התמלול המלא של Community Connection - November 6 2026 Pastor James Jackson in for Tina Cosby

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Speaker 1: WTLC AM, W236 CR Indianapolis. Broadcasting from the Praise Indy Indigo Studios. Discussing the issues that matter to you. It's Community Connection with Tina Cosby on Praise.
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Speaker 2: AM 1310, 95.1 FM.
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Speaker 3: All right, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Community Connection. It's a beautiful afternoon here in the city of Indianapolis. Welcome to Praise AM 1310, 95.1 FM, Indy's Inspiration Station. The number that you will need to connect with the show on today is 317-480-1310. Again, that's 317-480-1310. Make a note of it, 317-480-1310. I'm Pastor James Jackson sitting in for Tina Cosby on this afternoon. Let's keep her in our prayers. And every Monday through Friday, 1 to 3 p.m., you can listen to this show. News you can use. We have an exciting show planned for you on today with some exciting guests. So please be sure to tell somebody to tell somebody to tell somebody to listen in on today. And now you can see who's saying what they are saying because we're streaming live on the Praise Indy app. and at praiseindy.com. So go on over there and check us out. Wherever there's internet service, Wi-Fi available, you'll be able to tune in to the show. Well, election day is over with and a whole lot has happened. I want to thank you all because we had some great people come on the show and we have been doing voter education well before November 3rd. And some of those folks are here with us today to kind of talk about that. And so one of the things that I was asking you over the air is to help us to get to 50% voter turnout for Marion County. We have over 600,000 registered voters in the last midterm with about a 34% turnout. We were hoping for 50%. You have to set goals. And we have to set reasonable goals. Whatever you monitor and measure and prove, whatever you focus on expands. And so... Here we are, 41%. 41%. I'm having a celebration in my mind, y'all. And I have been since after Election Day when I saw that. I was so happy to see 41%. And we could not have gotten to 41% without each and every one of you making sure that you went out and you voted. Now, our goal is still that 50%, not just in the midterms, but every election going forward. We want to get at least 50% turnout. And then once we get that, we'll set another goal. until every single person who is registered to vote goes out to vote. It's just that important. And if you have children, talk to them about the importance of voting. The laws of primacy come into play. What we learn first, we remember longest. So please be sure to tell your children how important it is to vote. Take them with you. I don't know if it's okay to take kids with you, but Kate Sweeney-Bell is here. She's going to tell us all about that. But they need to go. my mother and father used to take me to the polls and I'd watch them do it. And they go behind the booth. It's a, it was a little less elaborate than it used to be. And, um, and they would, you know, cast their vote and I'd watch them doing that. And so when I turned 18, I registered and I have been voting ever since. So let's get it done. Yo, every single person in the United States of America over, um, I think 17 should be voting. And, uh, Thank you. Thank you for making that happen.

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Speaker 4: 41%.
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Speaker 3: That is really exciting. So I want to bring a chaplain Wally in here on this afternoon. Those of you who are listening, thank you for listening to the community connection. This show has been around for a long time and it wouldn't be successful without you. So thank you. Chaplain Wally, how are you doing this afternoon?
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Speaker 5: As you know, the blue wave came in.
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Speaker 3: It was more of a tsunami.
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Speaker 5: Exactly.
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Speaker 6: But we're happy about that and It's good to be in another house, community connection. And so I'm glad to be here with Councilor Nick Roberts as well as the clerk, Kate Sweeney-Bell. We have some great information that's going to come forth today. And so I want the community to just sit back and observe and let's all just celebrate.
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Speaker 3: And there are a lot of folks who are celebrating across the state of Indiana and all across the nation. There are people... And there were winners in both parties.
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Speaker 5: That's right.
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Speaker 3: It's just that Democrat candidates won bigger. And we should all be excited about what's possible in this nation. I can tell you, I think at least one thing President Donald Trump did was unify.
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Speaker 7: A lot of people. I'll say he did.
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Speaker 3: I don't think that was his intent. But there were MAGA party members who... either didn't vote or voted for Democrat candidates. There were Republicans, conservative Republicans, traditional Republicans who did the same thing. And so, uh, the people, we, the people we spoke. So I want to get, uh, Kate in here and, um, tell us who you are and who you represent then Nick.
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Speaker 7: Well, thank you, Pastor Jackson.
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Speaker 8: Uh, I'm the Marion County clerk, Kate Sweeney Bell. I, uh, I'm the chief elections officer for the largest county in the state and responsible to make sure that your goal is 50 percent. My goal is 100 percent turnout of our registered voters. And I am a realist.
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Speaker 7: And I, too, I did.
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Speaker 8: I hoped and I thought there was so much energy and anticipation in this election and during the period of early voting that it was it was very exciting. And the excitement did not wane one moment from the time candidates declared to election night when we got our results up.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure you were very excited and still excited.
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Speaker 9: Yes.
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Speaker 3: And we have sitting in the middle chair here, Nick, how are you? Doing great. How about you?
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Speaker 4: Good.
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Speaker 3: Tell us who you are, who you represent. Yeah, my name is Nick Roberts.
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Speaker 10: I actually serve as the District 4 Indianapolis City County Councilor. Um, I'm the youngest counselor, as you can probably see anybody watching the video. Um, so obviously getting young people to the polls is very important to me. Um, and I, you know, a lot of friends who I was dragging by the ear to make sure they voted and thankfully a lot of them did. Um, but I also do a lot of like amateur kind of data analysis. So I've been posting a lot of maps, um, and different like election result, uh, data information. Um, so people have been interested in that and, um, yeah, it's, it's been really crazy to look at just the shift of the election on Tuesday. Um, obviously Indiana, typically pretty red state, not always, but typically. So to look at just the absolute domination, for lack of a better word, in a lot of different races for Democrats was truly just mind-blowing.

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Speaker 5: All right.
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Speaker 3: We are blown away. I'm sure a lot of people in one way or another. Chaplain Wally, if you would, give us a word of prayer on this afternoon.
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Speaker 6: Eternal God, we come right now. First of all, we thank you. We thank you for this city. We thank you for our servant leaders. And most of all, Lord, we thank you for your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray.
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Speaker 11: Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 3: Don't have to be long to be strong.
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Speaker 5: That's right.
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Speaker 3: How are things over at the Sheriff's Department? Kelvis, Sheriff Kelvis Williams now is our new sheriff. That's right. And we haven't had a lot of black sheriffs.
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Speaker 5: That's right.
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Speaker 6: In Marion County, Frank J. Anderson was the first here. And then now Kelvis T.
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Speaker 5: Williams.
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Speaker 3: So he's making history.
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Speaker 5: His name, he's the people's choice, the people's sheriff.
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Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
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Speaker 5: And so I'm glad for that.
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Speaker 6: And even though we did inquire some other sheriffs in some other counties, and so we're happy. So in speaking in the African-American, that's a great thing. You know, I'm glad to see that African-Americans are getting involved in politics and are moving to the next levels.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, Hamilton County.
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Speaker 5: That's right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a surprise.
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Speaker 7: I'll say.
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Speaker 3: And the Marion County Sheriff, according to the merit law, is right there with the mayor and the chief of police with regard to decisions that are made concerning public safety. And he is to be included, as I understand it, in all matters about public safety. When I was on the merit board, I studied all of that and saw that the sheriff was to be involved in all that. Do you think he'll be involved in that and that we'll get that? Because I think we really need unity with the mayor, the sheriff, and the chief of police.
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Speaker 5: Absolutely.
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Speaker 6: Sheriff-elect Calistee Williams, in his platform, in terms of campaigning, several times he's alluded to the fact that he will bring all agencies together and have conversations to where they can work together. So certainly I believe that there's going to be conversations where they're going to bring a lot of collaboration and make this city better in terms of conversation.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and the former sheriff, Forrestal, he's now senator.
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Speaker 5: Another blue wave.
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Speaker 6: Have you talked to him? I'm sure he's excited about it. I didn't have him talk to him, but I have text with him. And he's busy right now today over at the state office getting acclimated. And so I'm sure he's happy. So in the sheriff's department, we are really happy about what God has done.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: There's a lot to learn over there at the state house, I'm sure. And, of course, early next year, January, when they start meeting and start doing all that, of course, he's very qualified.
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Speaker 12: Yes.
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Speaker 3: I perceive to get the job done.
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Speaker 5: He's going to get the job done. All right.
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Speaker 3: Speaking of getting the job done, Kate, all this that we were talking about and you were coming on the Unity Show and we were talking, educating people. Of course, you've been on this show, too, with Tina, talking about the importance of voting, educating people. Did Marion County exceed your expectations? For the most part.
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Speaker 7: Yes, absolutely.
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Speaker 13: With it.
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Speaker 8: Our turnout, we had about 41% turnout. And that was spread throughout.
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Speaker 7: We had.
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Speaker 8: Just over 100,000 absentee votes. And when people hear the term absentee, a lot of times they don't understand. Anytime you don't vote on election day, it's absentee voting, whether it is the travel board comes to a nursing home or your home, whether somebody votes in person. in the city County building or at one of our satellite sites or a military and over any voting that does not take place on election day is considered absentee voting. So over 102,000 residents of Marion County voted absentee.
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Speaker 3: That's good.
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Speaker 1: It is.
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Speaker 8: It's something that the voters want and it's not just Democrat voters. These are voters across the state of Indiana. It's, there's a statutory requirement that clerk's offices have to be open. Well, we go sort of the extra mile here in Marion County, but we have our board is a bipartisan board, and the locations and the hours have to be voted on unanimously.
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Speaker 7: So this is something that Republicans want also.
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Speaker 3: Has there been any challenges to the outcome of any of the races?
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Speaker 7: Not so far.
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Speaker 8: We do have some races in Marion County that are close. If there was a Republican running for office, and I'm not talking school board, but for the contested races, and this is an interesting, you'll love this statistic, Nick. And every single Republican challenged by a Democrat lost in Marion County. Now, some of them, By wide margins. But there were some that it was, you know, 100 votes, 150 votes. I don't know if we will see any recounts, but we're prepared if we do because they're going to have to look at not our data, but actually the ballots themselves if that comes to pass.
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Speaker 3: And Nick, tell us what that means because we were talking before the show how the data is one thing and then being able to read it and have it tell us different things. What does that say? Kate just said, of all those who are running in Marion County, the Democrat candidate won against the Republican candidate.
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Speaker 10: Yeah, and it's, you know, something that I think narrative-wise, people just have this idea of, oh, Indianapolis, Marion County, so Democratic, and then Hamilton County, so Republican, that's just black and white, right? But it's really not. I mean, you know, previously, you were still looking at the South Side, at least, So, you know, Decatur, Franklin Perry townships, we're all very Republican, right? So even though obviously top level, you know, this county is still blue, you're looking at down ballot, there's.
