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 in Charlotte. And if you
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smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for
your support. It's Tuesday. It's twelve o'clock noon, and that
means we talked to Andrew Dunn. He is the publisher
of long Leaf Politics. Longleafpol dot com is that website.
He's also a contributing columnist in The Charlotte Observer. Andrew,
how are you, sir?
Speaker 2: I'm great. I'm sitting out on my front porch and
this weather is just unreal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yesterday was beautiful, and I don't know, I mean,
maybe it's the change of seasons or something now, because
like I've got something that's like affecting my my chest.
So hopefully I can make it through the show today.
I like my chances, but I'm playing injured. So no,
that's all right, that's Okay, I'll be fine. So I
got to ask you, what the heck is a judicial palooza?
I have never heard of this? This is an event
you attended? I think I saw.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Is it like a band kind of thing? Like a
jam band kind of a deal?
Speaker 2: No, much more exciting than that.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: This was an event held by the Hornets Nests Republican
Men's Club, great organization, the largest Republican organization in North Carolina,
I believe, and they hosted a real powerhouse crowd of
Republican judicial candidates to run in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: When and so when was that?
Speaker 2: It was a week ago, last Monday.
Speaker 1: Okay, and so, so what was the format? You just
hang out and listened to speeches? Or is it like
a Q and a A? Is it a meet and greet?
Speaker 4: Little bit of both.
Speaker 2: You know, there was time for meet and greet and
then all of the candidates who were running next year
came up and gave their little pitch, and a lot
of it was mostly talking about what are the stakes
in the judicial elections for twenty twenty six. You know,
the Senate race is obviously going to take so much
of the attention, but there actually are some important judicial
races coming up next.
Speaker 1: Year such as well.
Speaker 2: The big one is the State Supreme Court seat. You know,
right now Republicans have a five to two majority on
the State Supreme Court. The seat that's actually coming up
in twenty twenty six is Justice Anita Earls. You know,
your listeners may remember she was elected in twenty eighteen.
This was the year when all the rules changed, so
there wasn't a primary, so the general election ballot had
two Republicans on it, and then Anita Earls as the Democrat,
and so she squeaked out of victory on there. So
I think it's it's going to be a lot different
dynamic in twenty twenty six, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Right because the legislature reimposed the partisan designations for the
judicial races, which then, of course they were accused of
politicizing the judiciary, which is silly. It's not politicization to
simply see the party label next to people's names. I think,
in fact, it's a heuristic. It's a shorthand way that
people can have an understanding of what somebody's judicial philosophy
would be when they don't know anything else about the candidates.
Because like you said, the top of ticket races usually
get way more of the media coverage and stuff, And
so she's running against the only one announced I guess
at this point is Representative Sarah Stevens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's fair to call her the presumptive
Republican nominee. She's a state representative, has been in the
legislature a long time. I think I don't think she'll
have too much trouble getting the Republican nomination there.
Speaker 1: So you have a quote in here from Court of
Appeals Judge Michael Stadding, and I've interviewed him a couple
of times when he was running, and he's to me,
he's been a very impressive judge and he's on the
Court of Appeals now, but he used to be a
local judge here before he made the jump to the
Court of Appeals. And so I guess what did he
give a He gave a speech where he talked about
if they're honest, judges will say or voters will say,
I want a judge who will follow the law. And
you say that that simple statement is Republican coded. So
what does what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. So you know, Court of appeals
judges has to campaign statewide, as do state Supreme court judges,
and so that means, well, they're not going to raise
a whole bunch of money, So that means a lot
of their campaigning is going to be door to door
and talking to voters one on one. And so Judge
stating in his speech, he talked about how he doesn't
just go to Republican doors, He's going to unaffiliated voters,
He's going to even some Democrats. And basically how he'll
open up the conversation is you know, what are you
looking for in a judge? And you know, ninety nine
times out of one hundred people across the political spectrum,
they're looking for judges who are going to fairly apply
the law. There is a real a movement that you know,
voters don't want their judges to be activists, right, They
don't want judges to approach the bench with their preferred
outcomes in mind. And I think what we've seen in
North Carolina and around the country over the past couple
of years as a real movement towards democratic judicial philosophy
being more activist outcome oriented, and you'll see Republican judicial
philosophy be a lot more process oriented, a lot more
you know, strict constitutionalist, really trying to follow and apply
the letter.
