Friday, Sep 4: Tom Hodgson

Good morning. Good morning, happy Friday. I'm joined by Lenny Mills Jr. Lenny, is that microphone on? All right, let me, there you go. How's that sound? That's a lot better. Good morning, Sheriff. Good morning, Lenny. Tom Hodgson is here with us as well. Good morning, Chris, how are you doing? Tom, we gotta congratulate you on your candidate, Mike Minogue's big, big victory on the primary. Yeah, it was a pretty overwhelming victory, which didn't surprise me. And by the way, our candidate, not mine. Yeah, that's true. He is, you know, I think people are starting to really understand and have been throughout this campaign that this is a guy who has a very strict discipline personally, and he's so focused on the real issues that matter around affordability, jobs, all these things. And so it didn't surprise me that he came in with those numbers. And I think it sent a clear message, not just throughout the Republican Party, but I think across the commonwealth. When people saw that, they've heard from him, they see him on Instagram, they've talked to him. He's been all over the state doing event after event. I heard some people saying, you know, he needs to get out and do things. He's all over the state. He's been on the fishing boats. He's been down here meeting with fishermen. Tom, you've taken him around. You've introduced me to him a bunch of times. He's come here. I don't know where that myth is coming from, you know, that he's not around because he's all over the place. Well, you know, I think to your point, Chris, I think what happens is we're all, you know, as Tip O'Neill once said, all politics is local. And so when you have somebody running for governor that's going to impact you and your communities and whatever, you want that person to be there. That's because it's about you and your communities. And I get that. We all want that. But the problem is, and I know what it was running in 20 cities and towns as a sheriff. I mean, you cannot be everywhere. There's things going on, different events the same day. Everybody wants you there. So as much as you want to be and as well-intended as you are, you can't. And so it's disappointing when somebody has an event they want, in this case, Mike Minogue or someone else that's running to come and they can't. It's kind of a disappointment because it's all about what locally, you want people locally to get on board and jump on board. So he's doing everything he can. I've never seen a person with more energy or honestly, more of a constitution and commitment to do what's right for the people that he wants to serve. Lenny, you've met him a number of times. You voted for him at the convention as a delegate. Talk about that, Mike Minogue. Yeah, yeah. I spoke with Mike a couple of times. Now, recently last month, the sheriff had him out here and he was in a local venue in the Venus. And he's a very accessible guy. Whites. Whites, I'm sorry. Yeah, whites, yeah. Whites, and he's very accessible. He's very intelligent. And like the sheriff points out, he's a very organized guy. He's somewhat different than a lot of candidates that we're used to in this area in the sense that he's very disciplined and he has a plan. And that's what I like about Mike because that's what's gonna happen when he's elected. He's gonna have a plan. He's not gonna go in there. He's gonna go with both feet on ready, jump right into this thing and get it going. And so the good thing I wanna point out is that he's gonna be here October 1st. So everybody who's called in, like the sheriff has mentioned and hasn't got to see him for whatever reason, well, October 1st, loud and clear, he'll be here. And you'll actually be able to walk up and shake his hand, right, sheriff? Oh yeah, he'll be meeting with everybody at Whites. Watch what we're doing, a huge fundraiser for him. How do people get tickets? They can actually, they can call 774-2026-235 and they can leave a message there. You have it up on your Facebook. I have it on my Facebook. Yeah, we have it on our Facebook. There's a phone number right there. Right on the invitation. Yeah, you can see it on the bottom of the invitation. It's on Facebook. It should be on the Minogue site in the next day or so. And so it gives you all the information at the bottom of the ticket, how to access it, including that phone number I just offered. And I think it's important, excuse me, Chris, yeah. I think it's important that we promote it this way because there are people that, like the sheriff says, have not got to see him for whatever reason, and it is difficult. Can you imagine 351 cities and towns to go to, right? So he is coming, so here's our chance to get you in front of him and come there. And it's a nice venue, it's not expensive to come to. If anyone has a challenge, I'll make a personal offer to give me a call or Chris or the sheriff. I'll donate to get you in there and you can speak with him. Lenny Mills, if you can't afford a ticket, Lenny Mills will cover it for you. It's 50 bucks, Lenny Mills will cover it for you. Yep, just give one of you guys a call or myself, of course. It will discreetly help you out to get to meet an honest, good person that's gonna really try to make a big change for Massachusetts. Tom Hodgson, you've been through a lot of primaries, a lot of political campaigns, national and state and local. Is the party unified now behind Mike Minogue? I say it is, but what do you say? Yeah, I do. I think the party is unified behind him. I think it, you know, the primary is over, there's no more, you know, sort of looking one way or the other. There's no more option. Right, and