Guests - Brenda Marts, J.L. Wittenbraker, Yvette Serino, Seth Keshel

We have made it to Friday. Isn't that exciting? I'm excited for the weekend. And we have an announcement this morning from the Andy Biggs campaign that he has picked, seen Kerr. She is the daughter of an Army Combat veteran and a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico. She's worked as a dairy farmer in Buckeye for over 40 years and represented Maricopa and Yuma counties in the state senate. Her husband, Bill, of 46 years, have raised their four children, and they have 12 grandchildren in the West Valley. And I think she is a good choice for a lot of reasons. But her and Andy worked together. If people want to know, well, who is she and everything else. But she is Arizona's first nominee for lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket. So it's Andy Biggs Kerr, K-E-R-R. We, Sean Obolick, she was a thoughtful legislator who represented her district very well. Jenny Clark, excellent choice. Jenny's working on the ESAs, as you know. Arizona's going. Arizona is going to win big this November with Andy Biggs and Kerr, Cindy Casas, an excellent choice. And what's interesting is the people that are saying seen is a good person, and she is. are from different sides of the aisle. I think that's already a good sign. And we have a request in to, number one, get them Andy Biggs and Kerr down here in Pima County. I've already put that request in early this morning with campaign, the Andy Biggs campaign. And so more to come. But we do have that announcement this morning and we are looking forward. This is a new position. We have never had a lieutenant governor before. We voted on this last election cycle. And so we're going to, we as a state, have to learn about the role of lieutenant governor. And I. I trust Andy Biggs that he made the best choice for his administration and for him and for the people of Arizona, who I know he puts first. Okay, we're going to shift gears because there's people that we have elected in this state that don't necessarily put us first. And so I've invited Brenda Martz into studio. Once again, Brenda does, I get these. amazing emails from Brenda every week. I do, and I appreciate it. And that's to encourage you to keep sending them. So I had Jay Tokoff in the studio recently, and we talked about 425, but I want to start there, and then you have so many wonderful fun facts. So please go ahead and welcome back, Brenda. Thanks for being here. Thank you. The 425 is a pretty...

It's a huge deal. It's a lot of money. And it's not to our advantage as a citizenry of Pima County. And where's the, and if you don't mind if you can, explain where this money is, where it's located now, where they want to move, like they want to change the percentage, right? So go ahead. They want the, on the ballot, the 425 asks. us to approve an expenditure increase. And the expenditure increase is a huge ask because they want to go from 93 million. They want to add 70 million more to that. So 163 million. Right. And that's the base from the 1980s. So they basically are spending $760 million a year. And they want to change that to a billion four. Well, Maricopa only spends a billion nine. And Maricopa is four times, five times. Four times. Four times bigger than us. Yeah. So Maricopa has a $4.6 million population. And Pima has a million population. Why do we need a million foreign spending? So. The 425 is an ask. So you said, why do we need a million for in spending? Did you mean? A billion four. Yeah, okay. A billion four. Okay. I just want to. Yes. It's huge. Maybe we should only give them a million four and see how resourceful they are. Just a concept. Go ahead. So the ask is for us to let them spend a whole bunch of more money. And the only place Pima County can get money is in property taxes. So if you double the amount they can spend, they're going to come back and double the amount they request from the population. So this is a control that has actually worked because it does put a cap on what they can. And it works great. You know, for 45 years it's worked. Now they want to up it. Well, and that's because there's no more COVID or no more illegal immigrant money. Well, and they want to spend all this money on affordable housing. Oh, because that, and so this is great. It might actually, I'm going to be really jaded right now. It might actually help because if they spent on an affordable housing, it'll cause our property values to go down and maybe they wouldn't get as much property tax. But think about the insanity of that. Oh, you know. I've managed rentals for years and years. Okay. And so when you stand in front of me and you say affordable housing in one hand and raise taxes in the other, I'm sorry, who's going to pay for that? Yeah. The tenants are going to pay for it. So what happened to affordable housing? Oh, you just raised it again and again and again. So if Pima County really wanted to deal with affordable housing, they would take that $250 million budget and they would provide housing for people who need help. Right. But they don't. They gave $20 million since 22 to builders for affordable housing. Well, their idea of affordable housing is the...

It's not very affordable. It's the HUD. It's the HUD base. And the HUD base says a studio was worth $996 a month. A studio. You know, we don't pay that, we don't charge that much for rent. And so, you know, a two bedroom is $1,400 a month. Well, I rent two bedrooms for $1,100 a month all the time. So where's the affordable? So your affordable housing is more affordable and you're not getting any money from the county, right, Brenda? Right, right. And most of it is, it's the common sense thing is just driving me crazy because. So, so here's the sad thing. It is not driven by common sense. It is driven by political power. Well, so, yes. So the 425 ask is the biggest ask in the entire state ever. Maricopa has never done this. They ask for an adjustment to the factors in 1990. But they've never come to the state to the... people and said, hey, look, we need to extend our expenditure limit. They're running under budget. They're running. four times the people we are. Right. And they're dropping. For six years, they've dropped the property tax rate. In Maricopa. In Maricopa. Right. And for six years, we've raised it. Yeah. You know, and what are we doing with the money? That's the frustrating part. Well, it's beyond frustrating. And honestly, and this is again, I'm going to just put another plug in for District 5. This is why we have to give Steve Christie someone who can second his motion. because we need to talk about this. This is a bad plan. This is like Rahina Romero trying to raise the taxes in the city of Tucson and do the same kind of nonsense. Right. It all comes back to how much money does the unaffordable people have? Here's the thing. I worked on, thank you, I worked on... homelessness back in my 20s when I lived here and I was a realtor and the Tucson Board of Realtors started Shalom House which became new beginnings and it was here for a long time we took in single moms with children and then we took in homeless veterans there's programs for veterans that we could plug into and there's a And we would do job training so that they, and we had like a 90-something plus percent rate where they didn't return to homelessness. So there's a, and gospel rescue mission does a great job. But I don't believe it's the job of government because we're not getting to the root cause.

of why we have, why the cost of living is so high. And they, they're almost creating the problem and they now need more money to create the problem, not to find a good solution. Affordable housing is not a good solution to homelessness. We have to take a break. Okay. And when we come back, we're going to talk to Brenda about this and so much more because this is not unfortunately the only dysfunction in the county. We have more. We have a plethora of dysfunction. And I'm using my big words since Friday. You are listening to Win Tucson here on 1030 The Voice, your trusted local news and talk on KVOI. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back to Win Tucson. We're talking to Brenda Martz. Brenda does deep dive. She looks at things. She thinks of things that I don't even think about. But they make such great sense. Affordable housing, Brenda. We talked about that. It's really not affordable at all. It always amazes me like, you know, diversity, equity, inclusion. It's just, it's not what the words say. And I think that what this does, affordable housing... You mentioned it briefly in our first segment, but this was a lot of money that went to builders. And I came from the construction world, but we don't have housing for first-time home buyers anymore. Essentially, by the actions that Pima County has taken, people can't afford a home, especially if you're a first-time home buyer. I agree. And so... The affordable housing agenda gets all screwed up when you think about all the things that go into it. So if somebody has rental properties, they're paying property tax, they're paying utilities, they're paying. And they're paying a higher property tax. Yes. And we're going to keep going higher. And that's what this 425 does, allows the county. They say there's no tax increase. Of course, there's not one this year. But if this passes, then they have the ability to increase the property taxes. So this is a property tax increase. Pardon me? This will be a property tax. Absolutely. And it'll be a huge one. It can double the property taxes on every single property. And... So that we can provide money into their slush fund to do affordable housing as a pet project, which has, by the way, not worked anywhere that I'm aware of in the country. No, affordable housing, when the... Okay, that was Brenda taking a frustration pause. Go ahead. I could hear it. So go ahead.

