July 30, 2025 • 35 mins
Tune in here to this Wednesday's edition of Breaking With Brett Jensen!
Breaking Brett Jensen kicks the show off by examining key mayoral races unfolding across Mecklenburg County, with a focus on Mint Hill, Pineville, and Matthews. Jensen begins by outlining the largely predictable contest in Mint Hill, where long-serving Mayor Pro Tem Dale Dalton is expected to succeed the outgoing mayor, bolstered by name recognition and institutional support. In Pineville.
Later, Jensen sits down with Dan Boone for an exclusive one-on-one interview to discuss the evolving political landscape in Huntersville and his decision to shift from a mayoral run to a town commission campaign. Boone, a four-term commissioner and prominent Republican voice in the area, explains his decision was driven by electoral math—two Republicans running against Democrat Christy Clark would split the vote and all but guarantee her victory. Boone details his concerns over a lack of transparency in town governance, citing private meetings between commissioners and staff as a major issue
Listen here for all of this and more on Breaking With Brett Jensen.
To be the first to hear about Breaking Brett Jensen's exclusives and more follow him on X @Brett_Jensen!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi, Oh, let's go I Oh, let's go, Oh, let's go. Oh.
Come News Talk eleventh ten at ninety nine three WBT.
Brett Jensen here with you on a Wednesday night edition
of Breaking with Brett Jensen, as we are going up
(00:41):
until seven o'clock tonight. Telephone numbers and the text line
number the exact same number, seven oh four five seven
eleven ten, And of course the WBT text line is
driven by Liberty Buick gmc guys. Follow me on accept
Brett Underscore Jensen for all the lattus in Breaking News
in and around on the Charlotte area. Okay, so finally
(01:06):
it's been a while. I want to say since last
week Tuesday is the last time that I looked at
some mayoral races in and around the Mecklmore County. And
I know I've spent time on Matthews, I spent time
on Cornelia's, I spent time on Davidson. And I said
(01:29):
I wanted to deal with the deal with the ills tonight.
That'd be Pineville, Mint Hill and Huntersville the Ills. So
I want to go after these and break some of
these things down for you guys. Okay, because like I said,
(01:50):
there are some interesting races, and we'll start with some
of the more innocuous ones. First, let's start with mint Hill.
Now min Hill for a while had a very beloved
mayor that rent that you know was there in the city,
and he was here on our show. So we all
know about that. He was here on the show. But
(02:15):
what's going to happen now in terms of mayor, Well,
you've got a couple people that are deciding to run. Now, again,
these are non partisan races. Okay, Well what does that mean? Well,
that means that they don't have primaries, and that while
everyone may know that you're a Republican, you don't have
an R beside your name, or a D beside your name,
(02:37):
or you for beside your name for that matter. So
what you've got now in the town of Minhill is
you've got the mayor pro tem Dale Dalton, Republican, running
against Tim rad Zick R A d z I c
k I rad Zeke And if I have mispronounced that,
(02:58):
my apologies, but I think it's pretty close. So they're
running against each other and there's absolutely no reason to
believe that Dale Dalton won't win. He's been on a
talent commissioner for quite a while, and he was the
mayor pro tem and for those of you who may
(03:18):
or may not know, that means basically your vice mayor,
like vice president, your vice mayor. So there's no reason
to believe that Dale Dalton won't win. He's a very
popular man and he also has the support of the
previous mayor, and that speaks volumes in mint Hill. Mint
(03:38):
Hill's not like Matthews, like you need to understand. Minhill
is nothing like Matthews. Okay, so everything seems to be
rather cut and dry there, Like I said, a little
bit going on there, but like you expect it just
to be regularly cut and dry in in Pineville. David Phillips,
(04:03):
he's been on I believe WBT before in the past.
He is going against Emilias Stinson Wesley and Stintson Wesley
is hyphenated, just so you guys know, for clarification, But
there's no reason to believe that David Phillips won't win
that particular race. You know, David Phillips a lot of
(04:27):
people like him, and like I said, I think he's
even been on this station a couple of times, a
few times, so you know, that's that's another race where
you don't expect a lot of changes, you don't expect
it to be relatively close, just like in Matthews. Now,
(04:48):
I am extremely interested. Excuse me, Minhill, but I am
extremely interested. And I know I talked about mint Hill
some excuse me, Matthew some last week, and I will
tell you that there is a groundswell for Threet. Threat
is an African American man. He's a Republican, and he
(05:11):
was the town commissioner. And as I said last week,
if the current mayor, John Higden, who recently I believe was,
I believe this to be accurate, and if it's not accurate,
I will readily correct this information. But I believe it
(05:31):
to be accurate that he changed his affiliation from Republican
to unaffiliated. And as I said last week, that's really
him just trying to the way I view it, him
trying to disguise the fact that he's a Democrat, like
a hard Democrat. And all you have to do is
(05:51):
look at his voting record when all the ties came
with the town council or town commissioners, with the Democrats,
it felt like almost every single time, especially when it
came to raising taxes and everything else like that. So
if he was truly conservative in the eyes of the
people of Matthews, then Threet would not be running for mayor.
(06:15):
He would have stayed on the town Commission. I mean,
think about it, like, why would you give up a
seat where you're serving if you already know? I mean,
why would you give it up if you know you're
going to be re elected and if you've got someone
that you think is friendly to your party or at
(06:35):
the very least right down the middle. But I will
tell you many Republicans don't feel that way. And also,
don't forget John Haigden, if I'm not mistaken, is the
only mayor in Mecklimbok County that's against the transit tax,
the only one. As a matter of fact, I believe
he and some of the people from Matthews went up
to Raleigh to say, no, don't let this be on
(06:56):
the referendum in November. Don't let this be a referendum.
Excuse me, don't let this be a referendum on the
ballot in November. Okay, So you got Leon three. He
had a thing yesterday like a like a gathering if
you will, to make some announcements and stuff, and I
hope to have Leon on the program sometime in the
(07:23):
next month or so. I hope to have him on.
