July 5, 2023 • 44 mins
Former student of Fernando Mendez, Drew Murray is a Candidate for City Council. They discuss current events and problems that need to be addressed in the city of Philadelphia. Drew Murray came in first on the Republican City Council ticket, and goes over some of the topics he would like to fix if elected.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Republican Zone is brought to you byDrew Murray. The USA Media. Welcome
to compass. Drew Murray's a candidatefor city halls. He wants to be
(00:28):
a city council at large, right, correct, city council large city council
at large, which means you'll beresponsible for the whole city, for the
whole city. So you see anypotholes and any kind of problem, trash,
abandoned cars, you give call misterMendez and mister Mendell. Cool since
(00:51):
you're in charge of the whole citynow. So that's what I hope.
That's what I hope. I can'tdo a worst shop than our current hurrent
mayor. But okay, did youteach him at Saint Joe's parts? Oh?
No, I was not that unluckyman. You don't like him?
(01:11):
No, but he's a Democrat.But I'm not listen. I was registered
Republican. I voted for Reagan.What happened to you? Um? I
thought you get more intelligent as youget older, your wisdom, you'll know,
you know, it's like these childrenwho were as a Reagan joke.
But the children who were no,it was a child and selling uh little
(01:38):
dogs that he pops and he wantthere's a liberal meeting Democrats and he was
saying, bye bye, a Democraticpuppy, and so what people were buying
him? And then the reporter sawhim a week later a Republican meeting,
saying what happens? Don't you sendin Republican puppies? He said, well,
(02:02):
the difference is that now they havetheir eyes open. Well I thought
you would have your eyes over thatwas that was Reagans. Yeah, so,
um, I just I don't believehe's a party right now? Okay,
Like I don't believe in church.I don't believe in parties. Why
(02:23):
don't you believe in church? Institutionshould get your back, mister Mendes,
that we'll get you back to thechurch. Oh, you can come to
mass. You would likely to giveme back. As a Republican, you
are I think you're already a Republican, mister Mendez. Um, fairly conservative?
Do you like? Do you liketaxes? Um? Do I like
taxes? Do you think taxes shouldbe raised? I think taxes should be
(02:46):
raised, but should be used andyou're not actually should be used propertly.
That's all. How about the wealthtax? Well, you need you need
taxes. So Kendra Brooks, councilmember Kender Brooks wants to do a wealth
tax. That means that all thosestock stocks that you have, the millions
of dollars of stocks, you willnow be taxed on those stocks. Oh,
this is all I know as faras taxes for the rich, if
(03:08):
all the billionaires and millionaires in thiscountry paid their taxes properly, there will
not be any need for charity.I don't know if i'd agree with it.
I look, I think I thinkpeople should run. That was a
study I think it was Harvard,one of those institutions, about the number
(03:30):
of people that if they paid theirtaxes, we will have no need for
charity. I'd have to look atthat study. Well you look at it
because but do you want to raisetaxes on yourself? If they are going
to be properly used, and ifthey're not excessive, I will be willing
to pay. They could be excessive, So what about this? They are
(03:52):
excessive, then I will complain?What about this will tax? Then?
If you have let's say a milliondollars in stock, and now you're going
to be taxed on that stock,even if you bought the stock at two
million, you could have lost moneyon your actual value of your stock.
You're still going to be taxed onthat. Do you think that's a good
idea? Because wealth and this iswhat I always hear, the wealth tax.
(04:15):
Well, what is the definition ofwealthy? Because I guarantee you members
of the Working Families Party and extremeliberal Democrats, I think you're rich.
Do you think I'm rich? I'mnot a wealthy person, but they think
you are. You live in writtennow Square? Do you live house rich
and you have no liquidity, butyou have a pension, you have probably
(04:43):
some some stocks and things like that. You're you're probably by their definition wealthy.
Do you opposed to taxes? I'mnot opposed to taxes. I'm opposed
to too more taxes. I'm opposedto the fact that in Philadelphia we have
a wage to that's exorbitant, thehighest in the country, the hyst in
the country. We have a transfertax on when you finally sell that house
(05:08):
of like four point six percent,a trend everywhere else in the station of
loopholes. Yeah, well, Idon't know. The rich find the loopholes
all the way they do. Theytransfer property to that children all the time.
Well, that's they I don't necessarilythink there's anything wrong with, you
(05:28):
know, having a state planning andthings like that, because if you want
to pass your house onto your children, they might not have the ability to
pay the taxes. So there aresome programs that it's not necessarily a bad
thing. You've already paid taxes onyour house one child, and so let's
say you're money. I'll tell youwhat, Then you can give your house
to me. I'll take it andI'll pay the taxes on it as well.
(05:48):
But let's say you have a fivehundred thousand dollar house and you want
to leave that to your child.That then your your child is gonna have
to pay the taxes on that.Now your child might not have the liquidity
in the cash on hand to paythat. So there's nothing wrong with the
state planning. I think there's alimit to it, And I understand what
you're saying, but I think thatat least in Philadelphia, you know,
(06:09):
and you didn't even let me finishall the taxes. We have the wage
tax, transfer tax, two percenttax on the sales in addition to the
six percent, and in the pensivereal estate tax, so to tax you
know, you want to get drinka sweet and beverage your your pain.
I drink water more. You don'tdrink any any sweet beverages, gatorade,
(06:30):
Nope, no, nope. That'swhy you're so healthy and you look so
healthy. But I don't drink anyof that. Do you drink a lot
of water so you can drink alot of d to counter the wine and
beer. And I drink a lotof water. Some wine. Yeah,
I like wine, but that's aboutit. Yeah, I do. I
say I'm very healthy. I eathealthy, I exercise every day, I
(06:55):
still lift weights. My vice isis sugary drinks all a minute. I
do it than I did before,but I still I used to. I
mean, I remember when I cameto this country and I just covered all
these sodas delicious. I'm in heaven. But I don't think we should tax
people on it. I mean,I think I think targeting a tax base
(07:15):
like that is not fair. Thecomplaint is that it targets the poor.
It does target poor people don't drinksoda. No, the rich people like
like like yourself. They can theydrink perry a water and and carbonated water
or and I say this, andI was someone who wasn't necessarily posed the
soda tax in the beginning number one, they said it was gonna be a
couple of pennies on the on asoda, which is completely untrue. Uh,
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but it's not. What is it? I don't even know what it
is. It's so expensive now it'sprobably fifteen twenty thirty percent on top of
what we used to pay. Andthe problem is someone like me or you,
you have a car, you canjump in your car and you can
drive across city Line Avenue right,or go to New Jersey and and you
can purchase your sweetened beverages, yoursodas there. And by the way,
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why are there? You can alsoargument argument I'm gonna spend five dollars on
gas, too good. But you'renot sending five dollars on gas, but
you're But if you're, if you'respending two percent less in all of your
groceries, you're probably not going toJersey. I understand that. But if
(08:20):
you're in Jersey, you can buyit while you're there. Actually you're not.
Yeah, so you're there all thetime. That's where you buy here
teaching in Kempden, Oh is thatright? Yeah? So then while you're
there, you can. But theother people in underserved communities don't have the
ability to jump in a car andcross City Line Avenue, or they're not
already in New Jersey, so they'rethey're the ones burdened with this tax.
And I saw it when I ramover City Council twenty nineteen. It's interesting.
(08:43):
It's not as big of an issueat least now because crime is so
bad. But in twenty nineteen,everybody wanted to talk about the soda tax.
And when I went to underserved communities, that's what they wanted to talk
about. They said, why amI paying more for soda? You know?
Yeah, I can't jump in acar. I can't. I don't
live right near city Line Avenue.UM. And obviously people are doing it.
Because Jeff Brown, who's currently runningfrom mayor is he closed one of
(09:05):
his shop rights in West Philadelphia becauseof the sweetened beverage tax. He said
it, he said, that iswhy I'm closing it. I can't because
it was too close to City ofLine Avenue. Why would if you're driving
to shop right on right near cityline anu West Philadelphia and you can drive
a half mile further and you cannotpay the sweetened beverage tax, you cannot
pay the additional two percent sales taxon some items, not everything his tax
(09:28):
obviously the grocery store. Then thenwhy wouldn't you do it? I will
still say that it's ridiculous to driveanywhere to save pennies because the other woman
will pay this fought out tame.But if you're drive, But if you're
if you're in your car gasoline,probably you know, finding traffic to what
if you're already there, I govisit my dad in Brynmar. While I'm
(09:50):
there, I can I can loadon my car with I don't do it.
You're not to worry about any ofthat. You have a rich dad
and you were wealthy, so Iknow everyone know those pensions at Saint Joe's
Brett making make make everyone, allthe teachers very wealthy. Obviously. That's
why I'm having a fund raiser Fridaynight. I expect to see you there.
Yeah, good luck with that.Yes, I hope you're how's it
(10:11):
going, by the way it is, it's it's going. It's hard to
raise money as uh as a Republicanin the city of Philadelphia, but it's
going. Um, look it's hardto raise money overall in politics. It's
it's not just as a Republican,but it's that much harder than City Philadelphia
because obviously there's only one hundred andsixteen thousand Republicans versus about eight nine hundred
(10:31):
thousand Democrats. So it's hard toraise the Republican too well because of the
one of the seats I'm running for, their two set aside seats. I
mean there's seven at large seats,only five can come from one party.
