BBQ and early voting (10-24-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_02]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Chris says, Pete, please be careful spending so much time speaking with Congressman Dan Bishop. Jackie will get upset that you are giving airtime to a Republican.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_02]: That's right. Oh, Jackie. I did. Yes, I did hear him call in the other night to Brett Jensen show. And Jackie, just start your own podcast, dude, or just listen to NPR.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, we are not going to be what you demand us to be. You cannot change other people, Jackie. So just change the dial. That's all. If you don't like the content, which you obviously do, you do like it. You listen.

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_02]: But then you say you want to hear different stuff. Well, if you want to hear different stuff, like, for example, I drove in today and I was driving to the barbecue here.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And so I flip it on over to the NPR station. And they're talking, Jackie, about everything that you want us to talk about.

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_02]: They were hitting J6. They were white nationalisting. They were all of it. They had all of your, I think climate change got thrown in there because, of course, it's NPR and climate change is a part of every single story that they ever talk about.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_02]: So you got all of that stuff there, man. But he always calls this station, all of the different hosts, and he's always trying to get us to talk about something else.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'm not falling for your PSYOP.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Which, by the way, that's what the whole Trump is a fascist, that's a PSYOP, you know, psychological operation going on right now.

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I know. Seriously, it is. Like, here, hang on a second. Let me, I'll pull up.

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, gosh, Internet. Hang on.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. Looking for it. Here it is.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm going to be able to read this, actually, because the, the reflection. Yeah, I can't see it.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_02]: So, all right. I'll have to find it during the break and read it.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a, the Trump-Hitler story is a PSYOP, says Robert Sterling, who I think hosted the Twilight Zone, so you can believe it.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm kidding. It's just somebody else.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Um, let me, uh, let me circle back, uh, Pisaki style, to the, uh, crime numbers here.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_02]: North Carolina's larger cities are grappling with a surge in violent crime.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_02]: This, according to Donna King at the Carolina Journal, carolinajournal.com.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_02]: By the way, you can listen to, uh, the Carolina Journal News Hour on WBT every morning at 5 a.m.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_02]: with your host, Nick Craig.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_02]: The state's crime statistics, and she did actually, she was on this morning with Nick.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, so you can catch her interview with Nick about this story.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_02]: But some of the highlights.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_02]: The state's crime statistics show a statewide overall 0.1% decrease in reported violent crimes.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_02]: But in cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington, there's been a steep increase.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Car jackings specifically saw significant jumps with a 38% increase year over year.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_02]: The, well, I don't know.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not sure, is that carjackings or motor vehicle thefts?

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if that's a carjacking per se.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Could just be stealing the Kias, right?

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_02]: The rate per 100,000 people of crime index offenses reported to law enforcement agencies

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_02]: throughout North Carolina increased 2.3% during 2023 when compared to the figures reported in 2022.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_02]: The rate of violent crime decreased 0.1% statewide.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But if you look back over the decade, you see that the state's murder rate is up 72% over the 10-year period.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_02]: The rise in crime has sparked growing concern among lawmakers, law enforcement,

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_02]: and the public about the impact on community safety.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_02]: According to the State Bureau of Investigation report,

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_02]: North Carolina's largest city saw double-digit increases in violent crime from 2022 to 2023.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Crime in Charlotte jumped by 13%.

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_02]: And then Raleigh and Wilmington saw similar spikes as well.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's still a lot of the cases that are in the state.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Property crime also on the rise.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Thefts and burglaries becoming more common.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_02]: So this is not a great picture.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Look, if you are running for governor, let's say, I'm just going to pick a race just at random.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's say you're an attorney general.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_02]: And you've been in charge of North Carolina crime control for, you know, say the last four, maybe eight years.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_02]: And now you want to be the leader of the state, the governor of North Carolina,

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_02]: and you want to run as a tough-on-crime guy.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_02]: This is not helpful.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay?

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_02]: This is not helpful that the crime numbers are going up while you're trying to tout crime numbers going down.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, and recall that the FBI numbers that at the national level they were touting as going down turned out not to be the case.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Those numbers were actually undercounted.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_02]: They had to come out with a revision to say, oops, are bad.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Crime didn't actually drop 2%.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_02]: It went up 4.5%.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_02]: So just a six-point swing in the FBI crime data.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Nothing to see there, I am sure.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Hang on a second.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Russ says, my good friend Ray is requesting emergency funding, citing that communities that get funding faster recover better.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Cool.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_02]: But if he knows this, why did he withhold disaster funding from other communities for years?

