Speaker 1: 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 and 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 dpeakclendarshow 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. And as we do every Tuesday at noon,
we chat with Andrew Dunn. He is a contributing columnist
at the Observer. He is also the purveyor of long
Leaf Politics longleafpol dot com. You should subscribe as I do.
All the cool kids are doing it. Andrew, how are you, sir?
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm doing well. The purveying is going is continuing
to go well.
Speaker 1: Good good. He purveys as none other. So you've got
a piece up at long Leaf Politics races that you
are watching for this election. And honestly, I don't really
care about like five of the races because they're not
in the local area. So I just wanted to pick
your brain on the ones that are local here to us.
In Charlotte. So first off, we've got the Charlotte Mayor's
race and the city council race, and I don't know,
you say, a good night is going to be if
Krista Bakari wins in District six. A great night will
be if Edwin Peacock is able to secure one of
the at large seats. An unbelievable night would be if
Republican Terry Donovan would just make it close for Mayor
vy Lyles. Okay, so let's kind of assess this. I'm
going to start from the Terry Donovan point in unbelievable night,
not that she wins, just that she makes it close.
That's what you think would be an unbelievable night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the numbers, the numbers are what the
numbers are. I mean, if you look at how Mecklenburg
County has been trending, I mean, it's no surprise it's
getting deeper and deeper blue. And you know, look at
two years ago or one year ago, twenty twenty four.
I mean, even Steve Troxler is only getting thirty three,
thirty four percent of the vote in Mecklenburg County and
he's the most popular Republican vote wise in North Carolina.
I just don't think anything has changed that much that
would change the overall dynamics. I think if Terry Donovan
can keep by Lyle's vote total under sixty percent, I
think that's a huge, huge win and a big statement.
Speaker 1: What is the statement?
Speaker 2: The statement is that Charlotte is not doing enough to
put a handle on crime. I mean Terry Donovan, who
I respect. I've met her at time or two. I
think she's a good candidate, and I'm glad that she's
running and she's trying to make the election a referendum
on public safety, which I think is absolutely the right
thing for her to do. And I think if she
can keep you get over forty percent towards forty five percent,
that's a big statement that Charlotte is not headed in
the right direction on dealing with crime in our city.
Speaker 1: Are what are Edwin Peacock's chances.
Speaker 2: His chances are better, still not great, And I think
he knows this. I think if you talk to him,
he'd tell you this that it's an uphill battle. Looking
at raw numbers, we're talking about making up about fourteen
thousand votes, which doesn't sound like a lot, but in
a very very low turnout election, it's a lot of
people that you have to motivate and get out the
door to actually vote. But which is kind of a
blessing in a in a low turnout election. You know, one,
you have to do a lot of education and a
lot of get out in the vote work to get
people who wouldn't normally vote in an off year to
actually get out and vote. But it also means that
it's possible, you know, and there was some numbers that
came out the other day that Edwin has raised a
considerable amount of money. Hopefully all of that's going to
get Republicans out the door and actually to go cast
a ballot.
Speaker 1: What do what does it get out the vote operation
that's that's funded. What does that look like for local Republicans?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a lot of different ways that you
might do it. I mean kind of the gold standard
is the lowest tech route possible, which is going out
and knocking on doors, But that doesn't scale all that well,
so that's kind of the baseline. Then you layer on
top mail pieces on top of that. That's kind of
the best bang for your buck. But what it really
takes to actually get people out the doors, to have
a target lift, have phone numbers and call and text people.
So I imagine that that's what Edwin Peacock has been working
on and we'll see if it pays off.
Speaker 1: And Krista Bakari, this is the District sixth seat that
was held by her husband, Tarc Bakari, who went up
and took a job in the Trump administration and then
left the seat vacated. She applied for the seat, but
the city council did not put her into that seat.
They put Edwin Peacock into that seat. So he's leaving
that District six seat. And he did say he was
not going to run for election for that seat, and
that was one of the reasons why the Democrats on
council put him in there. So it was a close
race when Tark ran, and he was there for years.