We'll talk to him. But again, remember you know, they
don't have a primary, so their elections not till November.
The only place has got primaries right now, that'd be
the school board. No excuse me, I don't know. Let
me take that back. It's South school board. It's only
(07:44):
the city council. Schola City Council is the only thing
that's got primaries. School board, you can have seventeen people run.
That's how I'll run to cheek Loss District one three
years ago with all these people that were running, and
that's why there are some interesting races in the school board.
But all that will be in November. Leon three and
(08:04):
all that will be in November. Now, I do know this,
and I did not let me take this. I did
not know this, But I know this now, and for
the life of me, I don't know why towns don't
do this everywhere, especially in Huntersville, which is seventy thousand people.
I still think hundred vills should be having primaries. I
(08:25):
think it's absolutely moronic. You're not Mayberry anymore, you have
seventy thousand people that live there, you're not Maybury. But
in Matthews, if you have more than two people run
for mayor, you actually do have a primary, not by party,
but they take the top two vote getters, so you
(08:48):
could have six people or you could have three people,
and then the top two vote getters have their general
election in November. And so that's what they're doing. That's
what they should at the very least, if they don't
have regular primaries in Huntersville, they should be doing that
in Huntersville so you don't have the disaster for the
(09:08):
Republicans that happened two years ago. Happened like it did
in Huntersville. And when we come back, we're gonna take
a hard look at Huntersville at what's going on, because
as I mentioned last week, there's a lot of craziness
going on up in Huntersville, a lot. And as I
always like to say, small towns rarely disappoint, whether it's Waxaw, Weddington,
(09:34):
Indian Trail, Huntersville, Matthews, Monroe, they rarely rarely disappoint. Welcome
(09:55):
back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on this Wednesday Night
seven four or five seven eleven ten. That is the
text line driven by Liberty BUW at GMC, as well
as the telephone number. And as they like to say,
operators are standing by. That'd be Lonnie and Isaac. They're
my operators. By the way, in Isaac as always has
(10:17):
taken a look at the text line in case you
guys want to text the show. Okay, So now let's
take a look at Huntersville. In September of twenty twenty three,
I broke a story that gained a lot of traction
and got a lot of airtime concerning the mayoral race
(10:40):
up there as well as the town commissioner's up there.
And you had two women on the town commission accuse
Derek Party, a fellow town commissioner, of harassment, mental abuse,
(11:06):
whatever like all the above. And they sent emails and
I got copies of the emails by doing a freedom
of I got copies of the emails, and you can
do a freedom of information. I can get those all
you want, So you do that, you get the emails
and emails were internal emails and to the mayor Melinda,
(11:26):
but there were emails like inner circle emails complaining and
saying we refuse to sit next to him, and we
don't want to even be on committees with this man.
So now you have the mayoral race coming, and I
broke that big story. And then there was also issues
that Derek Parti had when he was in New York
(11:47):
while working for the government that was in newspapers concerning
horn tapes and investigations and everything else in the early eighties. Okay,
and these were all to newspaper accounts at the time,
New York News days, so it's not exactly like it's
a newspaper that no one's ever heard of. So then
(12:08):
the mayoral race comes and you had two Republicans, Derek
Party and Dan Boone, both Republicans, going against Christy Clark.
So even CMS students can figure out the math and
(12:29):
that and that is, are the Republicans going to split
the vote even though one pretty much doubled up the
other one. Yes, And the highest vote get her was
Christy Clark, even though she didn't have fifty percent of
the vote. I think she got something like that. But
(12:52):
because Dan Boone and Derek Parti were two Republicans, they
split the Republican vote and some of the unaffiliated votes
and Christy Clark walked away with being mayor. And I
remember thinking at the time that I thought it was
odd that at the time Derek Parti and his campaign
(13:17):
manager like Linda Engel, who's up there as well, who's
like his campaign manager, And I just remember thinking it
was very odd in such a just a horrible campaign strategy,
regardless of whose idea it was. I remember hearing the
(13:38):
audio and talking about it on air that there was
a town hall in Stump Town, And if my memory
serves me correctly, because it's been almost exactly two years,
if my memory serves me correctly, which I believe it
(13:58):
does wholeheartedly, Derek Parties went and started calling fellow Republicans racist,
including Linda Bales or made the illusion. He said there
were there seemed to be racial undertones, and in my brain,
that's calling someone racist. I'm black, therefore I did not
(14:23):
get appointed to this committee or therefore this happened to me.
I'm white, therefore this happened to me. This happened to me,
and Isaac was the overseer. So did I point blank
call Isaac racist directly? No? No, But the undertones are there,
the insinuations are there.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So which I always thought was odd because.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
In in my last seven years at WBT, in September
tenth will be seven years, my seven year anniversary. The
one thing that I've noticed is I've gotten knee deep
in politics. Black Republicans have a they have a tendency
(15:12):
to do the same thing. And what I mean by
that is they have they don't blame others for their
failures or any hardships or anything that goes against them.
They don't, and if they do, it's never based that
(15:33):
I in my experiences, it's not based on race. They say, well,
he didn't like me, or they wanted to hire a woman,
or whatever it is. But not often do you hear
black Republicans use race as a reason why something happened.
(15:57):
And that's why I found it extremely odd that here's
a man who's a Republican in at least a name
at least on his registran's card saying that he you know,
by the way, many people think that he's actually a
Democrat in Republican's clothing, and we'll get to that in
a little bit. But thought it was odd that a
(16:17):
Republican was calling and making racial undertones about other Republicans.
Just thought that was odd. And that's not been my
experience when dealing with the African American community that are
Republican or those who tend to be unaffiliated and down
(16:40):
the middle. It's just not been my experience. They're generally
not pro DEI. They're pro best person for the job.
