Episode 42 - EBR Parish's Mason Batts

Dave and Drew interview EBR Parish Wunderkind Mason Batts about his age, campaign win streak, and EBR Parish government.

Plus, Dave and Drew read your texts about Justice of the Peace, Dearman's and more.

It’s Baton Rouge news without the press releases — The Sadvocate Podcast with Dave & Drew.

Text the show: 225-255-2480
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and TheSadvocate.com.

Listen & Connect: New episodes of The Sadvocate Podcast are released every week! 

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·         Join the Community: Join our Facebook group, "The Sadvocate Podcast". 

·         Contact Us: Text your comments, suggestions, or questions to 225-255-2480. 

Listen & Connect: New episodes of The Sadvocate Podcast are released every week! 

• Listen: Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and TheSadvocate.com. 
• Follow: Follow TheSadvocate on Facebook, Instagram, and X. 
• Join the Community: Join our Facebook group, "The Sadvocate Podcast". 
• Contact Us: Text your comments, suggestions, or questions to 225-255-2480. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back. It is the Savagate Podcast, Dave and Drew, episode 42. Your host, uh the legendary in his own mind, Dave Rapolo, writer at The Savagate. I think that was was that improvised? Yeah, I went off script on that. Sorry. Let's see what you say about yourself. Uh and uh Drew Merle, legend in his own mind, as well. St. George City Councilman, local attorney, candidate for justice of peace, licensed minister. What else? Anything else?

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Mayor Pro Tem. All around bad. Mayor Pro Tem.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Friend of the Animals. All around badass. Volunteer? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Volunteer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Because it shows you don't get paid for the show. Cleaned up some trash on Segan just the other day. Cleaned up some trash on Segan. Not that there's much. No, not that there's much. You know what there's not on Seagan? Panhandle. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Today feels like deja vu. Why is that, Drew? Because it feels like we're saying a name that we said in a previous episode, but then the chair was empty then, and now the chair is full.

SPEAKER_04 0:59

I have a theory on why Mason Batts didn't show up to the first Savague podcast he was scheduled to. He found a lopo, how to get mentioned on the podcast twice. He he found the Wade Evans podcast. He figured it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

He figured it out. That's actually really smart. But you know, I I listened to that podcast. It was the first one I'd listened to. Uh it was very good. It was, it was, it was very, it was very good. Well, and I'm happy to know I was indeed the first to skip out on you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

If you have to be a first, that's not a bad one because we'll always come back and beat up on you about it. Very first. I mean, you're getting almost as many mentions on the podcast now as as Wade Evans. We give a shirt to every guest now that says, hey, at least I'm not Mason Betts.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

At least there you go. But but think about it. If I if I wouldn't, if I would have shown up, Drew wouldn't have had an hour to talk about his run for justice of the peace.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

So great. It's absolutely true. So did he pay you to not show up? Am I what's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say number one. We don't talk about paying government officials. We do not do that in this room, and this is probably not the one that we would talk about getting paid as a government official either way.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

That's true. That's true. No.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Uh yeah, Mason hasn't been indicted.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Don't even mention his word with indictment.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

They're chopping down government officials in East Paton Rouge every week who doesn't even want that. I will tell you something. I think he'll agree with me. When I see all these indictments coming down, all I can think is I wouldn't even know the process to steal government money. Like I really don't. I have no idea how someone would actually take government money. It's a good thing to get on the record, Drew. Just making sure it's clear.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Well, actually. Actually, I I had similar thoughts, and it turns out it is allegedly in other pla in other uh states, it's uh simpler than it may seem.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

It may be, it maybe it is. It's not something I thought about.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Uh at clearly, I tell you, someone referred to me to watch this movie, and it's called Um Bad Education. It came out, I think, 2002. It's a really good movie. It's got a great cast. Hugh Jackman is the main character. It's based off of a true story. Uh, but you guys and the listeners need to go watch this movie, and it's about a superintendent of a really well-performing school district in New Jersey.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Okay, so no similarities. No, you said well performing, so clearly.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

No, well performing. But when he took over, it was not well performing. Oh. But he was kind of very energetic and very charismatic, and he goes in and he takes over this school district. Well, ends up his number two, that was like his kind of his his person there at the school district, she was using the uh school credit card for all kinds of things. And one day she was doing some more home renovations on one of her multiple houses she had, and she gave that credit card to her um son-in-law or nephew, and he went to Ace Hardware to get all this stuff, and they saw the card and called the school school board and said, Hey, hey, what's the deal? Well, it turns out uh she had stolen about, I don't know, I think they when the uh by the time they confronted the superintendent, they had found about $250,000 worth of fraud. And this is in 2002.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Well, what they didn't know was the uh put you a good patio on the Sherwood Forest house.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Yeah, sure. And what they didn't know was uh there was another about six hundred thousand dollars worth of fraud left outstanding.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

So was he spent in Ridge Parish, true? Hold on.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

You bought me well performing, but you brought me back. But wait, there's more. Uh so they kind of okay, so she goes off quietly and they basically don't report it. The school, you know, the school board, because they don't want to they don't want to tarnish the good name with this because all the economy is booming in the area. But a s uh um a local uh student at the school and she uh was encouraged by the superintendent to, you know, pursue her uh uh her journalism and so she starts writing these articles and she gets really into these records and uh she ends up seeing all these payments to this one uh this one place in in New York, but can't figure out what it is. So she's gonna go and take a train down to New York and goes and visits that that home or that business. Well, it turns out it's a um a apartment in New York in a in a high-rise building, and as she's you know going to to leave, the door opens and there's the school superintendent, and she runs out. Turns out the school superintendent had stolen over like two and a half million dollars from the from the school, and getting rid of his uh assistant was just to protect himself.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Oh, so great.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

And he was leading a a secret uh uh gay life too. Uh definitely not our school.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

Our government officials are cool enough not to steal that much money. They just keep it on the D. A couple 20, 30 grand, man. We're not gonna hit y'all that hard.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Our officials are shortchanging it. Yeah, but I mean, you know, doing a good job.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

Yeah, yeah. They're not they're not gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

A great movie, though. Again, basically. I want to say I've heard of that movie before, but I'll definitely check it out. I watched Bad Teacher the other day with Cameron Diaz.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

When someone told me about education, that actually was what I thought of. I said, I don't think that's the movie introduction. That's not appropriate, no.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

Yeah. No, that was a good show. Good movie. Enjoy that show. You can talk about that here on the Savaging Pipe.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

No one stole the money in Bad Teacher. But let's get back to introducing our guests. Okay, so Mason Bass is here. Mason, what is your official title with the I don't know. And I even get- Neither do I.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Yeah, I get called a lot of things. Um friend of the mayor. No, uh, I think my official title is assistant chief administrative officer.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Assistant chief. And who's the chief administrative officer?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

We do not have a chief administrative officer. Okay. Officially. We have that's right. We have uh we have a uh chief advisor because according to the plan government, uh, which was written so greatly, uh in order to be a uh actual the actual CAO, you have to be an employee. Well, Christelle Slaughter, who serves the administrative functions, is a contract worker, so we had to come up with that title.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So uh smaller government through privatization is something the home rule charter is not a huge fan of.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

It's not. And we actually were actually saving almost a hundred thousand dollars by doing it that way because she happens to have health benefits and everything else from her other business, so we kind of saved that on the back end.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

So let's let's talk about how you got here.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Um you were you were the head of the campaign, right? I was and was that your first campaign?

SPEAKER_02 7:12

No, I I did my first campaign in in 2018.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Okay. And who was that?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

That was a guy um that was in Shreeport, Louisiana.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Okay, you're from 2018, 26 minus 18 is eight, minus your age. You were how old?

SPEAKER_02 7:26

I was in the I was in the eighth grade. So Okay. Eighth grade. You were eighth grade. You did a campaign in eighths.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

You want to feel like a complete loser. Just listen to Matt Mason talk about his age and what he's accomplished, and then go, God, I'm he just had me at eighth grade doing a campaign. He gotcha. Not a school, this was not like city council for school or like school council, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:45

No, no, no, no. This this was for city council, city of Shreeport. Okay, a guy named James Slurry, and he ended up being elected in district E.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

Um, this was just something you were interested in doing, so you said I'm gonna try to be a candidate.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Well, I I I how it happened was I had been involved, um, I had volunteer, kind of been involved in politics at a young age, and I had volunteered for a couple of campaigns. Um when Mike Johnson ran for Congress in 2016, I was able to volunteer and you know knock doors and wave signs. I guess I would have been in sixth grade. Now he was a family friend, so none of my no none of my family has ever been in politics, but we all went to the same church as Mike Johnson. Um so I knew Mike and actually his mom used to pick me home from school when I was in elementary school, take me home from school, an elementary school. Um, and then from there, so I had some experience, and then James needed a he didn't he wanted to run, but didn't really know what you know the deal was. And uh I mean he hired an eighth grader, obviously. And I look and look, and in all in all honesty, I didn't know that much either, but I did have a maybe a little more knowledge in some things than he did.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

His first speech was like, We're gonna extend recess and we're gonna have an extra role. Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I mean the other day I'm writing this uh helping my my my uh 12-year-old write a speech for student council, and I'm thinking this is what it sounds like, you know, so he's running real campaigns.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

There you go. Um, so so he was successful, and then I went to work for him um in the city uh for the city council in the city council. What, 13? No, I had to wait, I had to wait, um, I had to wait until 2020 to be old enough uh to do it. 16? Uh 15, 16, something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, 15, you can work it's a limited number of hours.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yeah, so I'd and so I did that. Um then we kind of started talking about him running for mayor, which would have been 2022. Um sadly, he got sick uh with cancer and ended up passing away, so that uh didn't happen. But a guy by the name of Tom Arsenaux did end up running for mayor, and I uh got and through some of the people I had met kind of organizing his James's run for mayor, I got to meet Tom and was a part of that campaign and uh still really close with Tom and Elizabeth Arsenault. Um and Tom got elected mayor of Shreeport. He's up again this year for re-election, and that kind of marks my four years. I guess now I'm coming up that I lived in Baton Rouge, because um Cindy Edmonds, uh wife of uh current Senator Rick Edmonds, saw on Facebook that I had been involved in that campaign and uh remembered my family from uh Calvary Baptist Church in Shreeport and uh sent them a message and asked if I ran campaigns, and the person who did Rick's previous campaigns uh had moved off or whatever and they needed somebody. And in uh January of 2023, I came to Baton Rouge and interviewed with Rick and ran was brought on to run his Senate campaign.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Okay, and and you were actively involved with that Senate campaign, and he won.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

And he won.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

So you're like three for three.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Well, and I did Lauren Ventrella's uh campaign.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

Who I've been trying to get on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

She would be a great great, much more entertaining than me.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

She said she definitely wanted to come when we get cameras because she looks fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Well, here's a new audio podcast. Let me just say, and you can click this, you can send it to her. You better make sure she looks fabulous because if she doesn't, you will not be allowed to use that. And I'm sure Drew might be in some litigation over that.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

It's true, she is an attorney. So you're four for four. Wait, you're five for four.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

I can I don't even I don't even remember at this point.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

So you did you run for student counsel in school?

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Um, yes, I was uh student body president uh in in middle school, and I was student body president for four years in high school.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Where'd you go to high school?