He was a I think he was like four or
five terms. So yeah, I don't know if this If
the Republicans lose this district, they're down to one seat
basically on the charlot A City Council, which I mean,
my view on it is that the council needs to
abandon the at large races and just go to a
straight district setup because it's at large races. Just I
think the data shows that they suppressed minority representation. That's
all at large races were intended to do, and that's
what they do. And so I don't know, what do
you think like her? You think a good night as
if she wins. Do you think that's doable?
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely doable. You know, the last couple of cycles
that Tark ran, it came down to just a few
hundred votes, you know, I think it was three hundred
and change votes in twenty twenty three. Christo's a very
strong candidate and she's been working hard. I mean I
see her out everywhere. You know, she ran for state
house last year, and I did an analysis on overperformers
and underperformers basically how individual candidates fared in their district
can paired to the presidential candidate in their district, so
that would have been Donald Trump. And Krista Baccari outpaced
Donald Trump in her House district by something like ten points,
just an exceedingly high number. So she definitely has crossover appeal,
you know, independence like Krista, and it's going to be
a close race. But I think I think she's going
to win that. You know, I actually live in District six,
so I kind of have a front row seat to it.
What's interesting is I haven't seen her opponent, Kim Owens,
hasn't really been campaigning very much at all, at least
not that I've seen. But there is a union group
out of New York that has been sending mailers on
her behalf. So my house has gotten a two or
three mailers from this New York SEIU group that's been
been pushing her.
Speaker 1: Speaking of mailers, I've been getting a ton of them
for the transportation sales tax vote, and finally I got
one over the weekend that finally mentioned rail on the mailer.
I've gotten like seven or eight of these things, and
none of them have mentioned rail. It's all been focusing
on roads. And you say that this referendum is the
best ideological x ray of Charlotte that we have had
in years. What did you mean by that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean Charlotte historically has been a pro
business town, right, you know, it's been reliably blue and
democratic over the past you know, call it fifteen years,
but it's been more moderate and more business focused But
what I've seen just kind of following local politics is
that the center of gravity has been steadily shifting to
the left. You know, you see, you know, where you
once had a Julie Isiel on council, now you've got
you know, Lawana Mayfield, you had Braxton Winston. You know
he's no longer on the council. But that's sort of
candidate what the main opposition to the transit referendum has
been from what I consider the far left. You're basically
saying that this is just a giveaway to business, or
you know, that this doesn't do enough for low in communities,
that sort of thing. I think the Transit tex is
going to pass, but I think it's going to be
relatively close. I think five years ago this would have
passed sixty forty. I'm thinking now it's probably more of
fifty five forty five. But what we'll see and the
results is whether kind of the center left, pro business,
moderate democrat still controls the politics here in Charlotte, or
if that has actually finally gone away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they'll also pick up support from conservatives that
are going to vote. Know however, many of them that
are left inside city or its Yeah, so sort of
an interesting coalition there against the tax right and finally,
real quick, the Huntersville Town Council. And I guess this
is the mayor's race. Christy Clark, she's the Democrat, she
won in twenty twenty three, and it's a rematch against
the Republican Derek Party. And I have heard like he
he's got some opposition, has had some opposition among Republicans
up in Huntersville. So what's your make of that race?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not as familiar with Huntersville politics as I
would like to be, but you know, Huntersville is one
of those interesting areas where it was reliably read for
a long long time and then you know, lately we've
kind of had a back and forth where you know,
we're John Bradford and Christy Clark. Christy Clark's the Democrat
who's now the mayor. They kind of flips loot back
and forth for the house district up there. I'm watching
this closely mostly to see, you know, how are the
suburbs feeling. You know, is there any chance that they'll
you know, come back and get more Republican. My gut
tells me probably not, But that's what I'm looking for there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think just the demographics of it. As you know,
the cities get bluer and bluer. The first waves of
you know, Republicans that move out of Charlotte, they'll you know,
probably move to those the six small towns quote unquote
small towns that are not so small anymore, and then
they and then they end up just leaving Mecklenburg County altogether.