And if I felt like I got robbed, there must
be reasons why. But they don't generally use racial undertones
as the reason why. Well, that's Stumptown audio, which by
(17:06):
the way, still exists. Because I listened to it, that
Stumptown audio seemed to go against everything that I just said.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
That is.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
The norm. But now let me tell you. I tell
you all that background story to tell you now what's
happening with the mayoral race in Huntersville. It's very again,
as I tend to say, Oh, by the way, I
(17:41):
it's it's I think it's Potstown. I think, I just
I think it's Pottstown, not Stumptown. It's Potstown, it's Potsdown, Stumptown.
I think it's in Lincoln County. Some my apologies, Pottstown
where all this this public forum took place. It's Potstown.
I told you. If I get something wrong, I want
to correct it immediately. Corrected immediately if I get something wrong.
(18:01):
Not Stumptown, Potstown, Raw this was taking place. But when
we come back, I'm going to tell you and explain
what's going on in Huntersville right now and the Huntersville
contingency upstate up there, it is upside down and we're
going to tell you why, like they are fit to
(18:21):
be tied. So we'll get into that situation when we return.
My name is Bret Jensen, and you're listening to Breaking
with Bret Jensen. Welcome back to Breaking with Brad Jensen.
(18:54):
On this Wednesday night, we'll take a look at the
townships in Mecklamar County and the interesting mayoral races that
are going on in some of them. And by the way,
I will be having a very special show tomorrow, so
make sure you stick around for that big, big stuff
going on tomorrow. So make sure you guys stick around
(19:15):
for that because it is Trust me, you're gonna want
to listen. I promise you, all right, So let's get
back to Huntersville. So on May thirteenth, May thirteenth, I
spoke at a club in Huntersville. As a matter of fact,
(19:36):
it was at the country club at Huntersville. So I'm
up there and I was the guest speaker on May thirteenth.
And the reason I know that was because it was
the day before my birthday and before I gave my
you know speech or whatever it is, before I dress.
(19:56):
The crowd up there, the Dan Boone, one of the
two people that ran for mayor in twenty twenty three,
who doubled up Derek Parties' votes as the Republican, and
who had been I believe on the town I believe
he'd been on the town council. I believe. Anyway, he
(20:18):
announced regardless, he announced that he was running for mayor
before I spoke. He announced it on May thirteenth at
this pretty big club up in Huntersville, and the last
week of filing for municipal elections. So that was in May.
(20:39):
So now fast forward to July. Okay, And by the way,
Dan did sue. I just did a quick search and
Dan served four terms on the town commissioners. Okay. So anyways,
so people up there know him, and he was running
for mayor. Seemed like the nextological step because Melnda Bales
was going to run for District ninety eight. So anyways,
(21:05):
so fast forward to July. He announces on May thirteenth
that he's going to run from Ayer. Now fast forward
to July, and I know this is a very convoluted story,
but this story goes back two years, so there's no
way to just cut corners. So now we're in July
and I see someone from Huntersville, someone who's running for
town commission, and I said, when's Dan Boone going to file?
(21:29):
He hasn't filed yet, and he said, oh, probably at
the end of the week, probably Friday. This is like
a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Probably probably Friday, which was
the last day of filing. So okay, all right, And
I was going to be there Friday anyway, because there
were a lot of you know, I got Lwana Mayfield.
You guys heard that interview, and you know, got a
(21:50):
lot of people that day. Well, I believe it was
the very next day, unbeknownst to anyone, any Republican, Derek
Parti decided to file for mayor again, meaning that if
Dan Boone filed, which everyone knew he was filing, because
(22:11):
he had announced it and it wasn't a secret and
everyone knew, and Dan Boone had raised forty I think
it's forty five thousand dollars to run for mayor, which
is a lot of money for Huntersville mayor, especially like
when you haven't even started the campaigning yet, like I
mean in terms of door knocking and stuff like that, right,
(22:32):
because they will have from July all the way to
November to keep raising money and raising money, and more
money was going to be coming in, whether it was
through MACGP or donors or whatever clubs are out there,
Republican Women of Greater Charlotte, whatever donations come in. So
(22:55):
Derek Party announced that he was running for mayor, Republicans
in North Mecklenburg were beside themselves because they thought, we've
got a real chance to claim back the mayor. We
may not get many or all of the seats on
the town council, but we can at least win mayor
(23:16):
because she didn't even get fifty percent last time. Talking
about Christi Clark, Well, now you can't win mayor if
Dan Boone stays with what he said where he's running
for mayor, and things were so bad in Huntersville and
(23:36):
people Republicans loathe Derek Parti in Huntersville so much so
that they were trying to find a sacrificial lamb to
run against him. Well, what do you mean by that, Brett.
There was contemplation. There was discuss from people that I
(24:02):
spoke to up in Huntersville that were like, if we
gets another Republican to file, we will guarantee that Derek
Party doesn't win, and we know that we're just handing
it over to Christy Clark, a Democrat. But that's how
much they hate Derek Parti in theory, one of their
own in theory. So the day he announced, I went
(24:27):
to Derek Parti's the day he announced, I went to
his website, and I don't know if this is a
Linda Engele thing, his campaign manager. I don't know if
this is a Derek Parti thing. I don't know, And
I believe that Linda is still his campaign manager, and
if I'm wrong, I will She was the first time,
(24:48):
so there's stands to reason that she is this time,
and if she's not, I will be the first one
to correct that as well.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
But if you go to his website, his website either
wasn't ready and that's a very crappy job with his campaign,
or it was purposeful the way they did it. I
nowhere on the website did I personally see anything mentioned
(25:18):
about Democrats or the current mayor. Generally, if you're running
for election, you want to criticize the opposition, right, If
you're a Democrat, you criticized the Republicans. If you're a Republican,
you criticized the Democrats.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Not Derek. He went after Dan Boom, a Republican, and
former mayor John Anarella, a Republican, didn't go after the Democrats,
went after the Republicans. And I don't even think he
mentioned the word and I, and I could be wrong
(25:52):
because it was like I went through it and things
may have changed now, maybe they've updated. I haven't been
to his website in a while, but I'm talking about
like the he came out and the very next day,
looking at his website, you would think you'd have everything
in order for your website if you're going to run
for mayor, you would think unless this is what he
purposely wanted to do to distance himself from to distance
(26:17):
himself from Republicans, even though he's a member of a
Republican club. Okay, so you attack Republicans on your website,
you don't mention anything about Christy Clark, the current mayor.