ultimately to your question, Chris, I think, which is a very important one, it's critical that we are. Democrats, independents, Republicans come together. We know that things are really bad in Massachusetts. We know about the cost, you know, of the cost of transportation, the affordability overall, the electricity, all these issues that are bread and butter issues are things that really matter to people. And so, as- You can't even afford to make bread into toast with these electrical bells. It's crazy. And we have the highest migration out of Massachusetts than any other state in the United States because people can't afford to live here. And, you know, we owe it to our kids and our grandkids to make sure that we're giving them a future where when they graduate from college or they're already in a job, but their costs are so high they can't even rent an apartment or what have you, buy a house, that we owe it to them to give them a future. So all of us, all of us, I don't care about party, let's look at what we as individuals can do. And that is get somebody in there that we know is going to focus not on the politics, but on these things that matter to all of us. You know what, Tom? Maybe a lot of people just, you mentioned out migration. You can't leave if your car isn't running strong. Get your car over to family-owned Mack Auto Sales, 188 Rivet Street in the city of New Bedford. They'll fix up your car so you can move down south or move to Canada or just drive around here in the greater New Bedford area. Mack Auto Sales repairs all makes and models of automobiles. And I hate to say it, but I got to, I'm your friend, I'm looking out for you. You need to winterize your car for the, nothing we can do about it, the inevitable coming cold weather. I'm sure you do. Call and make an appointment today at Mack Auto Sales so they can winterize your automobile. The appointment can be made at 508-565-6221. They're open weekdays nine to five for your convenience. You drive a foreign car that needs repair, that's perfect for winterization. Mack Auto Sales specialize in servicing foreign-made automobiles. They do a great job with American-made as well. They service the fleet here at WBSM and at Fun 107 so they can certainly take care of your automobile regardless of the make. I mentioned WBSM, they'll give you a nice discount on the repair bill. Ask about their aftermarket accessories and their quality used cars for sale at Mack Auto Sales. We'll be right back. This portion of programming on WBSM is brought to you by Dee's Hot Dogs in New Bedford, where you can get two hot dogs, chips and a soda for just six bucks. Back to Chris McCarthy and South Coast now on WBSM. Call 508-996-0500. Welcome back to the program. Happy Friday. The primary's over. Tom Hodgson's here. Lenny Mills Jr. is here. And you, the callers, are here. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Hey, Chris. Lenny, how are you? How you doing, my friend? Lenny, good to hear you all the time, my friend. Jimmy, do you have those statistics in front of you that you were giving out yesterday, which I thought were really interesting about the lieutenant governor's race? I was trying to remember them for Tom yesterday after you picked me up from dialysis. For Tom? Yeah, do you have them? Let me see. Well, I'll try to find those. Yeah, yeah, and call back if you need to. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, let me just say this on the flawed cameras. There's a company, it's called IPVM, Internet Protocol Video Market. They're an authority on physical security technology delivering the industry's only independent research, reporting, testing, and training. And they did an analysis and investigation into flock. And flock uses parts, contains hardware components from Chinese manufacturers that are explicitly banned by the U.S. Department of Defense. So I want to make sure I get that out there first and foremost. As far as the numbers, which numbers are you looking for now exactly? You had the number of blanks, the other votes in Lieutenant Governor, yeah. Okay, let me see if I can fish that for you. Here we go. I'm sorry, I got a stack of stuff here. I read, you know. I know you do, Jimmy. That's why I knew you have it. I try to keep my computer going, you know. And good on baseball statistics too on Saturday mornings. I try, I try. New Bedford, here's the number. New Bedford, 352 blanks, 167 write-ins for Sean Oliver. And in the city of Tartan, in the city of Tartan it was 479 blanks and it was 131 write-ins. And the other one is the town of Dartmouth. The town of Dartmouth had 166 write-ins and 343 blanks. Jimmy, in Dartmouth, how many total votes were cast for Sean? Well, he had 1,732 that voted for him. I don't have the exact total total, but he had 1,732 in his favor. New Bedford, it was 2,514 in his favor. As far as, let me see, what was the other one? Tartan, Tartan was 1,558 that voted for him. But some say, well, you know, because of the write-in candidates. I know you had brought it up, Tom, about Ian Brinsley-Martin, if I'm pronouncing her name correctly. Some say, well, that's the Republicans. The Republicans chose to leave them blank for Sean. Who knows? I don't know. Maybe it's people that don't know much about him or people that just in general don't care about him as far as his stance on abortion. I want your take on that. Why all these blanks? Well, I think probably people were looking for another alternative. Otherwise they would have checked the box for Sean Oliver. So I'm guessing that's the reason for the blanks because that's an intentional, because he was the only one