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Went to Calrie Baptist High School in Shreveport, Louisiana.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

So the Shreveport Councilman, the Shreveport Mayor, Edmonds, Ventrella, Sid Edwards.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Sid Edwards, that that's right. Five for five. That's right. You know what I think I think I'm remembering all of them.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I'll tell you now, I think it's your fault that we don't have the city of Ellerby. Well, uh if if Tom Arsenaux is not the mayor, they are moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Uh there is a chance. Um I I think that legally, I think the argument's a little different than St. George because they were unincorporated, y'all they couldn't really ultimately weren't allowed to use that statute that they tried to use against you. But in Shreveport, they may have a chance. Although I still think there are some conversations about that.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

Is there a St.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

George S movement in Shreveport? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yes, that was one of the areas that would contact us along the way asking how we were doing, how it was going.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Well, one of the issues with that was they they chose to go with the name uh town of Forbing, and I don't I didn't really like that. So it didn't really have a really yes, he didn't have a really catchy name like St. George did. That's right. Ellerby would have had a better chance.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

You gotta go with something that involves like saints slaying animals.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yeah, you know, hey.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Anytime you can kill a dragon, a snake, you know, some sort of mythical evil creature.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Okay, so let's get back to your 100% campaign streak. What would you charge for a JOP campaign? I mean, Jesus, where was this?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Wow. I didn't know about the record.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Well, I I as a as Drew needs some help.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

You seen his video?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

As a city employee, I don't I don't know if I could uh partake, although I could give some friendly advice.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

He can just slide some stuff across the table. You can't moonlight? Hey, loser, can you post some better stuff online? Well, the good news is Drew has to quit doing the Savagate podcast.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Drew has two challengers, but neither one of them I think have acknowledged they're even running yet.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Every time you do this, the karma comes back on me. You're gonna run unopposed. You're gonna run unopposed. I got two opponents.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Yeah, let's talk about this for a second, Dave. I mean, Drew, let's let's think about this. I think he ran for uh city council. I wouldn't call it running. Well, exactly exactly. He he walked, yeah, he walked it, he walks in the job, and then I he I see one day he's been elected the uh mayor protem. Pro tem unopposed again. I didn't see there was an election for that either.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

We voted at a meeting.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

So and and now he's saying that he or you're saying that his opponents aren't really doing much. Are we sure he didn't go find these people just to say that he actually is running a racist?

SPEAKER_04 13:41

That's what I was thinking because neither one of them posted anything on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Could you please stop me?

SPEAKER_04 13:45

I called one of them, she's like, what the hell is JOP? So I don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Right. Right. I swear all I want all I want is somebody to call us one day and demand equal time so we can be we're a legitimate media. Here we are.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

I did see one morning on Facebook uh that you guys did the Brian Haldein show. We did do the Brian Haldein.

SPEAKER_04 14:09

How was that? Well, let me tell you, um, Brian's got a restraining order against us now because the ratings were so good.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Did y'all do better than when Wade Evans was the guest host? Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

How can you not admittedly, how can you not do it?

SPEAKER_01 14:23

We don't talk about surfing for three hours.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

We didn't talk about central politics for two hours, 59 minutes, and then do one hour of the year.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

They all have different Facebook groups to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

The 400 people running for central mayor. Yeah. Drew did some improv traffic on the show. It was on point. It was so good. Like you didn't need to get, I mean she tosses Drew and goes, Hey, you want to do traffic? Drew goes, yeah. When she goes, three seconds, Drew goes, okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Well, I thought I didn't know if I was gonna make it here on time. I was stuck in traffic on the uh the DMZ between uh Baton Rouge and St. George. Some people know it's Blue Bonnet. Yeah, um, but I made it, so we're okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, we'd like to have a buffer area, kind of like a wild west area.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

Well, I got news for you. If Drew, uh if Drew wins the JOP seat, the the uh studio will be closer to you because he'll be moving out somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

I'm gonna move into St. George.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Yeah. Right now we're in actually in the city of Baton Rouge. Yeah, shh, shh. It's all good.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Happy you pay your taxes out of here. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

So careful.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

So you can look at the property value of this place.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

You said your assistant CAO. Is that what your official job is?

SPEAKER_02 15:26

I believe so, but uh kind of we kind of don't believe in titles really at the mayor's office at this point.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

We kind of go veto a couple of bills, do a couple of EO.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, you know, go work.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah, it's like, you know, kind of just we all have our roles and we all kind of play them and then we all kind of interlace together. Um now, two people that really that that really have a pretty defined title in the office is uh former Chief Jeff Leduff, who is uh assistant chief administrative officer over public safety, and William Daniel, who is assistant chief administrative officer over public works. But even that really doesn't work because although he oversees public works, he also oversees um our office of community development and everything that goes under that umbrella, which is all our federal programs, and then uh he oversees the River Center as well. So it's kind of a we all kind of, you know, we have a much uh much tighter staff um than when the previous mayor, so all the titles don't really work. But in order to change the title, you gotta go to council, and it just is a it's just a kind of an annoying process, so we just kind of just do whatever. Just do whatever.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So you're you're 4-0 in campaigns leading up to Sid Edwards' campaign. And to say Sid was probably the unlikeliest candidate for any office, at least in recent history.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah, you know, the funny thing about that is mathematically when Tom Arsena was elected in Shreveport, it was actually a much tougher race. And we had to get a lot more uh crossover votes than we had to in this race. Um and I saw that, and I actually gave a speech to the Republican women in November of 2023, and it was about electing a Republican mayor in a majority Democrat city, and we talked about some of the things we had done with Tom and how that could kind of translate, and um, and after that, that kind of turned into several people interested in looking to find a candidate, and we kind of started that process in uh early 2024, and we thought we had found one, it ended up not working out, and he didn't run. And he decided in March that he wasn't going to run. And uh and very interestingly, I kind of decided, well, I'm not gonna be involved in that and had just kind of gotten tired of it. Um but and I said I'm not gonna do any campaigns because at that point I'd been doing a pretty much a campaign a year um for the past three or four years, and so I didn't want to do it anymore. And I was gonna take a year off. I was still in school at that time, so I was gonna focus on school. I went and got my insurance license. I thought that was a good idea for about two days. Um didn't really do anything with it. Uh and then a guy wanted to run for Congress, and uh they redid the districts, and a guy wanted to run for Congress. His name was Elbert Gillary.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

And uh for the first time about two months ago.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

And I and actually he would have been a pretty good candidate, uh, but I thought Elbert needed to do some things differently than in his previous He could be kind of bombastic 18 races that he had run and not been successful in. But he he did have some qualities that could be good, and also the district was much tighter than you know the news media would care to admit. And uh and so I got involved in that, and I was maybe involved in that game for a month campaign for a month and a half. We had some managerial differences, so I I stepped down, and then right about that time uh I got a call that there was a guy who had just qualified to run, and it was the last it was the last day of qualifying, and qualifying I just it was six o'clock on a Friday, that there was a surprise candidate, uh Sid Edwards, a football coach, who I didn't know had gotten the race, and and the and the person was involved in getting them to run or helping them and encourage them to run. And I pretty much tell that person, well, he doesn't have a chance. Uh so I I you know I'll I'll talk to him, but he doesn't have a chance. I don't I'm kind of I don't want to do any campaigns this year. And then I went to one of this person's uh luncheons, so that should kind of tell you who this is, and uh and I heard him speak and he did really good. And I uh I gave my number to him and I gave him some advice about someone he should not hire that was in the room, that was uh someone you know, and you know this, Drew, and I'm sure Dave, you might too. When you do a campaigns, there are a lot of people, grifters, who want to come up and sell their let me put out 500 signs for you for $500 service, which is never true. Right. Uh and so I saw one of those people talking uh to the now mayor, and I said, Hey, look, the guy you're just talking to, don't do whatever he said because he's gonna scam you. Well, he got scammed. Uh and at that point he thought to himself, who was that kid who told me I shouldn't do that? I need I need someone to help me do this. And uh it was around Labor Day, right before Labor Day, and I went and met with him at like eight o'clock at night after football practice, and I kind of told him what I thought and what he needed to do versus not do. And uh he hired me and kind of the rest is history, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

Um, I believe I was just speaking to someone about that guy two days ago. Um, but yeah, yeah, there's a lot of those as I understand it.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Oh, out of the they come out of the woodwork pretty fast.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

Yeah, yeah. That's why it's great to run on a pose. You don't have to do all that.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah, you don't have to do it.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Now now I don't know what to do because I'll tell you what, for 400 bucks, I will put out 500 signs. That'd be great. Cash in advance. That'd be great. Cash.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Let me let me let me get the envelope out.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

So obviously, you saw that a Republican candidate faced an uphill battle in East Baton Rouge Parish. What do you attribute the win to besides all the free publicity from the Savagate?

SPEAKER_02 20:46

I mean, well, the the Savicate, of course, was the greatest help uh to the campaign. Absolutely. When the Savagate changed their banner picture on Facebook uh to one of Sid Edwards, which is actually the sign, I knew that boy, this this thing had legs. That's right. That's that was my next phone call. Um but I think so. Interestingly enough, you know, a lot of people in Baton Rouge don't won't like to hear this, and I so I don't say it very often. But there were a lot of similarities between what I saw happen in Shreveport and what I saw could happen in Baton Rouge. So I talked about the mayor's race in 2022, but in 2018 there was a different mayor's race. Um it involved uh two major black candidates, but also involved two major white candidates. Um the white candidates split the vote amongst themselves, both Republicans, and the uh the two major black candidates uh split the Democrat vote, but because there was so much more, they both advanced the runoff. That was Adrian Perkins and incumbent mayor Ollie Tyler. Um so Adrian Perkins was a a young, black, very energetic uh guy who had was gaining a lot of support from the white business community. Um and Mayor Tyler had been in one term but had kind of been Involved. She was a former superintendent of the school board, so had kind of always been involved in politics.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Nothing good happens there.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

That's right. I always I that is advice I tell people that want to have a political career. Don't ever run for the school board. Nothing ever good happens on the school board. But anyways, that may sound familiar. So I always kind of I would tell the campaign team later on in Sid's race, you can either we can either be 2018 or 2022. And that kind of became a known thing that we had to be the one Republican candidate to suck in all that vote.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

And what the math told us was in order for Ted James to get into the runoff, assuming Mayor Broome got f about 55% of the black vote. And I assumed she would get that. Assuming she got that, in order for Ted to beat us in the runoff, he would have to get 38% of the votes, of the voters who went to the polls in East Benton Rich Parish and pushed Donald J. Trump for president of the United States, they'd have to then go down and push Ted James. Which is which was mathematically nearly impossible. And I think it turned out that he got maybe 7% of those. Wow. So that was certainly what now I he may have done a little bit better uh with the black vote, but she did certainly got more than 50% of the black vote. I think it may have been more like 52%. So it was a bit tighter on her end. But the question was, and we definitely wanted to be in the runoff against Mayor Broom because she was the incumbent, she had the record. Um, but I think the mayor, the current mayor, but as a candidate, you had to have the right candidate. And that was a speech I gave the Republican women that you couldn't just pull any Joe Blow with an R next to his name. You needed somebody that had some crossover appeal to him.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

And and this mayor certainly, and that candidate certainly had that uh year years spent in North Baton Rouge and had a lot, he knew a lot of people. Um, and I think he turned out to be much better candidate than anyone thought, including me when I first heard that there was some football coach in an election. Now, when I heard him speak, I said, okay, this is somebody that has got crossover support. Right. Because when they first told me, I said, Well, where where is he, the coach of? Well, he was just the coach at Central for like 17 years. Well, in my mind, that was not somebody that was gonna have crossover support.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Too small of an audience, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Right, too and and and had been involved in an outlier city, and that wasn't, you know, that had nothing to do with any any kind of inner city connection, so where could he go with that? Um, but of course that turned out to not be true.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