When they took the money, they took the money from the property owners and they gave it to the builders at a million dollars apiece. And how many projects were there? There are, there's about 40 projects and since 2020. So we're talking 40 million dollars? Well, there's $20 million. Sorry, so there must be 20 projects. And some of them aren't a million. Yeah. But there's a listing. You can go to the Pima County Board and look at the listing. And so. To take that money from property taxes and give it to somebody else and then tell me you're working on affordable housing is a contradiction at a level that I can't even begin to understand. Yeah. Well, because you understand. So it sounds good, right? It's always about the story that they tell, but it's not, and it's a version of the truth, but it's not the full truth. Well, and, you know, there's no stake in the game here for the county. The five supervisors, okay, so it costs them an extra $2,000 a year or something. They don't care from the looks of it anyway. Right, right. So, but from a common sense standpoint, it doesn't make any sense. So they want to give $250 million to builders. To builders. And how many houses are for sale right now? Seven, eight thousand in Pima County, maybe? Yeah, a lot more than there used to be. You know, and so they're building huge. So we talk, we can see, so we'll just do it this way. I find that people can't see it in their own backyard. If we look at the number of people leaving New York and droves, right? Right. Because they want to take all the money from the rich people. Right. We've got a campaign against rich people. If you've been successful, you've worked hard, you've created whatever wealth you've created, you're a bad person. Elon Musk is the worst person in the entire world because he's done really well. But in New York, people are leaving in droves. And Governor Kathy Hochul told them to go, but now she needs them back. She wants them to donate to their charities and all the things they've gotten used to spending money on. That's not the function of government. No. And it's not the function of government to pick an industry like construction and building, which I love. That's where I came up. We were, my husband and I built homes in Scottsdale before we moved here. you can make the market was such you could do well the markets aren't good right now because of political decisions that have been made and and our pima county board of supervisors unfortunately have made decisions that don't economically make sense so go ahead brenda it's it's true the the pressure on the rental community is continually getting harder. So as a property owner, your goal is to provide a good environment that's safe and that's sufficient and that you make some money on.

So when the property taxes increase, if there's 425 passes, the property tax, if you double the property tax, what are you going to do to the rents? The rents have to go up because why wouldn't they? So the whole process is so counterintuitive to... helping the people that need the right that help you know if the county supervisors would go to the apartment complex and say look we know that you have people who are struggling you know who they are you know the apartment complex knows that george bought a new car and he's not paying his rent why should we help him we also knows that julie had a hospital event and can't pay a rent this month. So the better use of money is to deal with things on a personal level and not affordable housing builds because there's no personal attached to this $22 million that wants to be $250 million. But the builders benefit from it. Yeah. Well, and yeah. How does this help the... general population. It actually hurts the values depending on where they put these units. And if they're putting them in areas where people, I live out on an area where my property is 3.6 acres and that's kind of the area around me. But right around the corner from where I live now, they've put all these apartments. And so it is, and that's fine. I want people to have housing. We need to fix the homeless problem. But this is a solution, and it's not the right solution to the problem that they're trying to fix. I agree. And the only way Pima County can keep doing this is if the 425 passes. Because right now... So we can take the purse strings away from the supervisors. Or think of it this way. If you're... the rich guy and you've got this young hot chick, you can take away her credit cards. Right, right. As many bells and whistles and shoes and cute things that she wants, she shouldn't be spending it on that. We need to fix this problem and they are, they are... obsessed, it looks to me, to become a city, a county, I guess we're a county, and the second largest county, and we're not following anything that fiscally makes sense. Absolutely. And I spent a lot of years in finance and lending, worked for J.P. Morgan Chase. And I, if you don't understand a balance sheet, if you don't understand, you don't spend money, They are trying to, the only way that they can get more money in the drive to get more money, because the faucet got shut off when President Biden was no longer there. I agree with that. And so they got used to that. It's like a drug addicted person. They got used to that power and spending the money and enriching NGOs in Pima County and enriching others. And now they don't have that power.

And we should not return it. We should be fiscally responsible. Well, and I think that the fact that the county doesn't have any accountability. You know, there's no checks and balances. There's no, we don't have anything that we can say except to vote somebody else in. And people don't understand how much money they're spending. in order to make better decisions. So do we have any financial geniuses on the Pima County supervisor? I don't think so. Well, and I'd like to say Steve Christie is the dissenter, right? Yeah. And he ran a business. He ran a car dealership. I knew him back when... way back long time ago before he was every supervisor actually um just because i'm old and uh but he he understands it i think he gets it and so um is it the job of the county to it's one solution shouldn't they go out to the public i don't remember them coming to us about wanting to do this. Did we have meetings about this? Did I miss them? Oh, no. It was it was hidden in the agenda in the little tiny one paragraph. And I think the only reason that we know about it is because somebody accidentally read that paragraph and said, what does that mean? You know, and then we looked at it and said, oh, that means that they want to basically double your property taxes. It doesn't say that. But the unintended consequence. When you look at what's going on, that's the only place they can get the money. So we want to spend twice as much, but we're not going to take it from you. Bologna. They are definitely going to take it to you. This is under the trust but verify column of your life, right? Yes, it's terrible. So. I guess so what do we do we fight no like 414 the right we have the 425 has to be a no Pima County needs to know absolutely without a doubt that we're not okay with this no other county has to do it Maricopa can run a great operation at you know 4.6 is there effective property tax rate. Pima County right now is 8.5. We're double and we're still less efficient. We're double and we still aren't getting enough. They want to double the money they can spend. So they want to make what 16%? At least. Well, I don't know what that number would work out to be, but it's going to be one point. something yeah so so essentially they're going to keep taxing us and there won't be anybody to live here and there won't there won't be there'll be lots of housing it just won't be affordable oh absolutely and

What, you know, yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me. So, sorry, I get pretty passionate about this. No, no, you don't have to apologize at all. And we love your passion. When we come back, we're going to talk about a deadline because we're going to make an ask of our listeners regarding this. And we're going to give them information where they can go check it out, read it, and then we'll help them. If you want to, we want as many people as possible to send in to the Board of Supervisors. why we don't want this let's let them know and we're going to talk to them intelligently maybe a little emotionally because this gets us fired up but we want to make sure that people understand that not only all the things on the ballot to vote for in november but to vote no on this this is a sneak this is they're hoping you don't notice but 425 isn't any good so uh You are listening to Win Tucson. We're going to take a news break when we come back. We're going to talk a little bit more about your involvement in this. You and all the listeners because in all the residents, all the voters in Pima County, it's time that once again we rally together, independents, Democrats, Republicans. If you don't want your cost of living to go up, and we don't, we need to stay a solid no against 425. You're listening to 1030 The Voice, your trusted local news and talk. This is Wynne Tucson. I'm Kathleen Wyn. I'll be back with Brenda right after this news break. Stay with us. I want to know where love is too. It's not an affordable housing and it's not raising our taxes. So we have a job to do people. And I invited Jail Wittenberger because if you want to have someone on your team who's going to get stuff done, she's one of those people. Jail, we have until August 5th, Brenda was sharing right before the break, that we could enter statements on why we're against 425. So how do people get smart quick on this and how do we help them? I want there to be an outpouring of love. towards the Pima County's supervisors to let them know this is a really bad idea. Go ahead. And welcome, by the way. Yeah, well, one of the best ways to get informed is to attend a Republican Party meeting. We have very well-informed people who speak at these events. The Pima County GOP can certainly help you find out when legislative district you're in. and give you information on the meeting times, but we are already seeing op-eds published in local papers about why people are for or against the ballot measure. I'm personally for the record against.

