April 2, 2025 • 42 mins
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The political landscape of Columbus shifted dramatically during the recent primaries, with established figures falling to challengers who promised change. Most notably, Stephen Jones defeated political veteran Leroy Brooks in the Democratic mayoral primary, signaling voters' desire for fresh leadership despite Brooks out-raising Jones three-to-one.
Brooks's campaign strategy backfired as he leaned too heavily on past accomplishments, telling voters to "ask your father" about his contributions while promising miracle solutions. Meanwhile, Jones successfully cast himself as youthful and forward-thinking.
The election wasn't without bizarre incidents – a ballot box became unavailable when it was left in a repossessed vehicle, causing delays at one precinct and raising questions about election security. This sparked debate about whether Columbus has too many polling locations and how to balance accessibility with logistical efficiency.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch.
This is Between the Headlines.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
This is Peter Imes, publisher of the Dispatch.
One of our hosts of Between theHeadlines is the managing
editor of our newsroom.
Typically, we try to keep newsand opinions separate, but
reporters have a unique insightinto the workings of local
government and their analysiscan be helpful for readers and
listeners.
The Dispatch remains committedto journalistic integrity and
(00:38):
our reporting will alwaysreflect that.
And now Between the Headlinesthat.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
And now, between the Headlines, out with the old and
in with the new.
Today, on Between the Headlines, leroy Brooks taken down by
Stephen Jones with just a slingand a stone and Mickens buries,
himself alive, no longer in therace.
We will break those numbersdown.
And lastly, what does arepossessed ballot box mean
(01:08):
about the integrity of our localpolitics?
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And now a message frompolitical candidate, Bill
Strauss.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I want to thank the Commercial Dispatch for this
podcast, bringing differentviews in an open discussion.
I'm Bill Strauss, humbly askingfor your vote as next mayor of
Columbus.
You deserve transparency andaccountability for your tax
dollars.
I'm business friendly andcharitable.
Vote Bill Strauss Mayor ofColumbus 2025.
Paid for by campaign to electBill Strauss.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
And now a message from political candidate Jason
Spears.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
I am Jason Spears, candidate for City Council, ward
6.
Over the past 20 years, Ifaithfully and effectively
served our community in manydifferent ways.
If elected, I will bringstructure and strategy to the
city's finances, help develop ablueprint to capitalize on the
growing economic activity in ourcity and work to strengthen
relationships with LowndesCounty officials, the Golden
Triangle Development Link and,most importantly, you, the
(02:59):
citizens of Columbus.
I approve this message and onApril 1st, vote Jason Spears for
Ward 6, paid for by thecampaign.
Vote Jason Spears for Ward 6.
Paid for by the campaign toelect Jason Spears.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Thanks for joining us today.
You are listening to Betweenthe Headlines hosted by owner of
the Repo Depot and managingeditor of the Commercial
Disclash, mr Zach Player, and Iam David Chisholm.
The big headline today themayor's race.
The mayor's race First off.
Are you okay?
(03:29):
You don't look well today.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It's a late night.
That's probably my 12th or 13thelection to cover, so I'm used
to it by now.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Well, I'm glad we don't have video today.
Maybe that's the next thing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, thanks, David, I appreciate that.
So tell us about the mayor'srace.
I thought from the beginningthat this race could go either
way.
Obviously, leroy has apolitical legend here.
Stephen has a record in thecouncil.
They were both strongcandidates.
It wasn't a runaway.
I expected this to be closerand I expected Leroy to compete
(04:05):
better than he did For me.
When you look at Leroy'scampaign, he leaned heavily into
the experience angle.
I can do things that nobodyelse can do.
Just ask your father, ask yourgrandfather Like he's literally
telling people on facebook whoare questioning why should I
(04:26):
vote for you?
What, what, what have you donefor columbus?
What have you done for lowndescounty?
And his answers are ask yourdad, ask your grandfather, you
know, kind of answers.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
So maybe he leaned a little too heavily into that.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Maybe you know it.
Nor did his assertion thateveryone could just sit back and
watch him make miracles.
I'm Leroy Brooks and I bringyou these miracles.
I bring you this governmentefficiency.
I bring you this better cityhall.
People didn't buy into it.
And talking about buy-in, therewere people who literally
financially bought into Leroy'scampaign.
(05:01):
You know he outpaced Jones infundraising three to one.
We talked about that Didn'tseem to matter At the end of the
day, stephen, by contrast, heeffectively cast himself somehow
as both young and new.
Now Stephen's 50.
That's obviously a good bitLeroy's junior, but you know,
(05:24):
not 30.
But he's not new to citygovernment.
He's a two-term city councilman.
He's been in the seat butsomehow casting himself as new
and young.
He mobilized a lot of youngfolks and he talked about that,
you know when he talked about iton Facebook.
He talked about it to me lastnight.
(05:45):
He said he thought young peopledecided this election and young
people decided the election, orat least the Democratic primary
, in Stephen's favor.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Well, we talked actually last episode about how
interestingly he had somehowmorphed into this establishment
candidate, even though he wasmarketing heavily against that.
Do you think pride comethbefore a fall?
I mean, is that the story ofLeroy Brooks here?
I mean, we all know he takesgreat pride in his humility.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
You always love to see great pride and humility.
I don't know.
I think he clearlymiscalculated something.
He still has a job and that'sone thing that Leroy has said
from the beginning is if I lose,I still have a job.
Now he would not agree withthis.
If he was sitting in this roomhe would adamantly disagree with
(06:46):
this.
But it really started with anegative tone.
He was going after Leroy.
There was a lot of yeah-yeahbetween the two of them
candidate for him.
Their interview in here wasvery spirited, where they very
clearly had some things to sayabout each other.
(07:07):
The last two weeks have been alot cleaner for Stephen Jones.
He focused a lot of hismessaging on the positive.
When the messaging looked likeit was going to go negative, he
usually very obviously took thehigh road.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah, he moved.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right and he moved toward that high road type of
campaigning, whereas in the lasttwo weeks Leroy looked like
Joseph Mickens was running hiscampaign.
He had a press conferencetalking about absentee voter
fraud that didn't really existand then he kept just banging
that, just banging that gavel.
He was like, hey look, thisvoter fraud is happening in
(07:48):
absentees.
I'm going to report it, I'mgoing to keep, I'm going to get
an investigation.
He wanted everythinginvestigated for the last two
weeks.
People are tired of that.
People are tired of it and thelast thing that voters saw from
Leroy Brooks was probably one ofthe and going back and talking
about the voter fraud like welooked into that.
It just didn't exist.
(08:09):
It was a misunderstanding.
All of the people who votedthose were legitimate ballots.
One of the I think the worstthings he did, one of the worst
missteps that he made, was thevery last thing voters saw
before they went to the polls.
You know you've got Joe Brooks,who's on that Tom Bigby
Waterway board, applying forreappointment.
(08:31):
No one is applying against him.
This is a pass-through vote onthe Lowndes County Board of.
Supervisors, he tables it.
Not only does he table it, butwhen pressed on why he tabled it
, he was honest.
He said well, you know, thisguy is supporting Stephen Jones,
so I'm not going to support himand that kind of tit for tat,
(08:54):
quid pro quo sort of politics inthe city.
People are tired of that junk.
Stephen shied away from thatmessaging, particularly in the
last two weeks, and Leroy leanedinto.
There's corruption everywhereand I'm going to reward people
who support me.
And whether that's what he meantto do, whether that's the kind
(09:15):
of mayor he would have been.
That was the last.
That was the last thing you sawfrom the Leroy Brooks campaign
and I bet you that left a badtaste in a lot of people's
mouths?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Well, for sure it was .
It was absolutely ugly, it waspetty, it was unnecessary.
I mean, what else can you sayabout that?
I mean, that is something thatjust simply did not have crap to
do with the agenda at hand.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And Leroy is better than that.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
He is better than that, is better than that he's
shown himself to be better hedoesn't have to raise his hand
and yes, I vote, I, and I'lltell you why I vote.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
He could, just, you know, maybe even not even raised
his hand, just kind of raisedone finger well, he was trying
to make a point to joe brooksthat I am, I am in this, I have
the power in this situation and,at the bare minimum, I'm going
to make you sweat this out, andit was dumb Pride cometh before
(10:12):
a fall Pride does come before afall.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
The political defeat of Leroy Brooks.
