think, but also it's a bit of a TV show, and it's about whatever I want it to be. It's listening live as it happened, when it happened, with the instant reaction. You're home for talking sports. We go back, the Drake Toll Show, Westwood One Sports Network, and there will be on demand on your radio. Anywhere in the country, I'll see you there. Westwood One Sports Talk. Your home for Drake C. Toll. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. The clear favorites. But they got enthusiasm on their side. So something really to watch. But two here, Bob, this here again, not the establishment's candidate. The Democratic governor went for Stevens, sides opponent, El Sides opponent, and so did Chuck Schumer. And got ignored. And I believe on the 17th, that's next Saturday, correct? Yeah, the 17th? No, maybe I'll think. Next Saturday would be the 15th. 15th next Saturday. Yeah. I think the Kentucky Democratic Party has Gretchen Whitmer speaking here. Oh, that's right. Yeah, at least she was coming to town. Yeah. And I'm sure some of our friends in the press will. say, explain what's going on up there. And she may do that even from the podium, just because the audience will want to know. How do you take it? What's it mean? What does it mean across the country? Of course, she could be a candidate for president or put a campaign together as her host, Andy Beshear, is doing. So it makes for a very interesting night in Lexington. The next socialist, everybody's going to be watching is Francesca Hong, who's poised to win the Democratic nomination to run for governor. In Wisconsin, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats campaign arm, announced its adding 12 Republican held and leaning seats to its target list, including seats held by Lauren Boebert and Richard Hudson, the chair. Hudson's the chair.
of the counterpart of the Republican Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Hudson is the head of the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. The total number, Bob, of offensive targets that the Democrats think they got a shot at 58. Seats. Nearly all of them are solid Republican, according to the Cook Political Report, and these are districts that Trump won. He won them all by double digits, and they're going after it. I don't know maybe this poll that came out this week, that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showing the tie between Alvarado and Dembo. I wonder if this is one of the, one of their target on their target list now. I don't know. I don't, I don't see it in the report I have from the Hill. No, it's not there, I guess, because they list them all. There's, there's West, there's North Carolina, Arkansas, Second District, Florida, something. I don't see Kentucky on here, but. Yep. From those two campaigns, Alvarado and Dembo, the talk has been that they haven't gotten a lot of national attention yet. With the poll that you mentioned, and now this other targeting, Republican money may have to come in from Washington, and Democrat money may have to come in from Washington if, in fact, this is going to be the slugout that it looks like. Max Miller, who's got some problems up there in Ohio, he's doubling down despite domestic abuse allegations. He's loaning his campaign a million dollars, giving him a big money lead, despite those domestic abuse allegations that he denies. The Wall Street Journal scooped Miller saying, I'm in this for the long haul. Even as Senator John Husted of Ohio has become the latest prominent Republican to call for him to go. Me, even his father-in-law said he needs to go. Senator Moreno in Ohio, but Max Miller is hanging on. So I'm going to pop a million more dollars into his campaign. So we'll keep an eye on that. Lots to watch. Bob, have a great weekend. Take a little break. We'll talk again on Monday. Look forward to it. Thank you, pal. Thanks, buddy. Bob Savage, right here on Cruze and Crew at 97.3 FM and 590 a.m. WV.L.K. Ah, we'll get to traffic in a minute. Stop that. Stop it. All right. Yeah, let's do the weather first. We have now 88 degrees downtown. On this Friday evening, going to be a mild evening down to just about 72. Can't rule out a chance for a shower, thunder shower. There could be some rolling through the area early this evening. Partly sunny tomorrow, chance for a shower thunderstorm, particularly in the first half of the day. High 88. And then sunny and hot 90 on Sunday and up to 92 on Monday. Right now it's 88 at 97.3 FM and 590 AMWV. Okay, the heat index values make it feel like mid-90s. So summer heat and humidity is back. Also back, Deidre Ransdow from the Scheller Automotive Traffic Center. What does one trip to Israel do? One trip changes people's faith, their identity, their perspective.
One trip changes the response when people chant from the river to the sea. One trip changes how people see right and wrong. One trip changes the idea of home. One trip changes everything. And one donation is all it takes.