I'll tell you what, um, right in the fat of the election, I had jury duty at uh the 19th JDC, and I cut through North Baton Rouge, I forgot, I came through Central and I cut through where Struma High School is.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Winburne.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

And I could not believe the amount of Sid Edwards mayor signs peppered through the Eric community. When I saw that, I was like, wow, that is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

And after the election, the funny part about that, a lot of those people refused when they came when the campaign team came to get the signs, a lot of those people refused to take them down. And uh the last one just fell because of the wind. No kidding. Uh but yeah, they were they were really energetic about who they were supporting for mayor.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Sid was giving a speech at Woodlawn Baptist Church, and I was asked to do an opening spiel or statement for it, and I said, Okay, I'll I'll do it. I got more calls from big time St. George supporters telling me not to give that speech because he could not mathematically win. There was no path to win. And these are pretty smart, prominent people, and I was like, you know what? I can't at the end of the day support either the candidate that they're all calling for Ted James.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

And I said, it doesn't matter. I know what Ted's record is. Uh y'all can love him all day long. It's not gonna be good for me if that guy gets elected. He literally opposes every single thing we support.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

Everything, everything.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

So I'd be better off giving a statement uh talking about Sid Edwards, who seems to be all I knew at the time was a great guy. Yes, his grandkids go to St. Thomas More or my kids go to school. Um, you know, everybody likes the guy who's ever met him. I'd rather take that and lose than support a guy who wins that I know is gonna be terrible for me later.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Yeah, and that was when I had that first meeting with the mayor, I told him I said the number one objective is you have got to convince people that you can win this race.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Because if you can't, you're dead.

SPEAKER_04 26:15

Period.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Smart, ed educated white voters will choose what they see, they perceive as the lesser of two evils, which is what I saw happen in Shreveport in 2018. And he ultimately, uh Adrian Perkins ultimately won that race. Now, it was a bit of a disaster, and he was a one-termer because of it. Um, but we had you had a split amongst the uh white voters. And if you remember at that time, there were several Republican candidates in the race. You had you had Sid, there was a woman who was a realtor who had qualified, and she ended up on the ballot. Uh you had a perennial candidate uh who runs for everything. What um I can't remember his name. It's uh we all know it. He's an attorney too, uh owns a bunch of rental properties. Anyways, he runs for everything. Steve Myers. Uh Steve Myers, nice guy, but he runs for everything. He was on the ballot. And there may have been one other and a couple of independents. So it wasn't like he was the only Republican. So when you go to vote for Donald Trump, you go and you look and you find you know, R. The other challenging thing was because he had never run for office, he didn't know that you didn't have to run with your legal name on the ballot. So he showed up as Emil Edwards instead of Sid Edwards or Emil Sid Edwards. So I was really concerned about that.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Um I thought he was trying to as you should be. I thought he was trying to court the Hispanic vote.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

There you go. Um not Emilio. That's right. Uh so but I told him you've got to call and convince these people that you can win because if you don't, they're gonna vote for somebody else. Yep. Um and and I think we did a really successful job. And one of the first parts is I had to convince Rick Edmonds, who was the first person to publicly endorse the now mayor. I had to pretty much call him and say, look, on my based on my personal relationship, I need you to do this because you'll start the ball rolling. And uh after when Sid got in the runoff, I got I got this a lot. I know Rick did too, and other people who eventually came out in support, sort of like that, was basically saying, Thanks, you have re-elected mayor broom. Oh, yeah, with what you have done.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

And uh I heard I heard a lot of that stuff. In fact, I tell you, I did not have a lot of confidence when I first saw Sid's resume. I'm like, here we go, because you had Bodie White ran in 17, and then Steve Myers were the no Steve Carter. Steve Carter. I'm sorry, Steve Carter, my bad. And and we just it didn't seem like I had a lot of energy, which is what I felt like you needed, you know, especially the Steve Carter the second time. I'm like, good Lord, it it's it's just it's a shame that's all we have. So when I said, okay, we got Edwards, what's he in his 60s?

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Yeah, he's he was 61.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

Another older white guy, Republican. I said, here we go again. So but I started following the campaign, right? And I was I was actually excited when I read his resume and saw what y'all were doing. And then comes the day at the LSU Stadium when I was down at Tailgate with some friends, and I believe it was Lon was walking around with the mayor, and we had a it was Ron McDaniel's uh tailgate party, had a huge crowd. And I was standing back there drinking some beer with some Savagate tumblers and um koozies, and Ron comes running through the crowd and says, Come, I need you to meet some. I'm like, I don't want me, buddy. I'm drinking. He says, No, you gotta meet someone. So he drove me through, and there's Lon and Sid. I'm like, hey, that guy looks familiar. I couldn't remember where I where he was. Of course, he had his Sid Edwards shirt on. And Ron told Lon, hey man, this is Dave that does that does some stuff on Savagate. And Lon goes, we've been looking for you. We've been we need you. So we took a picture of Sid with his Savagate koozie and posted it, and I mean it blew up. Yes, blew up.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

You know, and uh that was a pretty good, you know, you look for signs in campaigns of how you think. And actually, uh in all seriousness, when I saw that, you know, now you're kind of gaining some traction i in the community a bit where the campaign's going beyond just the political kind of circles and it's yeah, kind of getting in getting into the ether.

SPEAKER_04 29:58

Which which makes me wonder why I'll never pay my bill for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Yeah, well, three times and I think we called it an in-kind donation.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

That's right. It's uh goodwill. Just pay that kickback and and we'll be good. We'll be good. But um, so another story from the campaign before Sid emerged as a candidate, we reached out to um who ran against Sharon Breom? Ted James. Ted James, the brain fart. And he had followed the Savvy Gate and liked some Savagate stuff, even though we're mostly conservative leaning, but we we beat up on everybody. And I said, Listen, if you're if you're you're running, we'd be happy to partner with you and just do some stuff, right? Not full support, but just do some stuff to get you some publicity. I don't, you know. And he called and said, I love, I love everything. And if I win, I absolutely want to be memed every week. I love it. That's me. And he does have a good sense of humor. But he honestly told me, he said, Man, I cannot be a part of beating up on Sharon Westonbroom. I I promised that if I got into the race, I would, which is pretty respectable. So he said, but otherwise, I would take him and I said, Well, you know, we'll be the ones beating up on her, and really just posting some funny stuff about you. He said, Man, I appreciate it, and I really do need the publicity, but but I'm gonna pass, but I do appreciate it. And he was sincere. I really believe he was sincere, even though we're polar opposite on the spectrum of politics.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

He really regrets that decision. And uh, she did not make that reciprocal promise.

SPEAKER_04 31:25

Because whenever Sharon Broomscamp came out with that audio recording, okay, what I didn't even listen to it. And it was a big deal because the news picked it up, all right. I texted Ted James, I'm like, boy, it's too bad that wasn't reciprocal, you know. And I wrote the only serious post was ever written on the Savocate, and that was a two-paragraph post stating what I just stated that Ted James refused to promote with the Savvycate because he did not want to be a part of beating up on Sharon Westonbroom, and she comes along and does this. And I'm telling you that post got a million views in three days.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

A million views.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

I I I am happy to say that uh, you know, Ted is a is a personal friend of mine. He is a he is definitely a sincere, yes, sincere guy. Um we don't agree on a lot politically, right? Uh, but I I think it's a I think it's good that you can have uh friends and and relationships uh with folks across the air.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Absolutely, and I will tell you this. After he lost, and he went after he got into the the Sharon Weston broom mode and started saying, hey, our crime is that bad, the schools are bad, this so he started you know going after, but then when he lost and then he endorsed her, which I understand he had to, I understand how it works. I went and made another post and punched him in the face about it, and he and I have spoken about it in person since and he laughed. He's like, Man, I said I know, but I had to do it. And I've been wanting to tell my friend Drew here that he does want to come on the show. He wants to do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

No problem. I love Ted.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

We're absolutely gonna have him on the pocket. So I'm I'm glad we talked about him in the room, but he really does have a good sense of humor. He's a good Savagate guy. So I'd like to.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

And I told Ted next time he wants to run for something, you know, if there's no good Republican candidate, he could call me.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

You want to you want to win, I'm gonna be 6-0. So, so speaking of that, not to go off the subject, but but um when the mayor, if I'm not gonna ask you to, you know, say if the mayor's gonna rerun, but if let's say he does, doesn't win or doesn't, you can get back into um politics uh consultation or campaign.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Yeah, um, you know, I I I have maintained my my business on on the side as long as I do it within non-working working hours. Um because I'm not a civil service employee, I'm allowed to do that. And I have continued to help several candidates, have a couple uh running this uh November that I'm helping out. Uh but yes, I think if if the mayor decides to run, um I think that's more of a full-time thing, and I would certainly want to separate that from my duties at the city. So I think if that happened, I could, you know, there's a chance I could step away, temporarily, go on, leave. Yeah. Um something like that. That's popular to do, I'm told.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

Some people in the mayor's office have done that. You're working with some races local around here?

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Yeah, I am. Uh couple a couple of different candidates. Uh one is uh uh running for Congress, so that probably takes the majority of my time. Yeah, you need to have him on Rick Edmonds.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

Uh we love Rick Edmonds. So we we do some. I was I was getting into the whole thing about the Savvy does political promotions, but we already got do one for Rick Edmonds.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Yeah. Uh so that's definitely the right now.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

There is nobody better than Cindy Edmonds.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Definitely not.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

I mean, I love Rick. I like Richie. Cindy Edmonds is like the best.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

Good people, huh?

SPEAKER_01 34:27

The best. I mean she got him down here from Shreveport. She did. Cindy Edmonds is responsible. I'll tell you now, if you if I would if I ever met somebody that said they didn't like Cindy Edmonds, they're the problem.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

They are they're certainly the problem. Yeah, there's there's no there's no doubt about that.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

So, Mason, how old are you? Well, HR said we can't ask him.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

No, let me think. Uh hold on. Let me think. I'm 21. Okay, 21.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

21, congratulations. Thank you. Um, let's talk about something really important. Okay. How useless is college? Because really, I mean, you're making a very good point right now that you know there's some Harvard guy on the corner probably begging on college drive, not Segan, um for change right now. And Mason's like, screw college, I'm just gonna run campaigns and win and make money.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Yeah, so actually when I first the reason I was so willing to do Rick's campaign was I knew I'd be moving to Bat Rouge in the fall uh to go to LSU. And I thought I wanted to go to law school. Um Way overrated. Yeah, but then I kind of figured out exhibit it. I didn't want to practice law, and I talked to some people and they go, well, you don't really want to practice. There's not really you know, you really shouldn't do that. So I I I went to LSU and I lived in the dorm and I had like I think I'm the only person that probably left campus every day. I never went to class. I went to maybe one or two classes.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Useless.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

I they're all kind of gen ed stuff. Like most of the fret guys, you're right there with them. Yeah, I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Uh and I mean I didn't go to class either. Way different. Way different.

unknown 35:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Uh and I and I was going and and so we were doing that, I was doing Rick's campaign and Lauren's campaign. And uh I said, you know what what am I doing all this for? And so then I w I I worked that led next legislative session, and so I went all online at that point so I could be full time. Um and then I kind of continued that. Um what was that? What happened? And that fall, I guess, was when uh was when Sid came along and I did again online, and I and honestly, I I was just I'm just doing at some point I'll finish it because I'm kind of close. Uh, but I'm just getting the sheet of paper. So I can I say I've learned anything in college? I cannot.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

No. Um you completely let's just skip college. Yeah, what a waste.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

I think I read a couple of the more of the Federalist papers than I did before.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Did you did you have a political science class while you were there?