listed as Lieutenant Governor. So it would be a choice of one or the other. So whoever put those blanks obviously made a different choice. Yeah, let me say one more thing if I may. This is the last point I'm gonna make. If you look at the, when it was the State Republican Convention in Worcester, I think it was, the number was put out there, 1,800 delegates. But the numbers were Mike Minogue, 70%, and Brian Shoresleeve was 16%. And if we look at this primary that we just had, Mike Minogue came in at 75.8% and Brian Shoresleeve, 24.2%. So if you look at the dial, it didn't really, because many were saying, Brian Shoresleeve could be an upset. But if you look at the numbers, they mirror one another. Yeah, in fact, it went up for Mike Minogue. Right. Let me just say this with Mike Minogue. He's gotta get out. He's got the money. He's gotta go off putting, he's gotta be very aggressive in his ads. He's gotta just completely overwhelm her with all these ads of just what she has done to destroy the state and abortion and all that. He can't just be quiet. Yeah, you know, Jim, you're absolutely right. His campaign is, and I think you're gonna see that, it's gonna continue to be very aggressive. And you're gonna see, he's a very disciplined person and they have a very clear plan and road to victory. And I think, but your point, I agree. Every candidate should be, you're that final stretch. You gotta give it everything you have. Absolutely. Right, there's 3.1 million voters. And this is according to the Mass, the election, the Massachusetts State Election Committee up there in Beacon Hill. This is 2025, but the numbers don't really change that much. 3.1 million voters, 67% independents, 24% Democrat, 8% is Republican, which is a little sliver. He's gotta get to the young people, the middle-aged, everybody out there to get that independent vote, to get them over the top. And obviously some of the Democrats, they're on the fence. Well, you know what? But that's my last point. I just wish you were sitting next to me when I was in grade school. You could have really helped me a lot in my math classes. You know, but you know something. You're unbelievable. But Tom, you're still young at heart. That's only a number. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Don't be rattled by that. All right, guys. Always good talking. Thanks, Jimmy. I look forward to you tomorrow morning. He does a great, he's a great caller to the sports show too. He really knows his football and his baseball. I really enjoy Jimmy. So look, the reality of it is that Mike Minogue had to attract unenrolled voters to get that kind of a victory in the Republican primary. Sure, correct? Absolutely, absolutely. And I think we're gonna see a lot more of that going into the final. How does the whole Republican ticket, because again, it's not just Mike Minogue at the top of the ticket. He's got his running mate now, Sean Oliver, but also you've got Mike Walsh running for Attorney General. I think the more people that meet Mike Walsh and compare what he's saying he'll do compared to what the actual Attorney General has done. I mean, I think one of the reasons Brian Shortsleeve did so poorly in the Republican primary is when it was exposed that he was a major contributor to Ms. Campbell, the Attorney General's, her campaigns. And that all the work she's done against the audit, things like that. Think of Mike Walsh, he's gotta get out there and talk about that, right, Tom? Well, my guess is, yeah, I mean, he probably will get out there and talk about, I mean, the great thing about Mike, I believe, Walsh, is that he's a brilliant, a brilliant attorney. Yes. And he's got a great personality. People really engage with him very quickly when they meet with him. Wonderful hat collection too. Yeah, well, I haven't seen that one, but- He's got a nice fedora. Oh, does he? Yeah, well, you know, if you like fedoras, vote for him for that reason, I don't care. But the truth be known, I do think he's gonna give her a run for her money. She was talking about him before he actually got on the ballot. She was. And that's usually an indication that a candidate's afraid. Andrea Campbell actually used her a short amount of time at the South Boston St. Patrick's Day breakfast to mention Mike Walsh's name. I thought, what an amateur. I know she's not, she's been in politics a long time, but that's a really bad move, right, Lenny? Yeah, and I would like to share something with your audience with about Mike Walsh. The sheriff says he's an extremely bright individual, highly intelligent, and he presents himself even better one-on-one, right? So we had him, we had a Clamboyle fundraiser with over 200 people in Rehoboth. And he came as a guest. And I wanna tell you, in Rehoboth, people in those venues, they size you up really quick, okay, at a Clamboyle. And Mike fit in very well. And he's highly intelligent, very, very articulate when he spoke. But he could appeal to the common people, those people that had questions, he answered them, he spoke well. And so that, I thought, would be a bit of a challenge for Mike when I invited him. But I'm here to tell you that he went over real well. He was very, very well liked. We had lunch with him at Inner Bay months ago now. And I was very impressed with his knowledge of the MBTA Community Act, how to work with it, how to work against it. Very talented guy who's really plugged into what's going on. Yeah, and the challenge is, I know myself running for election and in business, too. It's important that we meet the people and they talk to us and they get to know. Because when you don't get to meet the