I'm against any more government spending given the amount of waste we're seeing in their fiscal systems. You can also find information on the Pima County web page and their elections page as well as... researching all on your own. I can tell you, GROC has a wealth of information on the ballot measure. And then finally, I would say, take a look at other ballot measures that have been approved either via Pima County or the city of Tucson. And then look at their financials. You will see the waste and realize that your tax dollars are going for things that weren't even presented as an issue, right? So they present this, and I'm sure Brenda has already given a lot of the information on it. But, you know, they presented as no new taxes. Oh, we just have too much money that we can't spend. The reality is it opens the door for more taxes. 100%. Yeah, and so go to the Pima County webpage, search for ballot measure argument, and you'll see the portal. You'll have to skip past their banner alert that there's extreme heat here in the summer. Imagine that. Oh, we have extreme heat. Oh, no one, I didn't know until you just told me. I'm so glad the county is letting us know. Yeah, yeah. We have extreme crime, too. Is there a banner for extreme crime? Oh, we have extreme homelessness. We have extreme drug problems. Where are those banners, J.L? And we have an extreme spending problem. Yeah, they're all caused by the extreme hate. So, anyhow, scroll down, you answer a series of questions. You know, there's a $25 fee to... submit the ballot argument, you understand the deadlines, et cetera. And then you simply just put in your argument. It is limited to 300 words. And that's why we need everyone to really research and submit an argument. So you're giving the uninformed voter. the information right there in the voters ballot book, where they can see varying arguments on why this proposition is no good for Pima County.

And, you know, and, of course, people can always reach out to the Pima County GOP if they need, you know, to have someone walk them through how to do this ballot measure argument, submittal. We have a deadline of August 5th, so my suggestion is we will post something. later today or the latest tomorrow on where you can go on the pima gop.org website so we'll give you instructions we want as many people as possible to say to express their opposition to four to five i'm hoping that the same people that um were against 414 will be against this. I think it's the same problem. And you're absolutely right. You said a lot of wonderful things, Jail, but the most important thing is that they tell us that the money is for X, and then they use it for, you know, Y. Z, K, anything else. And they don't tell us. And it's a bait and switch. And we cannot allow people who are deceptive. They tried to sneak this by us. They didn't have a meaningful conversation with the community. Let's hope that whatever their efforts are to educate us to change this. This was a safeguard that protected us as taxpayers and property owners. And they are trying to circumvent that and get their hands on the money and expand their authority. And we should not vote for that. And I want to thank you for jumping on with us. Any last thoughts? No, just keep fighting the good fight. Pima County, we have some of the most challenging issues here in Pima County in all of Arizona. So it's all up to us to spread the word and engage with our neighbors. 100%. And thank you for jumping on. I know you're super busy and we appreciate it so much. Thank you. And JL? Yeah. Drink lots of water. There's a heat alert. Have a great weekend, my friend. I'll talk to you later. Bye-bye. All right. See, if I don't laugh, I scream and yell at people, so it's good that we have some humor in this. It's true. Oh, Lord, help us. All right. So back to what we were saying. And I think there is a deadline. You have to submit, I think, by 5 o'clock on next Wednesday, August 5th. And what we'll do is I will beat the drum again Monday and Tuesday. But we will get something out on the Pima County website.

I just have to. That would be great. Yeah. And what we'll do is we'll put the portal in to where people can write and give you some ideas is what we might said. So I think that, or we do want you to do your own research, but I really hope that we. It's okay right now to have fatigue. Yes. You're going to have fatigue. I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to give you a 100-day warning. You're going to have fatigue for the next 100 days. That takes us past the election and whatever malarkey will happen after the election, because God knows, we will have that too. And... But just give us 100 days and let's change Arizona. I really believe we can do it. And we have to pay attention because this is, what a great time to try to sneak in stealing millions of dollars. Well, and the RTA people have. regrets for passing the RTA because now they're like, oh, it didn't say that at all. So the misinformation is huge. And for the county to stand in front of you and say it's not going to raise your property taxes is fraudulent. I mean, it really, there's no other place for them to get the money. So 425 is a abusive power. And I mean, if they had asked for $5 million, you know, I could maybe understand that. 70 million? That's a lot of money. To them, though, it has lost its meaning. Yes. Because they've had millions and billions of dollars come through here. And by the way, Katie Hobbs is still under investigation. Let's not let our supervisors be investigated for misuse of public funds. I think there's so much here that is wrong. And they're not being honest with who's getting the money and who's benefiting. from this affordable housing. We're going to take our last break and then come back and finish up. Anything else you want to tell us about Pima County? You've got more sheets over there. I know we haven't covered. We are talking to Brenda Martz, who's one of the hardest working advocates I know in all of Pima County, LD18 resident, but she lives in Supervisor District 5. So you're going to indulge me just a little about that because we have a chance to change the dynamic of the board. And we should. We should. Thank Adelaida for her service. Since she's moved on to Congress, unfortunately, the substitute was not as good as the original, and the original wasn't that great either. So you are listening to Win Tucson on 1030 The Voice on KVOI.com. You can find this episode and any other that we've had. We've had a lot of great conversations this week. So stay with us. We'll be back right after this.

Welcome to back to Win Tucson on this Friday. I am only like an hour and 14 minutes on ready for my weekend, which is going to be filled with working all weekend. So I don't know. I'm so excited to get out of here, but here we are. We were talking right before we went to break about how they say they're going to use money for one thing and then they use it for another. And Brenda, I swear, you guys should take Brenda to lunch and you get smart really fast. She deserves it. So one of the things, they took money for roads, right? They raised money for roads. But then they turned around and used it for the Chuck Huckleberry loop. Right? They've passed a bunch of bonds, and they call it parks and open spaces, and then they move the HIRF funds into overpasses, and they add the loop to all of that. So, you know, I'm not opposed to the loop. I think it's probably good for Pima County, but... When you prioritize a small population and don't take care of the basics for the rest of us, I get kind of frustrated. So, you know, the roads in Tucson are, is the word horrendous? Okay? I mean, some of the roads don't even exist. They're just pothole after pothole after pothole. And Pima County has some of that. Yes. I mean, obviously the city of Tucson is a bigger center. Yeah, it has a different. funding, but Pima County's put, I don't know, millions and millions into the Huckleberry loop. And now what we have is a bike path covered with homeless people and it's not safe. I mean, you know, and. Well, in the annual maintenance, just so people know, of the 137 plus mile network sits at roughly 700,000 per year. So just under, well, it's not just under, it's like. Between half a million and a million dollars. And as you just mentioned, the safety and the cleanliness initiatives under the county's newer one Pima initiative, they are so good with these names. The Board of Supervisors allocated another $750,000 for the dedicated loop trail cleanup. Well, they had to because... Can't yet. You know, so it's going to cost twice as much next year as it did last year to just maintain it. And so instead of 700,000, you're now talking 1.4 million. Yeah. Billion or million. Million. Yeah. The 1.4 million and billions get tangled up pretty fast, don't they? It's amazing to me that. The county is telling us that we get $9.40 in economic and health care benefits for every single dollar spent. How does that work? Good question. I'm not sure where that number came from. Did they feel better about themselves? So that's $9.40. It must be because I don't know about, I don't know what the economic benefit to the loop is. It may go back to advertising. So maybe, you know, that visit Tucson and.