SPEAKER_02 36:41

Oh, I did. That was my major.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

I was I was so when you walk in, do you go, hey, at this point, I am currently five and oh, there's literally nothing you're gonna tell me that has any meaning or value because otherwise you would be sitting where I'm sitting and I would be the professor.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

That is true. Uh most of the people teaching the classes had never been involved in a political campaign, although they may have been on TV to talk about one before. Uh they were all n nice people, I can say, for the most part. Um but yeah, it was kind of it so.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Hey, I'm gonna take your uh polypsy, whatever level class. Uh, I really need to go through your resume with you. I looked it up online and it says uh you were the a campaign for this democratic candidate that was just destroyed, and um and that's why you're here. Why would I want to listen to you after this?

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Yeah, there were there were kind of there were there were two two different instances. There was a uh there was one where we we had to do some paper and it was about you had to read this thing, and it was about um it was about politics and campaigning and that kind of stuff. And I've always been a bit of a history buff, and so I know about past political campaigns and this kind of stuff. But he couldn't he knew I didn't read the material, but I'd gotten a good grade. So he was trying to figure out why that happened, so I kind of had to go through the whole history of it and all that kind of stuff. Uh that wasn't actually that was the one of the two academic instances I got into. The other one was I took this music class and I'm a really big music buff, uh 70 to 80 80s music. Uh and I so I can hear a song or know a little bit about it, and I can tell you pretty much who sang it uh and what the name of the song is. And that was really what the class was. It was all about the history of music with a test. That was all the tests were. You had to do these things and know these facts. And so I think I I completed like this 50 question test, I think it was like four and a half minutes or something, in the testing center at LSU, and they rang me in and they said, Yeah, we need uh we need to have a serious conversation about uh how you did that. And I said, Well, you can play any one of those songs right now, I can tell you what they are. It's just kind of my thing. And and so that was my two academic instances at LSU. And then I just kind of pretty much figured out at that point, is this really the best use of my time?

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Uh so I when I started at the mayor's office, it was just too too difficult. I had too much stuff to do to kind of do both.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

Are you the first campaign manager in history that couldn't partake in the celebratory champagne at the I guess, yeah, that that might be true.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

I did I couldn't vote. Could have been the first scandal in history. On December 2nd, I spent in the morning of my 18th birthday knocking doors with Tom Arsenault uh when he was running. He was elected on December the seventh, but I could not vote um because yeah, I think there's like a 10-day delay period or something in between the time you turn 18 and uh when you can vote.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

Do you have political aspirations of your own?

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Maybe one day. Uh you know, I gotta be old enough. Yeah, you gotta be old enough to run. Uh we'll see what happens, but I I I'm liking helping uh different candidates right now, but and I certainly realize that as you had you'd have to be have a little uh life behind you before you should really run. I I would certainly give that advice to candidates of my own.

SPEAKER_04 39:50

So I would uh certainly give that advice to myself to I don't I mean honestly, in the in the path you're headed at your age, I don't know that you'd ever want to get out of being a political consultant.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

There was a state senator who told me I I I I had uh I was gonna peak at life at 25 at the current at my current rate. So uh that's good or bad. I he I think he meant it in a good way.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

Uh I bet he didn't. You can he's actually a senator you should have on. No one his name is Alan Seaball. He's very entertaining. He's not from around here, but during the next legislative session, he's running for DA actually, so he may not be uh be around.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Where is this at?

SPEAKER_02 40:24

This is in Caddo Parish. Caddo Parish. I've known Alan for a long time. Good guy, but pretty funny.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

I've seen a lot of the North Louisiana people can be able to close to my home.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

So really, where's your home?

SPEAKER_01 40:33

Longview. Oh, Longview, Texas, yeah. Yeah. Um right across the border.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

One of my uh best friends uh i is from Marshall.

SPEAKER_04 40:41

Okay. You're like the Mike Tyson of political consultant.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

No, no, no, no, no, not like Mike Tyson.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

I mean, except for the scandals. I'll give you, but you're young. I'll give you a comparable Mason Bass story, but it's James Carville, so the opposite.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

I uh recently sat next to James on a flight from uh uh Atlanta to New Orleans. You just punch each other. It's very entertaining, of course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Um so my my fri a friend of mine was in law school with Carville, and the professor calls on him and says, Mr. Carville, tell me about this case. And well, I I I don't know, Professor. I I didn't read it. You didn't read this case? No, sir, no sir, I did not. Uh so the professor starts getting on him. He goes, Well, Professor, if you can just tell me the political leanings of the judge, I can tell you the ruling. And and they did, and he did. And he absolutely got it right because that's what he understood was if you understand the background, then you can they'll find ways to get to their ruling. Yeah. Uh and and that's very, I think, similar, similar aptitude level. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Pretty good. So so do you not you don't drink, is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 41:44

I don't.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Uh I mean every on a few occasions.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Um this may be why we had different experiences as as college students.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

No, not not not in any kind of regular order.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Yeah. Uh but I heard you love cookies.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

I do love cookies. I I have a I have a big sweet tooth.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

Um, which the mayor's office is dangerous because he does too. And so you know, we have a Subway pretty close to why Subway has great chocolate chip cookies.

SPEAKER_04 42:12

They do have good chocolate chip. They really do. I like the oatmeal, but yeah. So let's talk about the library.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Oh, okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

So you know, it's like first I like to say disclaimer, I'm a huge supporter of our library system. I love everything they do. And I would just write them a blank check tomorrow. I heard that actually. I heard that about you. Yeah, huge supporter. Huge supporters.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

I got that one on Blue Bonnet. I heard you're a big fan.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Huge fan of the Blue Bonnet library. That's not insane, George.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

So the library obviously is sitting on a lot of cash, and everyone has different opinions of that. Some of their big supporters say, oh, you know, they don't finance anything, they pay as they go, whatever. But my opinion is this. First of all, I'm not gonna suck up like Drew, but the library does a great job. That's you know, they do what they do what they should do. But I will always be of the opinion that a public agency that has that much cash on hand is by definition overfunded. You can't argue that at all because there's the balance, all right?

SPEAKER_01 43:14

I I all right, so now be real. Um got me all motivated.

SPEAKER_04 43:19

Um money, you talking about money with an attorney, baby?

SPEAKER_01 43:22

I'll tell you, here's my issue is they're a self-fulfilling prophecy. They continue building more and more to justify the budget, to make the budget bigger and bigger, to justify how much money they're getting. Uh, we don't need 16 libraries, 17, whatever the number's about to be. Um we just don't use libraries that way in today's society.

SPEAKER_04 43:43

And I think most people would agree with that, and and that might be the driver of why they feel like they need so much money because they've built such a huge you know, uh, list of libraries. They have to maintain those, but in reality, it should be the opposite, saying, Listen, you don't have to there's no need to travel to go to a library for eighty percent. Of the stuff that we used to need to go to the library for, so we can cut ties with some of these libraries and let's let's look and see how much they're used and the the ones that aren't used as much. We can cut ties with them. But my pet peeve is not that the library has all that money because that we they was voted on, they got the money. My pet peeve is that we have a district attorney who was struggling to get a million dollars and the library could reach in their pockets and pull that out with some pocket lint. They they get six million dollars a year in interest on their money. Why don't we have someone in the library who says we could absolutely help fund the DA? Because they can make the decision to fund the DA tomorrow, if I might, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:40

I think that I think there might be a a way to do it. You'd have to structure it in kind of a I don't know if the DA would have to have a speaker series at the library, but a couple a couple points. Um I agree with everything that both of you have said. Of course you do. But the the the failure, uh the failure of of that vote turned out to be the biggest blessing because government, any form of government, whether it's a library or a city or city parish, is gonna suck up all of the resources it can. Um I think the library does do a really good job. Um they are I mean five-star, no doubt about it. They've got the best looking facilities anywhere in East Veterans Parish, you know, they are clean, they're safe, all of those things. Yes, they do all of that. Um is there some fat that could be trimmed? Absolutely, but I think the the what we should have done first, we should have looked to the all to the inside of this new government that we had taken over and said, well, what is that fat that we could trim ourselves first? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

What do we actually need?

SPEAKER_02 45:41

What do we actually need? Right. I think we should have, instead of asking them to do that exercise before we did, we should have done it first. And number one, we realized we probably didn't need all those resources that we were trying to get from the library. Some of them still I think would it could have been useful. Well, it wasn't it wasn't a total, totally useless exercise. But I think when we after that failure and we got in and we said, okay, let's make this make these hard cuts, uh, protect our reserves and see what that I I think are there do I hear pretty frequently from people that were having hard times because of lack of people? Yeah, I do. Um but I also think I'm seeing so much more innovation, even in the mayor's office, but in all of these departments and ways they're doing doing things that are eventually gonna make all of the citizens' lives better, and the government in and of itself need less people, which means when we have less people, it means we have more money to do things you know for all the citizens. So I I think it's true, but it's true for all uh facets and faucets of government. I think where the library gets a lot of the attention is because they spend their money pretty well on the things they actually do spend it on.

SPEAKER_04 46:53

Oh yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

They have so much over here, and they're they are they are by definition overfunded that they uh, you know, probably don't need but but they're so scared the people who are on the operate operate the library, who I'm I'm now friends with all of them. Drew is too.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

Uh I am not.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

Yeah. They they're so they're so scared about what could happen. They think that there's a tornado that'll destroy every library we have tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 47:18

And they can write a check still not feel it.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

They have to be totally prepared for that to happen. And then the next day after they're rebuilt for it to happen again, right? And they're gonna be able to pay for c all cash and all that.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

So not even feel it. Do you know how much have you ever used the digital book service through the library?

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Uh I have not. I I I probably stupidly pay pay sixteen dollars a month for Audible, and I shouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

No, no, let's talk about that. You pay sixteen dollars a month for Audible. What do you get for that in Audible?

SPEAKER_02 47:41

I I I think I get, I don't know, anytime I want to look listen to a book, basically I can listen to a book. Okay. So But it's probably like two books a month. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

I was told uh through a source that would not have lied to me about it, that the library's paying like eighty but dollars every time you rent a digital book through them. Wow. That Libby service charges them that much money.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

Wow. Yeah, I think I think in the library's budget, if I'm remembering right, I think Libby was something like six million dollars or something like that. Maybe, maybe a little more, a little less, but I think that was around what it was, uh, if I remember a lot.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

Have you have you suggested to the DA's office that they become library employees to get sufficient funding?

SPEAKER_02 48:21

You know, when we did the uh layoff, actually, but due to civil service rules, uh what we had to do is we had to look at these outside agencies and see where employees could go. The library had so many open and unfilled positions that a lot of the city parish employees that got laid off from out of the general fund, it didn't show up that we laid off all that many employees in the government as a whole because so many of them got shifted into the library. Um but I do think we're I do think there are some creative things that we can do that I think the library will be willing to do. They're gonna they'd have to volunteer to do it. Um, but I think they their tax got reapproved, big vote, and I think they they may be interested in helping out uh these various agencies.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Would they be willing to get rid of the Dewey Decimal system, which is stupid? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

I have no idea. Uh they could do it here. I don't have a in speaking of college, I don't have a master's degree in library sciences, which is required in order to run a library system in Louisiana, in case you didn't know. Um imagine having that degree. So I'm probably not qualified to speak on the on the new decimal system.