To me, it solidifies the end ofan era, that is to say, the
1960s, baby boomer politics,that's entrenched in racial
identity and this, and that Ithink that's done.
I mean, you look back in therecent history and he was the
victim in the Harry Sandersfiasco, no question about that,
(10:43):
and then he was kind of thevictim again, or at least he
played the victim, when he wasnot appointed as chairman of the
board of supervisors and I, tobe honest, I really thought that
this victimhood that he tookupon himself would carry him
across the finish line in thisprimary.
But Columbus is tired ofhearing that stuff and they
(11:05):
spoke out against it.
They want change and I'll tellyou this, they want the
amphitheater finished and thatis something that you know he
took the—.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I don't think the amphitheater had anything to do
with last night.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well, he didn't make a—he did not take a stand for it
, and Stephen Jones was the onethat said on day one we're going
to make that happen one way oranother.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
But speaking about with the old Mickens his in Ward
two.
His political career seems tohave been retired last night.
What do we think about that,david?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
He was put out to pasture and that was absolutely
of his own doing.
I mean, I don't want to takeaway credit from any of these
new candidates that have jumpedin here, but they absolutely, in
my opinion, did not have theswagger or the experience to
pull out an upset like this.
(12:00):
I'm not trashing them, I'm notat all.
I've met Roderick.
I think his heart is in theright place.
Haven't met she, she, but hey,by the way, where's the signs?
If you, if you've driventhrough that ward?
Remember last week we talkedabout how the?
signs did not have thatdisclaimer on them, right, or
(12:23):
they did have it and but yet hercampaign finance report um
showed no it showed all zerosand I said that's a violation
and now, lo and behold, all thesigns have vanished like a fart
in the wind.
They're just not.
They're gone.
Well, we appreciate peoplelistening to us obviously the
(12:45):
word is getting out.
But but all that aside, I mean,I mean, what can you say about
mickens?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
I mean, well, I want to start with, I want to go to
reverse here.
I want to start with the uh twothat are advancing.
Here again, you do have twomuch younger candidates, as you
noted, and unlike Stephen, whoisn't new, these two actually
are new to the scene, but Ipredicted weeks ago that the
(13:11):
road he was on he was going tofinish.
Third, and it may be the onlyprediction that I got right on
right, right square, but I gotthat one square.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
You did.
And speaking of that road, it'skind of like back in 2000-ish
we used to go mud riding behindthe Blue Cut post office.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
And I'm thinking about Mickens and it's like when
you commit to go across thatmuddy area, we had no business
doing it, but oh my gosh, thatwas fun.
We had no business doing it,but oh my gosh, that was fun.
When you commit to go acrossyou better keep it in forward
and keep going.
But right before you go off inthere, there's this moment where
you think should I really do?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
this.
You got to make a decision.
I better make it.
If I'm going to do it, it'seither forward or reverse.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Yeah, and he put it in forward and lo and behold,
there is water absolutelycovering his hood and the engine
is totaled.
So we appreciate your service,but as far as this campaign goes
, good riddance, it's done.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Well, this runoff looks pretty interesting.
You know Roderick Smith, firstof all, he's been to every
council meeting.
He's been to every councilmeeting.
He's been to every city event,all of these community ward
meetings that they're havingabout crime.
He's showing up.
He's mobilized.
His campaign is more mobilizedthan I believed it was and I
(14:38):
knew it was.
I knew there were a lot offolks out there, but it's a lot
more than I thought and he'shungry.
He's truly excited about beingin this race and the prospect of
being a councilman.
And you can see that, you canfeel it when you're talking to
him.
That guy was happy last nightand it was a joy to watch him
celebrate.
It was a joy to watch him takeit in because you got to see,
(15:01):
you know, a young person cominginto politics, having some
success and starting to seehimself, you know, in that spot
as a leader, and he's one stepcloser.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah, it was refreshing.
Yeah, In fact, when they putthe numbers across the screen
there, I will tell you, stephenJones had a tremendous
organization there.
Like there were a lot of whiteT-shirts, oh yeah, and like
everybody started cheering and Ithink Roderick to a certain
extent said, oh, they'recheering for me and it was a
(15:35):
festive occasion.
Last night it was, I think it'snotable, who all we did not see
?
I didn't see she-she there.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Well, right, and I want to make a note right here,
here, especially where thisrunoff is concerned, you don't
see her anywhere and I'm notseeing or feeling the same
energy from her, uh, that yousee from rodrick and, uh,
nowhere to be found.
Last night and I, you know, Italked to her and when I talked
to her she gave me quotes andthings, but she seemed just
(16:04):
altogether uninspired,disinterested, and she didn't
seem to think that talking aboutthis was worth her time.
She had just made her way, shejust earned her way into a
runoff for a city councilposition and her energy was I
don't really have time for this.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Well, and she also kind of got down in the trenches
.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I've seen some stuff that she's posted that just kind
of got into the garbage ofabsentee and mail-in ballots and
she ran a campaign much likeMickens and if you look at the
numbers she didn't do that muchbetter than he did.
She finished second, all right,but she was a lot further
behind Roderick than she wasahead of Mickens.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, Before that last dump came in, I thought
Roderick was a poised to winthat thing.
Yeah, he was he was.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He was almost there and uh, she, she lowered him, uh
, a little further.
I think he ended up with 46%and changing you need 50% plus
one vote.
But I think that Roderick takesthe lion's share of Mickens
votes in the runoff and I thinkhe wins this thing handily.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
So let's talk about these other primary winners.
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So let's do a littlebracketology.
First, the mayor's race.
We've got Stephen Jones.
He will advance to face theindependents.
That will be Bill Strauss andthe Apostle Darren Leach.
Okay, we've got that.
(18:40):
Ward 1, ethel Stewart winshandily.
Not the woodshed, I thought itwas going to be, but Tommy Smith
is out of that one.
She'll face Keith Gaskin forthat seat in the general.
We have a runoff betweenRoderick and Laisha for Ward 2,
(19:01):
and that will be the winner.
That takes all.
There will be no general otherthan the mayor's race for the
precincts there.
Number three is unopposed Ward4.
Levon advances LeVon Harris togo against independent Pierre
Beard and the Republican RobertJohnson IV.
(19:22):
Ward 5, gary Jefferson winspretty handily.
He'll face Mary Beth Jeter inthe general.
And lastly, we had a prettyoverwhelming victory for Jason
Spears against McCarty Davis inthe Republican primary.
Jason will face IndependentDonald Pope in the general.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So where do we take this?
Let's start with the mayor'srace and first of all, I've said
from the beginning that theprimary Democratic primary
winner was going to take thisthing and I still believe that
that hasn't changed.
Stephen just beat the longestserving public official in
Lowndes County history and hedid it with authority, again,
not a runaway, but convincingly.
Looking at Strauss, he's makinginroads, getting beyond
(20:10):
downtown.
That was always the knock onhim that you know.
For him, the city was thatsix-block area on 16th section
land that is downtown but yousee him getting out and about
and he's listening.
He's doing a little better withhis campaign but he doesn't
have the apparatus that Stephendoes and he doesn't have the
savvy, doesn't have theexperience.
(20:31):
So it's going to be a hard roadfor him.
Darren has that problem.
Plus, he has a different one.
He's seen as Keith Gaskin'schosen successor and Stephen
Jones is about to exploit that.
Stephen has a lot to say aboutKeith and his administration.
(20:51):
He's said it all along.
You know he's about to useDarren Leach as a stand-in for
Keith in this campaign.
And there's a reason Keithisn't running for re-election as
mayor and it ain't hischolesterol, the Leach-Gaskin
tandem.
And then you look at what Leachand Gaskin are doing.
They're not doing anything tomitigate that attack point.
(21:13):
You know they're not doinganything to defray the image of
Keith being the man behind theDarren curtain and they're in
really even much of a curtain.
Keith's everywhere that Darrenis.
They're grilling hamburgerstogether out in front of Pole
Gymnasium at meet and greets onthe weekends Keith follows
Darren to civic club meetings.