So in Philadelphia that means Democrats.How many people are running party, there's
there's six people running. Five willget through the primary um. But our
(10:54):
real battle as in November against theWorking Families Party. They will have two
people on the ballot um. Sowe hope to uh to have a plan
that we are are are most competitivein that race in November, and we
will we my my running mate,I will say, Jim Hasher who ran
also in the special election last year, we plan on winning. We will
(11:16):
win. So the chances are verygood and it's not like, oh,
you're a Republican, you only havea ten percent chance, right. Um,
This Workers Family Party is the WorkersFamily will work the Working Families Party
sounds slightly a communist. It iscommunist. That's exactly what they are.
They're not I would even say socialists. They are. They're absolutely communist.
(11:39):
It'sn't like a deliberate label to saylike this is who we are. Yeah,
well they might as well have theold Soviet symbol on their on their
website. Wow. Um and uh, it's true. And it's funny that,
you know, if you go totheir website, it's it's very interesting.
They want to take the money outof politics, right, they think
money is bad, and they're pouringmillions of dollars into their candidates from what
(12:03):
we understand, for city council andmayor. Because even though Helen gimm is
running as a quote unquote Democrat,she is endorsed by the Working Families Party
and they're going to pour millions ofdollars. So even though their website says
take money out of politics, they'redoing the absolute opposite, which is which
is oftentimes the case with socialism andcommunism. I know, because it's it's
(12:24):
fake because what all these proletarians,where do they get the money? You
know, really, well, yousaid you wanted to raise your taxes.
I figured maybe you were now memberof the Working Families Party. You.
Yeah, I thought, maybe you'vegone all the way from Republican and then
pass Democrat and now Working Party.I don't want to be misquoted and misinterpreted.
(12:46):
I said fair taxes. I'm wantingto pay, but you said willing
to pay more if they're fair.Yes, if they go from six point
five to seven percent, I haveno objection. If they're fair taxes,
and I can see what they're doing. What is the line who you're talking
(13:07):
about? I mean I pay,we pay a lot more than that in
taxes. You're talking that was onetax you know, you're you probably we
probably pay in the in the realm. And I'm not a wealthy person.
Uh overall all, yeah, overall, but that's why we at all.
You must be one of those peoplewho aren't paying all your taxes, mister
Mendet, I'm closer to forty now, you're retired. So okay, you
(13:33):
add everything, okay, so yeah, it will be everything everything federal,
state, and local. And thatdoesn't even include honestly, so that that's
just income tax. That's almost socialism. It is socialism, That's what I'm
saying. You know we can't paymore taxes. And that doesn't include sales
tax, that doesn't include the sweetenedbeverage tax that we just talked about,
(13:56):
doesn't include when you do sell yourhouse to transfer tax. I mean,
honestly, if you looked at it, we're probably paying well over fifty percent,
if not sixty percent in taxes inthe money that we meet. What
is this tran So the transfer taxwhen you buy a house, right,
right, So let's say you soldyour house to me, there's a transfer
tax. It's about four point sixpercent. Yes, a million dollars to
(14:18):
sell to me. I don't havea million dollars. I don't I have
two dollars in school, so Idon't have a million dollars. But yeah,
So everywhere else in the state,I believe it's a two percent transfer
tax. One one percent and itis your one percent. In Pennsylvania one
percent is normally the local municipality,right, So it's normally two percent across
the entire state. One percent stillin Philadelphia goes to the state, but
(14:39):
then three point six approximately goes tothe city filled offense, So that's four
point six versus two percent. Wow, So you want to talk about affordable
housing, a barrier or entry ifyou if you want to if you want
to buy a house and pauses onehundred thousand dollars, those closing costs are
going to include forty six hundred dollars. Now, it's normally paid by the
seller, but if even if thesell or is paying it, they're factor
(15:01):
in that into the sale press ofthe house. So it's always you're always
paying whether it's you know, nomatter how you look at it here,
it is still a cost that goesto the city of Philadelphia. Well,
I's gonna take a break. Umstas encompas u Sala media aband Drew Murray,
sore Lacta Conseco Municipal No, someone'sin umumentu. Pagano's Marketing Bar has
(15:28):
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(15:52):
Bar dot com. I mean Saltencompass go and Drew Murray, it's a
candidate for city council at large,Republican city of Philadelphia. And well,
Drew, how do you see?I mean, this is a democratic city
(16:15):
in the hands of Democrats since nineteenfifty three. Yes, um, Republicans
have two seats preserved reserved for citycouncil. Right, well, no,
two non Democrats. So traditionally they'vebeen Republicans, but two seats that are
not two two seats non Democrats exactlyout of how many seven out of seventeen
(16:41):
seventeen Now, Brian, Now thereis one district council person, councilman,
who is a Republican, Brian O'Neill, who's also he's been there a long
time. He's been there for fortyyears. And he's a Saint Joe prep
guy. Yeah, he's a prepguy, probably graduated before you started teaching,
though he was closer to my uncleBrenda Stage. Okay, my uncle
Kevin Soto class of sixty fourth somewherein that room. Yeah, well,
(17:07):
I think that's when your dad startedat the prep sixty eight. I think
he told about sixty eight. Yeah, there, nineteen sixty eight and friend
Central before that, we're talking aboutDrew Murray. Uh, great coach.
I walked with him for many years. For almost he coached for almost fifty
(17:30):
They are for a large percentage.I was there for thirty five years.
Yeah, and out of those probablyat least twenty I coached help. Yeah
with the soccer team. Um soyou an official coach when he won the
championship? Uh? No, Iwas not there. Were you with the
(17:52):
prep though? Huh? No?No, so you never won a Catholic
chip? You missed it. Iwent to many finals. He went to
many. I think it was likeeighteen finals. I think I think my
dad went to eighteen finals in thatplus or mind, it's in that realm.
Yeah, and he only he wonone. So he's won in seventeen
or one eighteen North Catholic or RyanJudge, George Salts or the end of
(18:14):
the salt was winning a lot.Wow. Yeah. Soccer since then has
changed tremendously, Uh, in termsof acceptance and popularity. I don't know
whether it began exactly, but Iremember the soccer moms in terms in political
speech that became a yeah, howdo they terminology soccer moms or Sarah Palins
(18:41):
she was a hockey mom, rememberSarah Palin, she was, she was
a hockey Republican. I know,I don't think he liked her either,
did you know? Did you youknow what I know? I did not
think. I did not think shewas a good candidate as vice president United
States. I'll say that she wasa good candidate. I don't think,
you know, I don't think so. I think she was local politicians.
(19:03):
She was probably good, but shedidn't have the experience needed to be vice
president, not too similar to ourcurrent vice president of the United States.
She was the most ignorant person tobe in public office. Well, no,
that can't be right, you remember, but she's one of I think
(19:23):
she was. Honestly, I thinkshe probably she didn't look when when you're
in that position, you need theexperience and you know, and you can
and I know what you're gonna arguethat Donald Trump did not have that experience,
But you do need more experience thanshe had. But I look at
someone like Kamala Harris, who isI think she is much worse than Sarah
(19:44):
Palin. And I look at ourcurrent president and think that he is much
worse than probably every president prior.Both counts um and you're not allowed to
talk about President Trump. Uh oh, I am my show. He's not.
No, you didn't know that discoverythat twice in peach sonst unethical,
(20:07):
unfaithful husband. I can bringing uphis name anytime, but twice in peach
they off I despise you with everyfiber. But he's not the president anymore,
semendes, I still despise him.He's in the news every day.
How do you like today? Infact the same? But is that a
witch hunt? And I honestly don'tknow if it is. I don't I
(20:29):
don't know if he did anything illegal. I don't necessarily care that that much.
But he paid off a while andguess who was paid off, well,
President President Clinton paid off Women's Beautifulas well. Is it illegal?
You know, I'm not an attorneyon it. I don't know. Is
it immoral? Maybe because it isillegal? Lawyer didn't write a book attacking
(20:49):
him for being immoral. Trump's lawyerdid and still talking against him. I'm
not defending pres and the Trump forwhat I'm just saying, is it a
bit of a witch cost? Tome like you are, it sounds like
a witch It sounds like McCarthy areboth defending. McCarthy is defending the undefenseable.
(21:11):
I am not. I'm not defendingbecause I don't know enough about it.
So what do you want to know? I'll give you, He'll give
you'll give it him. But you'reyou're giving me unbiased information. Oh no,
the fact. I'll give you thefact, which is one thing that
annoys Republicans right now when you hearthe facts go back. Well, let's
do. We'll compare to you thingsBill Clinton compared Bill Clinton and President Trump.