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Aha.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Russ, we're going to get into that.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Dan Bishop mentioned this in his chat with us in the first hour,

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_02]: the amount of money that's being requested for Hurricane Helene relief.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_02]: They haven't even finished with the Hurricane Matthew recovery, and that's been eight years.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_02]: This guy is just an epic failure on disaster response every single time.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Bishop also mentioned the turnout numbers.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's see if I can read these.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to have to get some sort of a shade or something.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Early voting.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_02]: The GOP has won the early votes for the fourth time in seven early voting days.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_02]: All right?

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Four out of the seven early voting days, the GOP has won.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_02]: In 2020, Democrats had 43% of or represented 43% of the early votes.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Unaffiliateds were 29.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Republicans were 28.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay?

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_02]: So a huge margin for Democrats, 43% to 28.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_02]: 43-28, Democrat to Republican.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Now it's 34% Republican, 34% Democrat, 32% unaffiliated.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_02]: So your Republican turnout numbers have gone up six points.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Your Democrat turnout numbers have dropped nine points.

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And Democrats always do better in early voting.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_02]: If Democrats are not doing better in early voting, that is a terrifying sign for the party and its candidates up and down the ballot.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_02]: I suspect this is what they have known.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_02]: They have known that their internal pollings were bad up and down the ballot.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I suspect that is why Kamala Harris started doing a lot more interviews.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's right.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_02]: I've got audio to play from her CNN town hall last night, which went about as well as a Kamala Harris interview.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_02]: It was not good.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_02]: It was not good.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_02]: But at least at this town hall, people in the audience got to ask questions.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Unlike the last one where it was a, quote, town hall, but the attendees of the town hall did not get to ask any questions.

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_02]: At least this time they did.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_02]: And I am as shocked as you are that they found a political science professor from Swarthmore College who was allegedly undecided.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_02]: No, it was a, yeah.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_02]: They stacked the, obviously, they stacked the town hall.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_02]: But it doesn't matter.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_02]: At least the plebs got to ask some questions.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Or plebs, if you will.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_02]: The lowly hoi polloi.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_02]: The common folk.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_02]: At least they got to ask questions this time around.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_02]: I do have audio.

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I'm going to play it next.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm kind of just making up a whole bunch of stuff as I go here.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, stories are powerful.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_02]: They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_02]: They help us process the meaning of life.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_02]: And our stories are told through images and videos.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Preserve your stories with Creative Video.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Started in 1997 in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_02]: It was the first company to provide this valuable service.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Converting images, photos, and videos into high-quality, produced slideshows, videos, and albums.

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_02]: The trusted, talented, and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Satisfaction guaranteed.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Drop them off in person or mail them.

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[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Family vacations.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Birthdays.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Or just your family stories.

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_02]: All told through images.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_02]: That's what your photos and videos are.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_02]: They are your life.

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you.

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[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Visit creativevideo.com.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Out of the Mallard Creek Barbecue.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_02]: It is the 93rd annual Mallard Creek Barbecue, as a matter of fact.

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_02]: And if you'd like to come on out, get some barbecue, this is the place to do it.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_02]: They've got...

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the lines are not terrible.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Usually the lines are like out into the street.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's not like that.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_02]: So people are moving through very, very quickly.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_02]: So come on down.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_02]: And just a heads up, there are a lot of local elected officials that are running for office or running for re-election.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_02]: They are out here as well.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_02]: So if you would like to talk with any of them, they kind of mill about...

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_02]: It's one of those age-old questions.

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, which came first?

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, what draws what?

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's like the media comes.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Because obviously there's a lot of people.

[00:11:04] [SPEAKER_02]: So I think the people attract the politicians, elected officials.

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_02]: And then the media shows up because then they can talk to the politicians too.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like chicken and egg kind of thing.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't even ask Dan Bishop about it while he was here.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And because this is now...

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I think his campaign or maybe a super PAC or somebody did an ad using this story out of the Daily Wire.

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Piece by Mary Margaret Olihan.

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Olihan?

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Olahan?

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_02]: It's about Jeff Jackson.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_02]: The congressman from Charlotte area.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Former state lawmaker.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_02]: He's running for attorney general against Dan Bishop.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Also a congressman.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And they're both lawyers.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_02]: So I would have thought it would have been good for debates, multiple debates with these lawyers.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, if any two candidates...

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, they have a very similar kind of trajectory, you know, through the state legislature.

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Then up into Congress.

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_02]: And now going for attorney general.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_02]: They both come from the legal field.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_02]: So I thought that would have been a good thing.