(26:40):
So who are you running against? Are you running against
fellow Republicans and you wanting to trash them? Or are
you running against Christy Clark, a Democrat? By all accounts,
it appears that you're running against Republicans because I can
tell you speaking to people up in Huntersville Republicans specifically,
(27:07):
because I was like, WHOA, So Dan Boone did not
file for to be a Republican because he knew if
he filed was he was going to automatically lose? And
why automatically lose and split the vote like what happened
last time, even though he would get probably once again
twice as many votes as Derek PARTI. So now Dan
(27:27):
Boone is running for town council. And when we return,
I'm going to play my interview with Dan Boone where
I ask him who he's going to vote for mayor
and why he decided not to run for mayor. You're
going to hear that interview, but I will tell you
I know so many Republicans that are going to leave
(27:49):
that part of the ballot blank or do a writing candidate.
They are livid with Derek party because they feel like
he purposely torpedoed the Republican Party up in Huntersville by
doing this. And I will tell you from and I'm
(28:11):
an observer, my own personal opinion, it's kind of hard
to argue with that. Welcome back to breaking with Brett
Jensen on this Wednesday night, Huntersville, Huntersville, Hundredsville. And I'm sure,
(28:35):
and I will let me just throw this out there,
and I'm gonna, I'm gonna and I and I truly
mean this, and so I want you to and I
and I mean this sincerely as I possibly can mean this.
If any of those disciples come after me or start
(29:03):
coming after me and just being obnoxious or like they
were two years ago, I will make you famous. I
just I know some of you have had legal issues.
I will make you famous. So do yourself a favor,
and you better find someone else. I just want to
(29:24):
throw that out there as a public service announcement here
at WBT. All right, So Dan Boone, Sir Ford terms
Town Commission had raised forty four forty five forty six
thousand dollars was going to run for mayor, made his
big grand announcement on May thirteenth, at a club in Huntersville,
and unbeknownst to anyone, Derek Parti decides he's going to
(29:45):
run for mayor, truly upsetting every single or damn near
every single Republican that is active in the Huntersville area.
So when Dan Boone filed, I caught up with him
and asked him why you would announced that you were
running for mayor. That's true, and you had been doing
(30:07):
this in giving up this campaign for about six months.
So why did you decide to run for Talent commission
as opposed to run for mayor of Huntersville.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Well, when we saw this play out two years ago
where two rough Republicans ran on against a Democrat, and
the numbers that I ran yesterday of two Republicans run,
we just don't have the numbers to pass the incumbent.
(30:36):
So let the man who filed, let him run for mayor,
and I'll run for commissioner. I think that the mayor
is runs important job of running the board meetings and
kind of the face of the town and an important person.
But I think as a commissioner, I can get involved
in the ordinances, voting on the budgets and the other
(30:58):
things that our Legislative.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You had the support of the North Mecklenberg Republican Club,
You've had the support of a lot of people that
were really looking forward to seeing you run, and then,
with almost very little support, Derek Parti once again throws
his name into the hat.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
How off guard did that catch you and the people
around you?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Well, we had kind of talked through this. We've talked
to different scenarios and we were I told everybody along
that I'm going to be running for mayor and I'm
going to file the last day because somebody comes in
and runs for mayor. We have two Republicans running, Neither
one of us is going to win. We random numbers
and right now Christy Clark will come in forty five
(31:43):
to forty six, forty eight percent of the vote. And
of two Republicans running one last time, Derek got seventeen percent.
I got thirty four. And that's even if it was
Clark and myself. That have been a very tight, close race.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
So now tell you that you're going to be running
for town council. What are some of the issues that
have been going on in Huntersville? Because the last time
you guys ran, when you ran for mayor. Democrats swept everything.
They swipped the town council and they swipped the mayor.
So what are some of the issues that you've seen
over the last two years?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Well, the last two years, I've really kind of watched
what's going on in the town board and the transparency
needs to really be cleared up. When you're meeting three
on three behind commissioners with town staff behind closed doors,
the public doesn't get to hear the debate. They don't
hear the questions that the commissioners are asking the staff,
and they definitely don't hear the staff's answer. When you're
(32:38):
sitting at in the audience watching a town board meeting
and a commissioner asked a question and staff has a
slide ready to answer that question, that's been premeditated. As
far as talking through the issues, who.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Are you going to vote for mayor? Or are you
going to vote for mayor?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I probably had to do a write in two ends, right,
not one.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Is there anything else that you'd like to say to
anyone listening right now, either about not running for mayor
or running for town council, or anything that you'd like
to say.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I would just like to say thank you, to all
the people that have been working with the North Meck
Republican Club. Those are an outstanding group of people, and
I can work with anybody. I've been doing this for
a while and I just look for the opportunity. If
I have the opportunity to work and move this town forward.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I'll put this part in the middle somewhere. Were you
surprised that you and Johnna Nerella were the focus of
Derek Partis's attacks on his own website running for mayor
and didn't say anything about the Democrats?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
You know that website was a little bit different. Two
things that popped out at me is that the attack
on the sprawl that I and the warehouses that he showed,
those are flex house warehouse. That's what the DC told
us that we needed in Huntersville for small businesses that
(34:06):
wanted to get up and running. That's what we did
of those flex spaces. As far as attacking everybody that's
a bump in the road, I mean that's he can
do anything he wants to do. That's his privilege. If
I could give him a little advice, I think if
he spelled Anarell's name correctly, and he needs to see
how to spell the word donor.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
All right. So that was my interview with Dan Boone,
and that was about I don't know. As a matter
of fact, it was the last day. It was Friday,
when the last day when people could file. So, like
I said, he said, point blank, he's going to do
a writing candidate. A lot of other people are are
up there. And someone told me the other day that
(34:51):
they don't see a pathway whatsoever for Derek Parti to
win because so many Republicans are upset at him for
doing this. So we'll see what happens November. A lot
of things can happen between now and November fourth, so
we'll see what happens. All right, Everyone that's going to
do it for us tonight tomorrow, massive, massive, massive show.
