Will Charlotte-Mecklenburg voters set a new course for schools? (11-04-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three 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 thepeteclendershow dot 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. Still have a lot to get to on this election day. Seven four five, seven eleven ten. Email ispt at the Petecalnarshow dot com. I have a message from Dave who said your WBT news cast said Steven Mooreris supported Josh Stein. This is for the Concord mayor's race. I'm voting later today. Can you tell me how he supported Josh Stein. I'm trying to figure out if tax evasion is worse than supporting Stein's. Yes. Hm, So I'm assuming that this was in the good notorial race. I don't remember the specifics, but it probably had to do with Mark Robinson being the Republican nominee and all of the scandal around Mark Robinson, and so maybe the mayor endorsed Josh Stein, I assure that's my that would be my guess, and that angered Republicans I would assume, okay. So one of the things I like to do whenever prepping for the the election day coverage and such, which, by the way, WBT will be uh covering the election results tonight at seven o'clock, Bo and Beth are going to be back in studio, and I think at some point I'll join them. I think all of the hosts will join at some point. So, but one of the things so in prepping, usually the weekend before the election, you know, and Christy knows this, that I block out the whole weekend and I do all I you know, I take all of the stuff that I've been compiling for the year, and you know, I put them all together. I make my you know, my prep sheets and stuff for the various races. Now, admittedly this year it's a little easier because there aren't a lot of races on the ballot, especially where I live. I'm in unincorporated Mecklenburg County, so I get to vote for a school board member, and I get to vote for or against the sales tax increase. And people have asked me. My view on the sales tax increase came up at the News and Bruis event. And I'm not telling anybody how to vote, Okay. I have been told how to vote by people for the better part of fifteen years, and I don't like I don't listen to people telling me how to vote. I will make my own mind up on that stuff. So I'm not trying to tell you how to vote, but I I will tell you I'm going to be voting against that sales tax increase. That's me. And so one of the things I like to do in making the prep sheets for the election is I go to sites of all sorts and I look at who they like. Like. For example, you can go to the Charlotte Observer. They have their list of endorsements and I will usually just pick the opposite of whoever there, or you know, you go to the local party website, go to the Democrat party website, go to the Republican party website, and they usually have a thing called the palm cards, which are what they hand out at the polling places, you know, for people to look at. And so I can take a palm card and then if it's the Democrats that are giving it to me. Chances are like, I'm voting against every one of your candidates. Thank you for the palm card. I appreciate that. But I only have two races, two things that I get to vote in, so I'm gonna be voting in like two seconds today. But one of the things I like to do is go to different publications that may be of a different political bent, let's say, and see how they are handicapping the races, how they are describing the candidates and such. And so I found myself at Queen City Nerve. And this is a leftist publication here in Charlotte. I believe it was the It was the remnants of Creative Loafing, that weekly newspaper that used to mainly be filled with like ads for like depraved behavior and such. So the I'm just kidding it. Well, I mean they did have a lot of ads in the back of the in the back of the paper, very weird things. But anyway, they remember, they shut down Creative Loafing and then a bunch of their employees started Queen City Nerve, and so they had a big election guide, very lengthy guide, and so real quick running through their guide. I'm not going to go over all of the stuff that they say, and they do not make endorsements explicit endorsements, but you can kind of tell who they like and who they don't by the way they describe some of the candidates. So, of course, in the mayor's race, we covered this last hour, you got Yliles running for her fifth term. And now I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that you get up to the fifth term, it's going to be pretty attractive enticing for if she were to win a fifth term. I think she's going to try to go and beat Pat McCrory's seven terms, you know, like when you rack up five in a row like she has or she made today. I think she may go for seven. So we got that to look forward to. But I don't know that. I'm not making that prediction. I'm just saying like that, it seems like that would be a bit of a pull, you know. Then you've got Rob Yates the libertarian and Terry Donovan. I've interviewed both of them on the program. You can go back to the podcast and listen to that interview with each of them. The Charlotte City Council at large. So this is everybody in the city gets to vote for the four at large seats dimple Edgemeira four term incumbent James Smudgie Mitchell. He's been on the council first as a District Rep and then an at large Rep. And he's been on there since, I mean twenty years. Lawana Slack Mayfield, she was District three for four terms, then was off the council for three years and then ran at large in twenty twenty two Victoria and so she's running at large reelection and then Victoria Watlington and also at large. She was a District three Rep as well. She won her seat two years ago at large. So those are the Democrats. Then you've got Misson Kim. Born and raised in South Korea, immigrated to America in nineteen ninety one. Small business owner proud supporter of Donald Trump, has spoken against allowing transgender folks to work as teachers or public service providers, criticized DEI initiatives, and appeers to oppose vaccines. She has recently shared the uplifting story of her son, who