person, you hear stories or you have visions of seeing them and you start to get an impression of them that necessarily isn't always very accurate. So it is important to do that. And Mike is a guy that, when I hadn't met him, I seen him talking and everything, and he seemed intelligent and this and that. But I said, I wonder how he's gonna be with the people. He did a very good job. So it's important for all of us to get out there and do that. And again, you're gonna have Mike Minogue here on the first. I hope everybody's listening because you're gonna have a chance to go there and shake his hand and look him in the eye and talk to him. Mike Minogue, Mike Walsh. Does Elizabeth Dion need to change her name to Mike? Tom Hodgson. Does Elizabeth Dion, the candidate for treasurer, need to change her name to Mike so she fits in with Mike Walsh and Mike Minogue? Is that an option? You think Elizabeth is fine? Oh, she's, let me tell you, what a brilliant woman. And I think she's really on a fast track to be able to win this thing. When people meet her, and she's got such energy, she's all over the state, very impressive. And somebody who's going to be here, unlike Goldberg, who's not, she spends a lot of time, I can't remember the percentages of how often she ever goes into the office, but Elizabeth Dion is very focused on the issues around the treasury and what we need to do. Former selectman from Belmont. More and more selectmen getting up to run for higher office. What's great about being a selectman, I was one, Lenny is one, is you have policy, but you also have to implement. You have to implement policy, right? It's very different from, say, a city councilor. It's more like a mayor. Yeah, you need well-balanced skills to do it effectively, you know? And so it is good. And Elizabeth is a selectman. And we had lunch with her, right, guys? We sat down with her. She was very pleasant to speak with, highly intelligent. Oh, yeah, Stanford Law grad. And I have an expression I use, especially in business, when I'm looking to hire somebody or something, and that's what we're doing. We're looking to hire Elizabeth, right? She's a spot plug. That's my reference, you know? She's a spot plug. She's a ball of energy, and she's ready to hit the ground with her feet running the day she's elected. Speaking of hitting the ground and place to run to, this hour is brought to you by the cold beer and the world's best chicken wings at Rose Alley Alehouse in downtown New Bedford. It should be a great weekend at Rose Alley. If you're there, you can make it a great weekend, have a couple of drinks, have some of the great food, maybe make a few mistakes. Maybe we'll read about you on the news on Monday or Tuesday, if it's really successful. Head by Rose Alley Alehouse for this Labor Day weekend in downtown New Bedford. What a great place to be on Labor Day weekend, Rose Alley Alehouse. So, gentlemen, we had the Republican primary for state representative. In your town, Tom, Chester Tam won over Henry Bousquet. Chester is a really bright guy, hard worker, presents really well, beautiful family. That was a clean but competitive race between he and Henry Bousquet. Your thoughts on that, Tom? Yeah, I mean, I think they both worked hard. I would say one of the great things that I really liked about Henry after the race was over was he reached out to Chester and said, you know, look, I wanna work with you when I'm taking my signs down, you're welcome to come with me and I'd like to introduce you to the people who were giving me sign locations. And you know- That's a class act. It is a class act. And he's always been a class act. Henry's always been Tom. And a great example of what I think competitiveness should ultimately be in the end when you don't win, okay, I didn't get you this time, maybe I'll run again and I'll beat you next time, but right now, you won, I respect you for that and I'm gonna do what I can because you ultimately persevered. And I think what a unusual sort of thing that we see, unfortunately, in this day and age, but one that's a great example. And I think, frankly, a great example of a leader, somebody that is looking beyond themselves, but looking at why did I run, what's important, and ultimately, he wants to make sure that we get the changes that we need for the people of Massachusetts and I think that's great. He served in defeat, I think, very admirably. And now Chester Tam will carry the Republican banner up against Ed Pacheco, who's not a bad guy, but he's surrounded by a lot of really not disinterested people from the hardcore hard left of the Coalition for Social Justice and all that comes along with that. Lenny, you met and you supported Henry and Chester. What are your thoughts on that race? Yeah, I think Chester defeated a good candidate, which is to his credit. I mean, that's not an easy thing to do. Henry, I know had some challenges with certain things, but Henry's a gentleman, he's intelligent, he knows a lot of people, he works in the school system. He had a lot of attributes that he could bring to the table. Chester, I met him, he's a nice man. Like you said, he has a very nice family and he, again, is a spot plug. He has a lot of energy and he get out there and he knocks on doors and he works hard. He shakes your hand, he looks you in the eye and he can articulate the message. So I think he has a bright future in the next 60 days and we're looking forward to supporting him. Yeah, absolutely. Look, that seat is a Dartmouth seat. I mean, that's what it is. Just the geography- That was Henry's challenge, right? Is that he's a new Bedford City Council, was a new Bedford