SPEAKER_04 49:28

Imagine studying nights, getting to the get into the arena going, I finally made it. I'm a master of legislative.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

Believe it or not, uh some legislators tried to change that a couple years ago, and it got a pretty negative reaction from a certain kind of crowd.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Well, look, all I've all I've learned, and I think you appreciate this, is uh don't mess with the library. Uh leave them alone. They can have anything they want. I'm just gonna merge everything else into it.

SPEAKER_04 49:53

I would imagine Dewey Decimal would be real ticked off if you if you got rid of that. Or his family, he might be dead by that.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

Dewey?

SPEAKER_04 49:59

Whoever Dewey is. Yeah, the Decimal family.

SPEAKER_01 50:01

Just make up a negative history about Dewey back in the time frame it was invented, and they'll automatically change the name of it.

SPEAKER_04 50:06

Yeah. So, you know, one of the agencies who are struggling with funds, the Baton Ridge Police Department, which I feel like is equally as important, maybe more in some regards, as in the library.

SPEAKER_01 50:19

They also suggested they go to work for the library previously.

SPEAKER_04 50:22

We we suggested putting library decals on the police cars so the library could start filling them up and repairing them. And while they're out of the way, once you get them in the back of the bookmobile, you ain't getting out. That's what I'm saying. And while they're out chasing uh the fights downtown Baton Roads, they could pick up a couple of late books out of the college.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Hey, work together. Yeah, an overdue collections.

SPEAKER_04 50:42

I like that. You know, but the library wasn't real receptive to the email I sent him about that.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Hill or more, uh uh chief librarian, River Center.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

He could he could move his office to the library, prosecuting the JOP. I don't see why you could.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

I would let him. He's gonna I would definitely let him.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Drew's gonna have his own courtroom, provided he wins. Yeah, yeah. He said he welcomes I'm gonna wear a robe. He welcomes as much space as Hiller Moore needs to offset some of the costs.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Yeah, Hiller can share an office for sure. He's very pleasant to be around.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

Yeah, I think moving moving the moving the DA's office under the reign of the library would give them access to some of those funds. Hitler could use two million dollars a year, which is a third of what they make in interest alone and better fund the DA.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

I'm just saying make them all librarians. They get paid. Get paid.

SPEAKER_04 51:23

Yeah, to be librarians, but you know, you you you you really need to be a little more vocal in court. You don't want to be too quiet in court. And they're librarians are another library rule.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

Can we get rid of having to be so quiet?

SPEAKER_04 51:33

Everybody's got headphones now, so they're not you know, they're not talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

You know, visit, maybe eat some food while I'm in there. You should run for uh you should run for superintendent library. Is that a elective position? No, no, that's a fact.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

I will say I I I do I definitely want to say that we have a lot of agencies in special taxing areas all across Louisiana and United States that have done some things with their money over the years that is probably not appropriate. The one thing I can say about the library is they are really good about keeping track of where their stuff is. Yeah, um we do we have a lot of it, but they uh well it's easy when you have it. Which again, that's that really should be the low bar uh you know when you're considering taxpayer dollars, but sadly it's not, so I but they they do do a good job of that.

SPEAKER_04 52:24

Um so let's uh let's let's move on to some uh some things about the mayor's office.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

Oh no, that I got I got something for that. Ready? Okay. I gotta know how many times does Mayor Edwards use football terminology when talking to you during the day? Every day.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

It's gotta be um I it may not be quite every day, uh, but it is it it it is frequent.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

What position does he think you play on the football team? Are you offensive coordinator or are you a player?

SPEAKER_02 52:52

All right. When the mayor hired me to be his campaign manager, his words were his words were I need a quarterback.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

So I was a quarterback on the campaign. I have no idea what that would be in the mayor's office.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Not number five.

SPEAKER_02 53:07

No, I I don't, yeah, not number five. But not now. Not not now.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

Not now.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Uh I I don't know what that is today. Um, but uh but that was that was the way I was hired. I was offered the job by saying I need a quarterback.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

I mean, does he look at all the roles and assign them like position groups and like draw y'all on the board together?

SPEAKER_02 53:27

He has a board in his office, uh coaching board. That was the one thing he wanted to add. And he does now he doesn't draw up plays like that, but he definitely has his things he wants done. Uh and uh if your name is assigned to one of those things, you better get it done.

SPEAKER_04 53:40

Uh puts you on the bench. He subs you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 53:43

He will sub and uh put you on the bench. You know. Uh and and but yeah, I think the the football references there definitely are are a lot.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

Are you told to translate those into politics speak so you can give it back to be like, no, it's not a wing tease, Mayor Edwards.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

He's pretty good about it. Um but I think I think he and actually sometimes I really appreciate the the football references, uh, because there are they do can tell a pretty good story to when we deal with a lot of different groups that aren't always don't always know the city lingo or the or plot politics or government lingo.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

They all know football lingo.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

They all know football, and he can sit there and pretty much tell them exactly what they need to hear.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

Okay. All right, that's good to know. Um with with Mayor Edwards shopping, he's not a guy who likes to wear suits. He does not want to wear suits, he only does it when you make him. Uh, do you ever have trouble with where he tries to go buy his suits?

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Um that that is that is a fact. Uh he has a couple of suits that I uh I I hate, quite frankly.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

In fact, last time I saw him in one, I believe he referenced Mason hates this suit and wishes I would not have bought it.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Was it purple and pinstripe? Pinstripe. So it's purple and pinstripe. He wore that. Uh last time I wore that, that may have been the Jones Creek uh when they broke ground on that project. He wore it that day, and I couldn't believe it. Um it's I call it the Joker suit.

SPEAKER_04 55:08

Um I've seen it a couple times.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

But I I think I think I am the reason he does it because he know because he can say I am wearing a suit, and it's I would rather the anything else.

SPEAKER_01 55:19

I taught you a lesson. You'll let me oh yes uh let me wear a sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

That's actually worse than that. It's worse than the purple pinstripe.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

Do you have a list of things that you've given him that you would suggest he not wear again? And that if you catch it without him, you're gonna burn it.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Yeah, I think I threatened to burn the uh purple pinstripe one. This other one, I don't even need to tell him. I just need to go in one day and take it out of his closet.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Just help him out, help him.

SPEAKER_04 55:46

And when he comes up to you and says, you know how to purple man, I don't I don't remember that suit, mayor.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Okay, maybe I'm just maybe I'm just thinking that. You may have left that at the dry cleaner somewhere. Yeah, that's what you do.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

Yeah, he is he is a uh a big prankster. That's what is he? Oh my god, you shouldn't have told me that. Well, I mean, he'll he plays jokes all the time on people on people in the office. Uh does he? Oh yeah, it's big a lot of practical jokes. Uh he'll call he caught one time, he called, so we get a lot of crazy calls, right? Uh anybody has any issue, the mayor's office can solve it. And they all want to speak directly to the mayor. Um, all 459,000 of them want to speak directly to the mayor. And so we get crazy calls. Well, one day the mayor was in a bit of a joking mood, and he picks up his phone and he calls the front desk. Uh, Miss V uh runs our front desk and he starts having a conversation and he puts on the weirdest voice, like kind of this redneck hillbilly voice, and starts saying that there was a squirrel in a tree in his yard, and the squirrel came and ran down the tree and took those big front buck teeth in way more words than this, and bit him in the ankle. And he needed to know if he if he was supposed to go to the hospital or not with that condition. And uh our staff is so professional, she handled it so professionally. With uh, you know, you may need to call uh you know the emergency officials about that because the mayor's office, and you know, is there anything else I can do to help you? But he is the ultimate practical joker.

SPEAKER_04 57:13

And you know, the first year you guys were in office, he on April 1st, you remember he made he made that the Savagate was the official.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

I don't know who in our office had that idea, but uh I think they're a pretty smart guy.

SPEAKER_04 57:27

Well, so it was and they called, um uh, I think it was Fallon back then to called me and said, Is that okay? I'm like, what do you mean is that okay? Of course, she she made her own graphics she didn't let me make it. I'm like, uh, but it worked out great because when I shared it, I recall a couple of months later, I ran into the mayor somewhere. I can't remember where it was, I've seen him umpteen times, and he walked to me and said, We were looking at some marketing stuff, um, maybe meeting with the social media team and looking at something. And Fallon printed up a list of like the uh stats. And the day that we did that and you shared it, it went like a hundred thousand in the back then. He goes, 'So we gotta do some more stuff.' I'm like, I'm here whenever you want to do it, mayor, but never heard back from us today.

SPEAKER_02 58:09

We have a really good job. Really good social media team. And in fact, I saw and I and I oversee them in our office, and I uh I saw a post.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

That's why they're really good.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

No, that is not I can't claim credit. They weren't real good until I take it over there. No, no, no. They are and in fact, I saw a post a couple days ago, and I thought the the caption was horrible. And I was about to I use Siri to call a lot, and I was about to, you know, have it call who and then I saw the likes, and I said, Oh, never mind. I'm dead wrong about that because it had uh like a lot of likes for a regular post. And uh what what do I know, right? Yeah, no, no, I mean the social media, it's it's really where it's people from the governor's office call me trying to poach our our people and everywhere else, Congresspeople, senators, they can't have them.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

Well, you're lucky Jeff Landry even gave you the courtesy of calling. Lucky in it's just snatching them up.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Yeah, the DA feels a certain way about that.

SPEAKER_04 59:03

Um, tell us what is the what is one thing that the public completely misunderstands about working in the mayor's office? In other words, so many people are like, I don't know why they don't just do this. Why don't they just do this? And it's just so easy to just do this. Uh the big one that people just completely misunderstand.

SPEAKER_02 59:20

Okay, let me give you a couple of different ones. Let's take uh roads projects, for example. Uh, I give I give you two examples on that front. All right, sidewalks on Florida Boulevard, they're 10 foot, they're 10 foot wide on both sides. Is that really necessary? 10 foot wide sidewalks on both sides of Florida Boulevard? I would tell you no. And so would anybody else that lives anywhere around here or works for the city. However, we did get a $40 million grant from the federal government to redo the road. And involved in that was you had to put 10-foot wide sidewalks on either side. And it's not a take, it's not a we can choose what to do and what not to do. It's take it or leave it.

