Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just out of eight o six here fifty five Kercity
Talk stas you a very happy Wednesday to you listener.
Lunch Wednesday, Weed Them and Brewery in Saint Bernard. I
have to see you there and I'm always happy to
have Hamilin County Prosecuting Melissa Powers on the program. Of
course we need to keep Melissa Powers as Hamilton County Prosecutor.
This Novembers vote is all critical and all important in
the name of law and order and prosecuting the bad guys.
(00:22):
Vote Melissa Powers. You can find her online Powers for
Prosecutor dot com. Melissa Powers, Welcome back to the Morning Show.
It's always great having you on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thanks Brian, good morning. It's great to be here once again.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Of course you're on because we need to vote for you,
but you're also wanting to help us understand why it's
a good thing maybe to engage in the early voting process,
something that Republicans are kind of behind the times on.
Democrats have always taken advantage of early voting and it's
worked to their advantage in a lot of races. You
can vote, vote early, get it out of the way
(00:56):
that way. On election day, maybe if you can't make it,
you're sick. You still have voto did already. Is that
your position?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Absolutely? And we keep getting beats. And when I say we,
the conservatives or the independence that lean conservative, seem to
get beat by this early voting. So the Democrat has
an incredible machine. They're absolutely doing a fantastic job getting
the early voters out, blessing them directly in person to
(01:27):
the Board of Elections to vote. And we need just
to do a better job the election. There's sometimes the
elections get so there's so much in the early vote
and so many ballots cast so early on that any
type of conservative leaning candidate is in such a deficit
it's so hard to make up on the day of
the election. So we want to encourage everyone get out
(01:50):
to vote. Vote early. It's safe, it's secure, it's legal.
And the last presidential election, sixty percent of all the
votes cast that were cast early, either by mail or
by going in person to the Board of Elections. So
we want you to get out and vote. Vote early.
It's convenient. You know, obviously life can be unpredictable, and
(02:14):
if you get your ballot in early, there's an entire
month that you can cast your votes, either in person
or by mail. I think mail is the easiest. I
would encourage everyone to do the mail because you can
do your research on your candidates, vote the entire ballot,
making sure and then putting it back in the mail
is perfectly fine and safe. If you are worried about
(02:37):
your ballot that you put in the mail, it can
always be tracked at the Board of Elections website. So
it's really great.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
It is. It's easy to and I would immediately it's
interject while I can props for the Hemlin County Board
of Elections. I've gone there and voted early. I've been
there on days when there's a line. It moves quickly.
It's efficient, it's simple to do. I'm glad they put
it there as opposed to where it used to be
in downtown Cincinnati. Because there's plenty of parking, it's easy
to get in and out of. There's really no downside
(03:08):
to going in and vote in the Board of Elections early.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
You're absolutely right, it's really easy. I think you know.
I know that my ninety year old mother voted the
last presidential election at the Board of Elections and waited
in line for a very very long time, So this
time we're encouraging her to vote by mail. She's already
submitted her application to vote by mail. Anyone can request
(03:33):
an application, and just recently, every registered voter in Ohio
received an absentee vote by mail application from our Secretary
of State. So it's not a scam. We want to
make sure that you know. Just fill that out, mail
it back in, and by October eighth, when early voting starts,
you'll receive your ballot in the mail.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Well, it's simple to do. I got mine the other day,
and there was some confusion among the listening audience. I
had some and call in and say I got a
ballot sent to me in the mail, and in fact
it was not about it actually was the application to
absent d vote, So yeah, don't be confused by that.
I'd also pay attention to who's sending because what you'll
(04:15):
get should be from the Secretary of State's office, not
some other entity.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Exactly, and it's you'll be I've received mine. It was
very easy to tell that this was and I thought
it was a wonderful convenience fire Secretariat State to mail
that to registered voters. It's even easier because I had
already gone online to the Board of Election myself and
you know, a printed off the application and mailed it
(04:45):
in and I realized I even have to do that
because it was sent to me by the Secretariat State.
So if you haven't gotten that, I would go make
sure you're registered. You have to register prior to October seventh,
and you do that by going on the Board of
Elections website. If maybe you've moved to a different location
within Hamilton County or in whatever county that you are,
(05:06):
make sure that you check that. I think that's not
a bad idea. But what I really want to stress
too is that once you get your ballot, it's this election,
at least in Hamilton County, it's never been more important
to fill out the entire ballot. We have a number
of judicial candidates that are on the ballot. We want
to make sure that you're voting for candidates that support
(05:29):
law in order, that follow the law, and that will
make sure safety. Your safety is important when they make
their decisions.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, and it's easy to do. The Hamilton County Republican
Party has taken care of that. They have identified those
judges who are tough on crime and who are great
about law and order and who actually will you require
bail for folks who are likely to flee the jurisdiction
or otherwise commit heinous crimes while they're out on bail.