City Council and doesn't have a Dartmouth address. We all wish we had a Dartmouth address. Except Lenny, because Lenny, he's a big Rehoboth guy. Oh, that's a beautiful town to live in. Anyway, 508-996-0500. The big challenge now is, do the people of Dartmouth go with a Democrat who's had to get in bed with the really hardcore radical left, the environmentalists, all the people responsible in some ways for the high increase in your electric bills. How does Ed Pacheco, does he sell that? Look, I'm going to go up to Beacon Hill and do just what the speaker says, or is he able to overcome Chester Tam's ability to say, hey, I'm not going to go up there and do the same old thing because we need big change to help people afford their electricity. I mean, that's a real opportunity for Chester Tam to say this guy, my opponent, part of the radical left, maybe he's not, but certainly taken the support from the Coalition for Social Justice, which is safe injection sites and tent cities and all that stuff. I think it's a big opportunity. Anti-ICE. Yeah, they're against ICE. So Tom, you're a longtime Dartmouth resident. Do you think the people of Dartmouth are Coalition for Social Justice people, or do you think they're more normal Americans? Well, I think they're actually, they're not really overwhelmingly Coalition for Social Justice. There's some who are more liberal, obviously certain pockets, but I think by and large, they want the same thing most of us want when it boils down to the final election. And I think that, you know, Chester Tam is obviously far more conservative than Pacheco. I was actually shocked that Pacheco won. Yes. The Medeiros family is a wonderful family, and hopefully he jumps on board with Chester because I think he was more in line with what Chester is looking to do. Medeiros, this is, yeah. Yeah, Medeiros, yeah. Did I say Medeiros? No, no, no, I'm just clarifying, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. So hopefully he will. I know the family, and they're a beautiful family, and they're very principled people. So hopefully they'll jump on board with Chester. Yes. Because they probably want the exact same things that we do by and large. Yeah. I think it'd be separate from obviously what Pacheco was looking for. In the Westport, Acushnet, Freetown, north end of New Bedford, Fall River, State Rep Jesse St. Gilles dominated. After coming back, look, he ran as an unenrolled, conservative unenrolled, but didn't make it last time around. He came back, joined the Republican Party, and busted through and defeated Christopher Thrasher, a Westport school committee member, finance committee member out there. That's quite an accomplishment for Jesse St. Gilles from Acushnet to overcome in the Republican primary, Christopher Thrasher. Your thoughts, Lenny? Well, he did all that, and it was all on film till he was being, him and his wife, unfortunately, had a lot of exposure with the camera action, and they spoke about it. They were definitely upset about it, and I understand that, and I agree with them, but they handled it as professionals, and those tests and trials and tribulations come to us as leaders in front of the public because those are tests to see how we're gonna react to them, and the people are watching us, and they watched Jesse, how he did with it, and he stood up for his family and his rights and his wife, and they handled it very professional, and that's what the people are looking for, and that translates to the voters, what the voters are looking for, and hopefully there's enough voters that see the value in that, those type of human beings. We have some good quality candidates on the Republican ticket this time around. We're very, very fortunate, quality people that really wanna work hard. They're not going in there just to get the job. You gotta knock doors. I mean, at the end of the day, Jesse St. Gilles outworked his opponent. Jesse and Thrasher had a race. Thrasher fell down and broke his face. That's what happened. Well, if I could just say quickly. Sure, go ahead. What was so, I think, even more impressive was Jesse had a cast on his leg. I ran into him in a cushion the other day, and he was banging on doors, walking with this brace on his leg, and he didn't stop, and you know, I think that speaks volumes about somebody that's committed, and he is, and we're happy that he was able to win that race. Let's hope he can overcome Steve Ola. We got some people on hold. Good morning. Welcome to the program. Good morning, Chris. Hello, Dodd-Pazera. How are you? Morning. Okay, how are you? Good. I just want to tell you guys that I've seen the funniest yard sign on Facebook this morning. A bought Healy full term. I thought that was perfect. I think we should have some of those made up. Somebody obviously is. Yeah. And I know it might've been Steve Miller from New Bedford. I don't know, but I got it on Facebook and I had a good laugh this morning. Yes, he's great. And I said, oh boy, isn't that the truth? Yeah. Dodd, what do people care about out there, the people you talk to? This is the unofficial mayor of Acushnet. What are your people out there saying they care about in this election? I don't really, I don't get out much anymore, and I don't talk to many people, but there was a lot of Mike signs around Acushnet, so I think he's going to do very, very well. Yeah, that's all Paul Gonzalez. Paul Gonzalez is the one who puts all those signs up out there. Oh yeah, he's Mr. Scientist. Yeah, well, I know we have one. We have one for Jesse and we have one for Mike. Isn't Jesse amazing? I haven't met him in person, Pete has. You haven't met