I am telling you this right now. It's not hyperbole.
(35:12):
Make sure you stick around for tomorrow. My name is
Brett jensenon and you've been listening to Breaking with Brett
Jenson
Hi, Oh, let's go I Oh, let's go, Oh, let's go. Oh.
Come News Talk eleventh ten at ninety nine three WBT.
Brett Jensen here with you on a Wednesday night edition
of Breaking with Brett Jensen, as we are going up
(00:41):
until seven o'clock tonight. Telephone numbers and the text line
number the exact same number, seven oh four five seven
eleven ten, And of course the WBT text line is
driven by Liberty Buick gmc guys. Follow me on accept
Brett Underscore Jensen for all the lattus in Breaking News
in and around on the Charlotte area. Okay, so finally
(01:06):
it's been a while. I want to say since last
week Tuesday is the last time that I looked at
some mayoral races in and around the Mecklmore County. And
I know I've spent time on Matthews, I spent time
on Cornelia's, I spent time on Davidson. And I said
(01:29):
I wanted to deal with the deal with the ills tonight.
That'd be Pineville, Mint Hill and Huntersville the Ills. So
I want to go after these and break some of
these things down for you guys. Okay, because like I said,
(01:50):
there are some interesting races, and we'll start with some
of the more innocuous ones. First, let's start with mint Hill.
Now min Hill for a while had a very beloved
mayor that rent that you know was there in the city,
and he was here on our show. So we all
know about that. He was here on the show. But
(02:15):
what's going to happen now in terms of mayor, Well,
you've got a couple people that are deciding to run. Now, again,
these are non partisan races. Okay, Well what does that mean? Well,
that means that they don't have primaries, and that while
everyone may know that you're a Republican, you don't have
an R beside your name, or a D beside your name,
(02:37):
or you for beside your name for that matter. So
what you've got now in the town of Minhill is
you've got the mayor pro tem Dale Dalton, Republican, running
against Tim rad Zick R A d z I c
k I rad Zeke And if I have mispronounced that,
(02:58):
my apologies, but I think it's pretty close. So they're
running against each other and there's absolutely no reason to
believe that Dale Dalton won't win. He's been on a
talent commissioner for quite a while, and he was the
mayor pro tem and for those of you who may
(03:18):
or may not know, that means basically your vice mayor,
like vice president, your vice mayor. So there's no reason
to believe that Dale Dalton won't win. He's a very
popular man and he also has the support of the
previous mayor, and that speaks volumes in mint Hill. Mint
(03:38):
Hill's not like Matthews, like you need to understand. Minhill
is nothing like Matthews. Okay, so everything seems to be
rather cut and dry there, Like I said, a little
bit going on there, but like you expect it just
to be regularly cut and dry in in Pineville. David Phillips,
(04:03):
he's been on I believe WBT before in the past.
He is going against Emilias Stinson Wesley and Stintson Wesley
is hyphenated, just so you guys know, for clarification, But
there's no reason to believe that David Phillips won't win
that particular race. You know, David Phillips a lot of
(04:27):
people like him, and like I said, I think he's
even been on this station a couple of times, a
few times, so you know, that's that's another race where
you don't expect a lot of changes, you don't expect
it to be relatively close, just like in Matthews. Now,
(04:48):
I am extremely interested. Excuse me, Minhill, but I am
extremely interested. And I know I talked about mint Hill
some excuse me, Matthew some last week, and I will
tell you that there is a groundswell for Threet. Threat
is an African American man. He's a Republican, and he
(05:11):
was the town commissioner. And as I said last week,
if the current mayor, John Higden, who recently I believe was,
I believe this to be accurate, and if it's not accurate,
I will readily correct this information. But I believe it
(05:31):
to be accurate that he changed his affiliation from Republican
to unaffiliated. And as I said last week, that's really
him just trying to the way I view it, him
trying to disguise the fact that he's a Democrat, like
a hard Democrat. And all you have to do is
(05:51):
look at his voting record when all the ties came
with the town council or town commissioners, with the Democrats,
it felt like almost every single time, especially when it
came to raising taxes and everything else like that. So
if he was truly conservative in the eyes of the
people of Matthews, then Threet would not be running for mayor.
(06:15):
He would have stayed on the town Commission. I mean,
think about it, like, why would you give up a
seat where you're serving if you already know? I mean,
why would you give it up if you know you're
going to be re elected and if you've got someone
that you think is friendly to your party or at
(06:35):
the very least right down the middle. But I will
tell you many Republicans don't feel that way. And also,
don't forget John Haigden, if I'm not mistaken, is the
only mayor in Mecklimbok County that's against the transit tax,
the only one. As a matter of fact, I believe
he and some of the people from Matthews went up
to Raleigh to say, no, don't let this be on
(06:56):
the referendum in November. Don't let this be a referendum.
Excuse me, don't let this be a referendum on the
ballot in November. Okay, So you got Leon three. He
had a thing yesterday like a like a gathering if
you will, to make some announcements and stuff, and I
hope to have Leon on the program sometime in the
(07:23):
next month or so. I hope to have him on.
We'll talk to him. But again, remember you know, they
don't have a primary, so their elections not till November.
The only place has got primaries right now, that'd be
the school board. No excuse me, I don't know. Let
me take that back. It's South school board. It's only
(07:44):
the city council. Schola City Council is the only thing
that's got primaries. School board, you can have seventeen people run.
That's how I'll run to cheek Loss District one three
years ago with all these people that were running, and
that's why there are some interesting races in the school board.