I think that's pretty universal. I saw it in Asheville
as well, and now you're seeing some of like the
surrounding counties, their towns, like Hendersonville elected some Democrats for
like the first time ever. Uh. It's just sort of
the natural I was gonna say infection, but it's like that,
it is the way this it is the way this
leftism spreads. That's I mean, it's like blue dots and
sea are in a sea of red. Uh and it
just kind of it just kind of grows out from
that central point. So all right, well we'll watch that too.
We got other stuff that we didn't get to, but
people can read more of your work at long Leaf Politics,
long leafpol dot com, and The Charlotte Observer publishes his pieces.
The latest one North Carolina's budget stalemate is historic, but
it's a healthy kind of Republican fight, and maybe we'll
talk about that next week, so Andrew always appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, sir, I can guarantee you that the budget
will not be resolved by next week, so we can
talk about it then.
Speaker 1: Yes, show prep's already done. Fantastic, all right, Andrew Dunn, thanks, sir,
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the text line stand texts. The way you described how
the left expands, using the analogy of the blue dot,
gradually expanding into the red areas and eventually taking over.
It almost sounded like you were describing an infection or
something similar. I think I use that word. Maybe you
could coin a new term or phrase for it, maybe
like a left faction. Now that doesn't work, we'll toss
it out there. If you got any ideas, what do
we call it? Maybe something with like locusts.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Mike says, show some love for wax saw vote Michael
Dobie for wax saw commissioner, Show some love for wax
saw vote Michael Adobe for wax saw Commissioner, Show some
love for wax Okay, he sent the same message three
times over the course of the wait this goes back
to the morning dude. Okay, Well I read it. I
don't know if you got it read during the other shows,
but you got it read three times on this one.
There you go. Andy says, I don't get it. Since
when is voting against more taxes considered left wing? This
is about the transit tax. Well, remember I had on
a couple of opponents to the transit tax, Eric Rowell
from Huntersville Conservative and Robert Dawkins from NC Action or
Action NC I Forget, and that's a progressive organization, and
they're both opposed to the tax. And the left has
been making these arguments that the money needs to be
spent differently for more targeted towards, you know, buses, things
that will help the poor. That's their ORGA. And they're
opposed to the sales tax because they say it is
a regressive tax, and it is. Sales taxes are regressive.
It hurts people on the lower end of the economic
spectrum more so than the people on the upper end
of the spectrum. Because the people who have a lot
of money can absorb a you know, an increase in
a sales tax of one cent. People on the lower
end have a harder time because in real dollars, you know,
they're spending more real dollars on taxes. Now, so that
was why they were opposed to it. And that's sort
of this this alliance that has formed in opposition to
the one cent sales tax. But yeah, if you've got,
if you've got suggestions for the spreading of leftism out
of the urban cores and then infecting all of the
surrounding areas and slowly taking it all over. Open to that,
Kirk suggests left titis. Well, that well, that does sound
that does sound like an infection. Here's a great idea.
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and make memories that'll last a lifetime. So, okay, I
have a confession to make. I have not been sleeping
very well in the mornings. I blame government and more
directly my cat. But I blame the government first because
of daylight savings time or saving time, and they rolled
it back and the cat doesn't know that the clock
is different. Now we have an automatic feeder because he
gets up like we had like the first feeding for
him at like four point thirty in the morning to
try to make him leave us alone, you know, so
we don't have to get up and feed him, because
he gets super annoying. He like walks all over you.
He scratches at the carpet, he knocks everything off of
the end table, the nightstand, you know. And and so
I went out and bought an automatic feeder. And so
now he knows the sound of it. It makes this
little loop as it spins around, and it opens up
the next little panel and then it gives a little beep.
So he knows the sound, but he doesn't know that
four thirty is now not four thirty. So he keeps
waking up. He's been waking up at three thirty in
the morning and not getting fed. And so I had
to I had to readjust the thing. Now it's just
so thanks a lot, gov CO. So anyway, that's why
if I seemed to be dragging a little bit today,
it is true I am dragging because now I'm on
day three of this. This was the first day that
we reset the that I because I went, I went
to the machine and to the feeder machine, and I
was like, add another hour back onto that thing. So
now he's getting fed at three third already in the morning.