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Speaker 3: A huge change. And not just those.
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Speaker 10: Three townships, but obviously as again, Hamilton County, Boone County, Hendricks County. I mean, there's tons of races in, you know, McCordsville and Avon and Brownsburg and Zinesville and Carmel and Fishers. Like all of our suburbs all had massive blue swings for what was expected. And one stat actually, I found out earlier today that I was able to get a spreadsheet of every single statewide race in the entire country. So from California to New York and everything in between, Bobai, the new Secretary of State, had the highest overperformance of any Democratic winning candidate in the entire country. And I think that his coattails of running a really strong campaign, having the money, having the enthusiasm, having the voters, carried a lot of these other people over the finish line. That You know, some of them were great candidates that aren't right, but some of them did not, you know, run a ton of campaigning. But by him, you know, running a really great campaign, he's able to put a lot of Democratic Party candidates over the finish line.
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Speaker 7: Well, and he ain't ugly either.
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Speaker 2: Come on.
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Speaker 7: That's part of it.
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Speaker 3: He's electable.
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Speaker 13: Yes.
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Speaker 3: That plays into it. You'd be surprised at how people make their decisions.
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Speaker 7: Well, how do you think I got such a high... I'm joking, of course. Really, there are some people who... only vote for women.
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Speaker 8: There's some people who won't vote for women. My name, I have three names, Kate Sweeney Bell. Well, some people think, oh, hate meanie hell. Others, they don't like that. You don't know what trips a trigger.
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Speaker 10: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: And Nick, you mentioned overperformance. For some of our listeners who may not know what that means, say more about that.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 10: So I mean, Typically, Indiana is a pretty Republican state. Donald Trump won the state by 19 points when he won in 2024 over Kamala Harris. So if you look at that 19-point margin, Bobai won on Tuesday by 9.5 points. So Bobai overperformed, quote-unquote, by 28.5 points, which is number one in the country for anybody that won as a Democrat. So that's massive. I mean, more so than Tallarico, who won in Texas, more so than the Georgia races, more so than all these other races people are talking about nationally. Bobai had the strongest, and I think it's because he was a really great candidate. He's able to reach out to independents. He's able to reach out to even some Republicans. He got Democrats excited. You know, I think he was just overall just an extremely strong candidate who was common sense, who would, you know, bring balance to Indiana government. And people saw that and voted for him. And he won by way bigger margin than even I expected.
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Speaker 5: And he's also a Marine. He is, yeah.
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Speaker 3: People love voting for law enforcement folks and military folks, too. Kate, talk to us about what this means. Now we have a Secretary of State who is a Democrat, and we have a governor who is a Republican. I think the comptroller now is also a Democrat. And tell us, what does that look like in the state when you have people running these offices, but they represent a different party?
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Speaker 7: Well, we haven't seen it in a while. I think Dr. Sue Ellen Reed was the last.
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Speaker 8: Democrat elected at the state house. We did have Joe Donnelly in 2012, of course, U.S. Senator Donnelly. But I think that there were, as Nick was talking about, the overwhelming numbers that Bobai received across the state, they have to listen to him. Because the people of the state of Indiana, Hoosiers, you know, from from Gary down to French Lick, from New Albany up to Fort Wayne. What they found out was they didn't like what the other side was selling necessarily. And now we've got 46, are we up even more?
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Speaker 7: 46, yeah.
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Speaker 8: 46 out of, we're almost at half at the state house. A lot of the Republicans who have governed at the state house They've never experienced a Democrat that is not in the super minority. And that means what they want to do, they're going to have to work together. And that is what people want to see, not just here in Indiana, I think across the country.
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Speaker 5: All right.
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Speaker 3: We got Blake on the live line. And those of you who want to share your feelings about the outcome. of the midterms. And it seems like there's just also a wave of peace that has gone across the nation. At least I feel that. It seems like there's just a wave of peace right now. But if you want to share your thoughts, 317-480-1310. Again, that's 317-480-1310. We'd certainly love to hear your thoughts on the outcome of this year's midterm elections. Blake, welcome to the program.
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Speaker 15: Well, thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and oh, happy day. Congratulations, Madam Clerk.
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Speaker 7: Thank you.
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Speaker 15: All of the Democratic team that went to an astounding victory in Marion County, Indiana. I want to thank you for this opportunity to utilize this forum to express my thoughts of gratitude to all of the voters in Marion County. for electing strong, proven, compassionate leadership to serve Marion County. In particular, I'd like to reiterate and paraphrase the words of Sheriff-elect Kelvis Williams, who on January 1st will become the 60th elected sheriff of Marion County, the second person of color to serve as sheriff of Marion County. and one of six persons of color in Indiana's history to serve as one of 92 sheriffs in the state of Indiana. Sheriff Elect Williams said on election night, and I'm paraphrasing his statement, he said, thank you to all of the voters who of Marion County who issued a warrant for him to get to work and serve all of the residents of Marion County. I've known Kelvis Williams to be a very humble, compassionate leader whom I'm sure will serve all well and proudly. So congratulations to you, Madam Clerk, to the Democratic team. Forward together, backward never. I look forward to.
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Speaker 15: Living in a county that is prosperous and serves and leadership serves all. So thank you very much for this opportunity to express my view.
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Speaker 3: All right, Blake, thank you for your call and comment.
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Speaker 4: 317-480-1310.
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Speaker 10: 317-480-1310.
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Speaker 3: I want to hear what you have to say about the outcome of this year's midterm elections, and what we might see in 2028. That's just around the corner. We've got some exciting, thrilling guests in the studio. Kate Sweeney-Bell is here. We've got Nick here. We've got Chaplain Wally here. All of them experts in this field of politics, this space of government, which is one of the seven societal mind-molers, by the way, with regard to what happens in any city. There are seven different particular areas, and government is just one of them. And these folks are at the apex, or they're at the tip of the spear when it comes to government. Going back to the phones, Lisa, welcome to the program.
00:21:38
Speaker 16: Thank you so much. Hello and congratulations, KBS. Congratulations, Lisa from Decatur Township.
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Speaker 7: Thank you so much. It's good to hear your voice. It's been a minute. I know you were working on Election Day.
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Speaker 16: Of course, of course, of course, yeah. But I'm so happy. It's like I can breathe again, you know? It was such a cloud over everything with all the corruption and stuff that was going on. And, you know, from this administration, I'm just so happy to see this blue again, you know? And so what really should be shared is the.
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Speaker 16: The map of how Indiana went blue. You know, it was really, oh, it was really amazing. And what tickles me is when J.D. Ford got in.
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Speaker 7: Oh, that's historic.
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Speaker 16: It's because that lady was so mean and hateful and was doing those things. I thought that was so mean. But it just made me happy. I mean, I have giggles all around me. from all over the country on what happened because like I never, it was so many shockers when I think about in Texas and everything.
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Speaker 7: And what happened there. And Lisa, Mississippi.
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Speaker 13: Wow.
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Speaker 17: Oh my God, this is wonderful.
00:23:16
Speaker 16: I said, look at this. You know, at first I was thinking, I was saying before with the other administration and I said, well, I said, is God giving us what we deserve, you know, and everything? And then I said, no, I believe there's hope. He's just showing us we need to show them something. And when people are really fed up and tired enough of the foolishness, they will come together. And that's what I loved about it. People coming together from all over and just doing the right thing. So I'm just elated about this election and looking forward to what's going. But Democrats need to get in there and do what they need to do. You know, no foolishness. Let's go and take care of business and make this right. That's what I'm looking forward to.
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Speaker 3: All right, Lisa, thank you for your call and comment. Going to Joe. Joe, welcome to the program.
00:24:17
Speaker 17: Good afternoon, guys. How are you?
00:24:18
Speaker 4: Good.
00:24:18
Speaker 18: Hello.
00:24:20
Speaker 17: I have to give a shout out to Kate. Kate, I worked the poll at Amy Beverly.
00:24:28
Speaker 10: That's where I was all day. That's where I was all day for 12 hours. I must have seen you there.
00:24:34
Speaker 17: Well, I'm just getting ready to give her a big shout out for the staff that ran that because they were outstanding. They kept everything together. They kept people moving. And one of the things that really impressed me was the number of young people that was coming in with their parents or even younger people that the parents was bringing them in with them to show on the voting process. But the number of young people that were coming in as first time voters.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, that's that's thrilling, thrilling to see, because when as you alluded to earlier, when you have something that is. if you start doing it when you're younger, it's just common practice. It's, oh yeah, no, I can't, I can meet you for coffee later because I got to go vote first. That is, it's really, really thrilling to see. And we have been working with schools. We take our election equipment in and we show students, because I'll tell you, a teenager, a high schooler is not going to tell you that they're nervous about something generally. And we just show them. And then I've asked these students a question. I asked them to please picture the meanest teacher in your school. And then I let them know right now, it's the one time you are exactly equal if you come vote, because I guarantee you that mean teachers come in a vote. So I'm glad to hear that there were so many younger voters who came out.
00:26:10
Speaker 17: Yeah. Well, it's one thing that I want to say. It's ironic that you just said about the mean teacher. Please understand what I'm saying. I could tell the people that came in with a mad attitude on their face because the majority of the people coming in were excited about being there.
00:26:33
Speaker 8: Yeah, I hear what you're saying.
00:26:38
Speaker 17: But there were some people that came in with this look on their face like they were angry or whatever else. But the largest percentage of the people that came through there were just excited, ecstatic about casting their vote. And it made me feel good.
00:26:56
Speaker 8: Voting brings people together. It's part of a community, regardless of the outcome. We have our home families. We have our church families, our work families. Well, in voting, it's sort of your American family.
00:27:11
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:27:12
Speaker 17: Yeah. And Pastor Jackson had been on radio telling people, get out there. It's important. Do your civic duty. We need to raise the numbers up. And Pastor Jackson, 40%.
00:27:25
Speaker 9: 41.
00:27:27
Speaker 12: 41.
00:27:28
Speaker 3: I am excited. Yeah, I can feel your excitement.
00:27:34
Speaker 19: Yeah.
00:27:36
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:27:37
Speaker 17: You guys have a great day. Oh, I got to say this real quick, Kate.
00:27:42
Speaker 10: Yeah.
00:27:43
Speaker 17: My ancestors are from Mississippi. And guess what they're doing right now?
00:27:48
Speaker 7: Celebrating.
00:27:49
Speaker 12: They're dancing on their graves.
00:27:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, bless her heart.
00:27:55
Speaker 3: All right, Joe.
00:27:57
Speaker 5: All right, Joe.