previously identified as gay. But wait, you don't wait a minute, You identify as a male or female. I don't think you get to identify as gay, do you. I thought that you're born that way. To quote the expert Lady Gaga, right, you just born that way. But he apparently underwent a significant transformation and disnow engaged to a woman. Then there's Edwin Peacock. I mentioned him last hour. He raised the most amount of money. He's a former city council member. He ran for mayor at one point, I believe, and he's been sitting in the District sixth seat filling the unexpired term of Tark Bokari. He's now running at large. Republicans have fielded only two candidates. You can vote for four, and the top four votainers of the six they will get seated on City Council Okay District three. Joy Mayo, Democrat, community advocate, former middle school math teacher who founded and serves as board chair for the Transforming Nations Forward, a community development nonprofit that advocates for the nation's Ford Arrowood Road corridor. Running against Robin Emmons, unaffiliated. She actually got the necessary signatures about fourteen hundred in order to get onto the ballot as an independent or unaffiliated and then the Republican James Bowers and captain in the Young Men of Valor Boys organizations, serve five years on the County Motor Vehicle Review Board. He's been a minister since nineteen ninety seven. Then Charlotte City Council District six. Kimberly Owens practiced law. Advocates for causes she believes in through Mom's Demand Action, the Gungraby Group, as well as Planned Parenthood, Rotary Youth Exchange and Lillian's List Action Fund. So very much for the abortions, okay, and the grabbing of the guns. Christo Baccari, Republican, running for the seat that her husband Tark Bakari held for a very long time. So that's on the city council. You have the sales tax referendum. Current sales tax in Mecklinberg County is seven and a quarter percent. They want to raise it to eight and a quarter percent. I've done shows on this before. You can pull them up on the Peak podcast Board of ED Now this one is interesting. The Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board has three at large members. They are not up for reelection. The six district members are okay, and so in District one, you've got Melissa Easley, Bill Fountain, and Charlita Hatch, three people running for that seat. And this is technically nonpartisan, so you're not going to see ds and rs next to their names. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit Creative video dot com. This is from the text line. Voters may cast four votes for Charlotte City Council at large. Candidates don't cast for it dilutes the value of your preferred candidate. It's okay to leave blanks. This is what's called single shot. It is a strategy. It basically gives a little bit like one point one percent, Like if a vote is one, it's like one point one. It gives a little bit of an edge to your preferred candidate by single shotting or shooting I guess, or double shot. If there are two Republicans and you only want Republicans, just give them your votes. Don't add to the vote totals of the Democrats. I've seen studies over the years about the effectiveness of these types of campaigns. They can work, but it has to be like a widespread, concerted effort, you know. But yeah, that is a that is a strategy. It's called single shot, all right. So the Board of Education District one race from WFAE, their report by James Ferrell. This from October twenty third. Melissa Easily says she's the incumbent, by the way, Democrat, but you're not going to see ds and rs next to their names because they're non partisan. Easily says she was hurt that the Mecklenberg County Democrats chose to endorse her opponent. One of the opponents, Charlita Hatch, Easily says she's been told that the decision stemmed from concerns about her fundraising. She acknowledges recently that she stirred controversy with the post about the murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk that drew national attention. We discussed that as well when she said I'm not going to mourn his loss because he was a terrible person, and then she gave some examples of things that he never said, and I dissected her dumassary at the time. She also has a track record, though of voting in the minority against the board consensus, like when she voted against last year's budget because she felt the board needed to ask for more money from Mecklemburg County. Charlia Hatch has had no problem raising funds. Campaign finance records show that she has raised nearly forty five thousand dollars compared to Easley's Measley seventeen hundred. The Republican back candidate Bill Fountain, he is self financing, basically put twenty grand of his own money into the race, and he thinks that if you got two Democrats, they could split that vote and then he may be able to get in. And he points out that twenty percent of CMS grads have less than a two point zero GPA. Like we're we're not actually educating the kids. Hatch is the City of Charlotte's chief data and analytics officer. She is also the founder of a nonprofit and the author of three children's books. Now, what makes this race interesting is that last spring, Easily was one of three board members who voted against a contract with a consulting firm called syd k Imyl, which is a terrible name. Sid Kimmel, I guess is the acronym. She questioned the firm's efficacy and its connections to Racky McGregor or Rocky Raki. Racky McGregor, who was a close advisor to the superintendent and was getting this contract. Sid Kimmel is owned by Racky's wife, Kimberly McGregor. The mcgregors and cms have defended Sid Kimmel, their contractor or their company that's getting the contracts by pointing to recent academic gains across ten of the twelve schools where they worked, but racky McGregor went on to publicly support Charlietta Hatch, which then prompted questions of whether he was c making political payback. McGregor has denied this. Hatch, for her part, takes exception to any notion that McGregor played a role in her decision to run. And so when people started