Speaker 5: Of the law.
Speaker 1: You also mentioned the local races, the superior and district
court races, which are hugely important. People complaining about crime
and you know, soft on crime and light sentences. This
is where you actually have the opportunity to make a difference,
although in Mecklamburg County that's pretty difficult, and I feel
like there's a there's a structural disadvantage for any Republican
that's running for these seats, not just because of the districts,
but also because a lot of lawyers are on the left,
a lot of lawyers are Democrats, and a lot of
Republicans are not interested in sort of you know, running
for an office and then losing and then having to
sort of still move in the legal circles when you've
challenged a Democrat judge and lost.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, if you're an attorney
with business before any of these judges, it really puts
you at in an awkward spot if you're going to
lose an election and then have to go have business
in front of them, which is unfortunate, but that's just
kind of reality. Yeah, but yeah, so all of the
district court judges in Mecklenburg County are Democrats and two
years ago was the last time those they were on
the ballot, and not a single Republican even ran. But
I think that's unfortunate. You know, I get why it is,
but I think in this environment, when I really feel
that voters, especially unaffiliated voters in larger urban areas, are
getting tired of some of the soft on crime policies
and there might be a path for a Republican judge
to actually break through there.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see, we can, we can hope, we could hope. Yeah.
So you also had another piece the other day. Killing
on the light rail should jolt Charlotte awake. This is
about the stabbing murder of Arena Zarutska from the Ukraine
and some homeless, mentally deranged guy just murdered her on
the light rail car and the response from the city
leaders not great, I don't think, And I think the
statement from the mayor not great. Also, one sentence about
the victim and then five paragraphs about how we failed
somehow the suspect in the case. And now I think
she mayor vy Lyles is looking to do some clean
up with an MTC meeting tomorrow to talk about crime.
This is a problem for them with this campaign for
a referendum.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, it certainly is, and I'm going to write
a piece about that. In regards to the referendum. At
some point, I do think that we need to rethink
where the money is going if the transit tax were
to pass, and there needs to be some money carved
out for public safety, because it is just it is
not there. The emphasis on safety has just deteriorated over
the past five, six, seven years. But you know, on
the piece that I wrote, this case just has me
so so sad just seeing you know, this woman left
the Ukraine trying to flee to safety and came to
Charlotte and here she gets stabbed to death and a
completely random, unprovoked attack on the lightrail train and it
just I just very upset about it. But the reason
why I wrote about it was I, in my mind,
this type of case, this type of event, should be
a huge deal for the city of Charlotte, you know, this,
this should be something that the public at large is
outraged about that all of the politicians are feeling like
they have to take some immediate action to fix things,
and I just hadn't seen it. You know that you
referenced the statement from the mayor, and you know she
basically said, well, you know, the city is by and
large safe, and the light rail is by and large safe.
And you know, you know, tell that to this young
woman's family. You know, that's that's going to be cold
comfort to them. I really think that this sort of event,
you know, if Charlotte really wants to keep its soul
into the future, this seems to be the sort of
thing that sparks immediate and dramatic change.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I did not realize that you were at UNC when
Carson was murdered. I remember that story. I did not
know you were there at the time, but that death
had a very big impact in Chapel Hill.
Speaker 2: It certainly did. I mean, that was the sort of
event where you remember twenty years later where you were
when you heard the news, and you know, I was
working on the student newspaper at the time, and that was, oh,
just a horrific, horrific event, and it did spark some
change and some better policies, especially aroung people who were
on probation and parole, and so to not see that
same level of response in Charlotte is disheartening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't want to be complacent. We don't want
to be I mean, I was just looking at the
stats for this weekend in Chicago. They had like fifty
eight shootings, fifty eight victims over the Labor Day weekend.