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But no.

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_02]: So we don't get a lot of the debates.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_02]: We're not going to...

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_02]: We got one.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_02]: There was one debate.

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_02]: It was put on by, like, the Bar Association, I think.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_02]: But there was another event that occurred.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_02]: They were handing out awards.

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And Jeff Jackson, who you may have heard is referred to as Baby Jesus.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_02]: He earned that name in the legislature.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_02]: He was called Baby Jesus because everybody celebrated his arrival and his presence.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_02]: But he hadn't actually done anything at that point.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Except just showed up.

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_02]: And that was, by the way, his fellow Democrats.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_02]: I called him that.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_02]: So the North Carolina Democrat running in a high-profile race to be the state's attorney general hugged.

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_02]: He embraced a convicted sex offender after receiving an LGBTQ award back in 2022, according to video footage obtained by the Daily Wire.

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Footage of the December 13, 2022, Carolina's LGBT+.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, wait a minute.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Why did they drop the Q off of that LGBT plus Chamber of Commerce?

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Why did they have...

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Why are they missing the Q off of their name?

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Why does the chamber hate Qs?

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_02]: And the two SLs also, by the way.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_02]: And the IAs.

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway.

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_02]: The LGBT plus Chamber of Commerce event shows Representative Jeff Jackson praising the work of activists on stage before giving a big old hug to Chad Turner.

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Does that name ring a bell to anybody in Charlotte politics?

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_02]: It should.

[00:13:51] Chad Brown, sir.

[00:13:52] How you doing?

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Chad Turner's a registered sex offender.

[00:13:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Also the CEO of the Charlotte LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Turner, who has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Wire, was charged with three cases of lewd acts on minors under the age of 16.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Jackson, in the video, says, quote,

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_02]: You are an enormously influential and positive force for this city, for the people who live here.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm so grateful for you.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_02]: To be fair, I think he's talking about the whole crowd, not specifically the guy with the lewd acts on the minors.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Turner accused the boys of lying.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_02]: So Chad Turner, convicted, has to register as a sex offender.

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_02]: He says that the people that accused him are lying.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_02]: But authorities sentenced him to a decade in prison after convicting him in July of 2000.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_02]: He only served two years of his sentence.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_02]: But he is a registered sex offender.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_02]: A Jeff Jackson spokesman told the Daily Wire that the congressman, quote,

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_02]: did not know about an individual's status and was simply given an award by a local chamber of commerce for supporting economic development.

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_02]: The office did not say whether he would return that award or whether he would keep working with the organization.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_02]: There are some folks that aren't buying this because Chad Turner's history, his background, is pretty well known.

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_02]: This was common knowledge at the legislature where Jackson served.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Tammy Fitzgerald from the North Carolina Values Coalition says it was common knowledge and received widespread media attention in Charlotte, his hometown.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_02]: It is inconceivable that Jackson did not know.

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Turner has gone by a number of other names, including Chad Severance, Chad Eugene Severance, Chad Severance Turner.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_02]: He formerly served as a youth music minister at New Harvest Church of God in Gaffney, where multiple young men accused him of inviting them for sleepovers back in 1998 and then touching them inappropriately while they slept.

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Still, Turner managed to make a name for himself in Charlotte as an activist.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_02]: By the way, he was slated to get the Harvey Milk Award in 2023.

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_02]: And when all of this came out, though, they did not give him the award.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_02]: They said, we're not going to give the award out this year.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_02]: They were just like, we're not going to give out an award at all this year.

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Following media reports highlighting his past, Charlotte Pride announced in August 2023 that it would not be honoring anybody with the award, saying, we do not give every single award out every single year.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_02]: But an Internet archive shows that the group was, in fact, planning on giving the award to him.

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_02]: So I suspect they just didn't give it to anybody because they had already had it probably made with his name engraved on it and all that.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_02]: We are out at the Mallard Creek Barbecue, 93rd Annual.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_02]: I have not been here all the 93 years.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_02]: But they've been doing it 93 years.

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And you can come on out, get some barbecue.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_02]: It goes for a good cause.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, and by the way, it's fantastic.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_02]: So let's go to the phones.

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Here is Matt.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Matt.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the show.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Pete, could you do me a favor?

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_00]: When you get off the air, could you drop some barbecue off at my house for me?

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_02]: You want me to drop barbecue at your house for you?

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you could, if you have extra time.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's not really what I call it.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_02]: All right, so give me your address.

