Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Casey, I have a question for you.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, what's that, Rob?
Speaker 3 (00:03):
Do we play Kate a pointless venture if the cause
is decent?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh that sounds like a very Democrat thing to say.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Means well, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I mean like, if somebody has an idea that like
theoretically is a really good idea and would actually if
it could be an act at help humanity, do.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
We encourage them to do that if.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
There's zero chances they're going to succeed at it. That's
really what I'm asking you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Sure give it a shot.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Okay, very good, go for it. Well, that's what we'll do.
And hot dang, it just happens to be our opening segment.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Right. If you'd have said no that at this point,
it really would have screwed up the segment.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's good to go along with that.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Joe, Thank you for Blaylock.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So our old friends of the Indiana Capitol Chronicle had
an interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Article that there is a new group.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Being formed and their whole mission is to elect independent
candidates in the state of Indiana, not third parties, people
actually running without a party affiliation. The group is called
Independent Indiana. And I thought this was interesting because in
(01:09):
an ideal world absolutely absolutely an ideal world. The Democrats
and Republicans have absolutely just totally let everybody down. They've
lied to everybody in their respective corners of the political universe.
And we need people to be elected who are done
with both teams and they say I'm going to work
(01:30):
for you.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Rather than the teams themselves.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, and that's your theory. It sounds great, Yes, it's phenomenal.
This article goes through how you know what percentage of
voters they actually believe are truly independent, even though you know,
if you got a that don't vote in Republican or
Democrat primaries, that set it out. Blah blah blah. Here's
the problem with this. The system is set up to
(01:55):
protect the two parties. Is being set up to protect
one party? Well, yeah, right, I mean we're in the
process and we'll get to the map, the new wacky
alleged map here in just a little bit. But yes,
certainly Republicans control everything, so they're going to try to,
in the case of congressional districts, draw them in.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Favor of Republicans.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But at the end of the day, the two parties
really just care about themselves existing.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
They don't want anybody.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
They'll pretend fight with each other and whatever, but they
don't want anybody else in treating on their territory. And
I'm sorry to say libertarians are a joke.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well I was.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Gonna say, what about libertarians?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well they how many opportunities of the libertarians had, especially
in a post twenty twenty world where it's like, Okay,
everybody's kind of sick of you guys, or of the
two existing guys. There's an opening here with the success
of a Donald Rainwater, and all you got to do
is walk.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Through the door. Right.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You got to have just a base level of competency,
a base level of organization, a base level of fundraising,
and you guys could permanently enter that ten percent of
the vote and start costing people elections and start getting
people's attention.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
They couldn't do it. They didn't fund raise. They don't.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I had this conversation with people over the weekend at
the at the party that I was bartending, because a
lot of Libertarians were there, and they agree with me
on this, including guy who used to be the main guy.
I think it was the whatever they call it, head,
I don't executive director, whatever the thing is called the
main the main guy of the Libertarian Party. We were
talking about this and and he he agreed. It's like
there's just no there is no there is no organization,
(03:32):
there is no a on a broad scale, there is
no fundraising to speak of that would move the needle
on candidates, there is no there is no ability to collaborate,
et cetera things you would have to do to start
getting people not even elected, but start making these these
major sort of accidental gains that Rainwater stumbled into, which
(03:53):
was as we now see, just purely an I hate
Holcombe vote. Right, So the Libertarians have bad access in
the sense of they don't have to get these signatures.
We I'll get to in just a second. So that's
a big thing for them. But the part the brand
is so stained. People were just like, oh the Libertarians,
Oh here they are again, right, isn't that cute? Whereas
(04:15):
an independent person who's not stayed by either of the
parties or the third party, the Libertarians, maybe that person
might have a chance. Here's the problem with all this.
The Capitol Chronicle did some math on what it would
cost just to run for statewide office as an independent,
and this is where we just we halt the entire thing. Right, So,
(04:39):
in order to get on the ballot, you would as
an independent candidate, you would need two percent of the
registered voters from the most recent Secretary of State's race,
and that comes out to about thirty seven thousand people.
(05:01):
So you would need to get thirty seven thousand what
they called verified signatures.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Valid signals.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
They have to be valid. You got to live where
you say, live blah blah blah, say they have to
be real people. Yes, yes, some of our other friends
have found out you can't just make the names up
and they said that you really need a professional to
help you. There are people who do this for a living, right,
They know how to do this, and they charge roughly
(05:27):
fifteen dollars of valid signature. So signature gets verified, you
get billed fifteen bucks. That comes out to about seven
hundred thousand dollars to just get on the ballot to run, right,
Just to run, you would have to be able to
raise seven hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
And that says nothing about about being competitive, especially in
Indiana's media market.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
No, that's just to run.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
The Republicans and Democrats, even the Libertarians don't I don't
have to do any of that because they have the
automatic ballot access and independent Kennedy. Now you don't have
to use professionals. You can try to do it on
your own. I tell you that people. That fails all
the time when people try to do it on their
own because they don't know, no fold to their own,
they don't know what they're doing. So this is what
this group what are they called Independent Indiana is going
(06:17):
to run up against. And they're touting these local mayors
or council people across the state who have been elected
to various things.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Since two hundred and forty four.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Independents ran in twenty three to twenty four and partisan
races fifty two percent of them one, which is more
than half, but nearly one in three who lost still
received between thirty and forty nine percent of the vote.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Look, I'm just making up a place. I've no oded
that this is right or not. I mean, this place
really exists, but I have no idea if their town
board is structured this way, if you're an independent and
you're on the town board in Coatesville, population eight, you might.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Actually be able to pull that off.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Good and good for you, right, and by the way
Hendricks County life are in no way to meeting the
people of Coatesville.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Very fine people.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Well, I'm sure just the first name, small town name
that came to my large cranium, Kendallville or Reelsville or.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
New Harmony, or you don't pick any of them. Right.
You might be able to pull that off, but.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You're not moving the needle in terms of how the
state views breaking the stranglehold that Republican and Democrat parties
have on our electoral system. And order to do that,
you're gonna have to win a big one. You're gonna
have to score a big perch. Here's the other problem
with this. We've seen these quote unquote independents pull this
off before. Jesse vent Tura comes to mind. Technically at
(07:32):
a party, but he was an independent ross pro. Technically again,
had a party, he was independent. The problem is there's
no down ballot organization that happens as an independent because
you're just that, you're independent. You're on your own. You
don't elevate anybody with you.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And you don't get elevated by anybody that's right top
of the ballot.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So say a me goes out and does this, which
if anybody could pull it off, it would be me.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Sure nobody's gonna be l elevated because of this.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's why if I did it, would probably do it
as a libertarian because I wouldn't have to get the signatures.
I could save all that money and I'm going to
be running as an independent anyway. But God bless these
people for trying. And if they can, you know, make
any dent in the two party asphyxiation of the voters, great,
I just I don't see it happening when we're talking
(08:23):
about how the math actually works.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Okay, So they say their goals of Independent Indiana are
to highlight success stories. They have two hundred and forty
four to choose from, according to their own billboard. They
also want to educate and support independent candidates, support how
support financially Just at a boy, pat on the back,
were supporting you. They also want to push for electoral reforms.
(08:48):
And you know today is a big day with the
Secretary of State. He's got that election study public meeting,
Oh wow, happening today at twelve o'clock at the Indiana
Government Center south off the Harrison Hall, Room seventeen. If
you're you know, completely interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
What is it? What is it called?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It is the Election Study public meeting.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Oh, what is the chance to discuss potential election changes
and ensure Indiana keeps leading the way in election integrity.