And I don't know what that says about the leadership
and the citizens of a city where that's just accept
It's just not a big deal.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, complacency is a good word for it. I mean,
I don't think Charlotte wants to be the kind of
city where we just throw up our hands and say, well,
you know, this is a city and this sort of
thing just tends to happen now and then. I mean
that that would be a huge, huge problem for the
city of Charlotte. Yeah, that's the attitude we adopt.
Speaker 1: You can read his work at long Leaf Politics longleafpol
dot com. He also puts up a column at The
Charlotte Observer and his name is Andrew Don Andrew, we
appreciate your time as always, sir.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. I hope you start feeling better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you and me both and everybody listening to the
scratchy sound of my voice. All right, thanks sir, all right,
thank you. Take care. That's Andrew Dunn. So when I
was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before
he died, my mom and my dad took care of
him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were
no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family.
But things are different today because of the work of
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It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts.
I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause
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You can sign up and you can join the team
and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth that truest field.
Sign up at alz dot org slash walk and then
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Republican Charlotte City councilman Edwin Peacock. He was appointed to
fill the unexpired term of Tark Bacari, who took a
job up in the Trump administration. He's now running for
an at large seat, and he was previously an at
large Charlotte City Council member. I want to say, maybe
like a decade ago or so, he took a ride
on the light rail and he shot a video. I
don't know if it went straight to the TikTok or
to the Insta or to the Graham. I'm not sure.
I'm looking at it on Twitter, formerly known as x
It runs just under two minutes, and he's on a
train and you can see a group of men back
behind him in the back of the train, and he
does make reference to then led with Peacock.
Speaker 5: Tonight, I'm riding our light rail system.
Speaker 3: I'm going eighteen stops from South Penn's Newburn station, the
uncc's main campus and back.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: A week ago our community suffered a really terrible tragedy.
Twenty three year old Ernold Zarutko, a refuge from Ukraine,
lost her life on this train in a brutal stabbing.
Tonight we are mourning Arnia and standing with her family. Now,
as a city council member, I wanted to see things firsthand.
Tonight I've met the two security officers that I met
at the East West station. Both carried only handcuffs and
some mace, and one told me he was on a
ten hour shift.
Speaker 5: Now, it was interesting because neither I had.
Speaker 3: One of them asked me for a ticket, and I
didn't see him asking anybody else.
Speaker 5: But I can tell you that their presence matter.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I've been riding with college kids heading home.
Speaker 3: I've been with hospital workers, and I've also been with
several people in this train, particularly these guys behind me,
where this is clearly a rolling shelter for them. They're
partying and having a good time. So here's the central question.
Is our open gate system keeping us no what consistent,
fair checks or a stronger presence helped to prevent crime disorder?
Speaker 5: Yes? And I believe the answer is yes.
Speaker 3: So I've asked staff to bring us back three years
of crime data on this system and to tell us
whether offenders who were riding without paying in the first place.
And we need to set clearer standards. If you ride
this train, you must pay your fare.
Speaker 5: Now. Our lightrail system should be safe, it should be reliable,
and it should be welcoming for all.
Speaker 3: And that is what our city deserves, this great system
that we started.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in all right. So that's Edwin Peacock.