(21:33):
Yes, they did the same thing. Yeah, they paid off woman
a woman hush moss money. Wedon't we don't know how much uh Clinton
paid, if he paid. Ithink he really have a check to prove
that he does. I thought evena minute, I mean I I don't
remember we have just do we havea check? No? I think his
case. Didn't that? I thoughtdeal that? No, No, no,
(21:57):
this was someone else? Know whatwas her names? I forget,
yeah, Jones, whatever her namewas. But I thought, clear,
you know all the names. Ican tell you the names. You're a
lot older than I I was.How was he young man? Have a
better memory? You have? Youhave Republican memory. So that that means
you don't remember the damn thing,and also the things you remember you can
(22:21):
you cannot defend. All right,So let's talk about current minister of this
discussion. Let's talk about local politics. So you I know you love the
decolitics, love you love the DemocratParty because you're saying how much you like
Bill Clinton. So let's talk aboutour current mayor and how is he doing.
I'm a Reagan man. You're aReagan man. Well, it sounds
(22:42):
like you're a Clinton man the wayyou just defended him. No, I'm
just defended the facts. The factswas no check, they were there.
The Lewinsky case against him had nothingto do with paying off and pretending that
this was a business deal and chargingit to your foundation from Bill Clinton,
(23:03):
Wow, I had no sexual relationswith that woman. Yes, so he
lied, he'd lied, and headmitted and then he said and he admitted
that, well, he didn't haveI think then he said he didn't have
intercourse with her, but there wereother sexual things that on my kids.
I'm not even gonna go there andaddress that she kept as evidence. So
(23:25):
yes, yes, so so we'llsay he's not perfect. No, he
didn't say grabbed by the grab himby the blank. Well, I'm not
defending him, but and I wouldn'tin that case. But outside of that,
the guy was a good precedent.He gone from the middle. He
was not an extremest he go.He knew how to govern, which is
(23:48):
more than we can say say hewas a moderate. I wouldn't disagree there.
I mean I can't. I thinkin hindsight, there were some things
that he did that were that werebad, like the deregulation of the financial
services industry that led to the collapseof the markets. I mean, and
I'll be honest with you, Iwas in favor of the deregulation of the
financial services industries. I didn't Ididn't see a problem with a bank doing
(24:10):
doing business in stocks. And Trumpdivorced and that too, deregulation all over
the place. He didn't regulated everything, the railroads, and that's why we
have this crash recently. I don'tknow if I could com blame that on
presle Oh. Absolutely one of thethings she did was deregulation. You could
not control some of the things thatwould have controlled this accident. That's what
(24:34):
I'm telling I'll have to look intoit. And don't have facts. We're
looking to look at a lot ofstuff to look into. Oh that fell.
Yeah, we're gonna hold it up. Should we just hold it up
in front of you? You'll you'll, you're you're gonna see after the fact,
that's gonna say Republican zone on yourshow, and you're gonna be upset,
like, why did you why didyou do compass Republicans zone? And
(24:56):
I am a guest on your show, mister you are to do that and
you are a very interesting guest.Yeah. Yeah, but being a good
Republican, you're gonna tell the truth. So here we are. So oh,
mister Mendez. But but you sayyou you you're not you don't like
Republicans? Do you like Democrats?You send the opposite of what I just
(25:18):
said. But you man, Iknow you're a Regan man. But what
are you registered? Are you registered? Independent? Probably? Independent? Yeah?
Well you should, I don't know. I will tell you should register
one side. I don't remember,because you're not gonna able to vote in
the primary. I don't remember it. So why don't you just Okay,
I'll tell you registered Republican and youcan vote for me. I can get
(25:38):
you registered Republican on my phone infive minutes, mister Mendez. Let's do
that after the show. Will doit after the show. Yeah, it
might you be a little boring duringthe show to register you guys are a
publican. Yeah, right, peoplewill be witnessing something that it is probably
a detriment to my reputation. Wewon't tell anybody. Mister Well, um,
(26:00):
okay, So you would saying thatit was difficult to raise money,
yes, um. One is oneof the obstacles right now in terms of
raising money for Republicans, especially wellas a Republican. You don't have as
many Republicans in the city. Numberone. Another problem is is sometimes raising
money as a moderate like I ama moderate. I was a Democrat most
of my life. I didn't justswitch and become a very super conservative,
(26:25):
far right Republican. I still considermyself somewhat of a moderate, although the
further left the Democrat Party goes,the more republican I feel. But moderates.
You know, people who are passionateon the far left open their wallets
and it might not be as much. It might be twenty dours, you
know, twenty dollars at the time, and people on the far right open
their wallets the bottoms. You havefive to give you though you have five,
(26:49):
five hundred five. Just come on, mister Manum. We know you're
one of those wealthy people, soone of the poor people who will give
one dollar time. You're your housewealthy, so you can you could remortgage
your house and get a couple ofbucks all your house. I don't think
no, So that's why. Soso it's hard as a Republican, and
(27:10):
it is also oftentimes hard as amoderate. But you know, as I
tell a lot of my friends onthe main line in the suburbs, it's
time to start looking at Philadelphia politicsand paying attention because the Working Families Party
is trying to take two of theseats. As Working Family Parties members,
you also have to pay attention towho they're endorsing. They're endorsing Helen Gim
(27:32):
for mayor, they're endorsing a fewother candidates who are quote unquote Democrats because
they're trying to have more and moreinfluence on the city Philadelphia and the politics
within the city of Philadelphia. Itell people, if Jim hasher and I
are going to win in November.But if if by this our chance we
lose, then the Republican Philly GOP'sin trouble because we will. We could
(27:55):
have only one person on council.And even Brian O'Neal is getting ounge in
the northeast. I don't think,I know he's not gonna lose, but
you know, you could be lookingat a party in a few years that
that might not have anyone on council. And once they're I say, once
the Working Families is done quote unquotetaking over, because they're also taking over
the Democrat Party. I mean it'snot just Republicans they're trying to replace,
(28:17):
they are infiltrating the Democrat Party.Then their sites are going to be on
Bucks County, Delco, Monco,all the collar county. So I said,
you better pay attention to this.And I think the Pennsylvania goop is
they're looking at this race as awadership moment for the entire state because they
say we need You know, whenI say at a state level, the
(28:38):
pagop knows how important the race thatI am in is because they don't want
the Working Families Party and then havetheir sites on the suburbs. They already
have their sites on Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton. Now they're going to
start looking at the suburbs. Sothat's something that everybody should be looking at.
Now. The position on the ballotis important. Yes, how are
(29:00):
you? I picked number three,so there's six of us running. I
picked number three, so that's uh, Look, I'd rather pick number one,
but three is good. Three willbe you know, I never guarantee
anything, but three gets to methrough through the primary. And in twenty
nineteen I pick six and I camein six. I mean, that's how
important it can be, especially ina municipal primary, or turnout is not
(29:22):
going to be that high. Youknow, there's no there's no state senatorial
race, there's no obviously there's nopresidential race. These are purely municipal.
Number three. You have a chancebe there, five moving on, Five
will move on through the primary.Correct. So I again, I don't
ever want to say guarantee November.It's a whole different ball game November though,
(29:45):
it's gonna be Republicans because the Democratsare basically done after after the primary,
the five who win will well,they're gonna they're basically all council that
you won't even see them running anymore. They won't be spending money. Though
they'll spend maybe a little bit ofmoney, but they they won't really do
much. So in November it's theRepublicans versus the Working Families Party. But
see that alone is annoying that thatbecause they have nobody's gonna challenge them.
(30:12):
You know, well they are onthe ballot, They're just they're just gonna
they're gonna win votes. But whathappens in in race for mayor, for
instance, what the any Democrat becomesthe candidate for mayor after the primary,
it's sort of guaranteed that well,maybe not. I don't think this time
(30:36):
David O is a good candidate.We have an actual, you know,
former city councilman who was running formayor. Uh probably the first quote unquote
you know, viable Republican candidate formayor since Sam Katz, if remember Sam
Katz almost almost won. Is DavidO long shot? Yes? Uh?
And if he looks at if youlook at who's running on the Democrat side,
(30:59):
you know, someone like David Ohwould have a better shot against someone
like Helen gimm If if like ifif Allen dom One, someone who's quoted
unquote a moderate David would have aharder time someone like Helen gimm Wins,
who is an endorsed Working Families Partycandidate than David. You know, has
has has a better shot, andhe's got good right name recognition. I
wouldn't count him out. He's gonnasurprise some people. Okay, I'd like
(31:22):
to explore this a little bit more. It's almost encompass and usala mediadez in
convenue the Drew Mary who's running forcity Council at large, it's the Uhlan.