Maybe that $8 million they get a year goes, returns on that investment. I don't know. I don't think the loop. Pima County has spent approximately $22 million in direct local funds on building this loop since the bike and pedestrian program formalized tracking began back in 2002. So, you know, and I'm, again, we had that one bicyclist who was murdered on the bike loop. Right. And then we had that one woman that just passed away in the last few days who was punched in the face. Oh, right? Yes. Yes. And then we have those nine victims of the shooting. Yep. There's a lot of stuff going on. And I think the county's gotten way too far away from their basic function. You know, and... Well, maybe instead of affordable housing, we could have affordable policing. That would be nice. Or just policing in general would be great. You know, let's show up when something happens. You know, and yeah, and here's the sad thing. The supervisors did refer the Sheriff Nanos thing. so yay but I don't know that the Attorney General's announced anything yet that she's going to do or not do it's an election year she's probably confused and you know God will help us and so but the sad thing is you've got rank and file underneath that sheriff right And what are you doing other than saying that their sheriff's bad, which they already know, what are you doing to support your rank and file? And does this help, does this, whatever the heck they're trying to do with affordable housing? No, it'll probably increase calls. Do we know how you qualify for the affordable housing? Who's going to get the affordable housing? What we do know is what builders have been identified. And I don't want to bag on builders. I was one. But. It's not organic. It's forced through government. And anytime government puts their thumb on the scale, it's the wrong solution for the problem right now. Truly, because free enterprise works the best. We know that. History has told us that if you stay out of the market... and you let it do what it's supposed to do, it will provide housing. That's what people do. They build houses and they sell them and they build apartments and they rent them. And for the government to be in the middle has just increased the cost to everyone because now they're taking money from the owner and giving it to the builder. And they want to do more of that. It's a tax. It's a total tax. It's a total tax. And they're not calling it that. No, no. It's such a scam. It's a scam. It's a terrible scam. And it just keeps going. Maybe we can get a legal injunction because they're not being truthful. I wish. It's terrifying. I'm going to find a smart lawyer today. There you go. So again, you know, the 425 is on the ballot. It really makes a difference to everyone.

And they should understand what it says. We should just order and design a really cool no on 425 t-shirt and then sell them as a fundraiser for the party. I think it's just time that we, and this is sad. We should be, it's a distraction, but we just have to, you know, add it to our list of things to do. Well, and if we don't tell people. Right. There's no way they would know. Because when you get that booklet, it's going to be all full of propaganda and it's going to say, oh, it's going to be wonderful. It's not going to cost you a dime. The streets will have gold. Yes. And these will be the very best affordable housing anywhere in the world. They're not going to tell us about the daily territorial. Yeah. I'm sorry. Have you looked up the Daily Territorial ever? I did. I think Pima County owns it. I'm like, what? What did it say? It just, the website on the Daily Territorial looks like it's Pima County's propaganda machine. I'm like, hmm, interesting. Well, no wonder I never read that thing. Do we know who publishes it? I don't know who publishes it for sure, but it was very connected. It looked to me like. So. Where are they? How is the... How is the county sharing information? Well, the only place I can get it is from the agenda. Bathroom walls? Yeah, I think that's it. I mean, the only people who know are people who are willing to go out and look. And most of us don't want to go out and look. Well, this tells me we have to get Steve Christie back on here really quickly. Oh, man, yeah. Yeah, he needs to. And he can't, the sins of his brothers and sister, I guess, because Jen Allen, but we really need to understand. Elections have consequences. And this is a big. This is a finance. We need to break this down. Brenda, we'll have you come back as we get closer to people actually having a ballot in their hand. But we need to understand that for you and me, the average Pima County citizen, what this is going to now add to the bottom line. If they are trying to force people out of Pima County, they're doing a really great job. Big time. I'm ready to go. And I don't want to move. Yeah. You know, my husband's lived here his whole life. And I've got, I've got seven grandkids in Pima County. Yeah. We don't want to have to move, but they're trying to price us out. And that's sad. It's very sad. So the only. local option we have right now is Jeff Rhodes running for Pima County supervisor. And if we can elect Jeff Rhodes, at least him and Steve Christie can bring this up and he'll be on your ballot. He went down there yesterday. They confirmed he is on the ballot in November. Good job. Great job. Brighton voters. We're very proud of you. He had more double than he needed. So that was fabulous. That worked. We did it. So continue. But tell us about Jeff. Jeff's a good guy.

Being a Republican, Jeff's already on my side. I think that Jeff... He's on the side of independence, though, and Democrats. Well, right. And he understands the money. We can talk to him about the 425, and he's like, oh, that's a big deal. Why is that that way? You know, and so he's... able to look at things from a different perspective than what we've been seeing. One of the things that he told me before he decided to run was, I said, why are you running? And he said, because the person sitting in the chair doesn't understand the dynamic of the economics and always has to say, everything he says is I have to go research it. if he doesn't have the, if he doesn't, and he's relying on someone else, he says, so if he doesn't have the ability to make the decision, then whoever he's going to get to research it should probably run, but he shouldn't be there. He's not equipped to do this job. I would agree. Well, and I don't know. None of them I could vote for except, you know, I can vote for Jeff Rhodes. Yeah. And in the general you could, but you're not, you're going to stick with team. Republican. And to be fair, if the independents turn out and say we've had enough, this would be a good way to say no to 425 and no to the current regime of the supervisors. Send a very loud message. You cannot take, and this is a money grab, bar none. And you've got two ways to say no. Yeah. So I think that's good. Okay, you have about a minute and a half. Final thoughts? Well, if I could say anything to anybody, I would say please vote no on 425 because it's going to hurt you. And it's going to hurt you a lot. You know, if you don't read your property tax statement, maybe you won't notice, but your bills are going to go up. So read your property tax statement. See how much of your money they're spending. And what are you getting for it? You have crime, you have homeless, you have poor road surfaces, you have lack of communication, if you call a county or a city department. You have a Pima County Jail that's falling apart. and they just have pushed it aside. But let's make that affordable housing. That would work. And then let's start putting people in there. Let's start prosecuting people. I've got my own plan for affordable housing. Let's get the criminals off the street. Let's fix the roads. I think we can do this. And we can do it without changing the current pay structure. Let's fix what's broken first without coming up with some of these hairbrain schemes. Brenda, thank you for coming in here on Friday. We will see you again. And thank you for more than anything. She gave me homework. I've got homework here to do. I love that. And I promise you on the PMA GOP website, I'm going to say tomorrow, we will release how you say no to 425 with your own comments. And so you have homework this weekend too. All right. We'll be back right after this here on 1030 The Voice.