00:27:59
Speaker 3: Thank you for your call and comment. I'm going to go to former counselor William Duke Oliver, who is no stranger to the city of Indianapolis and served for so long. Good afternoon, sir.
00:28:14
Speaker 9: Yes, sir. Good afternoon to everyone. It's certainly a happy occasion. I mean, I feel good all over. So do my neighbors and people that I know. But I want to acknowledge one thing very quickly. A couple years back, a county clerk, K-20 Bill, acknowledged and made it one aware about the Voting Rights Act and the reception and the gathering that she had at that time at the Carson Center, I think it was that, It was just beautiful, and it reminded all of us this is not something of 150 years ago during Reconstruction. It's right now that we remind ourselves that, hey, this is for real. So that Voting Rights Act that you made everyone aware of again that was passed a few years back, I want to commend you for that.
00:29:04
Speaker 7: Thank you, Duke.
00:29:05
Speaker 9: Thank you very much for doing what you did. But now the candidates. activated the voters in the most mildest way by getting the message out there and delivering it all over the city in such a meaningful way. I mean, it was just enthusiasm. And I was disappointed in myself that I didn't vote early, and I thought I'd be snowed under Tuesday. And Monday, I was just mad at myself Monday evening that I hadn't been voted early, and I'd be stuck at the polls Tuesday for an hour or two. Well, I was not at 32nd and Forest Manor. I went in there and voted, and I was out in 20 minutes. So thank you for that, K-20 bill. But now, Mr. Kevin Williams and all the other candidates, I mean, it was just a wonderful thing. I asked the people, and I rode around in my truck. with the names on the side and the pictures and all that, you know, of the candidates and the bullhorn, the mega-horn speeches, asking for 100% turnout. That's all I cared for.
00:30:07
Speaker 14: I didn't ask.
00:30:08
Speaker 9: I didn't call no names. I did call a couple names for the sheriff. I asked the voters, I'm seeking 100% turnout. Will you please contribute to 100% turnout by voting? And I think many did try to attempt to do that. that make their vote part of that 100% turnout. We didn't get quite a 100% turnout to vote, but we got enough to continue to turn our blue city. It's surrounded by others in the red state of Indiana.
00:30:43
Speaker 7: That's right. We're not alone.
00:30:45
Speaker 13: Yes.
00:30:46
Speaker 9: I mean, and to overcome all that and not just sit back because we're a blue city and we're going to win anyway.
00:30:53
Speaker 17: No, no, no.
00:30:55
Speaker 9: I and many other campaigners, we were 20 points behind.
00:30:59
Speaker 7: That's right. And now it's time to govern.
00:31:02
Speaker 9: A lot of people acted that way. That's why the polls were longer, the lines were longer, because we turned out the vote. Many of us turned out that vote to get the results that we got. So I want to thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you all. I'll continue to listen to the show again. Thank you all. And you see me again. before May primary.
00:31:25
Speaker 3: All right, Counselor. Thank you so much.
00:31:29
Speaker 5: We love you.
00:31:32
Speaker 3: Eric Garns is on the controls. We've got to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got the Secretary of State waiting on the phone. We'll be back with Secretary of State. Go by after this.
00:31:51
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the conversation. It's Community Connection with Tina Cosby from the Praise Indy Indigo Studios on Praise AM 1310, 95.1 FM.
00:32:01
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back on this beautiful afternoon. And this is Pastor James Jackson sitting in for Tina Cosby, Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Famer, and sitting in for her on today. with the Community Connection with some wonderful guests. And I'm going to go straight to the phones. Earlier, Nick, who's in the studio with us live, was talking about how successful Secretary of State Bo Bai was with his campaign and did something that wasn't done across the nation. So we do have Secretary Bai on the live line. Good afternoon, Secretary.
00:32:47
Speaker 18: Pastor, it's great to be with you guys. Thank you so much.
00:32:50
Speaker 3: Thanks for taking the time to call in.
00:32:52
Speaker 5: How are you?
00:32:53
Speaker 13: I'm doing well.
00:32:54
Speaker 18: I'm trying to catch up on a little sleep here, but we've got to turn to the work at hand, roll up our sleeves, and get ready for transitioning this office and accomplishing all the good things we want to get to work on.
00:33:03
Speaker 3: There's a fellow here, Counselor Nick. He shared some information that was pretty amazing. I want you to reiterate that, and then, Secretary, I want to get your response to it.
00:33:14
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, I didn't realize the secretary would be on here when I was even announcing it. But as I shared earlier, when we were looking at all the data of all the races in the country, Secretary Bayh was the number one over performer of any Democrat who won on Tuesday of any statewide race in the entire country, which really is crazy.
00:33:31
Speaker 3: I explained it earlier.
00:33:32
Speaker 10: If you look at the 2024 election results versus Tuesday's election results, it was the top over performance in the country, which shows a lot of the crossover voting and enthusiasm from voters.
00:33:42
Speaker 3: And it's crazy to see. Well deserved. Secretary, your response or feeling about that?
00:33:48
Speaker 18: Well, I'm so lucky.
00:33:49
Speaker 13: And I just want to be clear, this victory that we just had is not a victory.
00:33:53
Speaker 18: Of one man or one political party. It's a victory for all Hoosiers who are fed up with high costs, high taxes, and lower services for that. And politicians like the current Secretary of State enriching themselves with their offices. It's a broad coalition that cuts across party lines, across ideology, and across geography. And I just couldn't be happier with the result. But now it comes time to do the hard work.
00:34:14
Speaker 13: That we were talking about in the campaign and putting those things.
00:34:15
Speaker 18: Into practice, protecting people's voting rights, rooting out some of the corruption in state government, and increasing civic engagement in our state are all very important.
00:34:23
Speaker 3: Secretary, by the first hundred days in office, what's top of mind for you?
00:34:29
Speaker 18: Well, my first act as Secretary of State will be to open an independent audit of this office. Unfortunately, the current Secretary has spent our tax money on luxury SUVs for himself, hiring relatives, no big contracts, there's large donors, and traveling around the world, and he won't tell us who's paying or the purpose of travel. So it's important that we conduct this audit to restore faith that the office is being run appropriately. We'll make those results available to the public, and we'll hold people accountable if there's any bad stuff going on. And then we can turn to some of our legislative priorities that I'm going to need some help with at the state legislature. I want to work to implement citizen-led ballot initiatives.
00:35:01
Speaker 13: Other states have this, like Florida, Ohio, Missouri. What this would do is put the biggest issues of the day on the ballot, in.
00:35:07
Speaker 18: Addition to candidates, to give the 5 million or so registered Hoosier voters a direct say on those big issues. If we did that, we'd have better policy and a whole host of things. We'd also really motivate people to.
00:35:17
Speaker 13: Get off their couch and into their polling place because they'd be very energized around.
00:35:20
Speaker 18: Having a direct say in some of the biggest issues they're facing.
00:35:22
Speaker 13: That's going to take some time, but.
00:35:24
Speaker 18: I want to really increase voter participation in the state.
00:35:27
Speaker 3: And you won the race. How's your family doing with all of this? You were busy, of course, crisscrossing the state, trying to let people know who you are. You did so well. How's your family doing?
00:35:40
Speaker 18: Oh, they're doing well. You know, my dad has a little experience in these types of things, so he knows what it is. And he's just a great person. I'm so blessed to have him.
00:35:48
Speaker 17: As a dad.
00:35:48
Speaker 18: And my brother and his wife are all just great. And I'm looking forward to spending a little bit more time with them here. But, you know, you can't do this stuff alone. You've got to have a great family and friends behind you. And I'm so lucky to have that. And it sounds like a couple of my friends are in the room with you, so please give them my.
00:36:02
Speaker 17: Best, too.
00:36:03
Speaker 8: Well, Beau, I saw your father on television.
00:36:08
Speaker 7: This is Kate.
00:36:09
Speaker 8: And he is bursting with pride. And I know he feels very strongly, you know, he loves both of his boys, but this is, it was a delight to see. It was a delight to see him so happy after some, you know, these last couple of years have been kind of a challenge, and I understand that.
00:36:32
Speaker 18: Yeah, well, you know, he was probably more nervous than me. I think he's proud because, look, we need more people, and both David and Nick have done this, to take on the challenge of running for public office in our state, in our country. Young, idealistic, driven people that are going to take on the big challenges in front of us. If we don't do that, then we're not going to build a better future in Indiana or the country broadly. So we need people to pick up the mantle and run and do good work. And so hopefully we can inspire more people to do the same.
00:37:04
Speaker 3: Secretary, by the end of your term, if the Lord willing, what do you hope people will be saying?
00:37:11
Speaker 13: I hope, you know, it's actually pretty great because we can measure my effectiveness in.
00:37:15
Speaker 18: This role pretty clearly. Are more people participating in our democracy in Indiana or are they not? I hope to have, you know, a marked increase in voter participation in Indiana. I want to increase civic engagement because our state and our country is at its best when there are more voices in our democracy, not fewer. And so that'll be a very clear indicator of whether I accomplished my job or not. Are more people participating or are they not?
00:37:39
Speaker 3: And I hope to.
00:37:41
Speaker 18: Accomplish on that goal.
00:37:42
Speaker 8: And I think for you and for me and everyone in this room, we don't fear the voices of our fellow Hoosiers. We want to know what they have to say because there's value in that.
00:37:57
Speaker 13: Of course. And even if they don't end up supporting me, I just want people, look, a lot.
00:37:59
Speaker 18: Of people marched in Selma and Montgomery, you know, they bled, they sacrificed for these rights, for our right to vote. And it's important that Americans exercise that, right? So those sacrifices.
00:38:11
Speaker 17: Weren't made in vain.
00:38:12
Speaker 18: And so it's a brave and important responsibility that I have to protect that most sacred right that we have, which is our right to have a say in who our elected officials are. I'm going to take it really seriously.
00:38:22
Speaker 3: Secretary Bayh, you're going to be working with a Republican legislature. Do you already have relationships? Do you foresee any challenges being able to do your job here in the state of Indiana?
00:38:37
Speaker 18: You know, I've always found that the best way that you can create consensus and get people to help you out who maybe aren't inclined to do so is to just not care a lot about who takes the credit. And so, you know, my main pledge in this campaign has been to conduct an independent audit of the office. The governor was given a press conference the other day and someone asked him, one of the reporters asked him, well, what do you think about this audit idea from the incoming secretary. And he said, I 100% support it. And so if the governor wants to partner with me on rooting out some of the corruption that we've all witnessed from state government or the attorney general or whomever else, then bring it on. I'm happy to have their help. I think Frederick Douglass once said, I'll join with anyone to do good and no one to do bad. That's kind of my philosophy when it comes to governing too.