So it was almost an um wow. I mean because there a media
(32:20):
encompass Condon, Drew Murray stands theCampania Gunjo municipal City Council at large comor
Republicana in ternsas telemas commentarios et stemsover impuestos um Drew. So we we
(32:46):
have the Democrats have more more candids, you know, the Republicans only Yes,
they have uh Dea on the merrow. Yeah it's David. Oh and
then uh let's see if I canname all of them. There's Helen gimm
Rebecca Ryan Hart, Alan Dom,Jeffrey Brown, Derek Greene, Marie Canona
(33:10):
Sanchez, Sharrel Parker, Aman Brown, Judge Dillion, one more. Yeah,
Tom, I can't. I'm forgettingone. Uh, mister Bloom,
I forget I have apologists forget hisfirst name. Uh? Is that all
of them? Yeah? That Iget all of them basically. Yeah,
(33:30):
that's that's that's basically all of them. That's a lot. That's not that's
a lot of candidates. That meansthe person who wins could win with in
the Democrat primary over one hundred thousandvotes. That's that's very possible, which
is only let's do the mass sixsix seven percent of the people United,
People United people in Philadelphia could choosethe next mayor. So um, it
(33:54):
will turn out that let's say,uh, either Brown or a Donato Roady's
been millions minutes running. They willbe paying like tow one hundred thousand for
each vote. Yes, exactly.Yeah. Well well, and it's interesting
if you look at Alan dum andJeffrey Brown, people say that they're they're
they're they're too similar, they areare white, Jewish successful. I think
(34:20):
they cancel each other out. AndI like Alan. I think I think
he is a moderate. H JeffreyBrown, I don't know him, but
I you know, I think ifyou look at what he's done in communities,
in in what our former food deserts, and he opens businesses and and
hires people who are formerly incarcerated,I think he seems like a good person.
I don't know him personally, butit seems like a good person,
(34:42):
a good business person, you wouldthink a good candidate. He doesn't have
the experience in government that Hope wouldhave that Alan does, but I think
they cancel each other out. Um. I think Ada has an advantage in
terms of that experience also, UM, I mean he was from this from
and I think he's a good candidate. He has also good ideas about it
(35:06):
educationally. Did you ever back up? I tried. I invited Heart.
She wasn't my show before. Sureas the control and I have all the
connections and all that's have it andsome of the people responded, but then
there was no final There are somany events that uh, they go to
that I think they're stretched thin.They just don't have the time yet.
(35:30):
I run the Philadelphia cross On Coalitionand we're doing two forums, and we
were and when we were organizing them, So one's gonna be on Tuesday next
week on the twenty eighth of Marchand one on April twelfth. You know,
I said early on, I said, if there are a lot of
forums, you're gonna see kennidates cancel. Yeah. Prior to and we had
basically everyone say yes, but recentlythey have been saying no because they're too
(35:50):
many. In fact, some candidatesreached out to us and said, can
you combine forums with other with othergroups, because there's just too many and
they're all about the same thing.Crime, that's all. That's all.
That seems to be the main focusof most campaigns. And we're having two
forums and purposely we did one noton crime, because we knew that everyone
(36:10):
was going to do one on crimeand we'd just be another forum where they're
asking the same question right so overand over again. So that's whybably why
you're having some trouble, because thesecandidates are stretched. Then I can see
it um there when they walk inthe room, you can tell exhaust Yeah,
which is a good thing. Makethem work for it, I mean,
might make them get out there andtell their story and tell us what
(36:31):
they're going to do to be abetter mayor than our current mayor. Just
just briefly, because I'm not talkingabout the other tuitions, but the taxes
um. Name one or two thingsthat you would do that that should be
done in terms of crime in thecity, as as what the mayor candidate
(36:51):
should do first and foremost, Iwould come out publicly and denounce our current
district attorney because our current district attorneyis not doing his job. He is
not prosecuting criminals. And according toeverybody who has left his office, his
office is in disarray. He doesn'tknow how to run an office. You
know, he was he was acriminal defense attorney. Uh, and he
(37:15):
kind of still runs his office thatway. He doesn't. That's the first
thing I would do, come outin publicly. Look, we can't take
him out of office. He wasvoted in. Now he was voted in
with like two or three percent ofthem. But within weeks of his u
taking him to the job, alot of people, well, he fired
a lot of people because he didn'twant which Look, you come in your
(37:35):
your it's your office. Now youcan do that. But he fired a
lot of experienced attorneys and brought inpeople who accepted and filed his ideology.
And that's and they weren't experienced.I mean it and it loves me one
thing. But what else can wedone can be done about crime? Um?
You know I would I would dosomething. You know. Number one
what I would not have done isI would not have paid out over nine
(37:59):
million dollars to protesters who stormed VineStreet Expressway. I mean, we just
rewarded people who did illegal behavior.Again, peaceful, peaceful protesters don't go
on expressways. If you want tomarch down the Ben Franklin Parkway where police
can control you and control traffic andcan let ambulances through and all of that.
(38:20):
Fine, when you go out ona Vine Street expressway, you are
no longer a peaceful protester. Whenyou're on the Vinetre Expressway and you're jumping
on top of cars and spray paintingcars and spray painting walls, you were
no longer a peaceful protester. Andour mayor just gave them nine million dollars,
nine million dollars that could have beenused for programs to prevent gun violence.
You know, let's invest in communities, underserved communities to keep these people
(38:42):
from going into into a life ofcrime, which is what you know.
Look, this gun violence that wehave now it's all related, mostly related
to drugs, right, so wegotta we gotta stop, you know,
the drug trade and in a complexproblem, violence to poverty. Absolutely,
just do a good education and allthat. That's all we know that.
(39:06):
So we could have had that ninemillion dollars. Instead we gave it to
people who got who got us who'stier guess because they would not leave the
vine should express So when we havea few minutes to talk about things you
want to do address or now they'retalking to city council today, they're there.
There there's no votes, and Idon't even think there's any legislation officially
on on the on the bookshet,but they are talking about rent control.
(39:30):
And you look at any municipality thathas tried rent control, it does the
opposite. All it does is controlrent on some parcels while the rents in
other areas skyrocket, So it causesthe opposite effect. Look at Manhattan,
Manhat experience, the experience. Yes, they tried rent control, and it's
great if you are in one ofthose rent controlled properties, but everywhere else
(39:54):
gets way more expensive. It doesn'twork. It's and again socialism, it's
it's more proof that socialism or communismdoesn't doesn't work. It sounds great on
paper, Hey, everyone works,everyone does this, and you know,
everyone gets money and and and wedon't have super rich, we don't have
super poor. Everyone just is kindof in the middle. But it doesn't
work, and it's been proven notto work. And rank control is absolutely
(40:16):
Manhattan as the poster child on whyrank control doesn't work. But people legislators,
like the Working Families Party, theyjust want to keep doing it.
They just want to well, weknow, we know what we did wrong
in the past. Now we're goingto do it differently. That's how many
times have you heard that argument.We know how to do it correctly.
So they're talking about that in citycouncil today. And if if, if
(40:37):
God forbid, they have all theircandidates win in November, which they won't,
you could see rank control coming tothe city of Philadelphia. Wow,
it's one of those things that thatyou send them see it coming like a
deluge, and said, like,let's hope we can do something. But
and this is who it hurts alot too, Like everyone talks about these
(40:59):
rich landlords like you know and andand you know the eviction process that Helen
Game put in place during a pandemic, which was honestly needed. Then when
people didn't have money during the pandemic, Yes we can. That's one of
the people who actually own that Irented during the pandemic. I lost a
lot of money. Yeah exactly.And but everyone thinks it's these rich landlords
like PMC are just oh, theycan afford everything. Most of the landlords
(41:22):
in the city Philadelphia are are probablylike yourself, people who that's your income,
I have to sell it, yea. And so when when you have
legislation that that number one prevents evictionswhen from people aren't paying their rent or
provides you know, free uh,free attorneys to people who aren't paying their
rent, but not providing free attorneysto the small landlords. You know,
(41:45):
how is that fair? And nowyou're gonna put rent control on a lot
of these parcels that are owned bylandlords who that is there that is their
way limit. I mean, weknow you're rich, mister Mendez, we
know you're coming to my fund raiseron Friday, But now most landlords are
like you, they're they're not Youlive off the rent from the properties and
(42:06):
you cannot or to lose money inthat scent because you keep paying more and
more taxes. As we know wehave to state, they just keep going
up. I still have a coupleof small properties, and I know the
taxes keep going up. My taxeswent up forty percent this year in one
year. My income didn't go upforty percent. I know nobody. Nobody's
(42:27):
did income one up forty percent.But they did it anyway, and they
did not They didn't have to.The mayor and council could have looked at
it and changed the millage rate andsaid, you know what, just because
you know, values of properties wentup because of comps in the area,
in those neighborhoods, they could havechanged the millage rate so some people still
would have gone up, but theycould have done it so that it wasn't
(42:47):
a tax increase. They basically puta tax increase without by saying at the
same time, well, we're notraising taxes. The millage rate is the
same. Your your parcel just wentup forty percent. But I again,
because it is absolutely ridiculous, who'swhose whose income goes up forty percent?
And now they said they didn't.They it was over a two three year
period of the pandemic but yeah,that's still a ten fifteen percent increase.
(43:10):
Yeah, every year of those yearsmy income didn't go up ten True.
I hope you you becoming a memberof city council. Thank you. We
vote for me, and well,yes, I will work for you and
I'll be calling you every day tosay what's happening here? What has happened?
If you get a pothole, you'regonna call me every day, mister,
yes, and I'll come fix it. Thank you for coming. True
(43:31):
welcome. I mean so interested USALAmedia. It's just a program Compass and
Company had that, Drew Murray.It's um colding about a city council at
large. I would see what Tomas, but I do that. Mos uh.