him? I'd like to meet him. Listen, he'll be by there today, I think, or tomorrow. Pete's met him though, right? Yeah, Pete has met him, but I haven't. I'd like to meet him. From your mouth to his ears, believe me, he'll be out there. Yeah, well, I hope so. Okay, enjoy listening to you, too. Thanks, Todd. Thanks, Todd Cazara, the unofficial mayor of Herdad. Her husband, Pete Cazara, great guy. He was selected for years out there in Acushnet. Guys, we're going to take a break. We'll be right back. If you want to get involved, you can. It's 508-996-0500. We're coming to the deadline. I don't think Sean Oliver's going to do anything but run with Mike Minogue, but the deadline is noontime if you want to make a change. Stick around. We'll be back. South Coast Now with Chris McCarthy. Weekdays on 1420 a.m. and 99.5 fm. WBSM. Welcome back to the program. It's Friday. It's a beautiful morning out there. Soon it'll be afternoon. I got Lenny Mills Jr. here, a Hobart Selectman developer. Tom Hodgson, the former sheriff of Bristol County. So, gentlemen, the primary's over. Brian Shortsleeve has endorsed Mike Minogue. Mike Keneally was on the program yesterday. I also spoke to him off the air. And he said to me, the party is totally unified. I mean, has been unified. Actually, he said to me, the party's really been unified since the convention, that that overwhelming victory at the convention by Mike Minogue, which you two gentlemen both participated in as delegates and as one of the leaders of the campaign, Tom. The party's been unified by Mike Minogue. And is there an opportunity here for the people of Massachusetts to change directions in terms of federal support? We've got two really good federal candidates, US Senator John Deaton, who spent a lot of time down here, and also Tyler McAllister, who's running against Bill Keating now to be our congressman. Lenny, is this the opportunity for us to get a more reasonable relationship with our federal government? You know, it's always, in Massachusetts, it's always a tall mountain to climb, you know, for any Republican or non-Democrat, for all the obvious reasons, you know? And so, but, you know, I really believe this time we have really good candidates. I mean, almost every candidate I've met, you can feel the burn in their stomach to wanna do the job and do good for the people, you know? And that's the most important thing. So this ticket brings a lot. So if you think about it, if Mike Minogue brings a lot of people, Sean Oliver brings a lot of people, the Mike Walsh brings a lot of people, John Deaton, you start bringing a lot of people out for this election, it could be the, you know, a good opportunity to get some of these people elected, you know, and that's up to us. We have a short window, we have less than 60 days as we sit here today, and we have to keep pounding the pavement. We gotta do our job because they're working, the candidates are working hard, right, Sheryl? I don't think any of us disagree. These candidates are not working hard. Yeah, and the Democrats are, by and large, in disarray. With the socialist movement down in Washington, they can't figure out what their party- Socialist movement here in Massachusetts, too. Well, that too, that too. And I think people are finally seeing that we're really getting away from our values and principles that our founders gave us. And I think we're, you know, there's always these times in history, in my view, where we go through certain things and suddenly we start to, until you don't have something, that, you know, you don't recognize what's going on, but we are starting to realize we're losing things with regards to our representation in Washington. I think having- Disposable income with these electric bills? Yeah. I mean, they're eating up so much of people's budgets. And by the way, the governor has committed to keep doing it. Yeah. Governor Healey is not deviating from her New Green Deal energy policies that are driving you unable to afford your electric bills. And look at Markey and Keating. I mean, Markey spends all his time down in Chevy Chase in Maryland where I grew up. He has a house down there. And he, I mean, he bops around. He's the same guy that had the American flag on his front porch when he was taking a political picture that was thrown in a heap on the floor of his front porch. Right. And then when it was called out on Facebook and it was seen, they pulled the picture down and they Photoshopped it and took the flag out and kept the picture. Look, this is a guy who's been in for a long time and some people can be there for a long time and be very good. What have they done? Think about, for Massachusetts, what have we gotten from John Deaton and from Markey, Ed Markey? I mean, really, they march in lockstep down there. I've dealt with them going back in my years down there, testifying before Congress and all that scene. They'll sit there and they'll, not necessarily those two, but people at the committees when you testify. If you're a Republican and you're given a different point of view, I mean, there was one congresswoman, she'd just turn her chair sideways, wouldn't even look and just take her phone and start doing things on her phone. Right. She didn't want to hear from me. No. Because you know what? She might learn something, have to do something. But that's unfortunately where Congress had devolved to. Right. This place where I don't really care. We're down here, we got our own little game plan of what we want to do for us and it's insider baseball. We need to get some people down there from here that are going to represent the fishing industry, going to