So but he still woke us up at like five
and three thirty. He still did wake us up at
like three thirty. So yeah, but yeah, so I blame him,
But I also blame gov Go because he's just a cat.
He doesn't know any better, you know, it's just his instinct.
He's going out wanting to hunt stuff, you know. So anyway,
we got some more ideas on what to call the
spread of leftism out of out of the blue areas,
out of the urban areas, and into the surrounding communities.
Let me see here. This one is from well, it's
from a nine to eight. Oh no, this is from
Stan who suggests the blue Bonic plague. Uh, that's a
good one. Mmmm m hmmm. Jim says, vote Jim Rayborne
for your real estate agent. That's not that's not that's
not a vote. Great. Dane says, I love my automatic feeder.
I ignored the cat. We never changed the time on
our feeder, right. I wish I had known that. I
didn't even think about it. I changed it, and then
Christy came home and she was like, oh, well, he's
not going to know it's a different clock, and I'm like,
well that's true. So yeah, I mean it's totally my
fault for changing the clock. Chris suggests, on the spread
of the leftism, you could call the spread left trust.
See like leprosy causes rotting and decay. It's a little
difficult to say though, that's the problem, Like it's got
to roll off the tongue a little bit like blue bonnic.
Chris says, leftism is more of a cancer than an infection.
Like a cancer, it must be combated with early and
aggressive treatment. Left untreated or unsuccessfully treated, eventually it'll kill
the host. Bill suggests a left botomy that's more like
an individual thing. Jeff suggests blue media, Okay, we want
to all right, we want to keep this family friendly.
Jeff shouldn't even have read that. But you know me,
I'm a sucker for the jokes. I can't help it,
for the I should say, for the good jokes. Speaking
of which, it is election day, and I do have
some fundraising totals here that the Charlotte Observer compiled. Andrew
Dunn made a reference to some of this data. So
Republican candidates actually raised more money than Democrats in multiple
Charlotte City council races, So this is from the period
the reporting period August twenty seventh through October twentieth, now
August twenty seventh through October twentieth, that would include the
backlash to the murder of Arena Zarutzka on the light
rail line. So Christo Bacari in District six, she more
than doubled the contributions of Democrat Kimberly Owens. Long shot
mayoral candidate Terry Donovan outraised the incumbent by Lyles by
a wide margin as well. Her biggest influx of cash
came amid national scrutiny of Lyles's response to the fatal
light rail stabbing. And leading the pack across all races
at large Republican candidate Edwin Peacock, whose campaign pulled in
more than one hundred ten thousand dollars, so first up
Bakari Krista Bakari ninety six thousand plus and spent sixty
five thousand. She has about eighty six In the final
two weeks before the election, her opponent raised forty thousand,
spent thirty nine thousand, and she's got only about fifteen
thousand dollars cash on hand. But remember this is for
the period that ends October twentieth, so your final push,
you're going to be spending a bunch of this money
in the final push. One third of Krista Bakari's contributions
came from the North Carolina Republican Party in the form
of printing and postage for the mailing of the campaign literature.
The state level party did not contribute to any other
candidate this cycle. Edwin Peacock raised one hundred thirteen thousand.
He spent twenty six of it. He has one hundred
and seventeen on cash on hand. And why these numbers
don't add up is because from the previous fundraising that
they have done, so they've got money that they have
been fundraising and they've been piling into the bank. So
they could raise one hundred and thirteen, spend twenty six,
but still have one hundred and seventeen in the bank.
Dimple Ashmira a Democrat at large. She raised about twenty
two thousand, spent about half of it, but her cash
on hand is one hundred and seventy nine thousand, but
she's accumulated that over a decade. Also of note, Lee
Ratliffe was one of her donors one thousand dollars donor
Lee Ratliffe, the CEO of PSS Professional Security Services. They
do the They've got the contract for security for Charlotte
Public Transit. He also donated one thousand dollars to James
Smudgie Mitchell. He also donated one thousand dollars Toolana Slack
Mayfield's campaign. 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
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Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it
also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape
more transparent. Happy Election Day, John from Jersey, It's a
Pete male to Pete at thepeteclenarshow dot com. Pete cats
apparently go insanely active at dawn and dusk. That is true.