(21:34):
Well, when Darren is talkingabout running for mayor and he's
prompting him on talking pointsand asking him questions and
different things like that,stephen is about to lean into
that and Darren is going to havea very hard time finding room
to be his own man in thisbetween his own wizard of eyes
(21:54):
that he's got in his ear andStephen Lobin bombs at him
saying that's the case.
He's got to eventually look atKeith and look, I think Keith
has obviously there's been someissues with his administration
and the effectiveness of it.
I think they come down topolitical savvy.
I don't think that they have todo with his human being.
(22:16):
Keith is a decent human beingand he had some great ideas that
, for political reasons, nevergot across the line, and you
know political reasons on bothsides, pride on both sides.
I don't have any problemspersonally with Keith Gassner,
but Darren has got to look athim and say my guy, my friend, I
(22:36):
love you, but you've got toback off because I'm going to
get my head handed to me in thisgeneral election, probably
anyway.
But I'm certainly going to getmy head handed to me if I'm
being cast as Keith Gaskin inblack and I don't ever get to be
Darren Leach.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
I don't know about that, simply because I think
that that Keith Gaskin's let'scall them failures to advance
certain agendas, such as theforensic audit, et cetera, et
cetera.
He just didn't have the votes.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
OK, one could say that that he needed to form a
broader coalition.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
He needed to strike maybe a different tone or this
or that needed to strike maybe adifferent tone or this or that,
but he didn't have the votesand the city council shot down
the majority of his agenda.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Oh, there is plenty of blame to go around on the log
jam that has been the last fouryears in city government.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Well, that said.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Keith bears some responsibility and the city
council bears a good bit ofresponsibility.
Keith hasn't been veryaccepting of that.
And I think that he's trying tobe a kingmaker with Darren
Leach and he's got to.
He's got to give Darren room tobe his own man, and Darren has
got to.
And if he won't do it willingly, darren is going to have to
force him to back off.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I think that the Keith Gaskin agenda is still
very, very popular among.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Then why isn't Keith running for mayor?
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Well, you said it's cholesterol, but I guess I guess
we we ruled that out.
I mean, I think that that KeithGaskin really and truly loves
this town.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I think he poured his heart and soul into it.
He worked his tail off in thisposition and I think that
history is going to be kinder tohim than the present is.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yeah, he didn't run for reelection for a reason
Again, just to me it's theagenda, and I think the agenda
and the he's got a really goodbrain, Very smart guy.
He's got a good heart too, thehe's got a really good brain.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Very smart guy.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
He's got a good heart too, but he's got a good brain
and if whatever characteristicabout him it is that made him,
let's just say, unable to bringhis agenda across the finish
line, if his agenda getstransferred over to the apostle
Darren Leach, I think it reallywill help him.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
So then, why is Keith using Darren as a stand-in?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
He sees, the writing on the wall.
He sees himself maybepotentially as not particularly
electable.
He does not want to stomachanother campaign, and he also
sees the sunshine on the horizonof a whole new staff on the
Columbus City Council, and so Imean the other thing to consider
(25:30):
is we have a very strongcharter that favors the city
council, and he may honestly getmore done if he's able to
unseat Ethel Stewart.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So if you can beat them, join them, I guess.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Join them.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
If you can't beat them, join them.
I'm sorry.
Join them.
Yeah Well, speaking of Keithbeating Ethel in Ward 1, that's
not happening.
And it's not because Keithisn't a good candidate.
Ethel is too strong in Ward 1.
Why?
Speaker 4 (26:01):
She just is.
Is it by virtue of herseniority or?
Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's by virtue of the fact that 60 to 70 percent of
the voters vote for her.
Ethel Stewart is an intelligentwoman that has gotten a lot of
stuff done on the council andshe's a voice that people listen
to.
Keith, in any other ward, if hehadn't gotten redistricted out
(26:29):
of five, he's probably the wardfive council person next term.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
But we've seen a theme of out with the old and in
with the new.
Is that not going to help himat least a little bit in the
general?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I mean it depends on how you define old and new.
Ethel just has one more term ofexperience in city government
than Keith does.
I mean she's certainly not an11th term person like Leroy is
an 11th term person over in.
District 5 on the SupervisorsBoard and she's not a four term
(27:04):
incumbent like Mickens was intwo All right Ward two.
Well, we talked about Ward twoin the runoff.
I think Roderick's got that.
I think, moving on to four,I've got Pierre in a route.
Lavon Harris took advantage ofmarty turner fatigue.
Marty turner has has runseveral times for city council.
(27:25):
He's run a couple of times forsome other stuff.
He's won some.
He's lost more than he's wonand I think that there was just
marty turner fatigue in theprimary.
Why don't we give levon harHarris a chance to go be
sacrificed to Pierre Beard?
Pierre fatigue is real too, Ithink, not so much in Ward 4,
(27:50):
but Pierre's record on thecouncil is equally real.
I'm not saying that his recordis beyond reproach.
If you take his arrests aside.
His arrest aside, his counselservice has not been terrible, I
think.
If you look at Robert Johnson,people don't know enough about
him.
You know he's his uphill battle, is he's?
He's going to have to.
He's going to have to fight forname recognition and fight an
(28:13):
incumbent all at the same time.
So he's got to get a messageout of what he's going to do for
the city and what he's going todo for the ward.
And oh, by the way, this is whoI am and oh, by the way, I'm a
Republican running in Ward 4.
So that's a pretty high hill toclimb for him.
That's not taking anything awayfrom him as a person or a
candidate.
It's just Pierre's very strongin Ward 4, and I think he's
(28:35):
going to.
I think he's going to win.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Do we have any concerns that perhaps RJ4, as
I've been calling him, and LeVonHarris will kind of cancel each
other out and give Pierre Beardthe upper hand in terms of
splitting the vote?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yes, I think that that's exactly what happens.
I think that what you're goingto get, I think that what Robert
Johnson is going to get, he'sgoing to capture the.
I'm tired of Pierre beingarrested all of the time vote.
LaVon is going to get some ofthat.
She's going to get some voteson her own merit because she's
been around a while, people knowher.
(29:14):
But I think between those twothings it clears a path for, you
know, pierre winning in aplurality anyway.
What do you think of GaryJefferson?
You know Gary Jefferson didexactly what I thought he would
do.
He wiped the floor witheverybody in the Democratic
primary.
He's going to Jeter's going torun him closer than either of
(29:36):
his primary opponents, but it'snot going to be close enough.
Jefferson is very strong in Ward5.
Uh, than either of his primaryopponents, but it's not going to
be close enough that uh.
Jefferson is very strong inward five.
Uh, jeter's kind of had a onetrick pony uh Republican, uh
candidacy, which is, you know,I'm, I'm.
I'm very worried that aboutpeople breaking my window.
I'm very worried about all ofthe children that are walking
(29:58):
around on the sidewalk afterdark.
It makes me feel unsafe.
And that's all I got.
And Jefferson has a little bitmore than that to his campaign.
I think he's going to winregardless.
But if Jeter wants to have achance there, she's going to
have to broaden her message andshe's going to have to get out
more.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
I don't want to throw too much disdain on that
message itself, though there area lot of people that really
feel unsafe to the point thatthey're willing to sacrifice
their liberty in the sense thatwe've got police cameras coming
up in all manner of places likethey're watching us, but like
we're OK with that because itmeans we're not going to get
(30:39):
shot or stabbed.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Or they'll at least catch the person who did it.
Now, I'm not saying that crimeisn't an issue in Columbus, but
I just we've talked about thisbefore that she leans on that.
Jeter leans on that veryheavily, and it's the only thing
she seems to say.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
I saw Jason Spears there last night.
He had his whole family.
His boys were there in balluniforms, and so he brought the
whole family in to experiencethat.
It was kind of a beautifulthing.
I did not see his opponent andI did not see Donald Pope there
last night.
Did you see him?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
him.
I didn't see him.
But I didn't see him at themunicipal complex last night.
But I did see him.
He was at the council meeting.
I know that I talked to himyesterday.
Ward six is a Republican ward,there's no doubt about that.
Because of that, jason isdefinitely favored in the
general election.
But, as I said, I've talked toDonald Pope several times.
He's not a lightweight.
He's a very serious candidate,has a lot to say, very, very
(31:42):
well-spoken, a lot of good ideas.