represent the affordability issues that matter to all of us. And these two guys, Deaton and McAllister, they can do it. Yes. And they want to do it. Yes. So it's up to us. It's our time in history. Let's do it. I love the fact that Tyler McAllister is a selectman in Matterpoise. I think he's done with being a selectman now, but he was a selectman for multiple terms. And Lenny, you know how important that is because you got to have policy, but you also got to implement. Yeah, yeah. That's the challenge in those roles, to get someone that has the ability to do that. And that's what I keep saying without, going into tremendous detail, eating up the airtime. These candidates are good candidates for all the reasons that are starting to come on. And the other thing is, I'll differ a little bit in the sheriff on this and say, what have they done? Well, they've done a lot to us. Just open up your electric bill. Right. And look what's going on around us. And also, I mean, it's not one big thing they've done to us. It's a continuation of policy after policy after policy in those layers and layers. It's almost like the game or the saying or the expression. There's going to be sooner or later, the straw that breaks the camel's back. Are we there to make change? Are we going to wait till we really collapse? You know, we're losing a hundred people a day. A hundred people a day, the Commonwealth is losing. As we sit here speaking, a hundred people are moving from the Commonwealth. So, I mean, we have to really decide where do we want to go from here? If you look at your energy bill, what the legislature and this governor have done with the energy bills by piling layer upon layer of taxes, which is what they are, it's almost like what the doctors did to Elizabeth Clancy there, right? Pile one drug on top of the next drug on top of the next drug, never recognizing what the ultimate product will be. In our case, in her case, it's dead kids. In our case, it's unaffordable electricity bills. I know the analogy is a little bit tortured, and that's intentional. We're going to go right back to the phones. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Hey, fellas. How are you doing today? Good. How are you doing? Good morning. I got two quick questions for Tom. First question, ripping off the Band-Aid, do you think you can get Mike Minogue to call into Barry Richards' show or go on with Barry? Because I think Barry misses Mike Minogue and would love to have him on. Yeah, I believe he probably would want to have him on. I can't speak for Mike, but he's been pretty ... I know he's been on Chris' show a lot. Yeah. So I wouldn't want to say, yeah, he'll be calling in. I don't know what his schedule is. I know he tries to help BSM out wherever he can. Fair enough. Fair enough. Second question, if you and your lovely wife are going on vacation, would you prefer Hawaii or North Korea? The current share of vacations in North Korea. Yeah, Hawaii. That's what he meant. Yeah, well, Hawaii, obviously. He'd get my vote. Or the Azores. Yeah, Azores, of course. That's a beautiful place. Oh, yeah, well. The beautiful people. That's better than North Korea, too. Yeah, of course. Far more normal. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Okay. Thanks for the call. Thanks for calling. Tom, two hours ago, we had the current police chief, Jason Thody, from New Bedford. He was talking about all the problems he's having now with the program that you started, that the current sheriff's not running at all, really, the regional lockup. Talk about why you started that, how important it is. Well, I started the full ... I opened up two tiers at Ash Street for the regional lockup for a specific purpose. It made more sense to have people who are trained in care and custody to take care of prisoners, rather than pulling a police officer off the street, having them stay at a police station in a jail cell. There are certain standards and conditions you have to maintain. You'd have to have a lot of staff to make sure that those standards are met. You also ... These officers aren't trained, nor should they be, on picking up whether or not somebody appears to be showing signs that they're withdrawing or whatever. Our people are. So you minimize the chance of somebody doing some harm to themselves. You keep cops on the street. It's more cost-effective, and it makes all the sense in the world. We have a medical unit there and everything else. I've always said, we need to collaborate, share resources between state, local, and federal partners to minimize the cost for the taxpayers as best we can, keep everybody as safe as possible, and what better way than to have them brought to us, let the cop get back into the neighborhood. They're great at preventing crime and being out there responding to it. That's what they do, and that's their job. Why are we putting them in this situation and exposing, potentially, some officer that's watching somebody that might harm themselves to a potential lawsuit that they otherwise never would have had, because they weren't trained to do these things. So I think it's very important. I hope that the current sheriff will rethink this, because it really is undercutting law enforcement's ability to do their job, and it's exposing people to risks and liabilities they shouldn't have to be exposed to. Lenny, what do you think? Well, yeah, I mean, I've said it before. I mean, even if the Sheriff Heroux believes 100% in what he's doing, so we'll go with that right now, okay? It's too fast. He just did it immediately. None of the, I know, I run a community. We have no time or money to set that