But all that will be in November. Leon three and
(08:04):
all that will be in November. Now, I do know this,
and I did not let me take this. I did
not know this, But I know this now, and for
the life of me, I don't know why towns don't
do this everywhere, especially in Huntersville, which is seventy thousand people.
I still think hundred vills should be having primaries. I
(08:25):
think it's absolutely moronic. You're not Mayberry anymore, you have
seventy thousand people that live there, you're not Maybury. But
in Matthews, if you have more than two people run
for mayor, you actually do have a primary, not by party,
but they take the top two vote getters, so you
(08:48):
could have six people or you could have three people,
and then the top two vote getters have their general
election in November. And so that's what they're doing. That's
what they should at the very least, if they don't
have regular primaries in Huntersville, they should be doing that
in Huntersville so you don't have the disaster for the
(09:08):
Republicans that happened two years ago. Happened like it did
in Huntersville. And when we come back, we're gonna take
a hard look at Huntersville at what's going on, because
as I mentioned last week, there's a lot of craziness
going on up in Huntersville, a lot. And as I
always like to say, small towns rarely disappoint, whether it's Waxaw, Weddington,
(09:34):
Indian Trail, Huntersville, Matthews, Monroe, they rarely rarely disappoint. Welcome
(09:55):
back to Breaking with Brett Jensen on this Wednesday Night
seven four or five seven eleven ten. That is the
text line driven by Liberty BUW at GMC, as well
as the telephone number. And as they like to say,
operators are standing by. That'd be Lonnie and Isaac. They're
my operators. By the way, in Isaac as always has
(10:17):
taken a look at the text line in case you
guys want to text the show. Okay, So now let's
take a look at Huntersville. In September of twenty twenty three,
I broke a story that gained a lot of traction
and got a lot of airtime concerning the mayoral race
(10:40):
up there as well as the town commissioner's up there.
And you had two women on the town commission accuse
Derek Party, a fellow town commissioner, of harassment, mental abuse,
(11:06):
whatever like all the above. And they sent emails and
I got copies of the emails by doing a freedom
of I got copies of the emails, and you can
do a freedom of information. I can get those all
you want, So you do that, you get the emails
and emails were internal emails and to the mayor Melinda,
(11:26):
but there were emails like inner circle emails complaining and
saying we refuse to sit next to him, and we
don't want to even be on committees with this man.
So now you have the mayoral race coming, and I
broke that big story. And then there was also issues
that Derek Parti had when he was in New York
(11:47):
while working for the government that was in newspapers concerning
horn tapes and investigations and everything else in the early eighties. Okay,
and these were all to newspaper accounts at the time,
New York News days, so it's not exactly like it's
a newspaper that no one's ever heard of. So then
(12:08):
the mayoral race comes and you had two Republicans, Derek
Party and Dan Boone, both Republicans, going against Christy Clark.
So even CMS students can figure out the math and
(12:29):
that and that is, are the Republicans going to split
the vote even though one pretty much doubled up the
other one. Yes, And the highest vote get her was
Christy Clark, even though she didn't have fifty percent of
the vote. I think she got something like that. But
(12:52):
because Dan Boone and Derek Parti were two Republicans, they
split the Republican vote and some of the unaffiliated votes
and Christy Clark walked away with being mayor. And I
remember thinking at the time that I thought it was
odd that at the time Derek Parti and his campaign
(13:17):
manager like Linda Engel, who's up there as well, who's
like his campaign manager, And I just remember thinking it
was very odd in such a just a horrible campaign strategy,
regardless of whose idea it was. I remember hearing the
(13:38):
audio and talking about it on air that there was
a town hall in Stump Town, And if my memory
serves me correctly, because it's been almost exactly two years,
if my memory serves me correctly, which I believe it
(13:58):
does wholeheartedly, Derek Parties went and started calling fellow Republicans racist,
including Linda Bales or made the illusion. He said there
were there seemed to be racial undertones, and in my brain,
that's calling someone racist. I'm black, therefore I did not
(14:23):
get appointed to this committee or therefore this happened to me.
I'm white, therefore this happened to me. This happened to me,
and Isaac was the overseer. So did I point blank
call Isaac racist directly? No? No, But the undertones are there,
the insinuations are there.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So which I always thought was odd because.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
In in my last seven years at WBT, in September
tenth will be seven years, my seven year anniversary. The
one thing that I've noticed is I've gotten knee deep
in politics. Black Republicans have a they have a tendency
(15:12):
to do the same thing. And what I mean by
that is they have they don't blame others for their
failures or any hardships or anything that goes against them.
They don't, and if they do, it's never based that
(15:33):
I in my experiences, it's not based on race. They say, well,
he didn't like me, or they wanted to hire a woman,
or whatever it is. But not often do you hear
black Republicans use race as a reason why something happened.
(15:57):
And that's why I found it extremely odd that here's
a man who's a Republican in at least a name
at least on his registran's card saying that he you know,
by the way, many people think that he's actually a
Democrat in Republican's clothing, and we'll get to that in
a little bit. But thought it was odd that a
(16:17):
Republican was calling and making racial undertones about other Republicans.
Just thought that was odd. And that's not been my
experience when dealing with the African American community that are
Republican or those who tend to be unaffiliated and down
(16:40):
the middle. It's just not been my experience. They're generally
not pro DEI. They're pro best person for the job.
And if I felt like I got robbed, there must
be reasons why. But they don't generally use racial undertones
as the reason why. Well, that's Stumptown audio, which by
(17:06):
the way, still exists. Because I listened to it, that
Stumptown audio seemed to go against everything that I just said.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
That is.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
The norm. But now let me tell you. I tell
you all that background story to tell you now what's
happening with the mayoral race in Huntersville. It's very again,
as I tend to say, Oh, by the way, I
(17:41):
it's it's I think it's Potstown. I think, I just
I think it's Pottstown, not Stumptown. It's Potstown, it's Potsdown, Stumptown.
I think it's in Lincoln County. Some my apologies, Pottstown
where all this this public forum took place. It's Potstown.
I told you. If I get something wrong, I want
to correct it immediately. Corrected immediately if I get something wrong.