SPEAKER_04 59:53

If you want the grant, do the 10-foot sidewalk.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

You know, I I I don't take the liberty often of going on Facebook and responding to comments myself, but on that one I just had to because it was so simple. Well, of course, what you get back is well, why don't you uh call them and ask them if you you can't do it? Yeah, yeah, which which phone number would you like me to use uh for the federal government? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

I think the Savagate had one about making the uh sidewalks on Sherwood wider so the homeless could fit two carts. Two shopping carts could pass without I like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

And everyone liked it, of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

But no, you're exactly right. It's it's it's always uh they don't understand there are strings attached to every every government dollar you're given. And you pay for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

A lot of the boot br stuff is we're required to do it because the people voted on it, the people here. So some some of these projects. Um now I think there's been maybe not enough emphasis on the right projects, uh, but anyways. Uh the other thing is uh a timing. So we're gonna uh overlay Lee Drive here in the next uh the two-lane part? Yeah, a couple of weeks we're gonna overlay it. Now there's a larger move BR project that will widen that to three lanes, which means we're gonna have to go rip up all the stuff we do. Now we're not doing a large overlay, but of course you have people most of the people are happy because it's so bad. But then you have some people, well, what a horrible waste of uh government money. Well, no, it's really not. This should have been done a couple years ago. And we're still a couple of years away from that move BR project because of how long it takes to acquire all the land. So that's the just the not understanding the things that we don't control is probably the number one. Uh and then I think what a lot of people don't understand is the way probably the mayor himself operates on a on a day-to-day basis. Um, you know, when I when I tell people I recently told somebody uh that I had to get this done, or you know, I was gonna be fired. Not literally, but you know, certainly was not gonna be happy. And yeah, when he wants something done, he really wants it done. And he is a nice guy, he has a nice guy persona, um, definitely in the public. Uh, and he is a very nice guy. But when he wants something, he certainly wants it and he wants it done right.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

And I mean that's a coaching, that's a coaching way. That's right. He's not gonna settle for anything, anything less than this play he called, and we got to get that fourth yard, pick up that first down.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:00

That's how the police pay raise came about. I mean, he I don't think I could step in his office for two months without him talking about that police pay raise. That's a big thing. I was out to Thrive. And uh eventually I I I can't tell you how many schemes we came up with to figure out a way to do it. And eventually one day I said, I I think we finally have something. And and we did, it ended up working, and now they've got that pay raise, but that's how it it worked. He just was relentless in the world.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

And that's good because I got a lot of feedback about Thrive asking me, just like y'all did, how come you hadn't done more about Thrive? I'm like, honestly, I really don't understand it. And I don't want to overstep and write something that hurts the movement, right? You know, because it came together so fast, right? Um, and of course, Thrive wasn't nowhere on the ballot, right? So it was a little confusing. So I opted, I never actually I think I told you this, but I I went and sat and talked to Mason and the mayor about Thrive, trying to find something we could write about it to help. But honestly, I was still a little um in the dark about everything about it. So I erred on the side of caution, didn't write about it because I was scared I would hurt it more than I'd help, because that's the that's the the thing about satire.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:03

I think that's the I think what I certainly learned from that whole Thrive experience was just because you could get a lot of people from a lot of different areas to come on to something, yeah, doesn't mean it would that's always a good idea. Agree. That yeah came together so quickly, yes, it all happened so fast in all these different groups that there was really no core message because you couldn't have a core message because it did so much with so many different things, yeah. And it all you know it just was very confusing.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:31

I still have about five drafted articles that uh me and a couple of people helped me with, and I looked at all of them and I I tried to look at it from a person who didn't know anything about Thrive and go, I can't tell if this helps or hurts. Because you know, what we do is we try to knock on things. Right. So in that regard, satire may not help, it may hurt.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:49

But you couldn't you couldn't stand up and say, really anymore. Right. The library has all this money because we're also asking voters to reapprove their millage, you know, at a lower rate, but we don't want to hit on them because we want their people to vote for it too.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:02

I know it was it was tough.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:03

And all from all angles, you couldn't really attack anything or say you had to do it because of this because you didn't want to, you know, you didn't want to piss off that side of the contingency that was now kind of on the team.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

No, well, do you feel like they were actually on the team, or was that a false buy-in? Because I get the impression they said those things, but when they went to the ballot box, they absolutely had their constituents vote no, knowing they would come back and do something later.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:30

Well, I'm not gonna speculate, but I'll say if you go and you look at the results, uh there's no way all of those groups and all these factions within our community could have really been behind it and it had the result it did. Now it's it's up until the point of the library's latest millage passing. That was the most success any ballot initiative had had in recent memory anywhere around or statewide, but um but certainly uh certainly that was the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:00

Um can we deconsolidate the government?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:03

Oh I don't think I'm gonna I don't really want to talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

That's a huge undertaking.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

That's a huge, huge undertaking, and I think it would have a lot of ramifications that I think I think what we need to do, and I think this is I think this would be good. I think let's look at it. Let's uh let's look at it, let's have a conversation, let's see what it is I think Lafayette did that. I think they did arrive at the conclusion that that would not be the smartest thing to do. Um Jackson, Mississippi deconsolidated it. I'm not sure it worked out very good for them. Uh, but I think I think it's good that we can have a conversation about it. I think we should.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

I think there's why you win so many elections right there. You hear that answer? Of course.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

One thing I do tell my candidates, and I'm giving away a little bit little secrets here, but and I'm saying we stop recording like 30 of this myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

Hold on, I gotta take this. I gotta get I gotta get a notepad.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

Yeah. One thing I I always tell my candidates, don't ever try to win an argument or prove a point with any constituent ever.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:58

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:58

Because you never will. No, that and that. Have no interest in actually being convinced.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

Um, and I had to learn this lesson myself pretty pretty strongly. Just listen and nod. You don't have to ag agree with what they're saying, but you're just under you're hearing them, you're just hearing them.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:11

And right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

Don't try to convince them that you of your of your point. It's like the sidewalk thing. It's like, thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

You know what you just learned? The most important laid uh marriage lesson.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:23

A marriage lesson, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

It's not about solving the problem, it's about empathy.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

I I sympathize with what you're going through.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:31

Drew can say that because his wife doesn't listen to the show. There you go. If she did, though, he wouldn't have said that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

I'm not here to solve it or fix it for you. I understand that I'm just here to listen today. Thank you. I'm very supportive.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:43

Um, so let's let's move on to another topic. Let's do it. Maybe a little close to Mason here.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:49

So the mayor just survived a devastating recall. Oh it was so close. One percent of the voters had my bankers' boxes ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

Did everyone in the office pack up with the anticipation it was time to go?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:02

Uh after the first month of 10 signatures coming in. Was that the sign that they were like, we gotta start looking for jobs?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

We were really worried at that point. Uh you know, in fact, that's uh that may have been what contributed to me missing the last podcast. Was I was just sure Dave wanted to talk about that on that? It happened to be that night.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:19

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

So that I'm thinking, why would you schedule something for 8 p.m.? But you know, it's a Savagate podcast. That might be kind of raunchy. I don't know what these guys are doing. But but but but but it but it but uh but oh but I know what it is. He wants to talk about the results of the recall because we will know that was the night that the night. Now, no, I was wrong. Dave wanted to talk about it that morning before we would know anything. Uh but yes, that was uh that was kind of a fun day. Uh but the even more fun day was the next day, uh Thursday, when we went several members of the staff and the mayor went and had to stand at the desk in the uh Registrar of Voters' office and looked at the list.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:57

Y'all did y'all choose it or is that something you're you're the mayor wanted to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

He was very curious.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:01

And see some of the names?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

Yeah, we went to the week. Was he looking for y'all's names? We could find that look, there were several vicnaires on the list. And uh Lon wasn't there, and we're like, uh oh, what are you doing, buddy? We were taking pictures of all the Vicnairs. No Vicnair. It wasn't it wasn't as uh entertaining as we thought it was gonna be. There were a couple good names. Uh Courtney Scott, uh former employee of the uh former administration, she was on the list. Uh Judge Trudy White was one of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:28

But other than that, it was so how what was the total number?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

Uh 2,300? Uh no, that that was uh that was what they submitted. Oh, that's true. A lot, a good bit of them were invalidated. Well, not a good bit, but some so I think it ended up right below 2,000, 1900.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:43

What number did they need?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:45

Uh I think 53,000 or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:47

So it was close.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:49

They almost got it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:50

Mailbiter.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:51

It was close.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:52

One more week. One more week they would have done it. It would have been it would have changed everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

Now, if they just had the right volunteer staff in those locations, so they didn't have all the infighting they've got going on.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:02

Well, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:03

And you know, the thing is, we did find people that had signed, and we called them, and they had no idea they had signed.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:10

Oh, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:11

They had interestingly signed for the governor.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:13

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

Uh and the mayor. And and the attorney, they did not know that they had signed for the governor. Um and uh also, even if she would have had the 53,000 signatures, it would not have been valid because she didn't file an affidavit.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

Oh my god. So uh after all that work, it's totally invalid.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:29

The whole thing's invalid today. We got a letter about it. So really, yeah. All that home is.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:33

Is that is uh did the media pick that up or should I I'm not I'm not sure they did.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

I'm I'm not even sure that's a public record or not. I may have just made it, but it is now there is an email from the uh it's gotta be public record.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:44

It is, yeah. This is a legitimate fake news source.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:47

Yeah, I think there is an email if someone was the registrar voters. I I will.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:52

Um so I feel like you know, I that was a terrible effort, but every right in the world to do it. But I feel like her screw up was when she took on the governor and the AG at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

Well, you know, she only had you know, the first month she had 10 signatures, the next month she had less than 15. So I on top of the 10, or just no, no, yeah. So like maybe not tell me that. Maybe she had another four. Um it was not until it was not she didn't have any traction on the recall. Yeah. Until she did the governor and the attorney general.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:24

And the people coming in, she says, while you're here, sign that's where the came from.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:28

But actually, put them on the table. Actually, it actually it wasn't even it was that you had to sign these three documents in order for it to actually count. That was the story that was told uh to the people.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:37

Which is which is was obvious because their flyers were Louisiana deserves better, attorney general, governor, and mayor of Baton Rouge. Yeah, why not just a dog catcher in there too? I mean, it was it was it was so poorly planned. I cannot wait to see how this and the governor should be coming up.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:54

Yeah, the the governor, I think, uh was done three months after we were.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:58

So we got a couple months.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:00

Yeah, okay. But the governor can now do a public records request. After the first three months, the law says you can do a public records request for the signatures.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:08

Start vetting them.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:09

Uh so they you can start vetting them. Now we did that um about a month out.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:13

Took 10 minutes to vet them.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:15

It was actually we weren't given anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:17

Hey, where's the other page?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:18

Yeah, yeah, we had we had no idea where where it was.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:20

Is this a business card with names written on the back of it?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:23

There are I will tell you there were some very interesting names on the list. Um, Robin Williams was a signer against uh against the mayor. God rest his soul. Celine Dion was one of them. Really? Uh I'm trying to think. There were a a good bit of pretty recognizable names. That were on the list that were quite interesting. Willie Nelson. I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:43

I mean Willie Nelson. You know, I know he's a hippie, but absolutely would not sign that at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:49

People on government street usually like the mayor.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

So good. Well, look, it if you if you feel you know, at the end of the day with that process, at least it says, hey, it's over with, right? You're you're good to go. You're validated that you're where you're supposed to be, and the process is played out, and you won't have to do that again for the rest of this term.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:08

Yeah, that which is good. I I didn't know that actually when this first started. My first question was, can they do this again? And it's not that I'm worried they're gonna be successful, but the news, because they don't have anything to report, the news acts like this is the biggest deal in the world. And there's this reason.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:22

Well, they want it to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

And and the and some of the general public think that it's a big deal because they don't know that how easy it is. Joe Blow can walk in there and file a recall against any elected official at any time if they've done nothing wrong or or if they have anything wrong.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:38

The news makes it sound like, oh, they found reason to recall themselves.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

There must be a reason why we're doing that. Yeah, the slow news cycle, it's gonna pick up steam and they'll they'll make it a story. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:49

But I believe uh it was the once good governor Huey Long said, I don't care what you say about me as long as you talk about me. So Sid Edwards was in the news.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:57