But I kind of feel by him theway I feel by Keith in Ward 1.
If Donald Pope is running inany other ward, he could win or
he could compete better In theward where he's running.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
unfortunately, it's hard to see a path for him okay,
let's transition into thisthing, that that everybody's
been really, really waiting onus to talk about, and it's this
um, oh, my goodness, this haveyou got your car note paid up,
david.
Um, you know I'm gonna go aheadand pay mine off, so I don't
(32:18):
have to worry about thishappening to me do you have
anything important in your truckthat that could be carried off?
That's right, it's a firearm,and so there's that.
Well, hey, you know I'm arepublican, I'm not actually.
I'm really kidding.
That firearm was lost in thebottom of the river, never to be
found again.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
That's just the way that happens did you at least
catch a fish in the losing ofthe gun?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
um, I tell you what happened that particular day.
There were three fish tiedtogether and they got stripped
off of my kayak.
So if anybody out there seessiamese triplet catfish, set
them free.
They're tired of each other,any old.
Look this story right here, ittells itself.
(33:01):
I mean, we could make jokesabout it all day, but you can't
make this stuff up.
What I will say is that,honestly, I feel sorry for this
guy.
I do.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I feel really sorry for this guy.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Can you imagine having to make the phone call or
answer the phone or howeverthat went down?
Yeah, about those ballots.
We're not going to be able touse those.
And also, can you give me aride?
I mean, that's a bad day.
The ballot box for Ward no 3,wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
It was a ballot box in 3.
It was supposed to be for thefirst assembly precinct so.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So all of these ballots were the same.
They had rusty.
They did not have rusty green,they just had the mayor right uh
on that and and the ballotsdidn't make it because the
vehicle wherein they were hadbeen repossessed and taken there
from to the city of NorthportAlabama.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
No, no, it wasn't taken to Northport, it was.
It was recovered in a.
It was recovered in a yard inColumbus OK.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Regardless, regardless.
No ballots to be found and theelection had been delayed for 30
minutes, about 30, 40 minutesbefore they got new ballots.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
And then it was four voters that were standing in
line and left, and those fourvoters, per court order, were
given till 745 to cast theirballots.
You know, I think they probablydid what this does.
I think it highlights a coupleof things, and one of the things
that it highlights is theseelection workers are citizens,
(34:46):
they're citizens.
These are people.
They do get paid, but these arepeople who are willing to take
their time, go through thetraining, run polls.
These are good citizens who aretrying to be good citizens.
They're not doing it for themoney, because it's not much.
No, it's $30 a day for trainingand $200 on election day, so
(35:09):
they're not getting rich doingthis.
These are good citizens who aretrying to help people
participate in voting.
So that's something that Ithink that we need to remember
first and foremost.
But the other thing that weneed to look at the training
here is and the system here, andit works the same in Columbus
as it does in Starkville.
So this only in Columbus part.
(35:33):
This could happen anywhere.
That does it this way, and whatthey do is these election
workers.
They go pick up a locked,sealed box of empty ballots.
They pick it up five o'clock onMonday from the registrar's
office.
They take it home.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
And it's a tamper-proof seal, you can tell
if it's been opened.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yes, and they're supposed to take.
They're not supposed to leavethose ballots in the car.
They're supposed to take themin their house, they're supposed
to be able to put eyes on themat any time, and then by 6 am
Tuesday morning they're supposedto have those ballots delivered
to their assigned precinct.
And it just didn't happen thatway this time.
This cat left it in his vehicleand didn't.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
What are the odds?
How many consecutive thingshave to go wrong to make this
particular fiasco happen?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well, I mean more than one.
So you've got 13 people onMonday night with boxes of empty
ballots.
And you've got in Starkvilleeven though it's the same method
, you've got seven.
So you've got almost twice thechance that something goes wrong
.
Do we have too many pollingplaces in Columbus?
Speaker 4 (36:47):
A hundred percent true.
I think we need at max sixprecincts in Columbus, just one
for each ward, and, to be honest, you don't even really need
that.
You could have one centrallocation, if it were large
enough, and just have all ofyour poll workers and all of
your election observers andeverybody come to the same place
(37:09):
.
It would be a little crowded,but I think it would definitely
be more secure.
The unfortunate thing aboutthis particular story is that it
gives more ammunition to theelection cynics.
Imagine if this thing wereclose, close, and let's say,
leroy and Stephen were rightthere, neck and neck, and it was
(37:30):
like two or three votes.
I mean, can you imagine thepotential litigation there?
Can you imagine?
I mean, I don imagine thepotential litigation there.
Can you imagine?
I mean, I don't think they'dhave a case.
But what I'm saying to you isthe conspirators are going to
conspire All right.
They're going to come up withthis stuff and it's unhealthy.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
It is unhealthy.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
But the whole point being it's a complex system.
We don't need 13 precincts.
No way I'm going to pushcomplex system.
We don't need 13 precincts.
No way I'm going to push backon you Whether we need 13.
We have cars now.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Right, okay, but fewer precincts mean longer
lines.
Longer lines mean fewer peoplevote.
There was already low enoughvoter turnout as it was.
More precincts mean you get togo in, you get to vote quickly,
you get to get in, get out, andit processes more people.
If you drive up to do anythingand you see a line out the door,
(38:23):
you're statistically lesslikely to park and get in that
line than you are to drive off,come back or just not
participate.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
More machines and more tables.
That's what you need.
You don't need more buildings.
You need plenty of parking,plenty of space, plenty of
workers, plenty of ballots.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
If you're going to take that away, you better dang
well replace it with somethingthat isn't going to
disenfranchise people by default.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Yeah, I was waiting for the disenfranchised word to
come out I mean, again, we havecars, does everybody?
Well, they've got an aunt or anuncle or they know somebody
that look, you need to have skinin the game.
We've talked about skin in thegame for the appetiter for this
and for that and for the other.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Um, if you're going to your skin in the game for
voting is the constitution.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
It's the constant.
Your skin in the game forvoting is the Constitution.
It's the constant.
Your skin in the game is youtake effort.
Ok, it takes effort to get upand get to the poll and to cast
your ballot.
I'm a strong believer that,that you need to have some sort
of effort if you're going tochoose.
I mean this whole.
The word disenfranchised to meis a misnomer.
(39:38):
Ok, it means that you'retelling somebody they can't do
something.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
If you make it harder for somebody to do something
that they would otherwise do,that is their right to do.
And if you've got a one hourlunch break and that's all the
time you have to go vote and youlook at that line and you're
going to have to stand in it formore than an hour and you're
going to have to take maybeyou've got an hourly job and
you're going to have to takeanother shift to make up for it,
(40:03):
or you're going to have to gowithout 30 minutes of wages to
stand in this line.
That's disenfranchisement of asort make it a uh a holiday, or
at least half a holiday.
I agree with that yeah.
But there is something on thispolling place thing that I think
can be done.
That would be helpful.
There are instances where ifyou're voting in the county
(40:25):
election, you go one place.
If you're voting in the cityelection, you go to another
place.
If you're a voter in a localelection, you should just have
to memorize one place to go Likemake that simple.
So I feel like that that'ssomething that the county and
the city can coordinate betteron and figure out.
If I live on 20th Street Northor if I live on 7th Avenue or
(40:49):
wherever.
This is where I vote, anytime Ivote, and I think that that,
even if that does mean that wereduce polling places to from 13
to nine or 13 to 11, whateverfor city elections, I think that
that's better than peoplehaving to remember OK, so this
is a county election, I have togo here.
In a city election, I have togo two blocks over.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Yeah, I, I have zero disagreement with that.
I think that confusion is a joykiller and I think that I think
that if our elected officialsdo things that confuse people,
or I mean if, even if it'sinadvertently, that might fall
under the category ofdisenfranchisement, right Be
(41:35):
that case.
Yep, I'm all in favor.
One precinct per district, perward Sounds like a plan.
Well, that's it.
Anything else, I think we'regood If not.
I just want to thank ourlisteners today.
I want to thank you for tuningin.
I want you to send yourcomments.
I want you to like share rate.
(41:57):
Our email inbox is tips atcdispatchcom.
Again, tips at cdispatchcom.
You can also follow me atFacebook or X at the Chisholm 00
.