on Wind Tucson. We have a guest calling in and we're going to talk about all kinds of wonderful things that are going on in this country that we need to be aware of. And this has been a big week for news. So just know, we're going to keep you updated and informed because that's what we do here. When Tucson is a radio show for very smart, intelligent people. So thank you for listening. We'll be back right after this news. On 1030, The Voice, your trusted, local news and talk. Welcome back and I am trying to reach my guest that was supposed to be calling in. But in the meantime, I have some clarifications to make and I so appreciate Steve Christie's office and his wonderful staff. So I've got some corrections on what we said. The loop was paid for with flood control money. And the ballot arguments... What I was saying was that we want to let the supervisors know how we feel, but they don't go to the board of supervisors. The arguments go in the publicity pamphlet that's mailed to voters. And so what we, I promise we're going to do is we're going to send you the correct link so that you can get it. We only have until Wednesday, and they don't give us a lot of time to respond. And unfortunately, this to me was a little agenda item. There was no public conversation. It's complicated. And they're hoping that you don't want to take the time to understand what's going on. Also, property taxes are supposed to increase the value of the property. Social services and pet projects don't. And we understand that. and only a sales tax if property taxes are cap so seniors and others are protected so um if we had a a reasonable uh board of supervisors except that we have an extreme one we would diversify the income stream uh with a sales tax um and and and again this is only of that sales tax uh would be allowed to cap the the property taxes. So it's complicated. We need to know that right now in Pima County, property tax is wealth redistribution. Our property taxes are way above what they need to be. And right now, housing is supply and demand. We have to increase supply by easing permits for private sector building instead of enriching a certain number of people that are building the housing. So you have the board of supervisors influencing the marketplace.

They're putting their thumb on the scale and they haven't been effective. And instead of solving the core problem, they're trying to come up with a solution. And my good friend Chris Schiff, God rest his soul, gave me a book two weeks before he passed away about how affordable housing isn't the answer to the homeless problem. It just isn't. And it is now incumbent upon us with this happening. We will bring experts in. We need to explain it to the general public and we will have those kinds of public meetings that the board of supervisors should have had before they do this huge money grab. You have to say no to 425. So I appreciate Brenda doing what she does. I am confident that there is so much going on that we don't understand and don't know behind the scenes, but it affects our bottom line. And 414 was a bad idea. 425 seems to be so much worse. And I am... I'm confident we have to we have so many things on this ballot coming out the

The ESAs will be on this ballot. Although they are in court right now, our hope is that they had so many bad signatures that it gets thrown out. We are currently fighting with the Attorney General because as Alex Calden has come on and said, we want to do the Save Act here in Arizona. Adrian Fontes right now is trying not to mention immigration or... illegal voters in the language that describes what that bill is. So they're fighting over language. And the oversight project that represented us is going to be writing an amicus brief. It has to go in today. So there's things that happen every day that people aren't aware of. And all of these things are, there's a group of people trying to take away your resources, your funds, your... your own personal enrichment and put it into a bigger pie so they can be in charge and have personal power. They are not serving your interest. And we're going to keep pointing it out. If they do something good, we'll let you know. But unfortunately, we don't have that. Brendan, we're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, we will have someone here on the phone with us. You are listening to 1030 The Voice. You're trusted local news and talk. And we'll be back right after this. Welcome back to Win Tucson as we head into our final hour. We have the benefit right now of a lot of people wanting to help Pima County outside of the supervisors. God bless them. This. In order to make change, do you have to have a catalyst for change? And the Leadership Institute is an organization. We have turning point. We have American majority. We have several others that are in the area that are trying to help us focus on getting the right people across the finish line in this election cycle and the general election. We are outnumbered in Pima County if you look at just Republicans. and Democrats, but the independents make a big difference. And so it's important that we capture the independent vote. And many former Republicans have become independence. Actually, many former Democrats have become independence. And there seems to be a consensus around key issues, what we call 80-20 issues. So what I love is that the Leadership Institute, they'll be here next week, and I've invited Yvette Serino on. to talk about some of the things they're doing here in the state because it's important that we give you opportunities to learn things to, especially if you're a candidate, but even if you're considering in the future to do something politically. So, Yvette, welcome. And I don't know your official title with the Leadership Institute, so you have to tell me.

And good morning. Director, national speaker. Say that again, Hunt. We were potting it up. Deputy, I'm sorry, Deputy Regional Director. And so I travel the nation just doing lectures and trainings for anybody that's interested in politics. Oh, my gosh. Is anybody still interested in politics? They are so much. Good to know. So anyway. My, what do I want to say? So next week on the sixth, you are hosting an event here in Tucson. And again on the 8th up in Phoenix, but let's talk in Mesa. So let's talk about the one here on the 6th. Who can come? How do they sign up? What's it about? So give us the details. It's going to be at the double tree by Hilton on 280 South Church. So. from 6 to 9 p.m. It's a Thursday night. So those are the logistics. But tell us what's happening under your catalyst for change in Tucson. So Catalyst for Change is basically anybody that is a candidate, campaign staff, or grassroots leaders, activists, precinct committee members, community organizers, any kind of leader, you know, if you're interested in furthering your agenda or getting more educated, this workshop is going to teach you everything about campaign communications. leadership and organization, and of course, building strong local organizations. It's going to give you just a really raw look into all of that and train you to win your campaigns or even just do stuff in your personal life. Maybe you have a nonprofit or, you know, you have a small business. A lot of these workshops can also benefit you in that respect, right? So it's important to get out and, you know, come and attend. I have a special friend coming from Washington. She's a good friend of mine, Heather Sellers, which I know is a bestie of yours too. Yes. And she's wonderful. And I think that she just brings that, you know, that energy to the room and to the people that she meets. And so I think it's going to be a really great training. So you don't want to miss it. But it is just helping everybody develop their skills and learn more to grow and, you know, take this on. And we'll have a little discussion afterwards, a little panel discussion on certain topics that are hot right now.