I've watched a lot of cat videos, and I'm not
just talking the cute ones that make you laugh and
oh aren't they adorable? Like not that like people dressing
up their cats and making them do stuff. I mean,
I've watched a lot of those too, but I've watched
a lot of these like why do cats do what
they do? Things that cats like that their owners don't do,
and things they hate that owners do and all that.
I've watched a lot of this stuff, and they are
very active in the Yeah, dusk and dawn there's a
word for it. I forget what the word is, but
they that's when they go hunting and according to these
YouTube videos, which would never lie to me. They say that, like,
the cats are waking you up because number one, they
don't like you in the deep sleep because cats, cats
don't go into the deep sleeps like we do, and
so they think we're dead and they're like, wake up,
wake up, Oh my gosh, why are you so you know,
deeply asleep. But then the other thing is that they
feel like we're missing out on the hunt, and so
they try to wake us up, like, hey, it's time
to go hunting. You know. I think it's just because
he just views me as the food deliverer, you know.
But anyway, cats go insanely active at dawn and dusk,
perhaps a hunting drive. Ours doesn't get the time change thing,
and she walks up onto me, punches me in the
face with her head that's called the head butt, then
proceeds to vocalize demanding breakfast. I also watched this video
that said you're supposed to respond to your cat, do
you know, like if you don't respond to your cat,
like their neural pathways will never develop and then they
just don't ever. They never meet out, they don't talk,
like if you're raising a cat from a kitten anyway,
So you're supposed to talk to them and then they
will communicate back with you because they don't meow at
each other. They don't talk to each other. Totally a
cat thing, you know. Anyway, I save this creature's life.
I feel an obligation. But dang, now I remember why
I'm a dog person. Oh and I forgot to mention
my obligatory election day prediction. And you know me, I
don't make predictions except this one. When it comes to elections.
The obligatory prediction is it'll all come down to turn out.
And I say that because I hate when people say that,
because of course, it's like saying, you know, the winner
of this football game, it's all going to come down
to who puts up the most points. Well, yes, that's
how you judge the winner, Michael in a tweet. It's
a pet tweet, he says. This is also the hardest
point to get across to people. I nearly turned blue
in the face trying to convey the simple truth to
some acquaintances who only want to complain about current affairs. Yeah, well,
I mean, it's it's about turnout, and if you just
complain all the time, but you don't go vote and
you don't participate, then like you're not making things better,
you're just complaining. And then you're just like you know me,
and you don't want to be like me. So let
me see here. I've got a bunch of text messages.
Speaker 2: This.
Speaker 1: So people are yeah, people are suggesting all of the
Uh oh is it crepuscular nocturnal? I don't know. For
the cat thing, I don't know. I forget what the
name is. Diurnal is the word. I think that's it.
The hellion says, I am simply a food tainer. Yes,
probably so dogs have owners, cats have servants. Yeah, Diurnal
means they hunt both dusk and dawnt. They're also predator
and prey. Cats are predator and prey, and that means
that like, if they get injured, they hide it because
they don't want anybody to know. Mike says, we can
call it, oh, this is the spread of leftism outside
the urban areas and to the suburbs. Call it gang
blue like gang green. That yeah, I like that one.
Gang blue. The tissue dies due to the lack of
common sense. Uh mmm, pete, that would make it left TD.
I don't know. Uh liberal virus or liberous Yeah, okay, BPBP.
It's funny when you see the current police chief of
Minneapolis interview for CMPD. This guy has tons of experience.
Is this from today? I'm about the police chief, daylight
savings and proof that the government just likes to mess
with us. That is. Yeah, there's no reason for it anymore.
We should just get rid of it. And then Michael says,
I'm in the same boat. My cat wakes me up earlier.
Now I have to buy her a smart watch. She's
not going to be able to use it. All right.
That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much
for listening. I could not do the show without your
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and don't break anything while I'm gone.