(18:01):
Not Stumptown, Potstown, Raw this was taking place. But when
we come back, I'm going to tell you and explain
what's going on in Huntersville right now and the Huntersville
contingency upstate up there, it is upside down and we're
going to tell you why, like they are fit to
(18:21):
be tied. So we'll get into that situation when we return.
My name is Bret Jensen, and you're listening to Breaking
with Bret Jensen. Welcome back to Breaking with Brad Jensen.
(18:54):
On this Wednesday night, we'll take a look at the
townships in Mecklamar County and the interesting mayoral races that
are going on in some of them. And by the way,
I will be having a very special show tomorrow, so
make sure you stick around for that big, big stuff
going on tomorrow. So make sure you guys stick around
(19:15):
for that because it is Trust me, you're gonna want
to listen. I promise you, all right, So let's get
back to Huntersville. So on May thirteenth, May thirteenth, I
spoke at a club in Huntersville. As a matter of fact,
(19:36):
it was at the country club at Huntersville. So I'm
up there and I was the guest speaker on May thirteenth.
And the reason I know that was because it was
the day before my birthday and before I gave my
you know speech or whatever it is, before I dress.
(19:56):
The crowd up there, the Dan Boone, one of the
two people that ran for mayor in twenty twenty three,
who doubled up Derek Parties' votes as the Republican, and
who had been I believe on the town I believe
he'd been on the town council. I believe. Anyway, he
(20:18):
announced regardless, he announced that he was running for mayor
before I spoke. He announced it on May thirteenth at
this pretty big club up in Huntersville, and the last
week of filing for municipal elections. So that was in May.
(20:39):
So now fast forward to July. Okay, And by the way,
Dan did sue. I just did a quick search and
Dan served four terms on the town commissioners. Okay. So anyways,
so people up there know him, and he was running
for mayor. Seemed like the nextological step because Melnda Bales
was going to run for District ninety eight. So anyways,
(21:05):
so fast forward to July. He announces on May thirteenth
that he's going to run from Ayer. Now fast forward
to July, and I know this is a very convoluted story,
but this story goes back two years, so there's no
way to just cut corners. So now we're in July
and I see someone from Huntersville, someone who's running for
town commission, and I said, when's Dan Boone going to file?
(21:29):
He hasn't filed yet, and he said, oh, probably at
the end of the week, probably Friday. This is like
a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Probably probably Friday, which was
the last day of filing. So okay, all right, And
I was going to be there Friday anyway, because there
were a lot of you know, I got Lwana Mayfield.
You guys heard that interview, and you know, got a
(21:50):
lot of people that day. Well, I believe it was
the very next day, unbeknownst to anyone, any Republican, Derek
Parti decided to file for mayor again, meaning that if
Dan Boone filed, which everyone knew he was filing, because
(22:11):
he had announced it and it wasn't a secret and
everyone knew, and Dan Boone had raised forty I think
it's forty five thousand dollars to run for mayor, which
is a lot of money for Huntersville mayor, especially like
when you haven't even started the campaigning yet, like I
mean in terms of door knocking and stuff like that, right,
(22:32):
because they will have from July all the way to
November to keep raising money and raising money, and more
money was going to be coming in, whether it was
through MACGP or donors or whatever clubs are out there,
Republican Women of Greater Charlotte, whatever donations come in. So
(22:55):
Derek Party announced that he was running for mayor, Republicans
in North Mecklenburg were beside themselves because they thought, we've
got a real chance to claim back the mayor. We
may not get many or all of the seats on
the town council, but we can at least win mayor
(23:16):
because she didn't even get fifty percent last time. Talking
about Christi Clark, Well, now you can't win mayor if
Dan Boone stays with what he said where he's running
for mayor, and things were so bad in Huntersville and
(23:36):
people Republicans loathe Derek Parti in Huntersville so much so
that they were trying to find a sacrificial lamb to
run against him. Well, what do you mean by that, Brett.
There was contemplation. There was discuss from people that I
(24:02):
spoke to up in Huntersville that were like, if we
gets another Republican to file, we will guarantee that Derek
Party doesn't win, and we know that we're just handing
it over to Christy Clark, a Democrat. But that's how
much they hate Derek Parti in theory, one of their
own in theory. So the day he announced, I went
(24:27):
to Derek Parti's the day he announced, I went to
his website, and I don't know if this is a
Linda Engele thing, his campaign manager. I don't know if
this is a Derek Parti thing. I don't know, And
I believe that Linda is still his campaign manager, and
if I'm wrong, I will She was the first time,
(24:48):
so there's stands to reason that she is this time,
and if she's not, I will be the first one
to correct that as well.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
But if you go to his website, his website either
wasn't ready and that's a very crappy job with his campaign,
or it was purposeful the way they did it. I
nowhere on the website did I personally see anything mentioned
(25:18):
about Democrats or the current mayor. Generally, if you're running
for election, you want to criticize the opposition, right, If
you're a Democrat, you criticized the Republicans. If you're a Republican,
you criticized the Democrats.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Not Derek. He went after Dan Boom, a Republican, and
former mayor John Anarella, a Republican, didn't go after the Democrats,
went after the Republicans. And I don't even think he
mentioned the word and I, and I could be wrong
(25:52):
because it was like I went through it and things
may have changed now, maybe they've updated. I haven't been
to his website in a while, but I'm talking about
like the he came out and the very next day,
looking at his website, you would think you'd have everything
in order for your website if you're going to run
for mayor, you would think unless this is what he
purposely wanted to do to distance himself from to distance
(26:17):
himself from Republicans, even though he's a member of a
Republican club. Okay, so you attack Republicans on your website,
you don't mention anything about Christy Clark, the current mayor.