We've runted a lot of problems with that, and you've
done a wonderful job on your Facebook page highlighting the
(06:04):
judges that do and do not have a set bail properly.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Thank you. We want to make sure that the information
is getting to the voters and that you know, a
lot of people don't get the news from inside the
courthouse and so they can form their own opinion. We're
just stating the facts of you know, this judge did
set a low bond or no, they had an o
R bond, which is no cash having to be posted
(06:31):
on gun charges or serious offenses where we're concerned about
the safety of the community. So we want to point
that out. But we also point out judges that set
good bonds, you know, and that we buil are good
bonds on serious cases. And you can make your own
opinion based on that too. You may agree or disagree
(06:51):
that at least you've got the information.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
It's easy to find all those judges right there at
Hamilton kundarepublican party dot org. Just click on candidates and
thank you from Donald Trump all the way down to
the Supreme Court judges, into the Juvenile Court judges and
Domestic relations Court judges, etc. They're all right there. It's
easy to do and take the time to do that
in advance because so many people are caught off guard
(07:14):
when they get into the voting booth and it kind
of amazes me. But then again, me having a connection
with the judicial system to some degree, give them my background.
I'm interested in the judicial races. But if you walk
in uninformed, that's a real puzzler when it comes to
election day because they're usually not identified by party status,
unless of course they're on the pink slip or the
(07:34):
blue slip. My understanding, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I was just going to say, you're absolutely early voting.
What helps us? And some people think, well, why vote early?
I'm just going to do it on election day and
I can tell you it does help. It'll help my campaign,
It'll help a number of campaign We're watching who am
the data coming in, what groups are voting, what's not
And it actually helps save us money on the campaign
(07:59):
because we're tracing or tracking down voters or voter groups
that haven't already voted, and we want to get them
out to vote. So it does help the campaigns if
you vote early, and it saves us money because we
can identify who's participated or who we need to encourage
to get out there and vote.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Excellent, excellent point on that one A twenty one fifty
five Arrisey. You talk today Bran Thomas with Hamilin Kenny
prosecuting Melissa Powers. It's Powers for prosecutor dot com. You
can help her out like my mom did. My mom
went door to door for you the other day. Prosecutor Powers.
Just let you know that she met you at that
event and she got a bunch of materials and just
started door knocking in her neighborhood. So there's one little
(08:42):
bit of effort on your behalf because she's impressed with
you and she knows how important law enforcement is. But
pivoting over.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That's wonderful, that's really great news. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Eighty four years young and doing the door knocking. She's dedicated.
So anyway, I wanted to ask you about the changes
to the the juvenile justice system. I understand, Governor to
one could it a task force and then came back
with some recommendations, So can you explain to my listeners
what those are and what that's all about.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
So the task force was set up and I think
they worked for about nine minds and at the end
they made a twenty six different recommendations to the governor.
Now none of this is law yet. The governor then
is encouraging the state legislature to incorporate the changes into law.
So I think it's a wonderful thing that the task
force was set up. Obviously there's different areas in juvenile
(09:35):
law that needs improvement and so or things that we
can be doing better so that we are the keeping
the public safe. So we're wonderful. I think they're wonderful
that he put that together. Now, until it's law, nothing
will take effect and nothing will be happening. But I
(09:55):
agree with overall, what the changes have been recommended is
smaller secured facilities versus these larger ones. There's only three
in the state of Ohio the Department Used Services. They
want to create more regional, small, smaller locations of secured facilities.
One would actually be in Hamilton County, which I think
(10:16):
is great. We used to have a small facility and
called Hillcrest where families could participate in therapy and counseling
and be part of the rehabilitation process. So I think
that it will be very effective. Hillcrest should, in my opinion,
still be opened and available. It was the only one
(10:40):
in the state that was of that facility, so I
think they're modeling it or have some similar ideas about
the smaller secured facilities. But some of the recommendations have
to do with weakening sentences or dispositions for kids when
they have guidance being used to commit crimes, and I'm
(11:00):
strongly opposed to anything that will put us in jeopardy
in our public safety. I think it's simple, it's common
sense that absolutely there should be no reason for a
child to have a gun or to use a gun
to commit a crime. I think the penalty, if they
stay strong, can hopefully deter future conduct or somebody even
(11:26):
considering it. But if you weaken that, I think that
that could be at risk. The deterrent could be at risk.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Sounds dead on to me. Getting in a juvenile I mean,
that's the most important time if the juveniles involved in
the criminal justice system. I mean, that's the perfect time
to get them out of it. And there's got to
be a better path than leniency. I mean putting them
in programs, maybe they need drug counseling, whatever the case
may be, mental health assistance. But if they're showing criminal
(11:55):
behavior at a very young age, we got a real
problem on our hands because it's only going to get
worse absent really solid intervention.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
You're absolutely right, And I think, you know, I have
experience as a prosecutor, practicing in juvenile court, as a
defense attorney, and then as a judge, and I think
that's the primary difference between my opponent and I in
this election. She has I don't believe she ever handled
a case in juvenile court, has no experience dealing with
(12:25):
juvenile crime, has no experience you know, as a lawyer
with juvenile violence. And I don't know if someone like that,
if she was, you know, running the prosecutor's office, could
recognize the weaknesses and what it's being proposed and where
to make sure the fights for public safety. And as
you know, my opponent wasn't even licensed to practice law
(12:48):
last year. Yeah, so when we you know, there's a
big difference in this election.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
You know, and as you as we part company, and
as you mentioned that, as we part company, I can't
believe this is even remotely a close race. You are
so far superior in terms of your background, your knowledge
on the subject matter, your experience on the job, and
your ideas for the future. So vote Hamilton Kuty prosecuted
(13:14):
Melissa Powers and do what my mom did, go door
to door and hand out some flyers and talk to people.
It's Powers for prosecutor dot com until we get to
talk again. Keep up the great work. I wish you
all the best on the campaign, Melissa Powers.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Thank you, Brian, have a great day you too.