Yeah, like I said, you get through it and you see so few signatures, and you then you know you got some pretty widespread success and you're kind of off and running.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

Yeah, I I think internally I was just hoping that there would be less than 5,000. That was my my hope. Now, if they wouldn't have ever done the governor, I would have probably said less than 500 would have been my I'll bet you it would have barely topped that. Yeah, they would have been lucky too.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:19

Which is good news for I mean, y'all you could if Sid runs again, I'm hoping he does, you could actually turn that whole story into a pro-Sid Edwards campaign, you know, really.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:29

Because I think it was I think I did the math, it was about 0.2 percent of registered, or some I'm sorry, 0.02% of registered voters in East Bettnage Parish.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:40

That's that's definitely a good pro campaign message, yeah. For sure. And I just want to remind you that the Savvy does do uh campaign promotions.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:48

They do, yeah. You want to do a recall? It's good business. There's GoFundMe's and all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:53

She's like, yeah, she's got like all kinds of traffic. She's no now, you know, she does have a uh Facebook page set up for her for mayor. I don't know if you ever saw that.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:00

Well, I'm actually blocked by that individual. I don't know why. I don't get that.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:04

She's age restrictive, maybe you gotta be that's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:07

Before the recall, she was definitely on us, and she had gone after she had gone after someone in her office and me, and you know, anyways.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:14

But sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:15

And but I guess you're not allowed to respond to those things, so you have to get blocked.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:18

And she's I don't think she's not even from here. Hey, nothing says civil discourse, like blocking other conversations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:24

No, she does have a whatever her name is for mayor. Well, it's actually interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:28

Her name, and I don't mean anything ill. I'm she might, I'm sure she's probably a nice person if you know her. Uh but her last name, I could never figure out what it was. It's no G B.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:40

It's two country.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:41

But one day she showed up to a council meeting, and at a council meeting you have to put.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:45

Oh, you have to say her name.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:46

And she, and I'm about to shock you guys. She just she walks up the microphone and says, My name is uh Marion Moonwah. Moonwah. That's how that's how that's how that's how G B W A G W A I B O N or something. Something like that is pronounced.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:03

Moonwa.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

And then I eventually just found somewhere where she had put it, you know, where they put it in parentheses that pronoun pronunciation, and it was M-O-O-N-W-H.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:14

Oh, Moon Wan, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:15

Moonwah, I feel like no N on the end, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:17

I feel like I learned something.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:19

Yeah, there you go. Did not know this advocate is an educational resource.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:22

Yeah, fake educational news.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:24

Do you think she'll come on the show? She's only a two blocks away from that.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

No doubt.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:28

Yeah, that guy's really interesting. Yeah, that'd be good. I'd like to go across the aisle and ceiling supports in here. I don't think that might be so.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:37

Is there anything you would like to accomplish in the last two years of this term?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

Oh my gosh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:43

Or what would be a wish list item that you'd like to document?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:46

Besides writing a check to St. George. I mean, we were talking about stuff that's may not have been.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:50

There we go. Uh that I'll I'll put that at the top of the list. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:53

It's fairly controversial. So I can stop Texas sit about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:56

This is a pretty controversial uh topic. I would like to uh get everything with the city of St. George settled.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:03

St. George would like that too.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:05

I think St. George would like that too. And we can all move on, and uh and some of our constitutional offices may have some more money at the end of that discussion.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:14

But also there's closure for the citizens that look, we're done with this. We're let's all go live happily ever after, and we can work together. I think that and I think we're we we may have some movement on that, uh, although we're in in several lawsuits against each other. Crazy. Uh, we whether we want to be or not. Whether we want to be or not, we are. Are you sure you can be here right now? Yeah, actually, I don't know. Uh we might get a subpoena to shut this. I actually heard Andrew Merle was the devil. Someone had told me that.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:41

100% you've absolutely heard that before. Um I did say fire the parish attorney's office, so I may have said that a couple times.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:49

I think I think uh I think some uh infrastructure stuff, um with working with the state on some major things. I think that won't be done in the last two years, but I would like to get some things kicked off with that. Um the city's uh financial estate. I think we've gotten in order pretty well. Um in the last uh I guess eight months or so, we've added about 20 million dollars to our reserves. Um so we built those fully back up uh to where they need to be. So I I I want to continue that. We still have some more work to do, want to pay off some more debt, uh maybe address the uh try to address the retirement system in some in some way, which is uh one of those things with the citizens, it's more it's more nuanced and more confusing than I think people understand. Oh hundreds of things. Absolutely. Um it's it's really a kind of a Ponzi scheme, to be totally honest. Yep. You've got to keep feeding it, you have to keep it off. Yeah, you have to keep feeding it. And and even if you decide we don't want to do that anymore, well that's fine. But you have all of this other to keep feeding, so you have to feed this, and now you've got to go feed another system. I mean you just can't afford to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:59

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:00

Um so you we I I'd like to I'd like to solve that. Uh cleanliness of the city is a really, really big thing for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:08

I I think uh I think we're further along in that process as a whole in the last couple of years, and we have been in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:15

I think so too. Um I think it as you know definitely in the St. George and uh and Baton Rouge proper areas, we are making significant progress. We have a dedicated team that all they do is uh mow grass or is mow the weeds in the medians and they come and they they clean the and they edge the sidewalks and they if you drive down college, Acadian, all those areas, these guys actually discovered a new sidewalk recently on Acadian. No one knew we had. So we're actually adding uh we're adding assets back into the city because we didn't know we had lost them.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:48

Now let me ask you on that grass cutting note. You may have seen the Savagate article a couple weeks ago about um the grass preservation um movement by the city of Baton Rouge. Does that have anything to do with the grass getting cut like the next day or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:03

Um so what actually happened with that, with the grass.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:06

I'd love to take credit for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:07

This summer was we had a contract with DOTD to do grass cutting. So we'll do it. We subsidized that contract because they don't give us enough money. They would like it. They would be just perfectly fine if we mowed the grass once every um eight weeks or so. We think that's not right. We should at least be at a month. The mayor wants ten days, by the way. He wants it every ten days uh in a lot of areas. That's a big ask, but we're at it. But what happened was uh some council members thought that we shouldn't be subsidizing and stalemate. And so a stale, and so they killed the contract. Well, of course, DOTD didn't come back with some big number. They just said, well, you're one of 63 parishes, we're paying every 60, we all 63 parishes get the same uh ratio or whatever per the unit, you're not special, go away. Eventually, we did get back on two months later to get that approved, and the grass started to get cut again. Uh, but that was certainly a delay, and we had to come up with some very interesting ways to try to cut grass.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:12

Would it be a lot easier to run government if you didn't have to deal with idiot city council members?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:17

No comment.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:17

I mean, I our mayor says it all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:19

So I just assume it Oh you're oh your mayor says it. I can I'll agree with your mayor that he didn't have to deal with your council. Exactly right. And the guy, you know, I I don't know, David, if you've seen the crew that the St. George Council has got Sakastic characters.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:31

There's one if we could just get rid of him.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:34

Yeah, if you're lucky, I will say this in a couple months.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:36

I will say this that our council has has been has been uh good to work with um on on a lot of different things, police pay raise, uh a multitude of other things. They've when we have needed them, they have come through.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:48

Are the are they up for a re-election this year?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:50

No, they are up when the mayor is up, so they got another two years. Okay, so but we got two that are Aaron Moge running for mayor central. He could end up uh seat going going away, and then uh Jen Rocco's running for adjudicative peace. AOP and uh her seat can end up coming up as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:04

What happens if they both win? Does the mayor have to appoint someone temporarily?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:11

Which is so interesting how that works. Um, but yes, they have to appoint and then within six months there's a trick of a special election.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:18

Are you gonna run for one of those seats?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:19

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:22

That's moving back.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

Absolutely not. I'm just saying, you don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:26

Absolutely but if someone does run for one, you could do their elect their I I yeah, I could well we I mean we could do their candidates.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:33

Well, yeah, I don't yeah, I don't know if that's a conflict of interest or not. I have to get a legal opinion from the parish attorney's office a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:37

He doesn't run small races. Uh he only runs big races. That's right after his three years or ten years, whatever it is. Yeah. No. Exactly. So how long before you're in Washington officially?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:49

I I do actually I I get this question a lot because some people think I'm gonna move to Washington next year. DC, not state. Yeah, yeah, no, definitely not state. I've had several offers to move to DC to do various different things, all very interesting and uh pay good money to do, but um I kind of want to have a family. I'm still young, and I'm not sure Washington, D.C. is the best place to do that. So I I uh I I own a property in uh in this area, maybe a town St. George. Might be a town that has two names.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:18

Okay. Love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:21

Mine's with Borg. Borg and uh interesting. Anyways, um and and I I I kind of want to put roots down and uh you know, financing it may not be the smartest decision, but uh you know, I I've got friends here.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:36

You know what we should do is uh we should play like a dating game with Mason Bats. See if we can get him a woman, get him a battery. Oh boy, we just hook yeah. It may just not be talking about it. It may not be, but it if not, we should probably take hey, if you want to text the show and go on a date with Mason, how would you do that? What's the text number?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:52

DM I don't know if I want to get into the whole uh I don't want to get into the whole dating game and cheapen the savagate. They won't have all kind of people want to come on just to get hooked up with chicks.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:02

Wow, like cheapen the savagate.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:04

Hey hey, maybe you can get Wade Evans back if you do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:07

Ain't no maybe about it. We're getting Wade Evans back. If it in fact, I think that's that like Drew said, that's a whole reason.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

Wade could be the host of the dating game because clearly he's been successful. We couldn't have it.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:17

He would take all the women. It wouldn't work out. That's right. It wouldn't work out. We couldn't do that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:23

I love Wade Evans. Uh we all. So yeah, so um that's great. So thank you, Mason. I definitely appreciate you. Yeah, this is this has been great. So you probably got fired in the process of having this interview.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:35

Do they know you're here? Do you want us to wait for the all clear to upload this shit?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:39

They do, they definitely know I'm here.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:40

Did you tell the coach it was halftime? And by the way, kudos for not bringing any PR people. Uh, some of our guests have brought PR people with them before. No, they may have been dating them.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:51

They're probably gonna show up at 1 a.m. Is this for the podcast? You can't say that.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:57

That's so great.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:58

Um, so now you get to brag to the mayor that you beat him to the Savague Podcast. Because I have I have exerted a lot of text between his scheduler, and we just never could get a date, and I just quit bugging her about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:10

Do you know how many football terms I've been researching to prepare for the interview? Yeah, everything's gonna be coach speak.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:16

You need to call me before because I can give you some real good.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:18

You're gonna be there because we're trying to bring the show to the mayor's office. You're coming to y'all.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:21

Yeah, five on location. Wade gave me a few.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:25

Well, Wade gave us one of his access cards.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:27

That was actually my first Sid Edwards joke was for for like six years, I literally couldn't go in that building, and I got yelled and bitched at every time I'd go in there. And Sid's there a week, I'm in the office. He's very pleasant, nice to talk to.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:40

Okay, I can actually trump that because you got to be removed from the building. After the Edwards administration took over, it feels weird to say that in Louisiana. After the Edwards administration took over, and I delivered my huge basket of goodies with Savagate tumblers and some other stuff in there. I walked into the mayor's office and I saw someone at the front desk who I thought might have been a holdover from the last administration. I said, I can't leave these without them out the window. And she tried to open it up, she goes, Oh my god, one of these for me. I'm like, no. She goes, I want one. I think I brought her one back. But she was like, so it literally went from you know, get the hell out of here, we don't, to to the welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:22