00:39:17
Speaker 5: All right. That's great, Secretary.
00:39:20
Speaker 6: First of all, I want to thank you because of the fact that you called into the Indianapolis Community Connection, as well as had the opportunity to be with you And thanks, Sonia, as well as Devon and Peter Lester, on traveling in the faith community. And so it was a great time seeing two boys in the faith community traveling and having a good time. And so it's just great to know that you are concerned about the faith community.
00:39:49
Speaker 13: Of course.
00:39:49
Speaker 17: Thank you, Chaplain.
00:39:50
Speaker 18: And let's get back to church soon. I want to see you again.
00:39:52
Speaker 5: All right.
00:39:53
Speaker 3: All right, Secretary, thanks for calling in. All the best to the work ahead, and have a great day.
00:39:58
Speaker 17: All right.
00:39:59
Speaker 5: Take care.
00:40:00
Speaker 17: God bless you guys.
00:40:00
Speaker 5: Thank you.
00:40:02
Speaker 3: Up next is Kim Boyd. Some of our guests will have to be leaving us here in the studio. We've got some more guests coming up, though, so we'll probably take a quick break right after Kim, or rather Pierre. But Kim Boyd, how are you? Thanks for holding. You held a long time.
00:40:18
Speaker 5: Thank you.
00:40:19
Speaker 4: Hey, no problem. How you doing, Reverend Jackson and Kate, Nick, and Chaplain Wally? I mean, it's just a tremendous effort that was shown by the people. And then poised with the right candidates to represent the people that go around for this campaign. But for those that want to say that DEI is passe, if you look at the diversity that the people voted for to put in the office, it speaks volumes about all hands, all parties, all people are needed at the table. And it's just amazing. I think a lot of people are very hopeful and optimistic about what this new future will bring in our state most immediately, for the speaker to be ousted by the people, and then for the elected officials to be better represented by an increase in Democrats in the statehouse here in Indiana. It's just awesome. But I want to lastly just give kudos to Kaplan Wally, because he's one of those unspoken behind the scenes tour de forces that has toiled and labored, you know, to get good candidates to office. And I want to speak his praises and just acknowledge that he has been very instrumental in several campaigns here.
00:42:02
Speaker 6: Well, Kim, I would probably say I'm just a tool, hammer, saw, screwdriver, and everything I learned, I learned from you.
00:42:11
Speaker 4: Oh, you're too kind. You can't send a mail chaplain, Wiley, okay? But I'm going to still keep doing what I do, as I've always done, one of those behind the scenes as well. But I just wish you all the best, and we're optimistic and hopeful for the future. And we can hit the floor running come January with Speaker Jeffries, even though that's in debate. But we need that strong leadership now more than ever. And Governor Braun even the other day on the news media made the comment that the Republicans just didn't speak to the people. You know, they spoke to other issues, but they didn't speak to those bread and butter issues that so many on a national level, not to mention our state, Need to hear. And it's time out for the bickering and let's get the work done. So thank you all for what you do in the community, for the community and standing with the community.
00:43:17
Speaker 19: Thank you all.
00:43:18
Speaker 7: Thank you.
00:43:19
Speaker 3: Thank you, Kim.
00:43:20
Speaker 5: Thank you for calling in.
00:43:22
Speaker 9: All right.
00:43:23
Speaker 3: I got Pierre. I'm going to take a quick break. Pierre, welcome to the program.
00:43:27
Speaker 2: Oh, good afternoon, everybody. Yeah, great, great week for Democrats. And, you know, I noticed that a lot of the Marion County Democrats did 74 percent. Seventy four percent. Seventy hit the 70 percentile. Normally it's a 60 40 split. But, you know, the person who impressed me the most and I'm thinking, man, if we just could have got her some extra money. and maybe Kate can talk about her run, is Kumba Kebi.
00:44:04
Speaker 9: Oh, yeah.
00:44:05
Speaker 5: Yes, excellent job.
00:44:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, for that treasurer job. She came close to getting Dan Elliott. And I tell you, man, and she did it. I don't think she raised over $ 500, 000. I don't think she had that much money. But, man, she came close. And she had, you know, like she says, she's got a nontraditional name.
00:44:34
Speaker 17: And, man, she came.
00:44:37
Speaker 2: She got close.
00:44:39
Speaker 7: She did.
00:44:40
Speaker 8: And it is unfortunate because I had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times.
00:44:45
Speaker 7: And she is dynamic. And she is smart.
00:44:50
Speaker 8: And I don't think we've seen the last of her. I certainly hope we haven't.
00:44:53
Speaker 5: I hope she has a great future.
00:44:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, that's somebody we need to watch. And, oh, boy, she came close. But thanks a lot for taking my call.
00:45:03
Speaker 5: Thank you. You're welcome.
00:45:04
Speaker 3: Thank you for calling in. And we've got to take a quick break. We'll be back after these messages.
00:45:22
Speaker 1: WTLC AM, W236 CR Indianapolis. Broadcasting from the Praise Indy Indigo Studios. Discussing the issues that matter to you. It's Community Connection with Tina Cosby on Praise AM 1310, 95.1 FM.
00:45:38
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back. I'm Pastor James Jackson, sitting in for Broadcast Pioneer Hall of Famer, Tina Cosby, Monday through Friday, 1 to 3 p.m. She's out today. And we're here doing the best that we can. And I want to go to our comments on YouTube. And we've got some folk here, two of our counselors here in the city of Indianapolis, 25 council seats, very important responsibility. And I'm going to kind of get this question and then have them talk about it a little bit. But I'm going to go to Jeff. Jeff, welcome to the program.
00:46:18
Speaker 12: Hello, everyone.
00:46:19
Speaker 20: Hello.
00:46:20
Speaker 4: Hello.
00:46:21
Speaker 12: And congratulations to all the winners. And, you know, Tuesday was a great day. It was a great day. I voted early. And even when I voted early, I knew that a change was coming. I saw everybody from 18 to 80 in line. And I'm just so glad that the Democrats prevailed and set a mesh to corporate greed, hatred, bigotry. I'm so glad that democracy won. And I want to get your opinion. Should the new government, the new.
00:47:00
Speaker 9: Congress, you think they should.
00:47:03
Speaker 12: Hold hearings or get this guy passed? Because they're coming. I mean, we want to hear that people are resigning from this administration. And do you believe MAGA is through?
00:47:17
Speaker 2: That's my question.
00:47:18
Speaker 12: So I hope MAGA is gone forever.
00:47:21
Speaker 3: All right, so that's a question to our guest here. Let me give them an opportunity to introduce themselves real quick. We've got some new folk sitting in the studio. We'll start on my right here with Counselor Graves. Who are you and who do you represent?
00:47:40
Speaker 21: Well, good afternoon, Pastor, and good afternoon to all your listeners out there in the great city of Indianapolis. My name is Keith Graves. I'm a member of the Indianapolis City Council, originally elected back in 2019, reelected in 2023. So I've had the pleasure of serving a wonderful community on the east side of Indy.
00:48:00
Speaker 5: For the last seven years.
00:48:01
Speaker 3: Good afternoon, Pastor.
00:48:02
Speaker 11: I just want to say thank you for what you do in terms of speaking the gospel and spreading the word about Jesus Christ, more importantly. But thank you for being here today on the show. I'm Ron Gibson, a councilman for District 8, which is roughly my, I'm just west of my friend and colleague here, Keith Gray. So west of Emerson from 21st to 56th Street, moves west when it gets to State Fairgrounds. It starts narrow a little bit more from 30 to 38 to MLK. Glad to be here today and look forward to taking some questions.
00:48:35
Speaker 3: So let's deal with Jeff's question. And I think he's kind of talking about what a lot of people are wondering before and now. about what Democrats should do with regard to filing lawsuits. I think his question, you know, how should Democrat legislators federally move forward at this point?
00:48:59
Speaker 11: Yeah, I had a chance to meet with some of our state lawmakers just this morning. I met with Representative Shackelford, Senator Lakeisha Jackson, and Representative Greg Porter, talking about a variety of things going on in our district. But they were talking about how They're going to get in the grind and start to hold the Republicans more accountable in terms of moving forward How do you make things much more affordable? I mean, things are just too expensive right now. How do we drive down costs? How do we make sure more good access to health care? What are we going to do about the waiting list for Medicaid? And then the waiting list is too long and then the drastic cuts to Medicaid. So I think it's time for Democrats to really to get to work and roll up our sleeves and hold each other accountable to make some results.
00:49:42
Speaker 5: Absolutely. You know, Councilor Gibson, you're right there.
00:49:46
Speaker 21: And I say now it's time for really our state legislature to really pick up the mantle and move forward. Now that we've broken up that super majority, I think it gives us an opportunity to really bring some good legislation before the House and the Senate and perhaps have some better negotiation, and now we will be able to win some more policy coming into our communities across Indiana. So I'm excited about the impact that it's had on Indiana politics. I think the caller, Jeffrey, was talking about MAGA and is it going away? And I tell you, we have to agree that Donald Trump and his impact has taken a hit. And I think that with that hit comes a little less shine on his apple that we've seen over the last couple of years. So I'm looking forward to seeing how our federal legislators are able to navigate in today's new world.
00:50:45
Speaker 11: It's a new day in America. Look at what happened across the country. I mean, we got the first black governor in Georgia.
00:50:52
Speaker 3: Man, who could ever imagine that?
00:50:53
Speaker 11: Then we got a Senate race in Mississippi. My brother is leading the tally there in hopes it would get to the United States Senate. But it says that, more importantly, I think, Across the board, Americans want something to do something about pricing. Things are just entirely too expensive. We've got to do something about that, and we've got to do something about that quickly.
00:51:12
Speaker 3: Especially my favorite candy, the greasy cups. $ 4. 69 for two.
00:51:19
Speaker 12: I know, man.
00:51:19
Speaker 13: Unbelievable.
00:51:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's unbelievable.
00:51:21
Speaker 11: Pastor, my son said he wanted some chips the other day. I normally get him a little small bag of chips. But this day, I said, I'm going to splurge. I'm going to get a big bag of Doritos. That bag of Doritos was almost $ 5.
00:51:29
Speaker 15: I couldn't believe it.
00:51:30
Speaker 14: Half full.
00:51:31
Speaker 1: Half full.
00:51:32
Speaker 3: They don't fill them all the way up to the top anymore.
00:51:35
Speaker 13: Right.
00:51:36
Speaker 21: But you've got to be really proud of the voters across this country and the results that we saw on Tuesday. I'm really excited about the voters right here in Indianapolis, those who volunteer, those who took someone to a polling site. We turned out, as Nick Roberts just mentioned, my colleague on the council when he was here on the show, we turned out in great numbers and the results were as you see. So I'm excited about that part of the work. So I want to congratulate everyone in our city who came out. They understood that this is an important time to make your vote count.