up, so it happened way too fast. So where was the communication? You know, what were we gonna do? How are you gonna implement it? The sheriff, the police department, they're all together to work together, and that's something that you have to do, whether you like it or not. You have to work with everybody, and each of these communities, like Rehoboth, are challenged, and so to do it the way he did it, even if he believed in 100%, I don't think at all, I don't ever agree that it should have happened that fast. It should have never happened that fast at all. We, the chief of police, Jason Thody. Oh, he said the same thing, right? Oh, absolutely. He was saying the same thing this morning. He knows it's too quick. I'm sure the mayor, with all the challenges he's got, he knows it's too quick. The chief said that when he met the sheriff, Sheriff Paul Heroux said to him, you arrest him, I'm gonna hold him, and he said, and he's simply not doing that. And that's assuming you really wanted the towns to do that. You know, the program that was set up by Sheriff Hodgson was a well-working program, so. Yeah, and I would only say, you know, from my perspective, I don't think, I don't think whether it's slow or fast, it should happen at all. I think fundamentally, look, this is how it works. This is how it should work, and if we're gonna really focus on what's best for the people, then this is how it should be done the way we had it. It worked perfectly. We didn't have a lot of problems, and we worked very, very well with our law enforcement partners. They were partners. To me, it's another peg in the defund the police movement, okay? It's just another wing of the defund the police movement, and it's what he's got, and that's what he's using. We're gonna take a break. We'll be back with some people on hold. We will get to them. Tom Hodgson, Lenny Mills Jr., my guests. I'm Chris McCarthy. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the program. It's Fun Friday. Tom Hodgson, Lenny Mills Jr., my guests. They're usually here on Fridays. Jim, we have some people on hold. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. Good morning, Tom. Good morning, Connor. Jester's got my support. I've met him. He's got a great family. I understand, but I'm suspicious of some of his ties, and I was just hoping, and I'll be quick. Do you think there'll be a debate between the two gentlemen on WBSM coming up? I'm not gonna do one. It's a lot of work. I'm not interested in doing it, but Ken Pittman might do it. He did the debates for the primaries for both the Democrats and the Republicans, so Ken Pittman, who lives in Dartmouth, has lived there a long time. I think he's really good at doing those debates, so if Ken would like to do it, he's here nine to noon on Saturday mornings. He did it for the primaries. I'm not really interested in putting those together. It's a lot of work that I'm not, I'm kind of lazy. No, you don't. No. Hey, Barry's not here today. I see Brian the cabbie lurking around on the hallway, so I assume that means Brian will be in for Barry. Yeah, those debates, but hopefully Dartmouth or maybe someone in the North End will put on debates for Chester and Ed Pacheco. Those two guys went to high school together. I didn't know that. But Ed Pacheco, who's got a lot of support, he's not a bad guy. I interviewed him here on the air, but he's got some conflicts because he's gotta be with the high-cost Democrats and with all the radicals, because that's who got him elected. That's how he beat Steve Medeiros, was the radicals. So you gotta dance with the ones that brung you, right? Yeah, you do. Unfortunately, he owns that if that's the case. I have never met the man or sat down with him, but that's a truism in politics. Right, they hold your feet to the fire. Yeah, you have to be careful. You dealt with the Coalition for Social Justice, sure. Yeah, but we never parted from our principles. No, I know you didn't, but you never took their support. Right. But you know how hard they are. They're happy, we were happy if they wanted to support us, but not based on a leverage that you march in lockstep with what we want or you don't get it. Right. That was fine, I didn't have a problem with it because I was representing the people. Right, but they supported your opponent. Yeah, they did. That's why he's taking these positions. And is Ed Pacheco going to go along with that? Time will tell. Right. All right, guys, I appreciate you coming in. Anything going on this weekend that we need to know about Tom Hodgkin? I think there's a Holy Ghost Feast at the Liberal Club in Fall River. Okay. There'll be obviously a lot of phone calls being made on the fundraiser for Mike Minogue on October 1st. And we're going to have a lot of people out there. People are asking for signs nonstop. So we'll be busy with that. North Fairhaven has that great festival, Our Lady Angels. Rehoboth has the gazebo. We got the concert this week on the last one and we have fireworks at the end of the night. We're all set up for a big fireworks show. Thanks to John. Everybody's welcome and it's free. Free in Rehoboth? No, you don't want me to send a sheriff, no. Thanks to John Ferrer, I think, on those fireworks. Yeah, yeah, he's very generous to a lot of people. A lot of people. Just go to Rhode Island Hospital and walk in the entrance and you'll see his name and his wife. Tremendous donations over there on behalf of all. Amazing philanthropic people. All right, guys, listen. Thanks, guys, so much for coming in. Thanks for your time. Stick around. We got Brian the cabbie coming up next. That's always a great show. He's...