All right, signing off untilnext week from Catfish Alley
Studio in historic downtownColumbus.
Your host has been Zach Playerand I am David Chisholm.
(42:18):
Until next time.
Y'all keep it friendly and wewill keep it real.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Opinions expressed on this show are those of the
speakers and not necessarilythose of the Commercial Dispatch
.
From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch.
This is Between the Headlines.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
This is Peter Imes, publisher of the Dispatch.
One of our hosts of Between theHeadlines is the managing
editor of our newsroom.
Typically, we try to keep newsand opinions separate, but
reporters have a unique insightinto the workings of local
government and their analysiscan be helpful for readers and
listeners.
The Dispatch remains committedto journalistic integrity and
(00:38):
our reporting will alwaysreflect that.
And now Between the Headlinesthat.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
And now, between the Headlines, out with the old and
in with the new.
Today, on Between the Headlines, leroy Brooks taken down by
Stephen Jones with just a slingand a stone and Mickens buries,
himself alive, no longer in therace.
We will break those numbersdown.
And lastly, what does arepossessed ballot box mean
(01:08):
about the integrity of our localpolitics?
But first, retirement looksdifferent for everyone, so your
plan should be built around you.
For over 40 years, financialConcepts has helped people
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Our team in Columbus takes thetime to understand your goals
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Visit them at 1116 GardnerBoulevard or online at
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And now a message frompolitical candidate, Bill
Strauss.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I want to thank the Commercial Dispatch for this
podcast, bringing differentviews in an open discussion.
I'm Bill Strauss, humbly askingfor your vote as next mayor of
Columbus.
You deserve transparency andaccountability for your tax
dollars.
I'm business friendly andcharitable.
Vote Bill Strauss Mayor ofColumbus 2025.
Paid for by campaign to electBill Strauss.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
And now a message from political candidate Jason
Spears.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
I am Jason Spears, candidate for City Council, ward
6.
Over the past 20 years, Ifaithfully and effectively
served our community in manydifferent ways.
If elected, I will bringstructure and strategy to the
city's finances, help develop ablueprint to capitalize on the
growing economic activity in ourcity and work to strengthen
relationships with LowndesCounty officials, the Golden
Triangle Development Link and,most importantly, you, the
(02:59):
citizens of Columbus.
I approve this message and onApril 1st, vote Jason Spears for
Ward 6, paid for by thecampaign.
Vote Jason Spears for Ward 6.
Paid for by the campaign toelect Jason Spears.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Thanks for joining us today.
You are listening to Betweenthe Headlines hosted by owner of
the Repo Depot and managingeditor of the Commercial
Disclash, mr Zach Player, and Iam David Chisholm.
The big headline today themayor's race.
The mayor's race First off.
Are you okay?
(03:29):
You don't look well today.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It's a late night.
That's probably my 12th or 13thelection to cover, so I'm used
to it by now.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Well, I'm glad we don't have video today.
Maybe that's the next thing.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, thanks, David, I appreciate that.
So tell us about the mayor'srace.
I thought from the beginningthat this race could go either
way.
Obviously, leroy has apolitical legend here.
Stephen has a record in thecouncil.
They were both strongcandidates.
It wasn't a runaway.
I expected this to be closerand I expected Leroy to compete
(04:05):
better than he did For me.
When you look at Leroy'scampaign, he leaned heavily into
the experience angle.
I can do things that nobodyelse can do.
Just ask your father, ask yourgrandfather Like he's literally
telling people on facebook whoare questioning why should I
(04:26):
vote for you?
What, what, what have you donefor columbus?
What have you done for lowndescounty?
And his answers are ask yourdad, ask your grandfather, you
know, kind of answers.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
So maybe he leaned a little too heavily into that.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Maybe you know it.
Nor did his assertion thateveryone could just sit back and
watch him make miracles.
I'm Leroy Brooks and I bringyou these miracles.
I bring you this governmentefficiency.
I bring you this better cityhall.
People didn't buy into it.
And talking about buy-in, therewere people who literally
financially bought into Leroy'scampaign.
(05:01):
You know he outpaced Jones infundraising three to one.
We talked about that Didn'tseem to matter At the end of the
day, stephen, by contrast, heeffectively cast himself somehow
as both young and new.
Now Stephen's 50.
That's obviously a good bitLeroy's junior, but you know,
(05:24):
not 30.
But he's not new to citygovernment.
He's a two-term city councilman.
He's been in the seat butsomehow casting himself as new
and young.
He mobilized a lot of youngfolks and he talked about that,
you know when he talked about iton Facebook.
He talked about it to me lastnight.
(05:45):
He said he thought young peopledecided this election and young
people decided the election, orat least the Democratic primary
, in Stephen's favor.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Well, we talked actually last episode about how
interestingly he had somehowmorphed into this establishment
candidate, even though he wasmarketing heavily against that.
Do you think pride comethbefore a fall?
I mean, is that the story ofLeroy Brooks here?
I mean, we all know he takesgreat pride in his humility.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
You always love to see great pride and humility.
I don't know.
I think he clearlymiscalculated something.
He still has a job and that'sone thing that Leroy has said
from the beginning is if I lose,I still have a job.
Now he would not agree withthis.
If he was sitting in this roomhe would adamantly disagree with
(06:46):
this.
But it really started with anegative tone.
He was going after Leroy.
There was a lot of yeah-yeahbetween the two of them
candidate for him.
Their interview in here wasvery spirited, where they very
clearly had some things to sayabout each other.
(07:07):
The last two weeks have been alot cleaner for Stephen Jones.
He focused a lot of hismessaging on the positive.
When the messaging looked likeit was going to go negative, he
usually very obviously took thehigh road.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah, he moved.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right and he moved toward that high road type of
campaigning, whereas in the lasttwo weeks Leroy looked like
Joseph Mickens was running hiscampaign.
He had a press conferencetalking about absentee voter
fraud that didn't really existand then he kept just banging
that, just banging that gavel.
He was like, hey look, thisvoter fraud is happening in
(07:48):
absentees.
I'm going to report it, I'mgoing to keep, I'm going to get
an investigation.
He wanted everythinginvestigated for the last two
weeks.
People are tired of that.
People are tired of it and thelast thing that voters saw from
Leroy Brooks was probably one ofthe and going back and talking
about the voter fraud like welooked into that.
It just didn't exist.
(08:09):
It was a misunderstanding.
All of the people who votedthose were legitimate ballots.
One of the I think the worstthings he did, one of the worst
missteps that he made, was thevery last thing voters saw
before they went to the polls.
You know you've got Joe Brooks,who's on that Tom Bigby
Waterway board, applying forreappointment.
(08:31):
No one is applying against him.
This is a pass-through vote onthe Lowndes County Board of.
Supervisors, he tables it.
Not only does he table it, butwhen pressed on why he tabled it
, he was honest.
He said well, you know, thisguy is supporting Stephen Jones,
so I'm not going to support himand that kind of tit for tat,
(08:54):
quid pro quo sort of politics inthe city.
People are tired of that junk.
Stephen shied away from thatmessaging, particularly in the
last two weeks, and Leroy leanedinto.
There's corruption everywhereand I'm going to reward people
who support me.
And whether that's what he meantto do, whether that's the kind
(09:15):
of mayor he would have been.
That was the last.
That was the last thing you sawfrom the Leroy Brooks campaign
and I bet you that left a badtaste in a lot of people's
mouths?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Well, for sure it was .
It was absolutely ugly, it waspetty, it was unnecessary.
I mean, what else can you sayabout that?
I mean, that is something thatjust simply did not have crap to
do with the agenda at hand.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And Leroy is better than that.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
He is better than that, is better than that he's
shown himself to be better hedoesn't have to raise his hand
and yes, I vote, I, and I'lltell you why I vote.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
He could, just, you know, maybe even not even raised
his hand, just kind of raisedone finger well, he was trying
to make a point to joe brooksthat I am, I am in this, I have
the power in this situation and,at the bare minimum, I'm going
to make you sweat this out, andit was dumb Pride cometh before
(10:12):
a fall Pride does come before afall.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
The political defeat of Leroy Brooks.
To me, it solidifies the end ofan era, that is to say, the
1960s, baby boomer politics,that's entrenched in racial
identity and this, and that Ithink that's done.