00:52:13
Speaker 11: I want to do a shout-out to a Marion County clerk. She was just on the show, and I think she's still in the room with us today. But Kay Swinney-Bell, I mean, she made sure she ran a good shop in terms of making sure the voters could cast their vote and their vote was safe, was integrity. So just a shout-out to her. I think just making accessibility in terms of voting goes a long way in here in Indianapolis, Marion County. So shout-out to you.
00:52:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Jeff asked about the MAGA party as it did. It's been severely wounded. But as long as Donald J. Trump is alive, The party is alive, that particular party. And a lot of people don't know his agenda for what he has done and wants to do didn't just start. He tried to do it through the Democrat Party. He had the infrastructure, he just didn't have the access. And he couldn't make it in the Democrat Party. So then he tried to work with Ross Perot and start a new party. He was going to run as their candidate. That didn't work. So then he got access to the Republican Party. And he was able to have access and then implement his plan. But he's still the president. That's part of the problem. And he still wields extraordinary power, executive power. So, of course, in January, all of these folks will take these new jobs. And we still need to be praying because there's a lot that he can do to complicate and frustrate the country moving forward.
00:53:39
Speaker 13: Yeah.
00:53:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
00:53:40
Speaker 21: I think Democrats have a huge responsibility to show the American people what they can do with the trust that the voters have placed in them. But to to continue the conversation about where is.
00:53:52
Speaker 5: MAGA, MAGA is not going anywhere.
00:53:55
Speaker 21: They have an established base and I think that they'll be here for a while. But I think, again, we can't deny that that this was a wake up call for those who who who followed Trump and his endorsements and those individuals who found that I think it was a large percentage, not all of his endorsed candidates were unsuccessful.
00:54:16
Speaker 5: I think.
00:54:17
Speaker 11: We know that the president is still in the room, right? But I think it's important for Democrats to really just start to get to work. I mean, he's got veto power, but let's figure out how to get the cost down.
00:54:29
Speaker 3: They can override the veto. They've got the power now.
00:54:33
Speaker 11: I think at the end of the day, it's just Democrats just have to get in there and start making some things happen. Now, I know they want to hold them accountable.
00:54:39
Speaker 3: I think they want to.
00:54:40
Speaker 11: Hold the Department of War leader accountable. All that's good and dandy, but let's not get so caught up in bringing people on the carpet and.
00:54:51
Speaker 5: Holding impeachment hearings.
00:54:53
Speaker 11: That's good, but let's really get down to work and get some stuff done.
00:54:56
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
00:54:57
Speaker 6: Coming back local, and we've passed through the county races and state races, What, as you two counselors, what is your expectation and what would you like to see due to the fact that we're about to elect a mayor and also new city county councilman? What is it that you expect and you would like to see in a new mayor coming to the city of Indianapolis?
00:55:25
Speaker 21: Yeah, I would love to see to the continuous expansion. efforts to bring prices down in reality across our community. The people on the east side of Indianapolis where I serve, they're hopeful that we'll get some better prices to put food on the table and to pay utility bills. These things have gotten out of control. And I think that the mayor, the elect, whomever that might be, should have that as a priority.
00:55:52
Speaker 11: I think the jury is kind of still out on who the real candidates for mayor really is. I think we... We have three that's announced, and I think, you know, the real.
00:56:06
Speaker 3: Test is Mayor Joe Hoggs.
00:56:09
Speaker 11: Is going to run for re-election. You know, I think that's the real major play. And until he makes that decision, I think everybody's just kind of waiting in the dust. That's just my personal opinion and a little expertise there. Now, I think in terms of what my race and Councilman Gray's race is, it's going.
00:56:28
Speaker 3: To be really.
00:56:29
Speaker 11: More about anything is, like Councilman Gray said, is trying to drive down costs where we can. Also trying to work on more affordable housing. You know, housing is too expensive. I mean, so if you're working a nice job making $ 35, 000 a year, you can't find anywhere quality to live in Indianapolis that's affordable. Now, I've taken a lot of stands, and Councilman Gray has done the same thing in terms of trying to, create more opportunity with the city to try to drive up and create more development for affordable housing. So that's, that's hands down. That's kind of, we gotta be in play. But some other things we have to think about is how do we maybe think about out of the box?
00:57:06
Speaker 5: How do we.
00:57:07
Speaker 11: Tackle the cost of childcare?
00:57:09
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
00:57:10
Speaker 11: Get more of our working class families in the workforce and versus they can, because you can't afford childcare nowadays.
00:57:16
Speaker 20: Yeah.
00:57:17
Speaker 3: I want to get Josephine in here and kind of go back to that childcare here in just a moment. Josephine, welcome to the program.
00:57:23
Speaker 22: Oh, thank you.
00:57:24
Speaker 4: I appreciate that.
00:57:24
Speaker 17: Hi, everybody.
00:57:25
Speaker 4: How's everybody doing on this wonderful, wonderful Friday? I have something I want to comment. It has nothing to do with the election per se right now, but I will never forget, and I'm going to put this out here about Governor Braun. I'm going to remember that time. Those black men, I don't know.
00:57:47
Speaker 20: Who they were, went in and asked.
00:57:49
Speaker 17: Him if he was racist.
00:57:52
Speaker 4: And he walked away. I'll never forget that. And when he comes up for election, I'm going to remember that. And I want everybody who is black to remember that. And people who support fairness for all people in this state to remember that. I have never forgotten that. I'll never forget that. That was a turning point for me. And remember to how much he supported the president of this country. I'll never forget that, too. I will never forget it. And people might say, oh, you should have mercy and grace. Well, I am showing mercy and fairness for this country. I care about people. I care about people who are treated fair and right. And when they're not being treated fair and right, I speak out. And I don't want him as governor again. And I'm going to put my name out there. I said I don't want him as governor anymore. And that's why I'm elated.
00:58:48
Speaker 16: Mississippi, I can't believe it.
00:58:50
Speaker 9: Oh, I love it.
00:58:50
Speaker 13: I'm loving this.
00:58:51
Speaker 4: Boba, I'm just loving it. And I thank you for taking my call.
00:58:54
Speaker 3: All right, Josephine, thank you for your call and comment. Going to Marvin. Marvin, welcome to the program.
00:59:01
Speaker 17: Hello.
00:59:02
Speaker 13: Good afternoon, Pastor Jackson and the team. I just want to say, for me, of course, it's been a great week with the symbolism of everything that they pushed against the hate. I believe Keisha Lance Bottoms will probably end up being the first woman president one day. If you look at the demographics that she won down there in Georgia, that's the roadmap. It shows that a black woman can win the support of white people. people. I think locally, IPS was a big winner with the referendum. I know they're going to have to do some school closures. But if you look at the the statehouse races, I think they'll get a reprieve with the destabilization that's been pushed on them for the last. I don't even know how they've been able to educate with every year people going to the legislature, changing this and taking that and doing this. And then we expect them to be able to educate. So I think they'll get a reprieve. I think the idea that the state take over for, I'd say, at least a couple of years, we'll have to see how 2028 pans out. But I don't think they'll fare any better, the representatives, if the Democrats have the right candidate for president. in 2028. So I think it was a good day, a good week for our country. Even if you're a Republican who believes in democracy and who believes in fairness, who believes in the rule of law, you won that day. And then lastly, I would caution with the municipal elections next year, that the Democrats on the council, because I'm seeing some great primary challenges coming up for some of these councils. And there is a discontent among the Democratic base with what's going on in our city. So I will caution them to even look at what happened. I don't know why we don't have a lot of town halls with our councillors, and maybe they do, and I just don't get the get the notification. But I think people want to hear for our counselors because I think their supermajority may be in jeopardy. I don't think a Republican team could come in and take over the city, but I think they need to really... This election was a people-powered election. I will call in to the show all the time and say that people control the power. And I'm glad that people finally... And the last comment I'll make is that my vote doesn't count people. This was an election that should show you that your vote counts. Not only does it count, every vote counts because some of these elections are coming down to just half a percentage point. So continue. I think the Republicans have an opportunity to rebuild a party because I was a part of the Republican Party and they had some principles that I believed in, and I think that they can't might be, if they choose to, rebuilt. Because right now, they're not even a contender nationally, and we know tides change. So I'm not saying they're dead forever, but if they don't get the message, it may take them a little while to rebuild. So thanks for taking my call.
01:02:11
Speaker 5: All right, sir.
01:02:12
Speaker 3: Thank you for your call and comment. Going to Guy. Guy, welcome to the program.
01:02:17
Speaker 23: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
01:02:21
Speaker 9: Hey.
01:02:22
Speaker 23: I don't know if the ladies are still there, but But if they are, good afternoon to them, too. But I just wanted to say that I think we have dodged the meteor in terms of this country because we have a situation, in my estimation, that we were. Well, Pastor James, you probably know, I think in a good book, isn't there something about a person can be on a path the needs to destruction, even though it seems like it's the right path. That's kind of a paraphrase.
01:02:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end of those ways is death.
01:03:01
Speaker 5: Right, right.
01:03:03
Speaker 23: So I think we were kind of on that road. But I think that Tuesday was monumental. And I think that nationally, the world was really looking at the United States because the United States has always been looked, uh, and, and it, it, as a beacon of light, so to speak with all of our failures and weaknesses. And I think that, uh, we were kind of on the road that, uh, we were making the U S, uh, which was the hope of the world. We would, there were people that were turned into the dope of the world, so to speak. And, uh, Particularly in Indiana, you know, from a historical standpoint, I can remember that we had statesmen such as Richard Lugar as a senator, Lee Hamilton as a representative in Congress. We had Bobai's grandfather. We had some statesmen, in my estimation, and we were turning Indiana into So congratulations to all the winners and to the people that really came out and showed their position. But I think that we're going to have to realize that we are in a new day, so to speak, when it comes to solving the problems that we have in terms of the inflation. I can remember when ice cream cone was five cents.
01:04:53
Speaker 3: Oh, you're going way back.
01:04:57
Speaker 23: And we really have to take a look at what we are doing. And it's going to be making maybe hard decisions, you know, but we can do it. We've shown we can do it. And it's great that in the 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, Finally, we are taking steps to move the country in a way it should move, in my opinion.
01:05:24
Speaker 5: All right, Guy.
01:05:25
Speaker 3: Thank you for your call and comment. And five cents for ice cream.
01:05:29
Speaker 5: How about that?
01:05:31
Speaker 3: You know, I wish that folks close to President Trump would get him to look at Richard, former President Richard Milhouse, Nixon's resignations.
01:05:47
Speaker 13: Speech.