[00:17:34] [SPEAKER_02]: What's the matter, Matt?

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_02]: You don't want the barbecue?

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Come on now.

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, Pete, first of all, you got awesome bumper music, man.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_01]: CCR really kicks butt.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I like that.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm very proud.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I have a badge now.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I've called here before, and I never had a badge.

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_01]: But mine says I voted early.

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_01]: We just left the Mecklenburg Rec Center.

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you can call Dan Bishop up when I get off the phone and tell him that he's plus two.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever he's calling, Melanie and I just voted for him, and everybody right down the line.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It's aligned with him.

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Very good.

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I was just so proud of it.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_02]: So when you say you've never had the badge before, does that mean that you have never voted early or you've never voted?

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, no, sir.

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I voted for—I voted the first time Trump ran for office, and he obviously won.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And then the second time when he lost.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And then just now.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm 52, so I'm not really proud of the fact that that's only the third time I've ever voted.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_01]: It is the third time I've voted.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And—but yeah, Dan Bishop, he's plus two.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever he thought he was before I walked in there, there's two more votes because Melanie and I both voted for him.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to say something, though.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, there was a lot of things.

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_01]: When you're going down the line on that computer, there's a lot of people, Democrats, that are running unopposed.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Completely unopposed.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Are you in—

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So I just skipped.

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Are you a Charlotte City voter?

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm—yeah, I live in North Charlotte.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_02]: You're inside city.

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so you saw all, like, the judicial races, Mecklenburg County commissioners at large.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_02]: There are no Republicans running for those seats either.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And I went—we went page after page after page of unopposed Democrats.

[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_02]: So what I'm curious to see is on election night, to see the returns come in and to see the counts on those down-ballot races,

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_02]: to see how many people left those—left all of those races blank.

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Because that's what I usually do.

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_02]: If somebody's running unopposed, unless I really like the person, I don't vote for them.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_02]: I just leave it blank as a protest.

[00:19:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I had to ask one of the people there that were, you know, volunteers or, you know, election officials or whatever,

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, because I'm like, well, I don't want to vote for this person.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: What do I do?

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And they said, you just hit next, next, next.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And I sat there for about two minutes, hit next, next, next, because I'm not going to vote for them.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know who—you know, if there was an R next to the name,

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I would just automatically hit that.

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, it was just—it was amazing that there was that many unopposed Democrats running.

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't think there was a single Republican judge in Mecklenburg County on the ballot.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01]: No, and one of them was a judge.

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And it just, you know, so based on what I see with this, you know, letting people that just shot somebody out of jail on $5,000 bail.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm not going to vote for that person.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, great show.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_01]: But you can tell him he's plus two.

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_02]: So, Matt, what made you change your mind?

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_02]: What made you want to run or go vote in this election?

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, part of it was WBT.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you guys are saying get out there and vote early.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You and, you know—

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and, you know, we're getting these texts on the phone, like, you know, go out and vote, go out and vote.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, we just—Mellonie said, you know, she just—you know, I was sitting out in the backyard just goofing off, and she's like, get in the car.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to vote.

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, so there it is.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: So your wife dragged you to the polling station.

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_02]: The woman—

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_02]: The woman made me do it, yeah.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_01]: But, yeah, I mean, I don't know what the importance is of voting early as opposed to just voting on the regular timeline.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_02]: But whatever.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, I could tell you.

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_02]: So a lot of it is just—a lot of that is personal preference, right?

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Some people—you just got more options available, right?

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_02]: So around your schedule, you can go and vote on a day where, like, versus, like, if it's on Election Day, Tuesday, Election Day, you know, you may be really busy.

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_02]: You may not be able to make the time to go to the polls that day.

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Or if something happens to you, you know, somebody in your family has an emergency, you can't be—you can't get to the voting place, whatever.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_02]: You at least banked your vote, right?

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_02]: So I say if you know how you're going to vote and you don't foresee that changing, then go ahead and vote early.

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_02]: And then maybe the phone calls stop, too.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_02]: The text messaging stops because they know when people go vote.

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_02]: They don't know who you vote for, but they know when you've gone to vote.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I was just going to say it might have been you or maybe Brett Wunderer or possibly both of you,

[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_01]: but you did say something to that effect where they stopped expending resources towards trying to get you to vote because they know that, yeah, you already voted.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Every single day, every single day they get lists.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_02]: The campaigns and the parties have lists from boards of election on who voted that day,

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_02]: and then they run those through their databases, and so they don't have to now spend any time anymore trying to get you to go out to the polls because they know you've already been.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's how they target people that haven't voted that are less likely.