Did you ever have to say uh Mayor Sid Edwards, no relation?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:25

Uh yes, actually. So I the mayor told this story at a uh during his inauguration. Um, and I did see the former governor recently, and I told him this story.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:34

Um J John Bell, not Edwin.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:36

John Bell, not see, I was going with Edwin. I was doing either one. I did get like a second time. I did get to tell him this a couple weeks ago. Uh the mayor told this story uh at the inauguration. We're in the campaign and we were in the runoff at that point, and we're and the mayor loves Keynes Diet Coke. He claims that they're the best diet coke that you can find, and uh he is he goes through Cain's at least twice a day.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:00

He's trying to get a job with Graves on that commercial, he's trying to get a promotion job.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:03

Mayor Chief Frog.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:04

We tried to get a Keynes Diet Coke machine in the mayor's office. It's a harder process than you think. Um believe it. So he still has to go every day and get. I mean, he knows look, canes open at 10 a.m. I don't know who's eating Kane's chicken fingers at 10 a.m. Some people are, but some people are definitely getting a diet coat. And he is doing it. So, anyways, we're going through Keynes on Florida Boulevard uh near Amazon, and uh someone else was in the car with us and said, Hey, do you know who this guy is? And then they're kind of looking, they didn't go, Oh, we he's running for mayor. Oh, oh yeah, I know you. You that Sid Bell Edwards. I think I voted for you. Sid Bell Edwards. So, yes, sometimes we definitely have to probably get you less. Good thing is he's not the current governor, and so it's it would be ridiculously confusing. Yes, very difficult.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:52

Sid Bell Edwards. Sid Bell Edwards. I gotta remember a shirt that says Sid Bell Edwards has Kane's Diet Coke on the front of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:58

I wonder how many votes he got when he ran for mayor.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:01

I mean, I'm sure I had some handful, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:04

That's John Bell's brother. Look, don't tell me John Kennedy doesn't get votes because his name is John Kennedy. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:09

Oh, look, all you need all you need to look and see how that works. There's a guy named Thomas Kennedy. He's from New Orleans. He's run for several things statewide. Seen it. And has gotten a lot of votes. What did the last name has done shameless vote? Has done absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:22

He's trying to get Liz Merle to give him a promotion over here. Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:27

Cousin Liz? Yeah. Cousin Liz.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:29

He's he's legally having his name changed from the from the E to the I so he can go out there in campaign and go. The Merle family is exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:36

The Merls are all sticking together.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:38

Unless they try to indict her again.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:39

They're gonna be like, no, I'm gonna E. Never heard of her, never met her. Not friends. It's great. Well, Mason, thank you for coming in, giving us some time. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:48

Yeah, man. Thanks for uh coming. This was this was good. We finally got someone from the mayor's office. Next up, Mr. Lon Vigner.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:54

Uh oh well, he's not in the mayor office. He is uh is he gonna leave that?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:00

To run. Okay. Have you ever talked to Lon about his campaign attire?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:05

Um I I have not talked to Lon about his campaign attire.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:08

Lon always looks like he's come off like the 18th green.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:15

It's been a windy day.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:16

Lon uh like you know, we have live after five, or anytime you know, we have we are out of the office settings a decent bit. And anytime we are at something like that, Lon is usually wearing very short khaki shorts. Very short. A polo shirt that's probably got an American flag on it somewhere. Yep. Uh and some loafers or sperries. Lon always looks like he's come off a golf course.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:39

Lon's uniform.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:39

Yeah, and he looks very good doing it. I mean, you know, great for it. That's what that is certainly what he wears, and I'm I'm now I'm happy to know he's wearing that on the campaign trail.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:47

You don't live in central, do you?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:48

I do not. Although I did for a short time.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:49

Maybe go maybe I ought to buy a rental property there and we all move there temporarily so we can look vote for Lon.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:54

There we go. Well, no, but okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:56

I mean it worked for it worked for a current, well, politician in Batman.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:01

Well, you know, you don't have to run in your you don't have to live in your district or not.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:05

Do they even have uh is it is a photo ID in Central to vote? Just go up there and vote for it. Just walk in.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:11

Yeah, just walk instead of it. Oh, you would do the Minnesota process where you can vouch for people. Bats for people. Have you seen it? One guy bats for eight people. Yeah. I'm going to vouch for all these failures. God. I mean, Wade Evans told me to come here and vote for this guy, so I'm I'm voting for Wade Evans. I'm voting for Delon. I'm here to let Wade Evans vote for me. How about that? All right. Thank you, Mason. I appreciate it. Um, you Dave, you want to go through text messages real quick? Do we have time? We have a couple of things. Dave, it's a podcast. We have as much time as you can.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:39

Well, I know I know we've got a very important uh politician for Louisiana for Baton Rooch here.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:43

Give us a text number and hit me a highlight.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:45

Sid might be texting right and going, are you still there? Why the hell are you still there?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:48

Hey, I'm looking at your I'm looking at your GPS, you're still there. What the hell are y'all talking about? Parish attorneys employed.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:53

You didn't bring up that little Edwards thing, did you?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:55

Did you put in a leaf slip for this? Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:57

We do have a couple of texts, and you could join us in and listen to their four of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:02

All right. How do you text us, real quick?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:03

Uh you can text us at 225-255-2480. Excellent. And whether they're good or not, we will read them on the air.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:09

Even the crappy ones. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:10

Even the crappy ones. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:12

Um, the first one says, uh, more violence in Baker. Get these barbershops open. Hey, real quick, Mason, do you support a ban on barbershops? Because Baker is prohibiting new barbershops. Moratorium on barbershops.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:23

Well, that's interesting. I I I I I don't think I can support that. I would think the more barbershops the better. I tried to go get my hair cut this morning, and uh my place is closed. They're all in there. One of the ladies has on a bachelorette trip. Oh, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:35

You could have gone to Baker. I've seen it.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:37

But I didn't know they had I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:39

Moratorium on barbershops, but I feel like everything in barbershops is a good thing. Who owns a morbid shop in Baker? That's could be something worth researching.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:47

That's when you gotta really look into it. Could be worth researching. It's not the fact they have 30 of them, it's the fact that somebody owns one of those 30 and does not want more competition. Yeah. It's a big scandal in Baker. No more fancy.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:59

Mayor will come on if we uncover that.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:00

Mayor Waits. Can't get him on the show. Hates us.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:06

I don't know why.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:07

He just endorsed Lon Vicknair for mayor. Did he? That's our connection right there. Maybe you could get Lon and him back.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:13

That's our connection right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:15

Yeah. Thank you. See? Yeah. Valuable. This is why we kept him on for the tech segment. Next.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:20

Y'all having any LSU players on this year?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:23

I mean, I don't know. Can we?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:24

I don't know how to take that. Do we do we do they feel like we're doing athletes on this show?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:28

You gotta pay now.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:29

It's all NIL.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:30

Oh my god. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:31

How much would it cost us to have a player come on? Even like a center. It costs probably cost us a thousand bucks.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:36

Maybe we can get like a walk-on or like a backup, like a water boy. Yeah. No, even the LSU basketball trainer gets an NIL deal. Really? Yes. That was the guy who was at McNece with the boombox. He's now at LSU. He's got an NIL deal. Yeah, we can't afford it. We can't afford that.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:53

Unless we got a good sponsor like uh Mason Batts political consultation LSU.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:58

We need his candidate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:00

Yeah. We need a good sponsor.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:01

I feel like with everything going on with LSU, you guys I think y'all could get somebody.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:05

No, we got now. Take Southern Jags.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:10

Yeah, we got a group. We got a Southern graduate here. Go, J. Y'all need to get Coach O. I think he'd be a pretty entertaining guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:15

Okay, well, so I'll tell you something funny. We published an article this morning about Coach O. If you follow Savagate, you may have seen it. It's done rather well. I believe he has a son.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:27

His son is on Twitter and someone tagged his son in it, and his son put L O L, shared it, and then followed me. So there's my coach.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:35

You're in right there. Maybe what we should do is not have the person we want on. We should have somebody loosely related to them on.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:41

Or Geron Jr. would absolutely come on the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:43

You don't want Jaden Daniels. Let's get Mama on. Oh, that would be more entertaining. We can afford that. She'd sue us. She'd be mad at it.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:50

The address here has a five in it.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:51

There's no way we could pull it off. I've got two fives in my address.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:54

So we would love to have some LSU players on this year. If you know one that wants to come on, tell them to contact us.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:59

That's right. All right, what else you got?

SPEAKER_04 1:33:00

How do I find out more info on Drew? I think I'm in his district, but I can't find a map. And I will say, I don't know where to find your JOP map.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:09

So the Justice of Peace districts got revised in the last legislative session. Thank you, Lauren Ventrella. January 1st. Lauren Ventrella passed it. You can actually find the GIS map on uh EBR Parish's website currently.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:22

There's not just a website I can go to to type in the case.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:24

Well, there is a really there's a real easy place to find it. It's where I found it uh in the St. George Leader newspaper. Uh there is a map of the shameless plug.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:31

Very good. Shameless plug. I think I'm on the cover of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:33

I think you are too, actually. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:34

So you can yeah, you can get. In fact, your next text message, I was there today eating a delicious hamburger at Deerman's, and it is on the newsstand right there. You can read it while you're having a delicious hamburger and chocolate malt.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:48

Okay, okay. Um so the St. George Leader.

unknown 1:33:52

St.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:53

George Leader, and I think the website, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:55

It's definitely a news article that has a district.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:58

All right, let Woody know he owes me a hundred bucks. I tried Deerman's, and y'all were right, way better than Five Guys and Local.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:05

I'm not mad at Five Guys, but Deerman's is my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:08

Five Guys much better price, too. Is insanely expensive.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:12

Deerman's, you're supporting my good friend Casey Evans local. And last night, I was at the Deerman's soft invite-only opening at Brickyard South.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:21

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:22

So they have a food truck there, they're cooking the burgers on, and they have a little open air, little uh patio on the side of Brickyard South. So if you need a one of Deerman's burger and you're downtown, you don't have to come to Town Center.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:31

So so glad I got to make that.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:32

Deerman South.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:33

Yeah, it's great. You I didn't you didn't text me. I text it. You didn't respond.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:38

Call me about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:38

You didn't respond. It was after hours. Okay. Fine. If you want to reach the show, how do you get a hold of us?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:47

To text us or to text us. 225-255-2480.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:52

And if you want to like, review, subscribe, uh, do all the fun things for that, please do so. It helps us grow the show, get better guests. Mason Bats will show up again. It'll be wonderful. Uh, you can do that for us.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:04

You might charge us for the second time.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:05

Yeah, and you can find yeah, you're definitely gonna charge it. We'd pay. We'd pay. We'd probably get 15 or 20 downloads for the show. At least. His family and all his candidates. All his candidates. Uh, and so we'd like to grow the show. So if you can do that for us, that'd be great. And you can find the Savagate Podcast anywhere you find podcasts. So Apple, iTunes, uh, Buzz Sprout, Spotify, YouTube, available all those places. And this has been episode number forty two of the Savigate Podcast. And you can also find us online at Facebook at the Savagate Podcast page. Mason, thanks again.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:38

Thanks, guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:39

Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. How long was that?