01:05:48
Speaker 3: And I think those of you who are listening, you can YouTube that and don't just listen to it, but really listen to what he's saying. And as crooked as he was and all the things he did, that particular speech, every politician should look at. And part of what he said was the needs of the people must always it must always, the needs of the people must always go before any personal consideration. That's what he said. And so at the results of this election, I think president Trump should look at that and having lost the house and the Senate and from the oval office, as did president Nixon resigned from office would be the best thing for the country. Now, It's not in his DNA.
01:06:46
Speaker 13: Absolutely.
01:06:47
Speaker 3: He's been trained not to even admit defeat.
01:06:50
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
01:06:51
Speaker 3: His dad taught him that. That's inculcated into his spirit. So he's not going to do that. But that would be, in my opinion, the best thing for the country. And let me also say this. He was on the ballot, and President Obama was on the ballot. So if we did have a presidential race between President Trump and former President Barack Obama, then President Obama would have won hands down.
01:07:16
Speaker 5: It's a good way to look at that. That's right. Yeah, absolutely.
01:07:20
Speaker 3: All right. We've got a lot of folks that want to talk to you all. I think we've got Samuel Jackson, then Tim after him and my mom, my mother's on. So all those of you who are watching on Facebook and YouTube, thank you for joining us on today. We've got Eric Garns on the controls. Couldn't do this without him. So thank you.
01:07:39
Speaker 5: All right.
01:07:39
Speaker 3: Let's go to Samuel. Samuel, welcome to the program.
01:07:42
Speaker 19: Hey, how you gentlemen doing today?
01:07:44
Speaker 3: Good, great.
01:07:45
Speaker 5: Thank you.
01:07:47
Speaker 19: This may be off the subject, but this is about Social Security. I had a relative that was on Social Security, and she got her Social Security check on the 12th, and she passed on the 22nd. So about two weeks after she passed, Her daughter got a letter from Social Security saying that Social Security checked that they sent her mother. She got to pay it back. I never heard of that before. Do anybody have any information they ever heard of that before?
01:08:27
Speaker 11: What I would recommend you do is, if you're here in Indianapolis, reach out to Congressman Carson's office and ask him to send a congressional inquiry to try to help you get that resolved.
01:08:36
Speaker 21: And the congressman's team is absolutely quick to respond. But if you do have any problems getting through to congressman's team, please reach out to us at the council and we can help you reach the departments around Social Security or congressman's team that can really help you find the answer.
01:08:54
Speaker 19: Okay.
01:08:55
Speaker 17: Thank you, gentlemen.
01:08:55
Speaker 13: I appreciate it.
01:08:56
Speaker 3: All right, Brother Samuel, thank you so much. Do you all have people that... call you all and say, here's something I'm thinking about as far as some legislation is concerned, because that's really how it should work. Of course, you all have your own ideas of what you think should happen. But do you have people that call enough to say, here's what I'm thinking, this is what I think we should do?
01:09:18
Speaker 11: You know what I hear about? I'm sure Councilman Grace might agree. Number one thing we hear about is infrastructure, hands down. I mean, hands down, every day.
01:09:30
Speaker 3: And say more about that for our listeners who may not be familiar with all this.
01:09:34
Speaker 11: So right now we have infrastructure in Indianapolis that is well overdue to be redone. And we have not kept up with the pace in terms of what it costs. There are some estimates that say that we need to be budgeting up to a billion dollars a year to make sure our infrastructure is up to par. So there's a lot of our infrastructure in our neighborhoods that hasn't been touched in 30 or 40 years, especially a lot of our residential streets and residential sidewalks.
01:09:59
Speaker 3: Which includes bridges, too.
01:10:00
Speaker 5: Bridges, roads, sidewalks, alleys.
01:10:03
Speaker 3: It's a mess. I mean, it's really a mess.
01:10:05
Speaker 11: And so, you know, we put an additional $ 100 million in the budget to help make some impact, but that's not going to be enough. So at the end of the day, residents really want to know from us, is what are you gonna do about trying to get my streets and my sidewalks fixed?
01:10:18
Speaker 21: And I tell you, we have for a long time, Pastor, you probably know this, we've been underfunded from our state legislature in regards to our roads funding. Their calculation method was based on center lane, which means they measure streets by the center lane. Many of our cities across Indiana, they have two lane streets. in Indianapolis, center lane is going to be disadvantageous because we have more multiple lane streets. So we've been underfunded for quite a long time. And now that some of the cities around central Indiana are feeling that same pain, we've banded together and we now have new legislation that's going to change the way we're funded. And it's going to start in 2027. We're going to start seeing an additional injection of 2027. It's going to be $ 50 million. Yeah, so the wheel tax, their tax. But we're looking at 100 million in 2027. And then it's going to be over the next four or five years, it's going to be nearly 500 million. So I'm super excited because you're right, Councilman Gibson, that is the number one question that we get. Because of the freestyle, people have potholes in their communities and it's a challenge. So I'm happy that we were able to secure that new additional funding.
01:11:40
Speaker 3: So the $ 50 million will tax that you all passed. I didn't vote for it. You didn't vote for it. Why didn't you vote for it?
01:11:48
Speaker 5: Well, the mayor had a.
01:11:49
Speaker 11: Plan to, at least in this first year, that we could actually do it without doing the tax increase. Now, I respect my colleagues, and I believe it is something that we need to consider in the long term.
01:12:00
Speaker 3: But in the short term, I think we could have.
01:12:02
Speaker 11: Got by without the tax increase initially in in 2027, so I voted against it.
01:12:06
Speaker 21: Yeah, there was no stated plan that was clear, showed us a clear path to meet the match, and it was a one-time opportunity that the state gave us, this $ 50 million match. Yeah, but we had to put up $ 50 million, and the only way we could come up with that is at will tax, so there was no other option, and it would have ultimately passed. It would have ultimately looked like poor leadership on our behalf if we had let that $ 50 million go, and not only that, today's $ 50 million, which we'll be impacting next year's budget. But the future years, any year we didn't have that particular year's match, we lose that match for the years going forward as well. So this was an opportunity for us to secure additional funding for our roads.
01:12:46
Speaker 5: And we did it. And I'm super happy that we did.
01:12:48
Speaker 3: So with a state that has a $ 5 billion surplus and a rainy day fund, and the way it was set up many, many years ago was brilliant. So the state even if it uses all of that money, it just kind of comes back. Why wouldn't the state help the capital city? $ 5 billion.
01:13:14
Speaker 11: They set us up.
01:13:15
Speaker 3: And of course, as I understand it, the state of Indiana transferred $ 325 or so million from the Hoosier Lottery Fund to the general fund. So we're a state that We're a rich state. We've got lots of money. So why wouldn't they? Because I was on a bike ride the other day. That's a good question. And I saw a crumbling bridge. I was like, I don't know if I want to ride under that thing. I was surprised. Yeah, so that's a good question. Why wouldn't we do that? They set us up.
01:13:42
Speaker 11: So the Republican majority in the statehouse heard us, like Councilman Gray said, we was over there lobbying, trying to get fair funding for our roads. They set us up meaning that they are going to force us to increase taxes on our people to put this as a political play on us in order to get the additional money from the state. So that's my response to why they did that.
01:14:06
Speaker 3: There's an insidious nature to that.
01:14:08
Speaker 7: I agree.
01:14:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree.
01:14:11
Speaker 21: And, you know, it's really unfortunate because the city of Indianapolis really funds the state's operations in many ways. So we're the engine that makes the state of Indiana go. But, you know, for some reason there's it's it's not.
01:14:27
Speaker 3: Out of state could have just tithed to Indianapolis of the five billion.
01:14:31
Speaker 9: Just tithe.
01:14:33
Speaker 3: And that would have helped us out. We've got to take a quick break when we come back. We've got some more callers and we've got a little more with these counselors here. We'll be back after these messages.
01:15:10
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the conversation. It's Community Connection with Tina Cosby from the Praise Indy Indigo Studios on Praise AM 1310, 95.1 FM.
01:15:20
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back to the Community Connection, everyone, on this beautiful afternoon. Clouds are breaking up just a little bit. Show us a little bit of blue in the sky. I'm Pastor James Jackson sitting in for Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Famer, Tina Cosby. Thank you all for being listeners of this show. And she'll be back soon. I want to go straight to the phones here. We've got quite a few people who are waiting to have something to say. We also have here in the studio with us, Chaplain Wally is here with us. Also, Councilman Ron Gibson and Councilman Graves is here. And we'll be back with them. And also, Kate Sweeney-Bell is in the wings. And she'll be back with us here just a little bit to help us wrap up. We're going to the phones. And those of you who are watching on YouTube and Facebook, thank you, thank you, thank you. for being on with us. I wanted to see if we have time maybe later on to deal with a question that came up. There were two things on the ballot. There was one about the referendum, and that did pass for IPS, so thank goodness for that. And then the second thing was the Nobel issue, and that's the, not the Nobel Peace Prize, but the No-B-A-I-L. And there was someone who was on YouTube that was asking about that. So we'll try to get to that. But right now we're going to go to Tim. I think, Tim, you've been waiting longest. Welcome to the program.
01:16:47
Speaker 24: Oh, I'm enjoying the show.
01:16:49
Speaker 9: Thank you.
01:16:49
Speaker 24: Appreciate it. Thank God we got the new sheriff, Kevin Williams. And now now we've got to work on putting a black mayor and a black governor in office and.
01:16:58
Speaker 13: We can do it.
01:17:00
Speaker 24: And then we've got to we've got to make sure we vote all racist people out of office that's in leadership. Because you know as well, I know God hates injustice. God hates racism. And so we got to make sure that we vote the Bible. And how we do that is by getting rid of all the people that don't have integrity and character that's in leadership. Once we do that, we'll see a whole change in everything that's going on. I thank God for what we're doing right now. And so let's think about who's going to be our next black mayor and a black governor that has integrity and character. We have a lot of preachers that have integrity and character. And we got a lot of leaders that haven't taken care of it. All we got to do is vote and put them in office. That's what we got to do.
01:17:37
Speaker 3: All right, Tim. Thanks for your call and comment. Going to Troy. Troy, welcome to the program.
01:17:43
Speaker 14: Hey, how's it going?
01:17:44
Speaker 17: Good.
01:17:45
Speaker 3: How you doing?
01:17:47
Speaker 17: Doing pretty good.
01:17:49
Speaker 14: Not trying to be funny or nothing, but your last caller, that was wishful thinking. What are you saying? All black people are not crooked like white people? That's... a misnomer. Hey, I want to ask the city councilman at 46218 a favor.
01:18:07
Speaker 4: Okay.
01:18:09
Speaker 14: Any way possible you can get school one tore down?