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_02]: And then they can try to get people that are, you know, less regular voters to actually show up.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah.

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Matt, I appreciate—

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I would ask you—

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, thank you very much.

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Great show, brother.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, I appreciate it.

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks, Matt.

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for the call.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And good on you for voting.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_02]: We appreciate that.

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_02]: You vote for who you want to, but if you know you're going to vote, you know who you want to vote for.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Voting early helps because, again—and this goes for both Democrats and Republicans.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_02]: You can now, as a campaign, start focusing on the people that haven't voted, and then you don't have to waste resources anymore.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Just a heads up, John Moore is back in studio.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_02]: I am here at the Mallard Creek Barbecue broadcasting live and in Poison.

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_02]: And John Moore is back in studio.

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_02]: So he's doing the board.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_02]: He's running the phone screening.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_02]: So if you're calling, stay on hold.

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_02]: John will get to you.

[00:24:33] [SPEAKER_02]: It just takes a little bit of time.

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_02]: So I did have some—I had an email here.

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Hang on.

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_02]: And I had a note passed to me regarding the lack of contested races.

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, a lot of the judge races in Mecklenburg County, not a single Democrat judge is being opposed.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And there are a couple reasons for that.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_02]: The legal field, particularly in Charlotte, is predominantly Democrat.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And so you end up with just a lot of Democrat trial lawyers.

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_02]: I know that sounds cliche, but it's true.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_02]: And so there aren't a lot of Republican lawyers, for starters.

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_02]: There's also the notion that Republican lawyers don't want to take the pay cut.

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And that is true as well.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_02]: But that's also a bit of an indictment.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Because I don't think you can complain about the state of the judicial system, but then never volunteer to help make it better in the way that you think it could be made better.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_02]: That's why it's called public service.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_02]: So you go and you give of your time and expertise, and you serve on the bench.

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_02]: You do it for a couple years.

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And then you get off the bench and you go do something else.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_02]: I actually know people who have done this, Republicans who have done this.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02]: So it can be done.

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_02]: It's very difficult to run a campaign.

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_02]: This is another part of it also, though, is that when you're in the legal community, just like when you're a deputy running for office, if you want to run for sheriff,

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_02]: the boss doesn't tend to like it when you try to get him fired.

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_02]: So there are a lot of lawyers that don't actually want to challenge incumbent judges because it makes things sometimes a little bit awkward around the courthouse, you know.

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_02]: And then you've got to raise money.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_02]: And then you get attacked.

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_02]: You get stories written about you.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_02]: There's the whole downside on that.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_02]: So I understand there are a lot of downsides to running for elected office, especially if you're not going to make it your career, you know, and that's not the thing you want to do with the rest of your life.

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_02]: So there are a number of reasons.

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_02]: This is from Suzanne.

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_02]: To Pete at the Pete Calendar show dot com.

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_02]: She saw the same thing up in Forsyth County.

[00:26:59] [SPEAKER_02]: I was appalled at the number of unopposed Democrat candidates on the ballot.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And look, they run into the same sort of problem in Republican strongholds as well.

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_02]: If you've got areas that are predominantly Republican, there aren't going to be a lot of Democrat challengers either.

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_02]: It just it's one of those things that happens.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I have not.

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, so there was a BBC interview where our morning co-host Beth was on it and she espoused.

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_02]: So I OK, I did not see this BBC interview.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what she said or didn't say.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm at a loss.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So one of the things, by the way, like I can I can defend stuff I've said usually.

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, like eighty five percent of the eighty six percent of the time.

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I could defend stuff I've said.

[00:27:49] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know everything everybody else has said.

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_02]: So I usually bristle at trying to, you know, when I'm asked to defend or disavow really anything anybody else said.

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_02]: But so I don't know this.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_02]: But the idea is from Ron that pro-abortion females may comprise a silent majority this election cycle.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_02]: That would be bad for Trump.

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Since when has a pro-abortion female ever been silent about their stance?

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's a good question.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_02]: So I didn't hear the comment.

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_02]: But look, I think that this is this is what Democrats want to be the case.

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_02]: There's a degree of wish casting going on here where they would very much like for there to be a lot of women that are motivated by the abortion issue to turn out and vote for Democrats based on that one issue.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_02]: There is wish casting that that occurs.

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Will it?

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_02]: We're going to find out in about 12 days.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_02]: That'll do it for this episode.

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_02]: I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_02]: So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here.

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_02]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And don't break anything while I'm gone.