He called it a rolling shelter. There's three guys maybe
four in the back of the train car and they're
just hooting and hollering. You can hear them. They're like,
I don't know if they're rolling dice or something in
the back or whatever. I'm not really clear what they're
doing because they're pretty far away. But Yeah, it's a
rolling shelter, and if you're not going to police the fares,
then anybody's going to get on and ride for free,
and they will treat it just like these people are
treating it. By the way, WBTV did a look back
for crime on the light rail, and before the deadly
stabbing took the life of the twenty three year old
immigrant from Ukraine, the Charlotte Area transit system had reported
at least five blue line injuries in a report to
the federal government in twenty twenty five. WBTV analysis of
reports submitted monthly to the Metropolitan Transit Commission revealed a
small uptick in reportable injury since twenty twenty three, two
years ago. There were no federally reported injuries or deaths
on the light rail line. This year's numbers only run
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the Smoky Mountain News ran a story called Helene Victims
still waiting for Wattley Michael Wattley, that is, and Roy
Cooper tweeted out this story and said quote the President
put Michael Wattley in charge of federal recovery for western
North Carolina. Wattley is failing North Carolina families. And Cooper
then proceeded to get dragged in the Twitter comments that
followed because in case nobody remembers, Roy Cooper was the
governor when Helen hit want to welcome to the program.
Welcome back to the program. Don Brown. He's former US
Navy jag officer served in the Pentagon. He's a former
Special Assistant US Attorney and also a national Best selling author.
He is running for the US Senate seat, hopes to
be the candidate from the Republican primary to go up
against Roy Cooper. Don, how are you, sir, Seed, I'm great.
Speaker 4: Happy Labor Day Week to you. You should be on
vacation this week. You should have brought the B team
in many to hear your voice the appreciation of hard work.
Speaker 1: I am the B team. I am the B team,
all right, Sonny? Yeah, So okay, So what struck you
as a particularly noteworthy aside from the obvious that Roy
Cooper was in charge of Helen response before Trump even
took office.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm somewhat familiar with that tweet, and you know,
first off, I have campaigned in the mountains of North Carolina,
and neither Michael R. Roy Cooper are the most popular
figures up there. Yes, it's true that President Trump said
you're in charge, and really we can't see mce it
was done. But let's take a let's talk about Cooper
for a second. Listen, the Democrats were in charge of
the response and Roy Cooper, Roy Cooper's president Joe Biden.
This storm went through on the twenty seventh of November.
Excuse me, twenty seventh September, and there was no federal
response until October the third, you know, in other words,
there were no military helicopters coming. There was no military response.
I should say, the Democrats set back and did nothing,
and you've got to act within twenty four hours to
save lives. Only was there raising money somewhere. We didn't
have helicopers or black helicopers coming in the following day
delivering generators, delivering waterlve they should have done. We had
the military presidents, both through the federal response from the
President and through the North John National Guard to have
gotten in there. And Roy Cooper was asweep at the wheel.
And I don't think either one of the two wants
to be pointing a finger too much of the old
one about their lack of COVID response. But excuse me,
the lack of Hellen response. I should say, COVID to us, Hey,
don't give.
Speaker 1: Him any ideas on another COVID response.
Speaker 4: Good lord, no, no, please exactly. But it's kind of like,
you know, two guys that didn't do too much pointing
to finger at each other. But I guess Cooper started
that we're going to take Roy Cooper down We're going
to remind the entire state. Not only is his failure there,
but his failure on multiple fronts as well. He shut
the state down, you know how, he basically killed fifty
percent of the restaurants in North Carolina. As I've said before, Pete,
the last time I saw my daddy alive was looking
through the outside of a nursing home in Plymouth, North Style,
was standing out on a frozen courtyard, looking through a
glass window, waving at him because of Cooper's unconstitutional mandates.
So Cooper, hey, if he'd better hope than Mike Watley
runs against him, not me, because I'm going to remind
him of every failure that he has imposed upon this state,
and I'm looking forward to doing that.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the fact that he was out of town.
In fact, he was up in New York City as
a matter of fact, when the hurricane hit. He was
up there doing a speech to some donors talking about
climate change. So yeah, so that's what he was doing.
And then, of course we would be remiss if we
did not mention the response or lack thereof, to two
other hurricanes, Matthew and Florence, where people waited a decade
to get back into their homes. So yeah, go ahead, right, No,
that's right.
Speaker 4: And I've been down east as well, and it's it's
a shame that it seems like the eastern part of
the state and the western mountains kind of get screwed
over for what a reason. And it's just a travesty.