I mean, you look back in therecent history and he was the
victim in the Harry Sandersfiasco, no question about that,
(10:43):
and then he was kind of thevictim again, or at least he
played the victim, when he wasnot appointed as chairman of the
board of supervisors and I, tobe honest, I really thought that
this victimhood that he tookupon himself would carry him
across the finish line in thisprimary.
But Columbus is tired ofhearing that stuff and they
(11:05):
spoke out against it.
They want change and I'll tellyou this, they want the
amphitheater finished and thatis something that you know he
took the—.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I don't think the amphitheater had anything to do
with last night.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well, he didn't make a—he did not take a stand for it
, and Stephen Jones was the onethat said on day one we're going
to make that happen one way oranother.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
But speaking about with the old Mickens his in Ward
two.
His political career seems tohave been retired last night.
What do we think about that,david?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
He was put out to pasture and that was absolutely
of his own doing.
I mean, I don't want to takeaway credit from any of these
new candidates that have jumpedin here, but they absolutely, in
my opinion, did not have theswagger or the experience to
pull out an upset like this.
(12:00):
I'm not trashing them, I'm notat all.
I've met Roderick.
I think his heart is in theright place.
Haven't met she, she, but hey,by the way, where's the signs?
If you, if you've driventhrough that ward?
Remember last week we talkedabout how the?
signs did not have thatdisclaimer on them, right, or
(12:23):
they did have it and but yet hercampaign finance report um
showed no it showed all zerosand I said that's a violation
and now, lo and behold, all thesigns have vanished like a fart
in the wind.
They're just not.
They're gone.
Well, we appreciate peoplelistening to us obviously the
(12:45):
word is getting out.
But but all that aside, I mean,I mean, what can you say about
mickens?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
I mean, well, I want to start with, I want to go to
reverse here.
I want to start with the uh twothat are advancing.
Here again, you do have twomuch younger candidates, as you
noted, and unlike Stephen, whoisn't new, these two actually
are new to the scene, but Ipredicted weeks ago that the
(13:11):
road he was on he was going tofinish.
Third, and it may be the onlyprediction that I got right on
right, right square, but I gotthat one square.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
You did.
And speaking of that road, it'skind of like back in 2000-ish
we used to go mud riding behindthe Blue Cut post office.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
And I'm thinking about Mickens and it's like when
you commit to go across thatmuddy area, we had no business
doing it, but oh my gosh, thatwas fun.
We had no business doing it,but oh my gosh, that was fun.
When you commit to go acrossyou better keep it in forward
and keep going.
But right before you go off inthere, there's this moment where
you think should I really do?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
this.
You got to make a decision.
I better make it.
If I'm going to do it, it'seither forward or reverse.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Yeah, and he put it in forward and lo and behold,
there is water absolutelycovering his hood and the engine
is totaled.
So we appreciate your service,but as far as this campaign goes
, good riddance, it's done.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Well, this runoff looks pretty interesting.
You know Roderick Smith, firstof all, he's been to every
council meeting.
He's been to every councilmeeting.
He's been to every city event,all of these community ward
meetings that they're havingabout crime.
He's showing up.
He's mobilized.
His campaign is more mobilizedthan I believed it was and I
(14:38):
knew it was.
I knew there were a lot offolks out there, but it's a lot
more than I thought and he'shungry.
He's truly excited about beingin this race and the prospect of
being a councilman.
And you can see that, you canfeel it when you're talking to
him.
That guy was happy last nightand it was a joy to watch him
celebrate.
It was a joy to watch him takeit in because you got to see,
(15:01):
you know, a young person cominginto politics, having some
success and starting to seehimself, you know, in that spot
as a leader, and he's one stepcloser.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah, it was refreshing.
Yeah, In fact, when they putthe numbers across the screen
there, I will tell you, stephenJones had a tremendous
organization there.
Like there were a lot of whiteT-shirts, oh yeah, and like
everybody started cheering and Ithink Roderick to a certain
extent said, oh, they'recheering for me and it was a
(15:35):
festive occasion.
Last night it was, I think it'snotable, who all we did not see
?
I didn't see she-she there.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Well, right, and I want to make a note right here,
here, especially where thisrunoff is concerned, you don't
see her anywhere and I'm notseeing or feeling the same
energy from her, uh, that yousee from rodrick and, uh,
nowhere to be found.
Last night and I, you know, Italked to her and when I talked
to her she gave me quotes andthings, but she seemed just
(16:04):
altogether uninspired,disinterested, and she didn't
seem to think that talking aboutthis was worth her time.
She had just made her way, shejust earned her way into a
runoff for a city councilposition and her energy was I
don't really have time for this.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Well, and she also kind of got down in the trenches
.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I've seen some stuff that she's posted that just kind
of got into the garbage ofabsentee and mail-in ballots and
she ran a campaign much likeMickens and if you look at the
numbers she didn't do that muchbetter than he did.
She finished second, all right,but she was a lot further
behind Roderick than she wasahead of Mickens.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, Before that last dump came in, I thought
Roderick was a poised to winthat thing.
Yeah, he was he was.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He was almost there and uh, she, she lowered him, uh
, a little further.
I think he ended up with 46%and changing you need 50% plus
one vote.
But I think that Roderick takesthe lion's share of Mickens
votes in the runoff and I thinkhe wins this thing handily.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
So let's talk about these other primary winners.
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So let's do a littlebracketology.
First, the mayor's race.
We've got Stephen Jones.
He will advance to face theindependents.
That will be Bill Strauss andthe Apostle Darren Leach.
Okay, we've got that.
(18:40):
Ward 1, ethel Stewart winshandily.
Not the woodshed, I thought itwas going to be, but Tommy Smith
is out of that one.
She'll face Keith Gaskin forthat seat in the general.
We have a runoff betweenRoderick and Laisha for Ward 2,
(19:01):
and that will be the winner.
That takes all.
There will be no general otherthan the mayor's race for the
precincts there.
Number three is unopposed Ward4.
Levon advances LeVon Harris togo against independent Pierre
Beard and the Republican RobertJohnson IV.
(19:22):
Ward 5, gary Jefferson winspretty handily.
He'll face Mary Beth Jeter inthe general.
And lastly, we had a prettyoverwhelming victory for Jason
Spears against McCarty Davis inthe Republican primary.
Jason will face IndependentDonald Pope in the general.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So where do we take this?
Let's start with the mayor'srace and first of all, I've said
from the beginning that theprimary Democratic primary
winner was going to take thisthing and I still believe that
that hasn't changed.
Stephen just beat the longestserving public official in
Lowndes County history and hedid it with authority, again,
not a runaway, but convincingly.
Looking at Strauss, he's makinginroads, getting beyond
(20:10):
downtown.
That was always the knock onhim that you know.
For him, the city was thatsix-block area on 16th section
land that is downtown but yousee him getting out and about
and he's listening.
He's doing a little better withhis campaign but he doesn't
have the apparatus that Stephendoes and he doesn't have the
savvy, doesn't have theexperience.
(20:31):
So it's going to be a hard roadfor him.
Darren has that problem.
Plus, he has a different one.
He's seen as Keith Gaskin'schosen successor and Stephen
Jones is about to exploit that.
Stephen has a lot to say aboutKeith and his administration.
(20:51):
He's said it all along.
You know he's about to useDarren Leach as a stand-in for
Keith in this campaign.
And there's a reason Keithisn't running for re-election as
mayor and it ain't hischolesterol, the Leach-Gaskin
tandem.
And then you look at what Leachand Gaskin are doing.
They're not doing anything tomitigate that attack point.
(21:13):
You know they're not doinganything to defray the image of
Keith being the man behind theDarren curtain and they're in
really even much of a curtain.
Keith's everywhere that Darrenis.
They're grilling hamburgerstogether out in front of Pole
Gymnasium at meet and greets onthe weekends Keith follows
Darren to civic club meetings.
(21:34):
Well, when Darren is talkingabout running for mayor and he's
prompting him on talking pointsand asking him questions and
different things like that,stephen is about to lean into
that and Darren is going to havea very hard time finding room
to be his own man in thisbetween his own wizard of eyes
(21:54):
that he's got in his ear andStephen Lobin bombs at him
saying that's the case.