It's just past. The Republican Zoneis brought to you by Drew Murray
Republican Zone is brought to you byDrew Murray. The USA Media. Welcome
to compass. Drew Murray's a candidatefor city halls. He wants to be
(00:28):
a city council at large, right, correct, city council large city council
at large, which means you'll beresponsible for the whole city, for the
whole city. So you see anypotholes and any kind of problem, trash,
abandoned cars, you give call misterMendez and mister Mendell. Cool since
(00:51):
you're in charge of the whole citynow. So that's what I hope.
That's what I hope. I can'tdo a worst shop than our current hurrent
mayor. But okay, did youteach him at Saint Joe's parts? Oh?
No, I was not that unluckyman. You don't like him?
(01:11):
No, but he's a Democrat.But I'm not listen. I was registered
Republican. I voted for Reagan.What happened to you? Um? I
thought you get more intelligent as youget older, your wisdom, you'll know,
you know, it's like these childrenwho were as a Reagan joke.
But the children who were no,it was a child and selling uh little
(01:38):
dogs that he pops and he wantthere's a liberal meeting Democrats and he was
saying, bye bye, a Democraticpuppy, and so what people were buying
him? And then the reporter sawhim a week later a Republican meeting,
saying what happens? Don't you sendin Republican puppies? He said, well,
(02:02):
the difference is that now they havetheir eyes open. Well I thought
you would have your eyes over thatwas that was Reagans. Yeah, so,
um, I just I don't believehe's a party right now? Okay,
Like I don't believe in church.I don't believe in parties. Why
(02:23):
don't you believe in church? Institutionshould get your back, mister Mendes,
that we'll get you back to thechurch. Oh, you can come to
mass. You would likely to giveme back. As a Republican, you
are I think you're already a Republican, mister Mendez. Um, fairly conservative?
Do you like? Do you liketaxes? Um? Do I like
taxes? Do you think taxes shouldbe raised? I think taxes should be
(02:46):
raised, but should be used andyou're not actually should be used propertly.
That's all. How about the wealthtax? Well, you need you need
taxes. So Kendra Brooks, councilmember Kender Brooks wants to do a wealth
tax. That means that all thosestock stocks that you have, the millions
of dollars of stocks, you willnow be taxed on those stocks. Oh,
this is all I know as faras taxes for the rich, if
(03:08):
all the billionaires and millionaires in thiscountry paid their taxes properly, there will
not be any need for charity.I don't know if i'd agree with it.
I look, I think I thinkpeople should run. That was a
study I think it was Harvard,one of those institutions, about the number
(03:30):
of people that if they paid theirtaxes, we will have no need for
charity. I'd have to look atthat study. Well you look at it
because but do you want to raisetaxes on yourself? If they are going
to be properly used, and ifthey're not excessive, I will be willing
to pay. They could be excessive, So what about this? They are
(03:52):
excessive, then I will complain?What about this will tax? Then?
If you have let's say a milliondollars in stock, and now you're going
to be taxed on that stock,even if you bought the stock at two
million, you could have lost moneyon your actual value of your stock.
You're still going to be taxed onthat. Do you think that's a good
idea? Because wealth and this iswhat I always hear, the wealth tax.
(04:15):
Well, what is the definition ofwealthy? Because I guarantee you members
of the Working Families Party and extremeliberal Democrats, I think you're rich.
Do you think I'm rich? I'mnot a wealthy person, but they think
you are. You live in writtennow Square? Do you live house rich
and you have no liquidity, butyou have a pension, you have probably
(04:43):
some some stocks and things like that. You're you're probably by their definition wealthy.
Do you opposed to taxes? I'mnot opposed to taxes. I'm opposed
to too more taxes. I'm opposedto the fact that in Philadelphia we have
a wage to that's exorbitant, thehighest in the country, the hyst in
the country. We have a transfertax on when you finally sell that house
(05:08):
of like four point six percent,a trend everywhere else in the station of
loopholes. Yeah, well, Idon't know. The rich find the loopholes
all the way they do. Theytransfer property to that children all the time.
Well, that's they I don't necessarilythink there's anything wrong with, you
(05:28):
know, having a state planning andthings like that, because if you want
to pass your house onto your children, they might not have the ability to
pay the taxes. So there aresome programs that it's not necessarily a bad
thing. You've already paid taxes onyour house one child, and so let's
say you're money. I'll tell youwhat, Then you can give your house
to me. I'll take it andI'll pay the taxes on it as well.
(05:48):
But let's say you have a fivehundred thousand dollar house and you want
to leave that to your child.That then your your child is gonna have
to pay the taxes on that.Now your child might not have the liquidity
in the cash on hand to paythat. So there's nothing wrong with the
state planning. I think there's alimit to it, And I understand what
you're saying, but I think thatat least in Philadelphia, you know,
(06:09):
and you didn't even let me finishall the taxes. We have the wage
tax, transfer tax, two percenttax on the sales in addition to the
six percent, and in the pensivereal estate tax, so to tax you
know, you want to get drinka sweet and beverage your your pain.
I drink water more. You don'tdrink any any sweet beverages, gatorade,
(06:30):
Nope, no, nope. That'swhy you're so healthy and you look so
healthy. But I don't drink anyof that. Do you drink a lot
of water so you can drink alot of d to counter the wine and
beer. And I drink a lotof water. Some wine. Yeah,
I like wine, but that's aboutit. Yeah, I do. I
say I'm very healthy. I eathealthy, I exercise every day, I
(06:55):
still lift weights. My vice isis sugary drinks all a minute. I
do it than I did before,but I still I used to. I
mean, I remember when I cameto this country and I just covered all
these sodas delicious. I'm in heaven. But I don't think we should tax
people on it. I mean,I think I think targeting a tax base
(07:15):
like that is not fair. Thecomplaint is that it targets the poor.
It does target poor people don't drinksoda. No, the rich people like
like like yourself. They can theydrink perry a water and and carbonated water
or and I say this, andI was someone who wasn't necessarily posed the
soda tax in the beginning number one, they said it was gonna be a
couple of pennies on the on asoda, which is completely untrue. Uh,
(07:39):
but it's not. What is it? I don't even know what it
is. It's so expensive now it'sprobably fifteen twenty thirty percent on top of
what we used to pay. Andthe problem is someone like me or you,
you have a car, you canjump in your car and you can
drive across city Line Avenue right,or go to New Jersey and and you
can purchase your sweetened beverages, yoursodas there. And by the way,
(07:59):
why are there? You can alsoargument argument I'm gonna spend five dollars on
gas, too good. But you'renot sending five dollars on gas, but
you're But if you're, if you'respending two percent less in all of your
groceries, you're probably not going toJersey. I understand that. But if
(08:20):
you're in Jersey, you can buyit while you're there. Actually you're not.
Yeah, so you're there all thetime. That's where you buy here
teaching in Kempden, Oh is thatright? Yeah? So then while you're
there, you can. But theother people in underserved communities don't have the
ability to jump in a car andcross City Line Avenue, or they're not
already in New Jersey, so they'rethey're the ones burdened with this tax.
And I saw it when I ramover City Council twenty nineteen. It's interesting.
(08:43):
It's not as big of an issueat least now because crime is so
bad. But in twenty nineteen,everybody wanted to talk about the soda tax.
And when I went to underserved communities, that's what they wanted to talk
about. They said, why amI paying more for soda? You know?
Yeah, I can't jump in acar. I can't. I don't
live right near city Line Avenue.UM. And obviously people are doing it.
Because Jeff Brown, who's currently runningfrom mayor is he closed one of
(09:05):
his shop rights in West Philadelphia becauseof the sweetened beverage tax. He said
it, he said, that iswhy I'm closing it. I can't because
it was too close to City ofLine Avenue. Why would if you're driving
to shop right on right near cityline anu West Philadelphia and you can drive
a half mile further and you cannotpay the sweetened beverage tax, you cannot
pay the additional two percent sales taxon some items, not everything his tax
(09:28):
obviously the grocery store. Then thenwhy wouldn't you do it? I will
still say that it's ridiculous to driveanywhere to save pennies because the other woman
will pay this fought out tame.But if you're drive, But if you're
if you're in your car gasoline,probably you know, finding traffic to what
if you're already there, I govisit my dad in Brynmar. While I'm
(09:50):
there, I can I can loadon my car with I don't do it.
You're not to worry about any ofthat. You have a rich dad
and you were wealthy, so Iknow everyone know those pensions at Saint Joe's
Brett making make make everyone, allthe teachers very wealthy. Obviously. That's
why I'm having a fund raiser Fridaynight. I expect to see you there.
Yeah, good luck with that.Yes, I hope you're how's it
(10:11):
going, by the way it is, it's it's going. It's hard to
raise money as uh as a Republicanin the city of Philadelphia, but it's
going. Um, look it's hardto raise money overall in politics. It's
it's not just as a Republican,but it's that much harder than City Philadelphia
because obviously there's only one hundred andsixteen thousand Republicans versus about eight nine hundred
(10:31):
thousand Democrats. So it's hard toraise the Republican too well because of the
one of the seats I'm running for, their two set aside seats. I
mean there's seven at large seats,only five can come from one party.