And you're absolutely correct. And millions of dollars were allocated
for those two hurricanes Matthew hit and Florence as well.
The money set there. You know, Cooper took no action
to make sure the money got where it needed to be,
and unfortunately, you know, the eastern part of the state
was forgotten. And by the grace of God, this last
hurricane veered off to the northeast and we avoided another
buttential disaster to couldment a five point zero. But Cooper
has been the most liberal a governor in the state's history,
the most progressive, the most ineffective. And he's going to
go down, he's going to go down to the selection
next year, and he's got to come into him because
he's he now is a record that we're going to
run against, and run against hard and expose him at
every nook corner in cranny.
Speaker 1: What do you make I've said since he announced that
this he he is not going to be I think
prepared for the amount of outside money that will now
be directed at him in a way that wasn't before.
And so I have to believe that that sort of
elevating of these types of issues that's got to be
helpful for not just you, but also Michael Wattley, but
anybody running against Cooper. I think, does he still have
a Democrat opponent in the primary? I know Wiley Nickel
dropped out.
Speaker 4: Wiley Nickel got that I had read that somebody else
is is a nominal candidate. They're coming and give you
the person's name, but for all practical purposes know but
you're correct, Pete, and he is. He has a he
is he has a target rich environment in terms of
his of his political missteps, his mismanagement of the state.
He separated dying elderly North Carolinians from their families. My
dad died alone because of that, sucker. I will never
forgive him for that. And then the entire insistence upon
keeping the state closed. When I'll cross down the border
in the South carolin on which borders, of course, Meckenburgen
and Union counties. During the COVID years, Henry McMaster was
untightening the screws. You could almost feel the air of
freedom compared to the tyrannical lockdown that we had here
in this state. He's going to pay for every bit
of that. He's going to be reminded about and how
he and Mandy cod which stand in the back and
they put their masks on the last second, then come
out and give their jibber javish and go back and
take the mask off. He's going to be reminded of
every bit of political hypocrisy he's put on this state.
He's gonna remind me how he blew the state up on,
you know, with with Medicaid expansion. He's can be reminded
of all of it. He says that he saved people
money and health costs. Give me a break. Since Obamacare
came in, average people can no longer afford Blue Cross
and you got to wait forever to see a doctor.
We're going to remind him of all that. We're going
to hang the de mantra of the Democrat Party around
his socialist neck and he's going to wish that he'd
never heard of us before.
Speaker 2: This is over.
Speaker 1: He also marched with the Black Lives Matter folks, pulling
the mask down off of his face so he could
do the fist of power and solidarity even though we
were all on lockdown. But I guess you could go
and publicly gather as long as it wasn't for a funeral.
And then remember he got.
Speaker 4: And the notion that anybody's job is not essential. It's
a slap in the face of every North Carolina if
you're out there trying to support your family, your job
is essential, my friend. And the notion that bars may
be essential but churches are not. And that particular group,
Black Lives Matter, he was marching with. We now know
that the founders of that group were were unabashedly communists.
He's going to be reminded of all of that and
knowing certain terms. I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 1: No, No. The only other thing I point out also
is that he ran his first run against Pat McCrory
was over what the HB two bill right transgender and
transgenders into women's bathrooms and locker rooms and such. And
I kind of feel like the country has shifted its
vibe on that issue now.
Speaker 4: Cooper has been a champion of grown men going into
little girls locker rooms and bathrooms. And if you say
anything about it, oh, you know, he's protected that concept
because you discriminatory. We had that gone right on, going
to be discriminatory against some dude coming into a little
girl's bathroom. And this whole trans thing has gone off
the rockers. He thinks he's not going to be held
to the fire for this. He is going to be
health to fire this. North Kilans don't want it. We have,
we have drifted to the right conservatively. By the end
of this year, there will be more registered Republicans and
Democrats in the state of North Carolina and it's just
going to get he And when you talk about his
run against Pat McCrory, you know, you know Pat was
running ahead in that race, and all of a sudden,
the vote ferry starts showing up in Durham County and
they start bringing boxes and boxes out, which still not
an account for I hope my friend Dave Bullet, the auditor,
will audit what happened in Durham County in twenty eighteen.
