19:57:27 That would be fine.
19:58:38 Give people a few more minutes, and then we'll get started.
19:59:15 Good to see everyone. Some new faces. Alex, welcome!
19:59:23 Good, I'm not sure you've joined a call before, have you?
19:59:22 How's it going? I have not.
19:59:28 Oh, welcome, welcome.
19:59:30 Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here.
19:59:33 Yeah.
19:59:36 Just hope everybody makes it over, because this is the first time we're using It's a new link for the… the meeting.
19:59:46 Which we'll get into why in a second.
19:59:51 Yeah, it seems to have worked. Every time you try a new Zoom link, it's always… nerve-wracking.
20:00:01 I'm gonna make you a co-host, Brian, if you… If you see anybody joining in, I'm… mid-present… presentation, make sure they… get inv… get… They're allowed to come in.
20:00:18 Great.
20:00:19 I forget what the word is. Okay.
20:00:25 Okay, it is 8 o'clock, so I'm gonna… Start…
20:00:47 Let me see if I can figure out how to… Yeah, this…
20:00:59 This little bar wasn't in my view.
20:01:14 Okay…
20:01:19 This is the June 2025. General meeting of the… board party?
20:01:34 So we'll start it. Uh, as you may notice.
20:01:39 I am not Christian. And that is because, uh.
20:01:45 Christian is becoming a… candidate Fike instead of chairman fight.
20:01:52 Uh, he has an opportunity to run for New Kensington's, uh.
20:01:58 Treasurer, uh… there is no Democrat or Republican running for that… in that race, and it is a… golden opportunity for the forward party to get, uh.
20:02:12 Win under our belt in a… Significant city.
20:02:16 So, he is… Running for… In that race. So we… But in order to run, uh, there are some
20:02:31 Ethical considerations. So he had to… Take a step back from it.
20:02:38 The chairmanship in… So, right now, we are classifying it as a We leave of absence in… Hopefully, he will be back.
20:02:53 Soon enough, but he can't… For those reasons, he can't, uh… serve as… the chairman until… After the election. So, at our last Leadership meeting, uh, this month, uh.
20:03:11 We elected, uh, myself as the vice chair, and then… Immediately afterwards, uh.
20:03:21 Christian made his… Leave of absence official, and I became the acting state chair, so that is why I'm here instead of… Christian.
20:03:32 Congratulations!
20:03:33 Thank you.
20:03:36 Yes, congrats, and very clever. Okay.
20:03:44 Well, I haven't been around much, because I've been under treatment for cancer.
20:03:42 Peter, welcome!
20:03:49 But I am still under treatment, but I'm on the… long stretch, hopefully.
20:03:56 Welcome, Peter. That's great. Glad you were here.
20:04:03 And tonight, we are being joined by… Jeff from March on Harrisburg. Uh, Jeff, if you could unmute yourself and… talk about what's happening?
20:04:18 With your organization.
20:04:20 Sure, thank you. Um, so my name is Jeff Kaiser. I am a volunteer with March on Harrisburg.
20:04:28 Um, I met with, uh. With Christian and the, uh.
20:04:33 Pa, uh, Democracy Collaborative, and we started talking about, uh, some things that, uh, Margin Harrisburg is doing, and maybe want to talk about some ways that we can help each other out, our organization to help you, and vice versa. So.
20:04:49 Um, for those of you who are not familiar with March on Harrisburg, we are a statewide volunteer driven, uh, pro-democracy, uh, good government organization.
20:05:00 Uh, so weed, um… are trying to get money out of politics in Harrisburg.
20:05:06 Uh, and we're also trying to improve democracy, uh, in Harrisburg as well, so… We've got what we call our money out and people in campaigns.
20:05:18 Um, and the way we operate is, uh, we try to, uh.
20:05:24 Promote legislation in Harrisburg to… Um, to deal with money and politics, um, and improve democracy, uh.
20:05:34 At the moment, we are working on 3 bills in Harrisburg. One is our flagship bill that we work on every session.
20:05:42 And it never seems to pass, but uh… But we are working on a gift ban bill.
20:05:48 To prevent lobbyists from being able to give whatever they want to our lawmakers. For those of you who don't know.
20:05:55 Pennsylvania is one of three states in the country that has no limit on what lobbyists can give to our public officials.
20:06:05 We have reporting requirements that are quite lax and easy to work around. Um, but there's no limit.