you know, socialism and different things. And so I think it's going to be really important to come and learn. And if you've never taken a training by us or been exposed to the Leadership Institute, I would say now is the time to do it because a lot of people still haven't like heard of what we do. But we are very well known, not just nationwide, but internationally as well. So I think they would love it. And if I tend this, what am I, I love, I love Heather, obviously. She's great. And we've known each other a while. She helped me when I ran for Congress. And she's so, she's bringing information that we don't have, right? So. Exactly. Exactly. Everybody that we have that lectures, everybody has their own perspective on things. It's maybe not always, you know, the Leadership Institute's way of thinking, right? Like everybody has their own. But they bring so much insight to everything and how they do things and what their strategies are. And it's just nice to see a different perspective from someone else, right? That's not from here. But, you know, it's going to be good. We're going to have dinner for everybody. It's free with promo code W-I-N-26. W-I-N-26. You can register online at the Leadership Institute.org or you can just visit the Pima County GOP website and online on social media. I know a link went out in the newsletter too. You just click the flyer. It'll take you directly to the registration link. Thank you so much for doing that. And, yeah, we're just trying to, you know, win Arizona and help everybody as much as we can with, you know, the knowledge that we have to share with everyone else because, you know, knowledge is power, right? And we want to empower everybody that works campaigns from volunteers all the way to campaign staff. So they're just really, really strategic workshops and trainings. And we have done a lot in Arizona. you know, up in Maricopa, down here in southern Arizona. I'd say we'd probably been more down here because that's just how it worked out. But there's just so much, and I just think everybody should take advantage of it. It's free. We're offering it for free. It's normally costs like $150, right? This training issue. Yeah, they're expensive and they can even range, I mean, even higher than that, depending on what you want to do. But, I mean, we offer it because we want everybody. equipped with the tools that they need to succeed. So this is where you need to be. And also, there will be like-minded people in the room. And I know some of our candidates are going to be attending. So you might get an opportunity. If you wanted to work on a campaign, this would be a great way to connect with candidates because when we say grassroots, we mean it. We don't, we don't. We could teach some people about fiscal conservatism because we take what we have and we use it the best we can without, you know, we don't throw money at problems. We actually work hard to solve them. And I think that this training, you know, we can talk, it'll talk about key political races that's in our county and talk about the challenges or concerns that we have.

And I also believe that it'll be an opportunity for you to get information that you don't hear anywhere else. And I think that... I don't think. I know that this will leave a lasting impact. And we'll also be able to share all the resources that we have in the county. This is, it'll be worth your time and effort. It is, it is at night. Oh, God, you're welcome. God bless you. So, Yvette, I don't know if you heard. Did you hear that Andy announced his lieutenant governor this morning? I have not. I have actually been busy registering for another. It's a campaign school we're doing in Mesa on August 8th that same week. So I was busy doing that. So Seen Kern, former State Senator Seen Kerr is who Andy selected this morning. And I'll send you that so you know. Thank you. Yeah, tell us about the one in Mesa because that's also August 8th. So this is August 6th. In case you can't make that, let's hear about the other one. So August 8th is an Arizona conservative campaign school in Mesa. And we have very special guests coming in, you know, world-renowned lecturer, Ron Nearing. He is our director of International School of Politics at the Leadership Institute. And we also have David Reed, and he's in charge of our Battlegrounds programs, and he's an advisor for the Leadership Institute. And so he oversees actually the Battleground Program for Arizona as well. So we have really great program. This one is designed to basically give you a crash course in campaigns. You know, they're going to give you everything from, you know, real nature politics to fundraising to, you know, communication strategies, you know, just different things that they offer. But it's basically you're going to, they're going to touch on so many subjects that day. It's going to be a long day. It's from nine to four. But if you are. totally committed and you really want to get all this information all in one place, that's the day to do it because this is going to be the biggest campaign school that we do in Arizona. So it's the place to be August 8th and Mesa 9 to 4. You can register again online at Leadership Institute.org or you can check the Arizona GOP website as well. And I know they're reaching out to some folks, but it's really designed for candidates. that are, you know, running in office and their campaign managers. But anybody that is campaign staff can attend as well or just someone that's interested in, you know, maybe they're thinking about running. They just haven't jumped yet. They haven't decided. This is a good way to, you know, learn about structure and how campaigns work.

And it's information that you can't get anywhere else but from us at the Leadership Institute. And it's taught specifically in a way that, you know, we want you to win. You know, we just want to be there as a resource to help you and make you, you know, the best that you can be. Well, and I think that, you know, as a candidate, it's tiresome and sometimes going to one of these things pumps you up. It gives you ideas. You're thinking, you know, you've done it a couple times if you're running for re-election and you know, well, maybe just this input would make a difference because I think that when you have someone who comes in. and says, hey, these are resources that you didn't know about or you didn't know you had. It gives energy to the whole county. This is one of the reasons that we're doing this in the state of Arizona. We've been working hard on elections for a very long time. So, Yvette, I want to thank you for coming on. Do you want to give out the information? If I want to register right now, where do I go? You can go to online, just look up Leadership Institute.org. And then you can plug in Tucson if you want to attend the Tucson one or if you want to attend Mesa, just put Mesa. But everything should be in there under, you know, what we offer for trainings. Plus there's some other stuff you can take a look at too. But it's simple. Just register. Use the codes. The promo codes for Mesa is Arizona all in caps. So it'll be totally free. And for Tucson, again, it's W-I-N-26. It's win 26 with one end. Yep. They misspelled win. No, I'm just kidding. Win 26 with one end. All right. Well, I want to thank you for jumping on with me. I appreciate you. And I will be at the Tucson one for sure. And thank you so much for the work that you're doing here. Yvette is a force of nature. And she works so hard and is committed to the success of Arizona. and especially Pima County. So thank you for all your hard work. And I look forward to seeing next week. No problem. I guess we're going to see each other two days in a row. Aren't you lucky? We are. We are. I am lucky. I'm spending time with you. All right. Have a great weekend, honey. Thank you so much. You too. Thank you. Bye. Bye. So when we come back, we are going to talk to one of my other favorite people. the first gentleman of LD17, Seth Keschel, who wrote a substack that caught my attention about the status of Senator John Fetterman out of Pennsylvania, who is registered as a Democrat, but certainly doesn't talk like one, doesn't act like one, and maybe the saving grace of the Democrat Party, except I don't think they're smart enough to understand what they have. And as the Socialist Party... continues to be the cancer inside the Democrat Party.

It's either going to be a saving grace for us and a blessing or it's going to be the death of this country. Sorry to be so extreme on a Friday. But I am anxious when we come back after this news break to talk to one of the smartest guys I know, definitely one of the tallest about Senator John Fetterman and what else is going on in the Senate. And can we keep the Senate? All kinds of questions. And Seth's on the line now. So when we come back after this news break, we're going to ask them. You're listening to Win Tucson on 1030 The Voice. You're trusted local news and talk. We'll be back right after this. I'm Kathleen Wynn. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to Winn Tucson and one of my favorite guys in Pima County. Are you there, Seth? I'm here, yes. Oh, good. Sorry about that. You called in, like, right before the break. So I am intrigued. I like John Fetterman, and he's been a gift because he didn't start out very strong, right? He was kind of checked out. But you have a prediction. But before we get to that, you had made a prediction two years before another GOP or changed. Do you want to let the listeners know how very, very smart you are? Because I want them to know. Well, you know, this is, you know, pride goes before the fall, right? So Tulsi Gabbard in 2022, in October of 2022, Tulsi Gabbard declared that she was leaving the Democrats. This is two and a half years after she'd run for the Democrat presidential nomination, and she was also in Democrat Party leadership. And I had predicted that this would be the first step, just like when the ocean recedes before a tsunami, that this would be the first step to her becoming a Republican. And sure enough, two years later, she became a Republican and not only became a Republican, but changed almost all of her views. to be Republican views was fiercely pro-Trump and was a great DNI before her personal circumstances removed her from that office. And I think that she's a force to be reckoned with in the future. So right now, I'm seeing all the same signs where I think that John Fetterman is, is. is tilling the fields to switch to the Republican Party. Now, that brings with it a lot of skepticism because his voting record isn't great. He just is notable because he's the only Democrat that appears to ever have any common sense at any given time. And he's also smart enough to realize who his state voted for two official times and three times officially and unofficially. But he is starting to put out signal that he is. going to definitely at least not be a Democrat in the very near future.