We deserve to know. But he was elected initially against
Pat McCrory under questionable circumstances. The pass the gentlemen, you
probably said it was fair, but no, I'm wondering what
happened because whenever the vote ferry shows up with boxes
after the fact, how many times has that turned out
well for the Republicans? You and I know the answer
to that question. So he was elected initially under questionable circumstances.
Its like beaten hard. He's going to be beaten soundly
this time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. I think he won by like one
percent or less than one percent of the vote or something.
It was. It was a very very tight race when
he beat Oh, well, they.
Speaker 4: Found the vote saying even in Durham County, which is
which has the most corrupt Democrat party in the state
of North Carolina. So the vote fairy shows up, Well,
we found the box, we found the we're to found
the boxes. How do we know that they're verified? How
does this happen? The same thing that happened to Trump
two years later in twenty twenty. The vote fairy shows up.
And when the vote fairy shows up, they always go
overwhelmingly Democrat. How does that work?
Speaker 1: You should hire a vote ferry for your campaign.
Speaker 4: I don't know ferries don't work for conservatives.
Speaker 3: Oh is that right? Hey?
Speaker 1: If people want more information, brownfour NC dot com is
the website Don Brown. Thanks for your time today, sir.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 4: We appreciate you. Pete goblell. Let's have a great rest
of the week.
Speaker 1: You too, Take care?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: You hear me talk a lot about incentives, right, well,
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WBT and the One Blood, Big Red Bus is going
to be at the Doghouse in Uptown Charlotte from ten
am until three pm. Will be broadcasting live and encouraging
you to give us your blood. It's a life saving
blood donation. The sixth annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive
Thursdays September fourth at the Doghouse. If you want details
on the location and also more importantly to register your appointment,
go to WBT dot com. All right, so thanks again
to Don h for jumping on and chatting about this.
I've got we may have to carry this into the
next hour. I just kind of carried away with Don
and just going back and forth. But this story started
with the Smoky Mountain News report by Corey Vallancourt. I've
had Corey on the program before talking about stuff going
on up in the mountains, you know, the the closing
of the mill and Canton obviously Hurricane Helene, the storm
and recovery efforts, and so he did this story Helene
victims still waiting for Wattley and Roy Cooper went to
Chimney Rock and that's where Corey, I guess interviewed him,
got some comments from him, and he says that on
January twenty fourth, four months after Helene carved a swath
of destruction through Rutherford, bunkhom and Madison Counties, and four
days after Trump was sworn in as the nation's forty
seventh president. Four days after he sworn in, Trump flew
into Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher with a twofold directive.
The first by executive order was to establish the FEMA
Review Council, headed up by Department of Homeland Security Secretary
Christy Noman Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Ostensibly, the purpose
of the council was to meet periodically and to issue
a report on options for FEMA reform within one hundred
and eighty days of the establishment of that council. The
second directive was to tap Michael Wattley as Western North
Carolina's recovery czar. So I would also point out one
other thing it was that he came here to show that.
He gave a flying fig Newton about the people western
North Carolina. He knew that it was Trump country and
there were already stories about FEMA, people not going to
homes with Trump signs and stuff like that. And the
Biden administration failed Western North Carolina. Roy Cooper's administration failed
Western North Carolina. They were on their way out the
door and nobody seemed to care. And Donald Trump four
days after getting inaugurated, makes this his first trip. He
did that for a reason. It's a messaging reason. It
is to say to the people of western North Carolina,
you are important. I do know what has occurred to you.
I will be trying to help you. I am here.
That was like overtly stated. Remember he got all these
residents around him at the press conference. It was unlike
anything I'd ever seen. So there were other reasons why
Trump came, but Cooper wanted to campaign off it. So
he got some tweets out of it, he got some mileage,
but he also got dragged. All right, that'll do it
for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I
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thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.