He's got to eventually look atKeith and look, I think Keith
has obviously there's been someissues with his administration
and the effectiveness of it.
I think they come down topolitical savvy.
I don't think that they have todo with his human being.
(22:16):
Keith is a decent human beingand he had some great ideas that
, for political reasons, nevergot across the line, and you
know political reasons on bothsides, pride on both sides.
I don't have any problemspersonally with Keith Gassner,
but Darren has got to look athim and say my guy, my friend, I
(22:36):
love you, but you've got toback off because I'm going to
get my head handed to me in thisgeneral election, probably
anyway.
But I'm certainly going to getmy head handed to me if I'm
being cast as Keith Gaskin inblack and I don't ever get to be
Darren Leach.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
I don't know about that, simply because I think
that that Keith Gaskin's let'scall them failures to advance
certain agendas, such as theforensic audit, et cetera, et
cetera.
He just didn't have the votes.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
OK, one could say that that he needed to form a
broader coalition.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
He needed to strike maybe a different tone or this
or that needed to strike maybe adifferent tone or this or that,
but he didn't have the votesand the city council shot down
the majority of his agenda.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Oh, there is plenty of blame to go around on the log
jam that has been the last fouryears in city government.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Well, that said.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Keith bears some responsibility and the city
council bears a good bit ofresponsibility.
Keith hasn't been veryaccepting of that.
And I think that he's trying tobe a kingmaker with Darren
Leach and he's got to.
He's got to give Darren room tobe his own man, and Darren has
got to.
And if he won't do it willingly, darren is going to have to
force him to back off.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I think that the Keith Gaskin agenda is still
very, very popular among.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Then why isn't Keith running for mayor?
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Well, you said it's cholesterol, but I guess I guess
we we ruled that out.
I mean, I think that that KeithGaskin really and truly loves
this town.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I think he poured his heart and soul into it.
He worked his tail off in thisposition and I think that
history is going to be kinder tohim than the present is.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yeah, he didn't run for reelection for a reason
Again, just to me it's theagenda, and I think the agenda
and the he's got a really goodbrain, Very smart guy.
He's got a good heart too, thehe's got a really good brain.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Very smart guy.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
He's got a good heart too, but he's got a good brain
and if whatever characteristicabout him it is that made him,
let's just say, unable to bringhis agenda across the finish
line, if his agenda getstransferred over to the apostle
Darren Leach, I think it reallywill help him.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
So then, why is Keith using Darren as a stand-in?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
He sees, the writing on the wall.
He sees himself maybepotentially as not particularly
electable.
He does not want to stomachanother campaign, and he also
sees the sunshine on the horizonof a whole new staff on the
Columbus City Council, and so Imean the other thing to consider
(25:30):
is we have a very strongcharter that favors the city
council, and he may honestly getmore done if he's able to
unseat Ethel Stewart.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So if you can beat them, join them, I guess.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Join them.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
If you can't beat them, join them.
I'm sorry.
Join them.
Yeah Well, speaking of Keithbeating Ethel in Ward 1, that's
not happening.
And it's not because Keithisn't a good candidate.
Ethel is too strong in Ward 1.
Why?
Speaker 4 (26:01):
She just is.
Is it by virtue of herseniority or?
Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's by virtue of the fact that 60 to 70 percent of
the voters vote for her.
Ethel Stewart is an intelligentwoman that has gotten a lot of
stuff done on the council andshe's a voice that people listen
to.
Keith, in any other ward, if hehadn't gotten redistricted out
(26:29):
of five, he's probably the wardfive council person next term.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
But we've seen a theme of out with the old and in
with the new.
Is that not going to help himat least a little bit in the
general?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I mean it depends on how you define old and new.
Ethel just has one more term ofexperience in city government
than Keith does.
I mean she's certainly not an11th term person like Leroy is
an 11th term person over in.
District 5 on the SupervisorsBoard and she's not a four term
(27:04):
incumbent like Mickens was intwo All right Ward two.
Well, we talked about Ward twoin the runoff.
I think Roderick's got that.
I think, moving on to four,I've got Pierre in a route.
Lavon Harris took advantage ofmarty turner fatigue.
Marty turner has has runseveral times for city council.
(27:25):
He's run a couple of times forsome other stuff.
He's won some.
He's lost more than he's wonand I think that there was just
marty turner fatigue in theprimary.
Why don't we give levon harHarris a chance to go be
sacrificed to Pierre Beard?
Pierre fatigue is real too, Ithink, not so much in Ward 4,
(27:50):
but Pierre's record on thecouncil is equally real.
I'm not saying that his recordis beyond reproach.
If you take his arrests aside.
His arrest aside, his counselservice has not been terrible, I
think.
If you look at Robert Johnson,people don't know enough about
him.
You know he's his uphill battle, is he's?
He's going to have to.
He's going to have to fight forname recognition and fight an
(28:13):
incumbent all at the same time.
So he's got to get a messageout of what he's going to do for
the city and what he's going todo for the ward.
And oh, by the way, this is whoI am and oh, by the way, I'm a
Republican running in Ward 4.
So that's a pretty high hill toclimb for him.
That's not taking anything awayfrom him as a person or a
candidate.
It's just Pierre's very strongin Ward 4, and I think he's
(28:35):
going to.
I think he's going to win.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Do we have any concerns that perhaps RJ4, as
I've been calling him, and LeVonHarris will kind of cancel each
other out and give Pierre Beardthe upper hand in terms of
splitting the vote?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yes, I think that that's exactly what happens.
I think that what you're goingto get, I think that what Robert
Johnson is going to get, he'sgoing to capture the.
I'm tired of Pierre beingarrested all of the time vote.
LaVon is going to get some ofthat.
She's going to get some voteson her own merit because she's
been around a while, people knowher.
(29:14):
But I think between those twothings it clears a path for, you
know, pierre winning in aplurality anyway.
What do you think of GaryJefferson?
You know Gary Jefferson didexactly what I thought he would
do.
He wiped the floor witheverybody in the Democratic
primary.
He's going to Jeter's going torun him closer than either of
(29:36):
his primary opponents, but it'snot going to be close enough.
Jefferson is very strong in Ward5.
Uh, than either of his primaryopponents, but it's not going to
be close enough that uh.
Jefferson is very strong inward five.
Uh, jeter's kind of had a onetrick pony uh Republican, uh
candidacy, which is, you know,I'm, I'm.
I'm very worried that aboutpeople breaking my window.
I'm very worried about all ofthe children that are walking
(29:58):
around on the sidewalk afterdark.
It makes me feel unsafe.
And that's all I got.
And Jefferson has a little bitmore than that to his campaign.
I think he's going to winregardless.
But if Jeter wants to have achance there, she's going to
have to broaden her message andshe's going to have to get out
more.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
I don't want to throw too much disdain on that
message itself, though there area lot of people that really
feel unsafe to the point thatthey're willing to sacrifice
their liberty in the sense thatwe've got police cameras coming
up in all manner of places likethey're watching us, but like
we're OK with that because itmeans we're not going to get
(30:39):
shot or stabbed.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Or they'll at least catch the person who did it.
Now, I'm not saying that crimeisn't an issue in Columbus, but
I just we've talked about thisbefore that she leans on that.
Jeter leans on that veryheavily, and it's the only thing
she seems to say.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
I saw Jason Spears there last night.
He had his whole family.
His boys were there in balluniforms, and so he brought the
whole family in to experiencethat.
It was kind of a beautifulthing.
I did not see his opponent andI did not see Donald Pope there
last night.
Did you see him?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
him.
I didn't see him.
But I didn't see him at themunicipal complex last night.
But I did see him.
He was at the council meeting.
I know that I talked to himyesterday.
Ward six is a Republican ward,there's no doubt about that.
Because of that, jason isdefinitely favored in the
general election.
But, as I said, I've talked toDonald Pope several times.
He's not a lightweight.
He's a very serious candidate,has a lot to say, very, very
(31:42):
well-spoken, a lot of good ideas.
But I kind of feel by him theway I feel by Keith in Ward 1.
If Donald Pope is running inany other ward, he could win or
he could compete better In theward where he's running.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
unfortunately, it's hard to see a path for him okay,
let's transition into thisthing, that that everybody's
been really, really waiting onus to talk about, and it's this
um, oh, my goodness, this haveyou got your car note paid up,
david.