saying this, Easily started saying this, the McGregor's confirmed that they sent a cease and desist letter to both Easily and another school board candidate in a different district, District six, named Tony mhl m Hel m e m e E m e h e l Emma m Hel. That's just a very difficult last name. And I say that as one with the last name Calender, Okay mhl. So they both got cease and desist letters regarding what they saw the McGregor saw as false in defamatory statements about them and their companies on the campaign trail. They say the actions were taken to protect them and their business's long standing reputations. So there appears to be some politicking afoot, and there are these accusations that the superintendent is trying to oust board members that don't fall in line with what she wants done. So that's District one. Going back to Queen City Nerve and their guide to the local elections, You'll never guess how they describe the Republican running in that district, Bill Fountain. If you guessed homophobic and transphobic, then yes, that's in their write up. You would be correct. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. 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Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins of Aashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime from the local leftist Queen City Nerve dot com Qcnerve dot com website. When describing the Board of Education, can that it's District one. Bill Fountain, Republican, a former combat fighter pilot teacher committed to upholding quote the American principles that make opportunity possible. I guess I should probably do this. No how dare you right? Okay, So they go on to say that Fountain supports the homophobic and transphobic organization Protect North Carolina Kids. He held a sign that read stop Mutilating Miners in a protest against trans healthcare for youth patients and posted it to his Facebook page and his website. So that's what makes you homophobic and transphobic is that you don't believe in transing the miners. Okay, that's again, it's it's Queen City nerve. And then there's Charlie the Hatch, CMS graduate mother, children's book author, tech executive works for the city apparently. So that's the District one race District two for the Board of ed je Rique Hall or one Hall. After twelve years, the Board of Education's longest serving member, Thelma Buyers Bailey, is not running for reelection, so District two is going to have a new rep. Juan Rique Hall is a former West Charlotte High School football coach and community advocate who works to mentor young people on violence prevention, joining the city's first Alternatives to Violence program in twenty twenty one. His mission is to combat illiteracy, restore discipline, and rebuild trust. In public schools. Okay. Hall is also known to partner with Moms for Liberty. No QC Nerve describes Moms for Liberty as quote an extremist group that lobbies against any school curricula that mentions lgb t Q plus rights, race, or diversity. And that is not true. That's actually not true. They don't want you promoting any of this sexually inappropriate content at any age. That's you too young. Whether it's gay or straight, it doesn't matter. They don't want you teaching to second graders this inappropriate material age appropriate standards. We used to as a society, we used to all understand that there are things that are not age appropriate. And if you don't understand that, then you should not be in public schools. You should not have anything to do with public schools, public education. You shouldn't be in the education field at all, in my opinion, if you don't understand that concept that there are age appropriate things and there are age inappropriate things. Okay, so Wan Hall running against Chemey Shame. Chammee Chamee Haines a CMS mother advocate and community organizer with a deep commitment to cultivating equity, opportunity, and belonging in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. She served as a board member of the Black Political Caucus, League of Women Voters, and the Charlotte Alliance of Black Accountants. So if you're with the BPC, I'm assuming the Black Political Caucus, I know your politics there. She's the Democrat over in District four. Robert Edwards uh more than twenty years of experience in K twelve education, higher education, and behavioral health. He began teaching music and mentoring at risk youth when he was twenty two. He joined the CMS residency program in twenty twenty three, focusing on special ed and currently serves as a teacher for Exceptional Children in CMS, as well as a compliance facilitator at Cochrane Collegiate Academy. He is running against Jillian King, a former teacher current homemaker. She is endorsed by the Democratic Municipal Officials as well as Mom's Demand Action Gun Control Group. The incumbent in District four is Stephanie Snead. She is the CMS board chair and she is running for reelection. She was first elected in twenty twenty two. CMS parent a trial attorney practicing in the areas of labor and employment law, and she has served on the Black Political Caucus Education Committee Democrat. Okay, Then there's District five Lisa Kline. She is the incumbent. She is a Republican as I understand it, and she is running for reelection thirty nine years of education experience, twenty nine of those being at CMS before retiring in twenty nineteen. Her opponent, Cynthia Stone, born and raised in Charlotte, began a career in education in two thousand and five at Chantilly Montessori School until her retirement in twenty twenty three from Park Road Montessori District six. Tony emmahl or mhl. Sorry, I do not know how to pronounce this last. I'm trying. I really am CMS grad parent and volunteer. Twenty years of experience with CMS as a school and team leader, parent, teacher, organization board officer, tutor, booster, club board officer. Endorsed by the Democrat Mecklenberg County Commissioner Vilma Leak, as well as Republican former Governor Pat McCrory. Running against two people, Anna London, who is president and CEO of Charlotte Works, the state's largest single county