So in Philadelphia that means Democrats.How many people are running party, there's
there's six people running. Five willget through the primary um. But our
(10:54):
real battle as in November against theWorking Families Party. They will have two
people on the ballot um. Sowe hope to uh to have a plan
that we are are are most competitivein that race in November, and we
will we my my running mate,I will say, Jim Hasher who ran
also in the special election last year, we plan on winning. We will
(11:16):
win. So the chances are verygood and it's not like, oh,
you're a Republican, you only havea ten percent chance, right. Um,
This Workers Family Party is the WorkersFamily will work the Working Families Party
sounds slightly a communist. It iscommunist. That's exactly what they are.
They're not I would even say socialists. They are. They're absolutely communist.
(11:39):
It'sn't like a deliberate label to saylike this is who we are. Yeah,
well they might as well have theold Soviet symbol on their on their
website. Wow. Um and uh, it's true. And it's funny that,
you know, if you go totheir website, it's it's very interesting.
They want to take the money outof politics, right, they think
money is bad, and they're pouringmillions of dollars into their candidates from what
(12:03):
we understand, for city council andmayor. Because even though Helen gimm is
running as a quote unquote Democrat,she is endorsed by the Working Families Party
and they're going to pour millions ofdollars. So even though their website says
take money out of politics, they'redoing the absolute opposite, which is which
is oftentimes the case with socialism andcommunism. I know, because it's it's
(12:24):
fake because what all these proletarians,where do they get the money? You
know, really, well, yousaid you wanted to raise your taxes.
I figured maybe you were now memberof the Working Families Party. You.
Yeah, I thought, maybe you'vegone all the way from Republican and then
pass Democrat and now Working Party.I don't want to be misquoted and misinterpreted.
(12:46):
I said fair taxes. I'm wantingto pay, but you said willing
to pay more if they're fair.Yes, if they go from six point
five to seven percent, I haveno objection. If they're fair taxes,
and I can see what they're doing. What is the line who you're talking
(13:07):
about? I mean I pay,we pay a lot more than that in
taxes. You're talking that was onetax you know, you're you probably we
probably pay in the in the realm. And I'm not a wealthy person.
Uh overall all, yeah, overall, but that's why we at all.
You must be one of those peoplewho aren't paying all your taxes, mister
Mendet, I'm closer to forty now, you're retired. So okay, you
(13:33):
add everything, okay, so yeah, it will be everything everything federal,
state, and local. And thatdoesn't even include honestly, so that that's
just income tax. That's almost socialism. It is socialism, That's what I'm
saying. You know we can't paymore taxes. And that doesn't include sales
tax, that doesn't include the sweetenedbeverage tax that we just talked about,
(13:56):
doesn't include when you do sell yourhouse to transfer tax. I mean,
honestly, if you looked at it, we're probably paying well over fifty percent,
if not sixty percent in taxes inthe money that we meet. What
is this tran So the transfer taxwhen you buy a house, right,
right, So let's say you soldyour house to me, there's a transfer
tax. It's about four point sixpercent. Yes, a million dollars to
(14:18):
sell to me. I don't havea million dollars. I don't I have
two dollars in school, so Idon't have a million dollars. But yeah,
So everywhere else in the state,I believe it's a two percent transfer
tax. One one percent and itis your one percent. In Pennsylvania one
percent is normally the local municipality,right, So it's normally two percent across
the entire state. One percent stillin Philadelphia goes to the state, but
(14:39):
then three point six approximately goes tothe city filled offense, So that's four
point six versus two percent. Wow, So you want to talk about affordable
housing, a barrier or entry ifyou if you want to if you want
to buy a house and pauses onehundred thousand dollars, those closing costs are
going to include forty six hundred dollars. Now, it's normally paid by the
seller, but if even if thesell or is paying it, they're factor
(15:01):
in that into the sale press ofthe house. So it's always you're always
paying whether it's you know, nomatter how you look at it here,
it is still a cost that goesto the city of Philadelphia. Well,
I's gonna take a break. Umstas encompas u Sala media aband Drew Murray,
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Bar dot com. I mean Saltencompass go and Drew Murray, it's a
candidate for city council at large,Republican city of Philadelphia. And well,
Drew, how do you see?I mean, this is a democratic city
(16:15):
in the hands of Democrats since nineteenfifty three. Yes, um, Republicans
have two seats preserved reserved for citycouncil. Right, well, no,
two non Democrats. So traditionally they'vebeen Republicans, but two seats that are
not two two seats non Democrats exactlyout of how many seven out of seventeen
(16:41):
seventeen Now, Brian, Now thereis one district council person, councilman,
who is a Republican, Brian O'Neill, who's also he's been there a long
time. He's been there for fortyyears. And he's a Saint Joe prep
guy. Yeah, he's a prepguy, probably graduated before you started teaching,
though he was closer to my uncleBrenda Stage. Okay, my uncle
Kevin Soto class of sixty fourth somewherein that room. Yeah, well,
(17:07):
I think that's when your dad startedat the prep sixty eight. I think
he told about sixty eight. Yeah, there, nineteen sixty eight and friend
Central before that, we're talking aboutDrew Murray. Uh, great coach.
I walked with him for many years. For almost he coached for almost fifty
(17:30):
They are for a large percentage.I was there for thirty five years.
Yeah, and out of those probablyat least twenty I coached help. Yeah
with the soccer team. Um soyou an official coach when he won the
championship? Uh? No, Iwas not there. Were you with the
(17:52):
prep though? Huh? No?No, so you never won a Catholic
chip? You missed it. Iwent to many finals. He went to
many. I think it was likeeighteen finals. I think I think my
dad went to eighteen finals in thatplus or mind, it's in that realm.
Yeah, and he only he wonone. So he's won in seventeen
or one eighteen North Catholic or RyanJudge, George Salts or the end of
(18:14):
the salt was winning a lot.Wow. Yeah. Soccer since then has
changed tremendously, Uh, in termsof acceptance and popularity. I don't know
whether it began exactly, but Iremember the soccer moms in terms in political
speech that became a yeah, howdo they terminology soccer moms or Sarah Palins
(18:41):
she was a hockey mom, rememberSarah Palin, she was, she was
a hockey Republican. I know,I don't think he liked her either,
did you know? Did you youknow what I know? I did not
think. I did not think shewas a good candidate as vice president United
States. I'll say that she wasa good candidate. I don't think,
you know, I don't think so. I think she was local politicians.
(19:03):
She was probably good, but shedidn't have the experience needed to be vice
president, not too similar to ourcurrent vice president of the United States.
She was the most ignorant person tobe in public office. Well, no,
that can't be right, you remember, but she's one of I think
(19:23):
she was. Honestly, I thinkshe probably she didn't look when when you're
in that position, you need theexperience and you know, and you can
and I know what you're gonna arguethat Donald Trump did not have that experience,
But you do need more experience thanshe had. But I look at
someone like Kamala Harris, who isI think she is much worse than Sarah
(19:44):
Palin. And I look at ourcurrent president and think that he is much
worse than probably every president prior.Both counts um and you're not allowed to
talk about President Trump. Uh oh, I am my show. He's not.
No, you didn't know that discoverythat twice in peach sonst unethical,
(20:07):
unfaithful husband. I can bringing uphis name anytime, but twice in peach
they off I despise you with everyfiber. But he's not the president anymore,
semendes, I still despise him.He's in the news every day.
How do you like today? Infact the same? But is that a
witch hunt? And I honestly don'tknow if it is. I don't I
(20:29):
don't know if he did anything illegal. I don't necessarily care that that much.
But he paid off a while andguess who was paid off, well,
President President Clinton paid off Women's Beautifulas well. Is it illegal?
You know, I'm not an attorneyon it. I don't know. Is
it immoral? Maybe because it isillegal? Lawyer didn't write a book attacking
(20:49):
him for being immoral. Trump's lawyerdid and still talking against him. I'm
not defending pres and the Trump forwhat I'm just saying, is it a
bit of a witch cost? Tome like you are, it sounds like
a witch It sounds like McCarthy areboth defending. McCarthy is defending the undefenseable.
(21:11):
I am not. I'm not defendingbecause I don't know enough about it.
So what do you want to know? I'll give you, He'll give
you'll give it him. But you'reyou're giving me unbiased information. Oh no,
the fact. I'll give you thefact, which is one thing that
annoys Republicans right now when you hearthe facts go back. Well, let's
do. We'll compare to you thingsBill Clinton compared Bill Clinton and President Trump.