Um, you know I'm gonna go aheadand pay mine off, so I don't
(32:18):
have to worry about thishappening to me do you have
anything important in your truckthat that could be carried off?
That's right, it's a firearm,and so there's that.
Well, hey, you know I'm arepublican, I'm not actually.
I'm really kidding.
That firearm was lost in thebottom of the river, never to be
found again.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
That's just the way that happens did you at least
catch a fish in the losing ofthe gun?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
um, I tell you what happened that particular day.
There were three fish tiedtogether and they got stripped
off of my kayak.
So if anybody out there seessiamese triplet catfish, set
them free.
They're tired of each other,any old.
Look this story right here, ittells itself.
(33:01):
I mean, we could make jokesabout it all day, but you can't
make this stuff up.
What I will say is that,honestly, I feel sorry for this
guy.
I do.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I feel really sorry for this guy.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Can you imagine having to make the phone call or
answer the phone or howeverthat went down?
Yeah, about those ballots.
We're not going to be able touse those.
And also, can you give me aride?
I mean, that's a bad day.
The ballot box for Ward no 3,wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
It was a ballot box in 3.
It was supposed to be for thefirst assembly precinct so.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So all of these ballots were the same.
They had rusty.
They did not have rusty green,they just had the mayor right uh
on that and and the ballotsdidn't make it because the
vehicle wherein they were hadbeen repossessed and taken there
from to the city of NorthportAlabama.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
No, no, it wasn't taken to Northport, it was.
It was recovered in a.
It was recovered in a yard inColumbus OK.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Regardless, regardless.
No ballots to be found and theelection had been delayed for 30
minutes, about 30, 40 minutesbefore they got new ballots.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
And then it was four voters that were standing in
line and left, and those fourvoters, per court order, were
given till 745 to cast theirballots.
You know, I think they probablydid what this does.
I think it highlights a coupleof things, and one of the things
that it highlights is theseelection workers are citizens,
(34:46):
they're citizens.
These are people.
They do get paid, but these arepeople who are willing to take
their time, go through thetraining, run polls.
These are good citizens who aretrying to be good citizens.
They're not doing it for themoney, because it's not much.
No, it's $30 a day for trainingand $200 on election day, so
(35:09):
they're not getting rich doingthis.
These are good citizens who aretrying to help people
participate in voting.
So that's something that Ithink that we need to remember
first and foremost.
But the other thing that weneed to look at the training
here is and the system here, andit works the same in Columbus
as it does in Starkville.
So this only in Columbus part.
(35:33):
This could happen anywhere.
That does it this way, and whatthey do is these election
workers.
They go pick up a locked,sealed box of empty ballots.
They pick it up five o'clock onMonday from the registrar's
office.
They take it home.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
And it's a tamper-proof seal, you can tell
if it's been opened.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yes, and they're supposed to take.
They're not supposed to leavethose ballots in the car.
They're supposed to take themin their house, they're supposed
to be able to put eyes on themat any time, and then by 6 am
Tuesday morning they're supposedto have those ballots delivered
to their assigned precinct.
And it just didn't happen thatway this time.
This cat left it in his vehicleand didn't.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
What are the odds?
How many consecutive thingshave to go wrong to make this
particular fiasco happen?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well, I mean more than one.
So you've got 13 people onMonday night with boxes of empty
ballots.
And you've got in Starkvilleeven though it's the same method
, you've got seven.
So you've got almost twice thechance that something goes wrong
.
Do we have too many pollingplaces in Columbus?
Speaker 4 (36:47):
A hundred percent true.
I think we need at max sixprecincts in Columbus, just one
for each ward, and, to be honest, you don't even really need
that.
You could have one centrallocation, if it were large
enough, and just have all ofyour poll workers and all of
your election observers andeverybody come to the same place
(37:09):
.
It would be a little crowded,but I think it would definitely
be more secure.
The unfortunate thing aboutthis particular story is that it
gives more ammunition to theelection cynics.
Imagine if this thing wereclose, close, and let's say,
leroy and Stephen were rightthere, neck and neck, and it was
(37:30):
like two or three votes.
I mean, can you imagine thepotential litigation there?
Can you imagine?
I mean, I don imagine thepotential litigation there.
Can you imagine?
I mean, I don't think they'dhave a case.
But what I'm saying to you isthe conspirators are going to
conspire All right.
They're going to come up withthis stuff and it's unhealthy.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
It is unhealthy.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
But the whole point being it's a complex system.
We don't need 13 precincts.
No way I'm going to pushcomplex system.
We don't need 13 precincts.
No way I'm going to push backon you Whether we need 13.
We have cars now.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Right, okay, but fewer precincts mean longer
lines.
Longer lines mean fewer peoplevote.
There was already low enoughvoter turnout as it was.
More precincts mean you get togo in, you get to vote quickly,
you get to get in, get out, andit processes more people.
If you drive up to do anythingand you see a line out the door,
(38:23):
you're statistically lesslikely to park and get in that
line than you are to drive off,come back or just not
participate.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
More machines and more tables.
That's what you need.
You don't need more buildings.
You need plenty of parking,plenty of space, plenty of
workers, plenty of ballots.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
If you're going to take that away, you better dang
well replace it with somethingthat isn't going to
disenfranchise people by default.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Yeah, I was waiting for the disenfranchised word to
come out I mean, again, we havecars, does everybody?
Well, they've got an aunt or anuncle or they know somebody
that look, you need to have skinin the game.
We've talked about skin in thegame for the appetiter for this
and for that and for the other.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Um, if you're going to your skin in the game for
voting is the constitution.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
It's the constant.
Your skin in the game forvoting is the Constitution.
It's the constant.
Your skin in the game is youtake effort.
Ok, it takes effort to get upand get to the poll and to cast
your ballot.
I'm a strong believer that,that you need to have some sort
of effort if you're going tochoose.
I mean this whole.
The word disenfranchised to meis a misnomer.
(39:38):
Ok, it means that you'retelling somebody they can't do
something.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
If you make it harder for somebody to do something
that they would otherwise do,that is their right to do.
And if you've got a one hourlunch break and that's all the
time you have to go vote and youlook at that line and you're
going to have to stand in it formore than an hour and you're
going to have to take maybeyou've got an hourly job and
you're going to have to takeanother shift to make up for it,
(40:03):
or you're going to have to gowithout 30 minutes of wages to
stand in this line.
That's disenfranchisement of asort make it a uh a holiday, or
at least half a holiday.
I agree with that yeah.
But there is something on thispolling place thing that I think
can be done.
That would be helpful.
There are instances where ifyou're voting in the county
(40:25):
election, you go one place.
If you're voting in the cityelection, you go to another
place.
If you're a voter in a localelection, you should just have
to memorize one place to go Likemake that simple.
So I feel like that that'ssomething that the county and
the city can coordinate betteron and figure out.
If I live on 20th Street Northor if I live on 7th Avenue or
(40:49):
wherever.
This is where I vote, anytime Ivote, and I think that that,
even if that does mean that wereduce polling places to from 13
to nine or 13 to 11, whateverfor city elections, I think that
that's better than peoplehaving to remember OK, so this
is a county election, I have togo here.
In a city election, I have togo two blocks over.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
Yeah, I, I have zero disagreement with that.
I think that confusion is a joykiller and I think that I think
that if our elected officialsdo things that confuse people,
or I mean if, even if it'sinadvertently, that might fall
under the category ofdisenfranchisement, right Be
(41:35):
that case.
Yep, I'm all in favor.
One precinct per district, perward Sounds like a plan.
Well, that's it.
Anything else, I think we'regood If not.
I just want to thank ourlisteners today.
I want to thank you for tuningin.
I want you to send yourcomments.
I want you to like share rate.
(41:57):
Our email inbox is tips atcdispatchcom.
Again, tips at cdispatchcom.
You can also follow me atFacebook or X at the Chisholm 00
.
All right, signing off untilnext week from Catfish Alley
Studio in historic downtownColumbus.
Your host has been Zach Playerand I am David Chisholm.
(42:18):
Until next time.
Y'all keep it friendly and wewill keep it real.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
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