Workforce Board and Justin Sheeley, an attorney and parent who has grown increasingly concerned about the issues CMS faces, including declining safety, politics, taking precedence over academics, and a lack of transparency. Okay, so those are your CMS candidates. These are the district races. The at large races not on the ballot. There are other races though, that we will not be voting on here in Charlotte or in Mecklenburg. Obviously, there were races all over the area, all over the state. These were all municipal races. I mean, you've got Cornelius mayor Border commissioners, Davidson mayor border commissioners, Huntersville mayor commissioners, So you've got these are all municipal races, right, Mayor of Matthews, mint Hill, Pineville Stallings. Also, I was a moderator for a debate last weekend. I want to say last weekend. I think it was last weekend, an Indian trail dealing with all sorts of you know, pressures due to growth and how to manage the growth and all of that. So municipal races all over the place, and in low turnout races, your vote matters even more because it is a low turnout election. Generally, these off year municipal races generally don't attract more than about ten percent turnout, which means you have more power to actually influence and that's what decides elections and the course of your local government. It's you turning out to vote, all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground dot News slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground news as they make the media landscape more transparent. Let me jump over here and get Carol onto the program. Hello, Carol, welcome. Hello, good afternoon. Hey. I live an Indian trail and you know what, there's been no canvassing that I haven't even seen any signs up, so like, I don't know who to vote for, but I want to vote, but I don't even know what's like who's running or anything. So yeah, well there's only so you have seven candidates an Indian trail and two seats available I believe, so the top two votainers will will win the seats. There's one incumbent that's Tom Ambergee. He was not at the candidate forum that I moderated the other day, so I don't know. I know he's a local attorney practices law. I've seen his name pop up in stories over the years. And then there was another candidate, Jerrell Sengandhi, and he was not there either, so I don't know anything about him either. So is there anybody like, are you satisfied with the direction of your town? Well, heck no, Indian Trail. I've been here twenty one years. I've lived in five different houses in Indian Trail, but never left Indian Trail. And it's just it's just absurd of what's going on and the traffic. They're they're not building things the way. It's like they just built these huge apartments by my house and they should have put a roundabout in before. So there's and some several accidents. They finally put a four way stop and there was an accident there yesterday. There's just too much traffic there and it's like they don't know how to build a town. I don't know. I don't know. It was a small town when I moved here, that's why we think that. And now it's just it's just a crazy town. So I don't know. Well, yeah, and from what I heard and from what I heard in the candidate forum is a big problem is union County commissioners and the capacity issues with like the water treatment and that sort of stuff. There's this fight going on, but I mean, and there's also I mean the town is limited in what it can do because it doesn't control the the wastewater hookups and stuff, right, the water system. But also people want to keep the taxes low and they don't want there to be any more development. But it's a heavily residential tax base, right, so like these are. The property taxes were ridiculous when we got when we. Got our revent out. Yeah, oh my gosh. I mean my house is you know, I wish my house is worth it, but it's not. It's not some big, gigantic house. You know. It's about seventeen hundred square feet. You know, it's just a nice size house. And I'm just like, well, if I had the place to move to, yeah, I would sell it and try and get some of that. But you know, there's nowhere to go. You can sell, but there's nowhere really to go. Well yeah, I mean unless you want to go more rural, right, But if you if your job allows you that, then then you have more options. But I mean that's one of the problems I ran into with my wife when we were moving back here, Like I don't want to spend an hour and a half in the car each way, you know, on a commute. Uh, and in order to afford cheaper housing, you got to go farther out and that's and then you're yeah, then you're trading chunks of your life for you know, on the commute. So yeah, I mean it's all trade offs. I know there are a couple of young guys that are running Raven Farity, Sean Madison. They were there in their early twenties, so yeah, yeah, I don't know. Marcus McIntyre. He apparently was a former board member, town council member who was off the council and now is coming back on. He seemed pretty impressive. But I mean, I can't make any endorsement for you because I don't know like what your major issues are and how well of the candidates line up. But you can, I mean, you still have time. You can go to their websites and read what they are writing. But I mean that the challenges that you've got in Indian Trails sound a lot like every small town that I've ever covered dealing with growth. They're the same issues. You know, yeah, and you know what it would be one these houses, but they're just building these massive, massive apartment complexes. I live right in basically the center of it where in the Atrail Fairby wrote an independence. You know, I'm a mile from the post office and they have just old so many apartments. I'm like, why can't read just do houses. I know they want to growth, but you're literally talking about now thousands of people. Yeah, and they don't have the roads for it. Yeah, you know, I hear you, Carol. I appreciate the call. I wish I could be more helpful. I've got to run though. Good luck on your research. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.