01:18:12
Speaker 11: Wow, that's a huge problem thorn in my side.
01:18:18
Speaker 14: You know, because 46218 used to be, back in the days, back in the late 90s, I mean, early 90s, early.
01:18:27
Speaker 12: Late 80s.
01:18:27
Speaker 14: It used to be an upstanding.
01:18:32
Speaker 9: Neighborhood.
01:18:32
Speaker 14: It was a middle class, like middle class black neighborhood. That city, last city councilor that we lift up real so high, he devastated that neighborhood. We used to have the zoo, had grocery store, had banks, had everything. There Lost everything under him. Now you got to come and try to fix it. But that neighborhood I heard is being gentrified. So I don't know what you can really do about it because you got houses. You're talking about affordable houses. How's that? You got houses in your neighborhood, two, three bedroom, little small houses. They're going for $ 250, 000, almost $ 300, 000 now. Blacks are being pushed out. But I wanted to say I see everybody hopeful or whatever, but I see nothing's going to change, especially on a local level. We're going to lose the school. And inside the bowl, we are going to go into receivership. And it's sad that we don't want to face that. and see what's really going on. Yeah, a lot of Democrats got put in there, but also we lost Marion County under Democrats. So I wish we quit gloating and see what we can do. I tell Black people to get out of Marion County because it's going to be devastating. We're going to go back into how it was in the late 80s when they called it Dodge City because we lost everything under Black leadership. But we keep on saying, vote people vote black vote black like like it's white people's fault hey have.
01:20:13
Speaker 11: A good one well in terms of a question about school one so school one is uh definitely an eyesore in our community matter of fact uh i continue to work with the city to hold that that owner accountable that that that's a private citizen that owns that that property and is doing the very minimum for that property and uh it's it's The city is going to have to figure out hard and soon about whether or not to hold him accountable to be a nuisance in terms of that property. That property is suddenly eyesore, and it needs to be demoed at the very least. So I'll continue to advocate for that on behalf of our community. In terms of 46218, it is a community that is thriving. There's a lot going on in terms of the 38th Street corridor. As a matter of fact, we have a health and hospital corporation that's built a new lab there. In addition to the Behind the Meadows, we've got the new Indianapolis EMS headquarters being built. And coming soon, starting next year, we'll have the new IMPD North. We'll be building at 38th and Sherman Drive. So there's a lot of development happening within 46218 to try.
01:21:17
Speaker 3: To bring it back.
01:21:18
Speaker 11: In terms of housing, housing is a problem across the board, but the value of property means something to our legacy. What my job and Councilman Gray's job is trying to make sure you hold on to your property, and we'll be doing it Think about the ways to try to be more creative in terms of driving down costs to do that.
01:21:34
Speaker 3: And they're a certain age now when you get to and you can apply for lower taxes or something like that.
01:21:40
Speaker 18: Sixty five.
01:21:41
Speaker 5: Yeah.
01:21:41
Speaker 3: OK, I'm still a little ways off.
01:21:44
Speaker 11: You look like you're thirty five.
01:21:45
Speaker 5: So you've got a long way to go.
01:21:47
Speaker 17: Like you're an Asian.
01:21:47
Speaker 5: All right.
01:21:48
Speaker 3: I'm going to go to Wilmetta and apologize if I didn't pronounce your name properly.
01:21:56
Speaker 22: That's fine.
01:21:57
Speaker 20: It's Will Mehta.
01:21:58
Speaker 24: Okay.
01:21:59
Speaker 20: And I'm calling concerning the Social Security. It's paid in arrears for Social Security retirement, whatever you have. If you lived in October and you died in November, they pay you in November for October. But if you got Social Security supplemental insurance income, They pay you the first day of the month of the present month. So it depends on when the woman passed away. I experienced that when my husband passed away. He was gone in June. And when the check came in July, they wanted that money back. And they took the money back.
01:22:39
Speaker 22: Took it out of my account.
01:22:40
Speaker 20: So you just got to know when, what kind of social security you have and when you were paid usually.
01:22:46
Speaker 3: All right. Well, thank you for answering that question. We really appreciate it. And that's one of the.
01:22:51
Speaker 17: All right.
01:22:52
Speaker 3: That's one of the wonderful things about this show. We're connected to the community, and what we don't know, somebody else has probably experienced, and they're able to answer those questions. It's going to go to Nyla. Nyla, welcome to the program.
01:23:14
Speaker 22: Well, how are you, Pastor Jackson, and your wonderful guest that you have on today?
01:23:19
Speaker 9: Great.
01:23:19
Speaker 5: How are you?
01:23:21
Speaker 22: Well, I was thinking, I know the scriptures tell us the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous avail as much.
01:23:29
Speaker 3: James 5.16, yeah.
01:23:31
Speaker 22: And I know that's the name of your church, Fervent Prayer.
01:23:34
Speaker 3: That's James 5.16, yeah.
01:23:37
Speaker 22: So I just wanted to say today, wanted to address a couple of things. With our governor, there was a lady who called earlier. We're watching his moves. You know, he's I was looking at the one of the W.R.T.V. Channel 13. They were saying that now he wants to talk with wants to work with the Democrats and all of that. And I'm thinking now, wait a minute. You said in his in his coverage, he was saying it won't be any different. No, it is different because you do not have a super majority, which means this is the time to work with your Democrats. that you have in office now, which you didn't have to do when you had the supermajority. We can't overlook that they sent 5 million Hoosier information, personal information, in September to the White House. and meddling in our Indiana business. Of course, we could say they already had it, but as my governor, I didn't need he and the state secretary to okay sending my information to D.C., because that means they're all in our voter information and all of that. And to me, that was a disregard for his citizens here. And even when they were wanting to gerrymander And they were going through, are.
01:25:01
Speaker 9: We going to do it?
01:25:02
Speaker 22: Are we not going to do it? And then we look what it cost them. And that's what they say, what you mean for evil, God means for good. Because we ended up getting it where he no longer has the supermajority. I want to ask that everybody please understand what is going on now. We had this big blue tidal wave or tsunami, as they're wanting to call it. But this is where we're starting. A lot of the work, we lost so much. We lost so much of our rights that we had. We almost went back in time. So this is the time for us to just regroup. And don't think because we had this tidal wave going through, now we just sit back and fold our legs and have our hands folded and wave in the air that we don't, that it's been done. It is not done. This is the beginning for us. And actually, it's like a start over because all the games we had during the civil rights movement have been just almost totally annihilated. And we have to be more vigilant And that's when it comes into that prayer. You know, we pray, ask God for protection, direction, and correction as we move forward. I will say I went to vote at school 61, and there was a young man, a little high school student out there working. His name was Joshua Blesso. And I just want to say kudos to his parents for getting him in there early. There was another young.
01:26:27
Speaker 15: Lady in there working.
01:26:28
Speaker 22: She was 17.
01:26:29
Speaker 9: She was trying to.
01:26:30
Speaker 22: Help the elderly to get their headphones. They couldn't hear what was going on as far as reading through the different bills that they were wanting to. She brought her headphones over and was explaining it to the lady. And her dad, he's a teacher at Attic. I did not get her name, but I want to say to those parents, We have to start with our young people. We have to. And there's no reason as we prepare for this next voting that's coming up here real soon for our mayor, there's no reasons to not have our high school students getting prepared to vote for the first time. Because if you're 18, by the time we're ready to vote, then they can vote. So I'm going to encourage the parents, please start now. Do not wait until we just, our jobs, we can't get jobs, we can't get, we have to start helping everybody recognize the cost of not voting. And understanding what we have going on right now is a reset. And if we don't catch it now, we're going to be in bigger trouble. We've gained some ground that we lost. So I want to say thank you to all of those folks that are there with you today, Pastor.
01:27:40
Speaker 5: Thank you.
01:27:40
Speaker 22: And I just hope that we continue to pray and ask God for protection, correction, and direction as we move into this next season. season that we're in.
01:27:50
Speaker 3: All right. Thank you so much, Nyland. This will be our last caller for our guest now. Then we'll transition going to Deborah. Deborah, welcome to the program.
01:27:59
Speaker 25: Thank you, Pastor. Yes, I would like to talk to Keith Graves, please.
01:28:04
Speaker 3: He's on with us.
01:28:06
Speaker 25: All right. I have a problem here at my house. I've called the gas company to come out and to video my line. It's a sewer line. that runs between my house and my neighbor's house, where there seems to be an issue there in between there in that line. I had Indiana Foundation out to look at it, and they spawned the area, and they found a lot of moisture down in the ground on that line.
01:28:37
Speaker 17: Well.
01:28:40
Speaker 25: The guy, what's his name, James Hyde from Solus, he said, I called him, and, well, they sent me to him. And I asked him, he said, he asked for my address, and I gave him my address. He said, okay, do you have a fire hydrant on your property? I said, yes, I do. He said, okay, we'll come out and check it. Well, then later on he came back, and he told me they didn't find anything at the fire hydrant. I said, I didn't tell you the problem was at the fire hydrant. He said, well, they didn't find anything. And the supervisor said, I said, well, what's the supervisor's number and name? He said, I can't give you that. I said, oh, okay.
01:29:22
Speaker 3: All right, Deborah. Deborah, let me give you some instruction. Keith Graves is going to respond to that. But I also want you to hold on after Councilman Graves responds so that he can get your information and have someone follow up with you.
01:29:39
Speaker 10: Yeah.
01:29:39
Speaker 21: And good afternoon, Debra. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I'm sorry that you're experiencing that. There's got to be just a tremendous burden on you and your family to have to deal with that. I absolutely would love to hear from you. And Pastor is going to share if you hold on. He's going to share my personal information so you can reach out to me. You can also reach out to me and my, any of my colleagues through the council's main office. And if you're in my district, I'll be more than happy to, to help you navigate through this challenge and see what we can do to help you. If it's, uh, something that you should not have to bear the burden of repairing, then we're going to find out what that is and who the right party is.
01:30:18
Speaker 5: And if it's a city, we're.
01:30:19
Speaker 21: Going to make sure that we do our best to make sure that they take care of that for you. Uh, It sounds like it's something that's damaging your property and perhaps your neighbor's property. So I'm not specific to the situation. So I'd love to hear more so we can find out where we can get some solutions for you.
01:30:38
Speaker 25: Yes, it is. It is damaging. I have stress fractures in the house and in the garage and on my patio. And my shed in the back is leaning over toward that line.
01:30:51
Speaker 3: All right, Deborah, we're going to get a hold on. So we can get your information, and Councilor Graves, he's going to follow up with you. We've got to take a quick break. Councilor Gibson, Councilor Graves, thank you for being here with us. All right, welcome back. It's overcast here in the capital city. However, it is overall a beautiful day, and the warm temperatures are gone for a while. Costco, they have some undergarments on sale, y'all. I'm wearing mine today, and this is not a commercial, but listen, I don't like being cold.