(26:40):
So who are you running against? Are you running against
fellow Republicans and you wanting to trash them? Or are
you running against Christy Clark, a Democrat? By all accounts,
it appears that you're running against Republicans because I can
tell you speaking to people up in Huntersville Republicans specifically,
(27:07):
because I was like, WHOA, So Dan Boone did not
file for to be a Republican because he knew if
he filed was he was going to automatically lose? And
why automatically lose and split the vote like what happened
last time, even though he would get probably once again
twice as many votes as Derek PARTI. So now Dan
(27:27):
Boone is running for town council. And when we return,
I'm going to play my interview with Dan Boone where
I ask him who he's going to vote for mayor
and why he decided not to run for mayor. You're
going to hear that interview, but I will tell you
I know so many Republicans that are going to leave
(27:49):
that part of the ballot blank or do a writing candidate.
They are livid with Derek party because they feel like
he purposely torpedoed the Republican Party up in Huntersville by
doing this. And I will tell you from and I'm
(28:11):
an observer, my own personal opinion, it's kind of hard
to argue with that. Welcome back to breaking with Brett
Jensen on this Wednesday night, Huntersville, Huntersville, Hundredsville. And I'm sure,
(28:35):
and I will let me just throw this out there,
and I'm gonna, I'm gonna and I and I truly
mean this, and so I want you to and I
and I mean this sincerely as I possibly can mean this.
If any of those disciples come after me or start
(29:03):
coming after me and just being obnoxious or like they
were two years ago, I will make you famous. I
just I know some of you have had legal issues.
I will make you famous. So do yourself a favor,
and you better find someone else. I just want to
(29:24):
throw that out there as a public service announcement here
at WBT. All right, So Dan Boone, Sir Ford terms
Town Commission had raised forty four forty five forty six
thousand dollars was going to run for mayor, made his
big grand announcement on May thirteenth, at a club in Huntersville,
and unbeknownst to anyone, Derek Parti decides he's going to
(29:45):
run for mayor, truly upsetting every single or damn near
every single Republican that is active in the Huntersville area.
So when Dan Boone filed, I caught up with him
and asked him why you would announced that you were
running for mayor. That's true, and you had been doing
(30:07):
this in giving up this campaign for about six months.
So why did you decide to run for Talent commission
as opposed to run for mayor of Huntersville.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Well, when we saw this play out two years ago
where two rough Republicans ran on against a Democrat, and
the numbers that I ran yesterday of two Republicans run,
we just don't have the numbers to pass the incumbent.
(30:36):
So let the man who filed, let him run for mayor,
and I'll run for commissioner. I think that the mayor
is runs important job of running the board meetings and
kind of the face of the town and an important person.
But I think as a commissioner, I can get involved
in the ordinances, voting on the budgets and the other
(30:58):
things that our Legislative.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You had the support of the North Mecklenberg Republican Club,
You've had the support of a lot of people that
were really looking forward to seeing you run, and then,
with almost very little support, Derek Parti once again throws
his name into the hat.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
How off guard did that catch you and the people
around you?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Well, we had kind of talked through this. We've talked
to different scenarios and we were I told everybody along
that I'm going to be running for mayor and I'm
going to file the last day because somebody comes in
and runs for mayor. We have two Republicans running, Neither
one of us is going to win. We random numbers
and right now Christy Clark will come in forty five
(31:43):
to forty six, forty eight percent of the vote. And
of two Republicans running one last time, Derek got seventeen percent.
I got thirty four. And that's even if it was
Clark and myself. That have been a very tight, close race.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
So now tell you that you're going to be running
for town council. What are some of the issues that
have been going on in Huntersville? Because the last time
you guys ran, when you ran for mayor. Democrats swept everything.
They swipped the town council and they swipped the mayor.
So what are some of the issues that you've seen
over the last two years?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Well, the last two years, I've really kind of watched
what's going on in the town board and the transparency
needs to really be cleared up. When you're meeting three
on three behind commissioners with town staff behind closed doors,
the public doesn't get to hear the debate. They don't
hear the questions that the commissioners are asking the staff,
and they definitely don't hear the staff's answer. When you're
(32:38):
sitting at in the audience watching a town board meeting
and a commissioner asked a question and staff has a
slide ready to answer that question, that's been premeditated. As
far as talking through the issues, who.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Are you going to vote for mayor? Or are you
going to vote for mayor?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I probably had to do a write in two ends, right,
not one.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Is there anything else that you'd like to say to
anyone listening right now, either about not running for mayor
or running for town council, or anything that you'd like
to say.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I would just like to say thank you, to all
the people that have been working with the North Meck
Republican Club. Those are an outstanding group of people, and
I can work with anybody. I've been doing this for
a while and I just look for the opportunity. If
I have the opportunity to work and move this town forward.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I'll put this part in the middle somewhere. Were you
surprised that you and Johnna Nerella were the focus of
Derek Partis's attacks on his own website running for mayor
and didn't say anything about the Democrats?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
You know that website was a little bit different. Two
things that popped out at me is that the attack
on the sprawl that I and the warehouses that he showed,
those are flex house warehouse. That's what the DC told
us that we needed in Huntersville for small businesses that
(34:06):
wanted to get up and running. That's what we did
of those flex spaces. As far as attacking everybody that's
a bump in the road, I mean that's he can
do anything he wants to do. That's his privilege. If
I could give him a little advice, I think if
he spelled Anarell's name correctly, and he needs to see
how to spell the word donor.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
All right. So that was my interview with Dan Boone,
and that was about I don't know. As a matter
of fact, it was the last day. It was Friday,
when the last day when people could file. So, like
I said, he said, point blank, he's going to do
a writing candidate. A lot of other people are are
up there. And someone told me the other day that
(34:51):
they don't see a pathway whatsoever for Derek Parti to
win because so many Republicans are upset at him for
doing this. So we'll see what happens November. A lot
of things can happen between now and November fourth, so
we'll see what happens. All right, Everyone that's going to
do it for us tonight tomorrow, massive, massive, massive show.
I am telling you this right now. It's not hyperbole.
(35:12):
Make sure you stick around for tomorrow. My name is
Brett jensenon and you've been listening to Breaking with Brett
Jenson
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Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!