(21:33):
Yes, they did the same thing. Yeah, they paid off woman
a woman hush moss money. Wedon't we don't know how much uh Clinton
paid, if he paid. Ithink he really have a check to prove
that he does. I thought evena minute, I mean I I don't
remember we have just do we havea check? No? I think his
case. Didn't that? I thoughtdeal that? No, No, no,
(21:57):
this was someone else? Know whatwas her names? I forget,
yeah, Jones, whatever her namewas. But I thought, clear,
you know all the names. Ican tell you the names. You're a
lot older than I I was.How was he young man? Have a
better memory? You have? Youhave Republican memory. So that that means
you don't remember the damn thing,and also the things you remember you can
(22:21):
you cannot defend. All right,So let's talk about current minister of this
discussion. Let's talk about local politics. So you I know you love the
decolitics, love you love the DemocratParty because you're saying how much you like
Bill Clinton. So let's talk aboutour current mayor and how is he doing.
I'm a Reagan man. You're aReagan man. Well, it sounds
(22:42):
like you're a Clinton man the wayyou just defended him. No, I'm
just defended the facts. The factswas no check, they were there.
The Lewinsky case against him had nothingto do with paying off and pretending that
this was a business deal and chargingit to your foundation from Bill Clinton,
(23:03):
Wow, I had no sexual relationswith that woman. Yes, so he
lied, he'd lied, and headmitted and then he said and he admitted
that, well, he didn't haveI think then he said he didn't have
intercourse with her, but there wereother sexual things that on my kids.
I'm not even gonna go there andaddress that she kept as evidence. So
(23:25):
yes, yes, so so we'llsay he's not perfect. No, he
didn't say grabbed by the grab himby the blank. Well, I'm not
defending him, but and I wouldn'tin that case. But outside of that,
the guy was a good precedent.He gone from the middle. He
was not an extremest he go.He knew how to govern, which is
(23:48):
more than we can say say hewas a moderate. I wouldn't disagree there.
I mean I can't. I thinkin hindsight, there were some things
that he did that were that werebad, like the deregulation of the financial
services industry that led to the collapseof the markets. I mean, and
I'll be honest with you, Iwas in favor of the deregulation of the
financial services industries. I didn't Ididn't see a problem with a bank doing
(24:10):
doing business in stocks. And Trumpdivorced and that too, deregulation all over
the place. He didn't regulated everything, the railroads, and that's why we
have this crash recently. I don'tknow if I could com blame that on
presle Oh. Absolutely one of thethings she did was deregulation. You could
not control some of the things thatwould have controlled this accident. That's what
(24:34):
I'm telling I'll have to look intoit. And don't have facts. We're
looking to look at a lot ofstuff to look into. Oh that fell.
Yeah, we're gonna hold it up. Should we just hold it up
in front of you? You'll you'll, you're you're gonna see after the fact,
that's gonna say Republican zone on yourshow, and you're gonna be upset,
like, why did you why didyou do compass Republicans zone? And
(24:56):
I am a guest on your show, mister you are to do that and
you are a very interesting guest.Yeah. Yeah, but being a good
Republican, you're gonna tell the truth. So here we are. So oh,
mister Mendez. But but you sayyou you you're not you don't like
Republicans? Do you like Democrats?You send the opposite of what I just
(25:18):
said. But you man, Iknow you're a Regan man. But what
are you registered? Are you registered? Independent? Probably? Independent? Yeah?
Well you should, I don't know. I will tell you should register
one side. I don't remember,because you're not gonna able to vote in
the primary. I don't remember it. So why don't you just Okay,
I'll tell you registered Republican and youcan vote for me. I can get
(25:38):
you registered Republican on my phone infive minutes, mister Mendez. Let's do
that after the show. Will doit after the show. Yeah, it
might you be a little boring duringthe show to register you guys are a
publican. Yeah, right, peoplewill be witnessing something that it is probably
a detriment to my reputation. Wewon't tell anybody. Mister Well, um,
(26:00):
okay, So you would saying thatit was difficult to raise money,
yes, um. One is oneof the obstacles right now in terms of
raising money for Republicans, especially wellas a Republican. You don't have as
many Republicans in the city. Numberone. Another problem is is sometimes raising
money as a moderate like I ama moderate. I was a Democrat most
of my life. I didn't justswitch and become a very super conservative,
(26:25):
far right Republican. I still considermyself somewhat of a moderate, although the
further left the Democrat Party goes,the more republican I feel. But moderates.
You know, people who are passionateon the far left open their wallets
and it might not be as much. It might be twenty dours, you
know, twenty dollars at the time, and people on the far right open
their wallets the bottoms. You havefive to give you though you have five,
(26:49):
five hundred five. Just come on, mister Manum. We know you're
one of those wealthy people, soone of the poor people who will give
one dollar time. You're your housewealthy, so you can you could remortgage
your house and get a couple ofbucks all your house. I don't think
no, So that's why. Soso it's hard as a Republican, and
(27:10):
it is also oftentimes hard as amoderate. But you know, as I
tell a lot of my friends onthe main line in the suburbs, it's
time to start looking at Philadelphia politicsand paying attention because the Working Families Party
is trying to take two of theseats. As Working Family Parties members,
you also have to pay attention towho they're endorsing. They're endorsing Helen Gim
(27:32):
for mayor, they're endorsing a fewother candidates who are quote unquote Democrats because
they're trying to have more and moreinfluence on the city Philadelphia and the politics
within the city of Philadelphia. Itell people, if Jim hasher and I
are going to win in November.But if if by this our chance we
lose, then the Republican Philly GOP'sin trouble because we will. We could
(27:55):
have only one person on council.And even Brian O'Neal is getting ounge in
the northeast. I don't think,I know he's not gonna lose, but
you know, you could be lookingat a party in a few years that
that might not have anyone on council. And once they're I say, once
the Working Families is done quote unquotetaking over, because they're also taking over
the Democrat Party. I mean it'snot just Republicans they're trying to replace,
(28:17):
they are infiltrating the Democrat Party.Then their sites are going to be on
Bucks County, Delco, Monco,all the collar county. So I said,
you better pay attention to this.And I think the Pennsylvania goop is
they're looking at this race as awadership moment for the entire state because they
say we need You know, whenI say at a state level, the
(28:38):
pagop knows how important the race thatI am in is because they don't want
the Working Families Party and then havetheir sites on the suburbs. They already
have their sites on Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton. Now they're going to
start looking at the suburbs. Sothat's something that everybody should be looking at.
Now. The position on the ballotis important. Yes, how are
(29:00):
you? I picked number three,so there's six of us running. I
picked number three, so that's uh, Look, I'd rather pick number one,
but three is good. Three willbe you know, I never guarantee
anything, but three gets to methrough through the primary. And in twenty
nineteen I pick six and I camein six. I mean, that's how
important it can be, especially ina municipal primary, or turnout is not
(29:22):
going to be that high. Youknow, there's no there's no state senatorial
race, there's no obviously there's nopresidential race. These are purely municipal.
Number three. You have a chancebe there, five moving on, Five
will move on through the primary.Correct. So I again, I don't
ever want to say guarantee November.It's a whole different ball game November though,
(29:45):
it's gonna be Republicans because the Democratsare basically done after after the primary,
the five who win will well,they're gonna they're basically all council that
you won't even see them running anymore. They won't be spending money. Though
they'll spend maybe a little bit ofmoney, but they they won't really do
much. So in November it's theRepublicans versus the Working Families Party. But
see that alone is annoying that thatbecause they have nobody's gonna challenge them.
(30:12):
You know, well they are onthe ballot, They're just they're just gonna
they're gonna win votes. But whathappens in in race for mayor, for
instance, what the any Democrat becomesthe candidate for mayor after the primary,
it's sort of guaranteed that well,maybe not. I don't think this time
(30:36):
David O is a good candidate.We have an actual, you know,
former city councilman who was running formayor. Uh probably the first quote unquote
you know, viable Republican candidate formayor since Sam Katz, if remember Sam
Katz almost almost won. Is DavidO long shot? Yes? Uh?
And if he looks at if youlook at who's running on the Democrat side,
(30:59):
you know, someone like David Ohwould have a better shot against someone
like Helen gimm If if like ifif Allen dom One, someone who's quoted
unquote a moderate David would have aharder time someone like Helen gimm Wins,
who is an endorsed Working Families Partycandidate than David. You know, has
has has a better shot, andhe's got good right name recognition. I
wouldn't count him out. He's gonnasurprise some people. Okay, I'd like
(31:22):
to explore this a little bit more. It's almost encompass and usala mediadez in
convenue the Drew Mary who's running forcity Council at large, it's the Uhlan.