01:31:36
Speaker 5: It's getting cold, huh?
01:31:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they got them on sale, and you can put those on and just be warm with all the rest of your clothes. Anyway, a lot going on in politics, and I said that there are seven societal mind molders. Government is one of them. We've got two of the best. still in the studio with us we've had a busy show today chaplain busy thank you for helping us.
01:31:58
Speaker 6: Oh certainly um it's always great to be on community connection as well as unity and community on.
01:32:05
Speaker 3: Saturdays thank you that's great shelter sure.
01:32:08
Speaker 6: Is and so i just appreciate this station for allowing us to come and give that type of education over the last couple of months and even in the primary so It's great to know that we have people supporting us, listening, answering questions, and working together, bringing qualified candidates for the.
01:32:25
Speaker 5: Big blue wave. Yeah.
01:32:27
Speaker 3: And, Kate, 41%. And you brought some interesting information with these unofficial general election results. Total ballots cast, 261,023. Straight party Democratic ballots cast, 126,563. Straight party Republican votes, ballots cast 40,726 straight party libertarian ballots cast 489 and the new party on the ticket led by former Mayor Greg Ballard straight party Lincoln ballots cast 255 I think Mayor Ballard got 4% of the vote for the Secretary of State so in reading this and looking at this what is this telling us at least if we were to use it as a forecast going into 2027 and all of these council seats, mayor and all these other races that.
01:33:27
Speaker 5: Are coming up.
01:33:29
Speaker 8: There are a lot of new voters out and they have certainly something to say. They've got, there are voters and more is, will come.
01:33:42
Speaker 7: Of this later. Once, we can dive into the data.
01:33:45
Speaker 8: And somebody like Nick Roberts, Counselor Roberts, who was here earlier, he will study this for months. But there were a lot of new voices and a lot of new faces who showed up, showed out, and.
01:33:58
Speaker 7: Came out to vote.
01:34:00
Speaker 8: And the goal is now to get them to keep coming back and for them to get other people to keep coming out to vote.
01:34:10
Speaker 7: Because I mean, we talked about this.
01:34:14
Speaker 8: Earlier in the show that when somebody shares their voice, even these Republicans and Libertarians and Lincoln Party voters who came out to vote, they were heard. Now, their choices did not necessarily make it across the finish line, but they have some skin in the game now.
01:34:34
Speaker 3: Which I'm sure gets the attention of those folks who are higher up in political positions. you know, mechanics and things like that, even those 255, 489, all those votes count because an election can be lost just by a couple hundred votes.
01:34:54
Speaker 8: Yes, and in the case of some of these races that just a handful, all it takes is one.
01:35:02
Speaker 7: We're not Alaska. We don't do that ranked choice thing here.
01:35:05
Speaker 8: So you just need to get one more than the next person, and I'm sure that there are some folks well, who are currently legislators who won't be come January 1st, who are maybe regretting sleeping in on a Saturday instead of going out and knocking on doors.
01:35:25
Speaker 5: Yeah.
01:35:26
Speaker 3: And Chaplain Wally, a lot of times people complain about what's going on in a city or what they're not seeing and don't vote. What would you say to those folks?
01:35:37
Speaker 6: I would say that, first of all, it's about education and those who, Don't vote. We as voters who do vote need to grab hold of them and teach. There was a lady that mentioned about the young people in the schools, and that's where it really should start. Better than that, it should start at home, in the table, in the kitchen, from our parents or our guardians to teach us and let us know the importance of civil education. And so that would probably be the most important Important thing, it really comes out to be about education and sharing.
01:36:15
Speaker 4: Yeah.
01:36:16
Speaker 3: And sometimes your candidate wins. Sometimes your candidate does not win. But that information is important, and it helps the folks who handle all that information and who's responsible for all these things do a better job. So let's keep voting. 41% this time, of course, as Kate has said, 100%. is her goal. Certainly, I'm sure that would be the goal that I set for 50% was a little more measurable. But, you know, 100% is all of our goal. I think we ought to have 100% in everything. But we're headed in the right direction. And those of you who want to call and ask questions or if you have concerns, 317-480-1310, 317-480-1310. You know, we had a power, we had a streetlight poll someone hit right in front of our church a few weeks ago, and that pole had been laying there for weeks, and we had called AES about it, and, you know, they told us they're going to take care of it, so the council over by the church I pastor, Councilwoman Allen, she's great, and she took over for Councilman Jackson, who's a senator now. She was fantastic, but Renee Allen got on that, and it became a priority. I think within three days, AES was out and taking care of things, and yesterday we had a brand new streetlight. Now, I shared that because the caller that called about the issue at our house, and maybe you won't always catch the counselors on the air, but you can reach out to them and contact them. And talk to them about your issue and your problem. That's what they are there for. If there is a problem in your neighborhood and if it's not getting done, then community connection is a good way to call in and say, hey, you know, I've been trying to get a hold of my, I did get a hold of my counselor's office or my state representative whoever, and I'm not getting any results because we do have to hold each other accountable.
01:38:29
Speaker 7: Absolutely.
01:38:30
Speaker 8: And, and I think that any elected official wants to help their constituents. They want to make their lives better because that's their job. That's what, that's why they, well, not in every case, but in many cases, that's why they signed up regardless of party.
01:38:46
Speaker 7: They did it because.
01:38:48
Speaker 8: They either saw a change that needed to be made or they wanted to be responsive.
01:38:54
Speaker 7: So I think that.
01:38:58
Speaker 8: Elected officials, they want to hear from community members so they know what they're getting right, what they're getting wrong, and what they can do better.
01:39:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, doing better.
01:39:09
Speaker 6: Madam Clerk, I've been told that there were some signs and observations of ICE being in the city of Indianapolis today.
01:39:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw it on the feed here on social media, right around 24th and post, the ICE agents out.
01:39:25
Speaker 5: Yes, out.
01:39:26
Speaker 6: And my question is, you were on the news sharing and educating the city of Indianapolis about the fact that the monitoring Department of Justice was sending in those to monitor ICE. How did that go and what were some of the results from that in terms of, I didn't see any signs. I'm from the west side. The west side is the best side. And so the Pike area. So I didn't see anything. But can you elaborate on that and share maybe?
01:40:00
Speaker 8: So the Department of Justice a couple weeks before the election sent an email to our public email address. And they said, hey, we're coming. We're going to send election monitors to your community. So we scheduled an.
01:40:16
Speaker 7: Appointment with them. We got a little bit of information.
01:40:19
Speaker 8: And I think that there were some folks who were disappointed that I wasn't pounding the table and calling it an outrage. And well, no, I didn't have all the facts yet. And I'll call a foul when I see a foul, but I needed more information to And we were able to get that information. And they let us know that they were sending up to 12 individuals, federal government agents who represented the Department of Justice.
01:40:50
Speaker 7: And I mean, look, it wasn't just me on the phone. We had some really smart people on the phone.
01:40:55
Speaker 8: And they were, I wouldn't say putting the screws to them, but they were asking some very pointed questions. And when you're dealing with this current federal government, sometimes you question what you're told. But the Department of Justice, we shouldn't fear our government.
01:41:19
Speaker 13: Right.
01:41:19
Speaker 7: And that's a big problem.
01:41:21
Speaker 8: And I think the turnout across the country, you know, seeing what happened with Renee Good and Alex Preddy, there are, and others across the country, there's, We shouldn't fear them. So back to the federal monitors who are coming here.
01:41:41
Speaker 7: They told us how.
01:41:42
Speaker 8: Many were coming, what their goal was, and it was nothing to fear. And federal monitors regularly come in, not en masse like they did across the country, but I really do think that part of it was a stunt because ultimately on election day here in Marion County, there were four federal election monitors, two teams of two, and I only heard that they were spotted at one vote center. So they were pretty unobtrusive, and they did what they said they were going to do. And I think that most government workers, that's what they try to do, regardless of the branch, whether it's state, local, or federal. I think they try to do the best for the people who they represent.
01:42:30
Speaker 5: Outstanding.
01:42:31
Speaker 3: Well, the stage is set. And the Lord willing, come January 1st, there's a lot of new folks going to be taking their positions all across the country. And the work, of course, always goes on. And then they will be able to be held responsible directly for that work because it'll be in their hands. And the question was asked earlier about the MAGA party, and that's President Donald Trump's party. that infiltrated the Republican party and all that's probably going to take place to try to rebuild the party over the next several months. But Donald Trump is still the president of United States of America, and he wields extraordinary power, veto power. However, vetoes can be overwritten, as I understand it. I don't want to be precipitous to say that. Is that true?
01:43:32
Speaker 9: Yes.
01:43:33
Speaker 7: Absolutely, they can be overridden.
01:43:37
Speaker 8: So in our country, we've got co-equal branches of government, the judicial, the executive, and the legislative. And that is true on a federal level. So president, the Congress, which includes the House and the Senate, and the United States Supreme Court and the federal courts.
01:43:57
Speaker 7: So on the state level, we have the same.
01:43:59
Speaker 8: It's the governor, the legislators in the State House and the State Senate.
01:44:05
Speaker 7: And the.
01:44:07
Speaker 8: Indiana Supreme Court and the other courts. So it also plays out on the local level. The legislative branch for us, we saw three of the members here today of the legislative branch with our council. The mayor is the executive of the county, and then we have our superior courts here in this county. So there are, when they don't work together, it.
01:44:38
Speaker 7: Creates chaos.
01:44:40
Speaker 8: And I don't think that that is a very positive thing for our community. And whether it's on whatever level it is. So I think that yeah, there's all these Democrats who got elected. They've got some, they have to be responsive to their constituents, but they also have to be able to get stuff done. And, uh, leading with an open hand rather than a closed fist, I think will serve them well, but, uh, some might not be able to help themselves.
01:45:17
Speaker 3: All right.
01:45:18
Speaker 7: Cause there's maybe some payback coming.
01:45:21
Speaker 5: All right.
01:45:21
Speaker 3: Uh, I think that's all the time we have for now for the Community Connection. I'm Pastor James Jackson sitting in for Tina Cosby on today. Chapman Wally, thank you.
01:45:31
Speaker 5: Thank you, Action Jackson.
01:45:34
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. And Kate Sweeney-Vale, thank you for all.
01:45:38
Speaker 5: The work you do.
01:45:39
Speaker 7: Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
01:45:40
Speaker 3: And of course, on the controls, Eric Garns. Great job today. We'll see you all next time. Have a great Friday.
01:46:08
Speaker 17: God's.