And I think that he's been taking some, you know, Pennsylvania is one of those places, right? Where they ship ballots in and there's a lot of corruption. I knew someone that lived there and then moved here and he was very actively involved. And he said it was a blood sport in Pennsylvania. And so the Democrats in Pennsylvania, because John Fetterman has a mind of his own and doesn't walk in lockstep. they've been saying they're not going to support him when he runs again. And he's not up for reelection right now, is he? No, he's up in 28. But right now he's got supposedly, if Quinnipiac University is correct, he's got a 77% disapproval with the Dems who are now fielding hard left DSA aligned candidates, even in places like Michigan. Yes. Well, and Michigan, you know, has been its own quagmire for a while. But so do you think he'll just, is independent a safe place to go in Pennsylvania or should he go Republican? Well, there's three, there are three options for him. He can either, you know, he can either run as a Democrat and lose. He can, oh, it's four options. I suppose he can retire. or he can run as a Democrat. I don't think that running as an independent will do anything because Pennsylvania is at the heart of the two-party battle. The only two independents in the Senate are Bernie Sanders from Vermont, who's a Democrat, of course, and then Angus King from Maine. Of course, two Lilly White states that enjoy their novelties when it comes to politics. So I don't think that there's any room in a battleground state for... John Fetterman to win as an independent. If you want a comparative case, look at Kirsten's cinema when she was kicking the tires on running as an independent in Arizona, and before you know, she was out of the race. Yes, I think it's a hard way to go. So I think, and I think the Republicans would actually embrace him. And I have to say he has been the voice of reason. in so many different ways. So, Seth, what is that due to the dynamic of the Senate? Well, the Senate right now is 5347. Most people think that will either remain the same number or maybe 5248 if North Carolina is a loss. And that's where Mike Michael Whatley is running? Is that Michael Whatley's race, Seth?

Kathleen, hold on. I'm having an emergency. Okay. Okay. Do you want me take a break? Okay. All right. Well, we're going to take a break. And hopefully he can take care of his emergency. You are listening to Win Tucson on 1030. The Voice, if not, we're going to just figure it out. Because that's what we do here. We'll be back right after this. Don't go. Seth, is everything okay? Welcome back. You scared it. Yeah, I mean, it's not a health emergency. Just dealing with five kids and trying to get them to do what you want is not always that easy. Is all the children still alive? Because I used to kid. Everyone's alive. They are just, they just had to be pacified, you know. I understand. I kid now because my kids are all grown that they all got out alive and there were moments. So I appreciate the situation. So let's get back to John Fetterman. You know, and have you heard, is Mitch McConnell alive? I think I just got a newsflash. Is he with us or without us? No, I have no idea, but everybody's been asking that question for weeks. And I think that that's something that, you know, people have every right to. know about. Yes. You know, and then was he was not running again, right? Is he even up for re-election? No, no, no, he's not running. His seat is open this year, and Andy Barr is the Republican nominee and next senator from Kentucky. Oh, I love Andy. He's a good guy. So, oh, he was found unconscious and rushed to the hospital. He has until the third before key August 3rd deadline. Mitch McConnell is still M.A. That's what this is saying, an hour ago. So we'll just assume he's still with us in some shape or form. All right. Sorry to have diverted squirrel. So John Fetterman. has a decision to make. And would the Republicans take him, given all of his votes and what he's been saying? He would definitely, he would definitely be a good switch for the Republicans. And here's the answer to everyone's questions and the precedent. The precedent is Congressman Jeff Van Drew from New Jersey's 2nd District. Jeff Van Drew was elected in the 2018 Democrat House wave. And in his first year in 2019, he voted with Dems 90% of the time. Voted with Trump about 10% of the time. He was a supporter and co-sponsor of numerous climate control bills. He co-sponsored the For the People Act, which was a left-leaning voter bill, automatic voter registration and certain ethics rules. And he was a co-sponsor of D.C. statehood legislation. And he matters because. Well, so he was a Democrat. All right. He voted against Trump, but he was also smart enough like John Fetterman to not oppose Trump hard because he was from southern New Jersey, a pro-Trump area. So he opposed impeachment, voted against the impeachment.

And then he switched in early 2020 to the Republican Party and immediately became a rank-and-file Republican 90% plus Republican Party line voter since 2020. He now calls the very act before the People Act on elections, which he co-sponsored. He called his socialism served on a Graham Platner. Now he opposes D.C. statehood. He opposed the certification of election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona in 2020. And Trump now calls him a MAGA warrior. So he is one of the most loyal pro-Trump Republicans after being elected as a dim. He shows a lot of the same characteristics voting record early on as John Fetterman, a lot of the same sympathies in John Fetterman. Should he make a transition like Tulsi Gabbard or Jeff Van Drew would far surpass 90% of Republicans in the Senate, especially the Lisa Murkowski's, Curtis, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell's, and Thom Tillis's of the world. Well, and I just sent you a text from a listener. And so, just so you know, and I'll tell you who it is later. So this thing on the Senate, the SAVE Act, let's go there. Has John Fetterman said he's forward or against it? Herman, he's against the SAVE Act, unfortunately, and that's why you need to have a Jeff Van Drew effect should he switch parties. Okay.

And Lindsey Graham was obviously for the Save Act. He was. And his sister will obviously vote that way, you know, and being his replacement. And she's going to run for the seat. I think there's 11 other people or 10 other people running. And that's a pretty safe seat. Is it not? Yeah, I'm not worried about the South Carolina Senate seat. But, you know, we, the SAVE Act, you know, the latest recalibration on the SAVE Act is that it's going to be passed through through some sort of physical process and to address. Reconciliation. Yeah, it's going to address the three most important pillars of that, which is no non-citizens registered to vote, voter ID, and then, of course, a review of voter rolls to ensure there are no ineligible entries, primarily non-citizens. So it seems like it's going to have a lot of the effect of what was desired. But, you know, it's a big if. You know, we've had a number of false starts before on this. As you know, we have our own save act on the ballot in November. And... I think your wife worked on this with Alex Colleton, Representative Rachel Keschel out of LD17, who's running for re-election, by the way, with John Winchester. You need to vote for two, please. So we have two Republicans back in a district that should be solid Republican, Pima and Pinell County. But the other thing is that's going on is if this gets passed, will it? Should we also do our own state one? Yeah, I mean, you know, the federal save act would would check all the boxes. Arizona needs to do some do some work on the mail-in ballot control, like Florida Senate Bill 524 in 2022, which requires address verification. So, you know, we don't have all that. It had to be somewhat of a compromise to get it out of the Senate, is my understanding, but we have a lot of. a lot of ground to make up when it comes to elections here. And that's an unfortunate thing. That's another reason why I'm not so optimistic about EZ1 and EZ6 in the House races this year. And your concerns for both of those, if you don't mind sharing? Well, my concerns are that Siskramani seat is constantly one of the tipping point seats, you know, as long as he's been around 2020, 2024, and now again in 26. And everybody knows that. But AZ1, of course, is Maricopa County's volatile. And, yeah, the good news for Jay Feely is the good news for Feely is that the Dems have nominated a guy who's really cozied up with the DSA faction of the party. Yes, Shaw. I think gives the GOP a decent chance to hold that seat. But Schweikert did not have a big margin there in 2024.