So it was almost an um wow. I mean because there a media
(32:20):
encompass Condon, Drew Murray stands theCampania Gunjo municipal City Council at large comor
Republicana in ternsas telemas commentarios et stemsover impuestos um Drew. So we we
(32:46):
have the Democrats have more more candids, you know, the Republicans only Yes,
they have uh Dea on the merrow. Yeah it's David. Oh and
then uh let's see if I canname all of them. There's Helen gimm
Rebecca Ryan Hart, Alan Dom,Jeffrey Brown, Derek Greene, Marie Canona
(33:10):
Sanchez, Sharrel Parker, Aman Brown, Judge Dillion, one more. Yeah,
Tom, I can't. I'm forgettingone. Uh, mister Bloom,
I forget I have apologists forget hisfirst name. Uh? Is that all
of them? Yeah? That Iget all of them basically. Yeah,
(33:30):
that's that's that's basically all of them. That's a lot. That's not that's
a lot of candidates. That meansthe person who wins could win with in
the Democrat primary over one hundred thousandvotes. That's that's very possible, which
is only let's do the mass sixsix seven percent of the people United,
People United people in Philadelphia could choosethe next mayor. So um, it
(33:54):
will turn out that let's say,uh, either Brown or a Donato Roady's
been millions minutes running. They willbe paying like tow one hundred thousand for
each vote. Yes, exactly.Yeah. Well well, and it's interesting
if you look at Alan dum andJeffrey Brown, people say that they're they're
they're they're too similar, they areare white, Jewish successful. I think
(34:20):
they cancel each other out. AndI like Alan. I think I think
he is a moderate. H JeffreyBrown, I don't know him, but
I you know, I think ifyou look at what he's done in communities,
in in what our former food deserts, and he opens businesses and and
hires people who are formerly incarcerated,I think he seems like a good person.
I don't know him personally, butit seems like a good person,
(34:42):
a good business person, you wouldthink a good candidate. He doesn't have
the experience in government that Hope wouldhave that Alan does, but I think
they cancel each other out. Um. I think Ada has an advantage in
terms of that experience also, UM, I mean he was from this from
and I think he's a good candidate. He has also good ideas about it
(35:06):
educationally. Did you ever back up? I tried. I invited Heart.
She wasn't my show before. Sureas the control and I have all the
connections and all that's have it andsome of the people responded, but then
there was no final There are somany events that uh, they go to
that I think they're stretched thin.They just don't have the time yet.
(35:30):
I run the Philadelphia cross On Coalitionand we're doing two forums, and we
were and when we were organizing them, So one's gonna be on Tuesday next
week on the twenty eighth of Marchand one on April twelfth. You know,
I said early on, I said, if there are a lot of
forums, you're gonna see kennidates cancel. Yeah. Prior to and we had
basically everyone say yes, but recentlythey have been saying no because they're too
(35:50):
many. In fact, some candidatesreached out to us and said, can
you combine forums with other with othergroups, because there's just too many and
they're all about the same thing.Crime, that's all. That's all.
That seems to be the main focusof most campaigns. And we're having two
forums and purposely we did one noton crime, because we knew that everyone
(36:10):
was going to do one on crimeand we'd just be another forum where they're
asking the same question right so overand over again. So that's whybably why
you're having some trouble, because thesecandidates are stretched. Then I can see
it um there when they walk inthe room, you can tell exhaust Yeah,
which is a good thing. Makethem work for it, I mean,
might make them get out there andtell their story and tell us what
(36:31):
they're going to do to be abetter mayor than our current mayor. Just
just briefly, because I'm not talkingabout the other tuitions, but the taxes
um. Name one or two thingsthat you would do that that should be
done in terms of crime in thecity, as as what the mayor candidate
(36:51):
should do first and foremost, Iwould come out publicly and denounce our current
district attorney because our current district attorneyis not doing his job. He is
not prosecuting criminals. And according toeverybody who has left his office, his
office is in disarray. He doesn'tknow how to run an office. You
know, he was he was acriminal defense attorney. Uh, and he
(37:15):
kind of still runs his office thatway. He doesn't. That's the first
thing I would do, come outin publicly. Look, we can't take
him out of office. He wasvoted in. Now he was voted in
with like two or three percent ofthem. But within weeks of his u
taking him to the job, alot of people, well, he fired
a lot of people because he didn'twant which Look, you come in your
(37:35):
your it's your office. Now youcan do that. But he fired a
lot of experienced attorneys and brought inpeople who accepted and filed his ideology.
And that's and they weren't experienced.I mean it and it loves me one
thing. But what else can wedone can be done about crime? Um?
You know I would I would dosomething. You know. Number one
what I would not have done isI would not have paid out over nine
(37:59):
million dollars to protesters who stormed VineStreet Expressway. I mean, we just
rewarded people who did illegal behavior.Again, peaceful, peaceful protesters don't go
on expressways. If you want tomarch down the Ben Franklin Parkway where police
can control you and control traffic andcan let ambulances through and all of that.
(38:20):
Fine, when you go out ona Vine Street expressway, you are
no longer a peaceful protester. Whenyou're on the Vinetre Expressway and you're jumping
on top of cars and spray paintingcars and spray painting walls, you were
no longer a peaceful protester. Andour mayor just gave them nine million dollars,
nine million dollars that could have beenused for programs to prevent gun violence.
You know, let's invest in communities, underserved communities to keep these people
(38:42):
from going into into a life ofcrime, which is what you know.
Look, this gun violence that wehave now it's all related, mostly related
to drugs, right, so wegotta we gotta stop, you know,
the drug trade and in a complexproblem, violence to poverty. Absolutely,
just do a good education and allthat. That's all we know that.
(39:06):
So we could have had that ninemillion dollars. Instead we gave it to
people who got who got us who'stier guess because they would not leave the
vine should express So when we havea few minutes to talk about things you
want to do address or now they'retalking to city council today, they're there.
There there's no votes, and Idon't even think there's any legislation officially
on on the on the bookshet,but they are talking about rent control.
(39:30):
And you look at any municipality thathas tried rent control, it does the
opposite. All it does is controlrent on some parcels while the rents in
other areas skyrocket, So it causesthe opposite effect. Look at Manhattan,
Manhat experience, the experience. Yes, they tried rent control, and it's
great if you are in one ofthose rent controlled properties, but everywhere else
(39:54):
gets way more expensive. It doesn'twork. It's and again socialism, it's
it's more proof that socialism or communismdoesn't doesn't work. It sounds great on
paper, Hey, everyone works,everyone does this, and you know,
everyone gets money and and and wedon't have super rich, we don't have
super poor. Everyone just is kindof in the middle. But it doesn't
work, and it's been proven notto work. And rank control is absolutely
(40:16):
Manhattan as the poster child on whyrank control doesn't work. But people legislators,
like the Working Families Party, theyjust want to keep doing it.
They just want to well, weknow, we know what we did wrong
in the past. Now we're goingto do it differently. That's how many
times have you heard that argument.We know how to do it correctly.
So they're talking about that in citycouncil today. And if if, if
(40:37):
God forbid, they have all theircandidates win in November, which they won't,
you could see rank control coming tothe city of Philadelphia. Wow,
it's one of those things that thatyou send them see it coming like a
deluge, and said, like,let's hope we can do something. But
and this is who it hurts alot too, Like everyone talks about these
(40:59):
rich landlords like you know and andand you know the eviction process that Helen
Game put in place during a pandemic, which was honestly needed. Then when
people didn't have money during the pandemic, Yes we can. That's one of
the people who actually own that Irented during the pandemic. I lost a
lot of money. Yeah exactly.And but everyone thinks it's these rich landlords
like PMC are just oh, theycan afford everything. Most of the landlords
(41:22):
in the city Philadelphia are are probablylike yourself, people who that's your income,
I have to sell it, yea. And so when when you have
legislation that that number one prevents evictionswhen from people aren't paying their rent or
provides you know, free uh,free attorneys to people who aren't paying their
rent, but not providing free attorneysto the small landlords. You know,
(41:45):
how is that fair? And nowyou're gonna put rent control on a lot
of these parcels that are owned bylandlords who that is there that is their
way limit. I mean, weknow you're rich, mister Mendez, we
know you're coming to my fund raiseron Friday, But now most landlords are
like you, they're they're not Youlive off the rent from the properties and
(42:06):
you cannot or to lose money inthat scent because you keep paying more and
more taxes. As we know wehave to state, they just keep going
up. I still have a coupleof small properties, and I know the
taxes keep going up. My taxeswent up forty percent this year in one
year. My income didn't go upforty percent. I know nobody. Nobody's
(42:27):
did income one up forty percent.But they did it anyway, and they
did not They didn't have to.The mayor and council could have looked at
it and changed the millage rate andsaid, you know what, just because
you know, values of properties wentup because of comps in the area,
in those neighborhoods, they could havechanged the millage rate so some people still
would have gone up, but theycould have done it so that it wasn't
(42:47):
a tax increase. They basically puta tax increase without by saying at the
same time, well, we're notraising taxes. The millage rate is the
same. Your your parcel just wentup forty percent. But I again,
because it is absolutely ridiculous, who'swhose whose income goes up forty percent?
And now they said they didn't.They it was over a two three year
period of the pandemic but yeah,that's still a ten fifteen percent increase.
(43:10):
Yeah, every year of those yearsmy income didn't go up ten True.
I hope you you becoming a memberof city council. Thank you. We
vote for me, and well,yes, I will work for you and
I'll be calling you every day tosay what's happening here? What has happened?
If you get a pothole, you'regonna call me every day, mister,
yes, and I'll come fix it. Thank you for coming. True
(43:31):
welcome. I mean so interested USALAmedia. It's just a program Compass and
Company had that, Drew Murray.It's um colding about a city council at
large. I would see what Tomas, but I do that. Mos uh.
It's just past. The Republican Zoneis brought to you by Drew Murray
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