He did not, and he was, you know, losing. And he always had a fight for his seat. In the way that Juan has to fight, they're trying to walk away from Joanna Mendoza's record. They're trying to walk away from her extreme policies in the ads. And what people need to understand, you need to go beyond the commercials. Please go beyond the commercials and see who people really are. Well, I don't really think she has good commercials. She looks very uninspiring. She's about as charismatic as a wet fart, in my opinion. I can't say that, but thank you for saying it. I think that when you peel the facade, if you will, and thank you for your service. My dad was a Marine, but at the end of the day, where do you stand now and what do you believe in? And she has embraced the socialist platform. So if it's one, for those who are in the Republican Party who think he needs to be more conservative, he's been voting with the president. This term has been a much better term than the last term. So yeah, well, you know, he's not in it. He's in a very complicated district. It's since the Trump era began, the, the suburban drift is very real. You know, so a significant part of of AZ6 is Oro Valley Saddlebrook in these areas that are that are formerly heavily Mitt Romney, heavily McCain that have been drifting for 10 years. All right. So, so that's a, that's a. unfortunately it's an area he has to moderate for and we've got some red turf but not enough of it well I think so as you look at the numbers the numbers are plus though what three four in that district Well, I'd have to take a look at what the most recent numbers are, but it's a very narrow. And it includes a lot of LD17. LD17 is the only district out of 30 statewide that ran left on Trump from his 2020 performance. It's just unbelievable to me that that happened. And I obviously, because I'm a resident of LD17. And so I just... This is going to be, you know what this, we're walking into this. It's a buzzsaw right now. And what wins it in Arizona? What makes us want to give the president two more years? Do we hate the president that much here? No, it's just American political history is designed to be like this. Now, before people knew that one party would be completely America-hating and radical, the midterm elections were an opportunity to address perceived shortcomings with the presidential administration and bring in another faction to help balance that out. Now it's more of a bug instead of a feature. But you have...

The president's party and supporters are content that they're guys in the White House. They're not as motivated to vote or incentivized to vote in a midterm. You know, a good example. One of Trump's bread and butter policies, especially relevant down here is border and immigration control. Well, the average voter that doesn't pay attention to every single post that comes out on social media feels and believes that the administration has handled the border and immigration issue or is addressing it now. So their midterm shopping cart isn't as heavy on border controls. So the Dems come in with something else. And a lot of times it's something the GOP is not configured to handle. The GOP, if you believe polls, usually polls ahead of Democrats on almost everything except medical. Medical. Unfortunately, Democrats want the government to pay for everyone's health care. So if the Dems can make a referendum on that or make it a referendum on abortion or all Republicans hate women, then that's where they go. And that's why they have very repetitive campaign themes. And all that together results in just enough seats tipping the other way. And right now my calculation is there's only 45 seats I consider remotely playable. And of those 45, I think 23 of them are truly up in the air. Wow. That's a lot. And typically the party in control loses seats with very few seconds. 20 out of 23 midterm elections since 1934, the president's party has lost seats in the house. And the average loss is 27 seats. This is one of the best chances in that 92 years for that to not happen. So does the socialist, the extremism, are we a state that embraces that? We have people in office. It depends where. I mean, I think as a whole for statewide candidates, I think we got a glimpse of that in 2018, even though it was a Trump midterm where the House was bad, Senate was a net pickup, and the governor's races were a mixed bag. In Arizona, David Garcia got absolutely smoked, and he wasn't nearly as radical as the new fringe of the DSA. He got smoked by a moderate, uniparty Republican, Governor Ducey. So I think that Arizona, as a whole for statewide races, I think the DSA is going to cause them a lot of problems. Depending on where the local races are, it could be a benefit. I think they had a couple of them get through here in Pima County. last week. But I don't think statewide, especially in the areas that decide statewide elections, like in the East Valley, I don't think they're going to make a, I don't think they're going to help the Dems. And I think they're going to push more of the Latino working class, are way? I think the Latino working class definitely is seeing a disconnect. We're hearing it in CD7. I don't know if there's enough of that to make that difference because of the math there. But I know that what is going on, I know that we lost a good candidate, Lydia Hernandez, out of the house.

the house of um i'm not sure what l d that is up there uh she's being pushed out by her party uh she's pro life pro life democrat uh there's not a lot of those and uh and she did not vote lockstep with her party so the democrats are either do what we say um and do as we do and if not you're you're they kick you off the team where the republicans tend to be more independent thinkers Well, that's exactly the way it is. The Republicans, honestly, I think that if you want to use a sports phrase, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I think the Republican Party has that figured out. It's a master class at this time. You know, here in Pima County, it's a 55,000 gap between Republicans and Democrats. And all Republicans in this county do is fight one another based on ideological purity. We do not have the luxury of a party registration advantage to be picky about mirror and mirror on the wall who's the most conservative of them all. I'm tired of it. Yeah, well, stand in line and you're not at the front. But you bring up a great point. We'll end on that. We have to come together as a party. And I don't care if you like the person that got elected or not. I don't care if he's the person or she's the person that got elected. I don't care if you even hold your nose. You do not want what the other party is offering. And so I am confident that once people get their feelings, put back in, this is not about, do you feel good about it? It's not about your feelings. It's about a majority. It's about having the math that we need to move the state forward. And that is what we're dealing with. And if you've done something wrong, if you've offended people and you're running for something, you might want to own up to it. You know, if one person's... Go ahead, please. That's good advice no matter who you are. Yes. Now, can you get my kids to listen? I don't know. You know, they're your age. That's okay. They're pretty great today. And I just want to say thank you personally. As the chairman, you are a great resource. Your information is always valuable. The way that you look at things is factual, and it makes a difference. And your insights are very important, and we appreciate having you on the team. We're glad you married in. You know, one of the best things I ever did was let you, well, live in my guest house, I guess would be the nicest way to put all how that all worked out. Yeah, and then you kicked me out as fast you could. Yes, I did. My mom, she's kind of my mom, and she still resides there today, but she voted for your wife. So that's a good thing. And so we will have three votes for sure for John Winchester and Rachel. Keschel because we're going to vote for two and we're going to ask everyone else to vote for two, especially in LD17, so that we can take back the seat from the Democrats. We need two people there, Winchester and Keschel or Keschel and Winchester, but make sure that you vote and do both bubbles.

All right, Seth. Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks. I hope all the quiet kids is because they got a popsicle or something, and we don't have a tragedy at the casual. No, I rule with an iron fist around here. So Rachel took them out shopping, right? Is that what you're telling? No, no, no. It's all good. Have a wonderful weekend. All right. Thank you. Bye. We've come to the end of our day and the end of this week, and there's a flying here that is driving me crazy. I think I brought it for a... home so and on Monday we have a new advertiser I am so excited to um announce perfection auto and their commercials are funny and you're gonna love them I'm gonna talk about the great service they gave my husband we don't have time now he's got like a new truck so have a wonderful weekend stay hydrated stay safe it's there's a heat advisory go to your Pima County a GOP site we're got lots of information we'll be back on Monday and have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for listening to 1030 The Voice, your trusted local news and talk. This has been Wynne Tucson. I'm Kathleen Wynne. Bye.