20:06:13 So, we were trying to push a common sense gift ban bill in Harrisburg to get that Uh, to make that illegal, to limit the ability for legislators to potentially corrupt our, um.
20:06:28 A bribe are politicians. Um… And we're working on two other bills as well, uh, on the people inside, we are looking… or working on a bill to make ranked-choice voting an option in Pennsylvania.
20:06:41 So, we'll see where that goes as well. Um, and then the last bill, um, I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail about it, but, um.
20:06:51 It's a bill that is intended to make U.S. Corporations that have significant foreign ownership to the point where foreign entities can control.
20:07:01 Of the way a U.S. Corporation spends its money. From being able to spend on elections in Pennsylvania.
20:07:08 So those are the types of things that we… are currently working on in March on Harrisburg.
20:07:15 Um… So, that's the real quick overview of who we are and kind of what we're working on.
20:07:22 Um, and uh… Now, when I was talking to Christian, we were, uh, talking about, um.
20:07:29 You know, ways that we might be able to help each other out We would love it if any of your candidates that might run statewide would take some of our platforms and run on them, and uh… We have lots of information about lawmakers in Harrisburg and how
20:07:45 Whether or not they support some of our platform, so we can provide information on that if anyone would choose to do that.
20:07:55 Um, so just a couple thoughts of how we might be able to help each other out.
20:08:00 Um, so… so that's… that's a march on Harrisburg and what we're working on, so… Um, any thoughts or questions on what we're doing, and… Mm-hmm.
20:08:09 I have a question. Do you… do you take any action on… on lobbying, and it's impact on getting legislation passed.
20:08:21 I mean, on specific bills, for example.
20:08:33 I'm sorry? We're what?
20:08:25 Um, I'm not sure I… following your question, um, we are targeting the money that lobbyists can give to lawmakers, and trying to So, one of the things we do work on is what lobbyists could possibly give to lawmakers as far as money. We're trying to change that dynamic between them, because they are very cozy.
20:08:48 But that's… that's in the abstract. I'm talking about… actually, I'm thinking about a bill, and I don't remember the number of it.
20:08:56 Well, exactly what, at the moment, what… Oh, I know what it was about.
20:09:01 Um, it was a bill which got passed Um, in which… which… says that, that, um, this… I guess… I guess it would be the state doing it, although it's really out to benefit Um, natural gas, etc.
20:09:23 That the state can… what's the word? They can… they can… take over your land. I'm blocking on the word right now. They can bury, they can bury… just go on your property if they want to.
20:09:35 And Barry, um, carbon dioxide… carbon monoxide on it. Um, it was a very egregious, and I confronted my… my state legisl… my state representative about it And she said.
20:09:51 She said… I mean, she voted for it, and I said, why? And she said, because we had to pass the budget.
20:09:57 And it was like, you know, a D-Day to pass the budget or something like that, so it had to be… so it had to be passed.
20:10:05 Where's my state representative told me he… he refused to sign it three… two… two times, and he would do it a third time. But anyway, it's law. It's law now.
20:10:16 I'm wondering, do you get involved in things like that?
20:08:55 Right, right, right. So, yes, we do get involved in particular bills. As I said, we have, um… So, we have two bills currently in the House that are gift ban bills that I talked about, and there's one in the Senate at the moment, and we do lobby for those directly.
20:10:37 Um… there are 3 bills, or 4 bills total in the House that we… that we are lobbying for. Um, there… I will say this, there are so many things, so many bills out there that we could lobby for that all are impactful, and uh…
20:10:52 Uh, but we can't lobby for all of them. But this is… this is kind of our position, is as long as there's money in politics, as long as there's corruption in politics, as long as democracy is not very strong.
20:11:04 As long as the… the people in power are more worried about where they're going to get their next campaign contribution.
20:11:13 Than whether their voters are gonna vote for them. They're gonna listen to the people that are giving them money.
20:11:18 Sure, I know, yes, exactly. Yep.
20:11:18 So, they're gonna follow… they're gonna follow the interests of the companies and the billionaires and stuff like that. If we can break that hold that the ruling class has on our lawmakers, a lot of the types of bills that you are talking about
20:11:34 Won't get passed. And some other bills that do help people will get passed. So that's kind of the position… that's kind of the strategy that we take. We try to attack the corruption.
20:11:45 We think once the corruption is taken care of. All of the other problems that are being created in our legislature will start going away naturally, because they have to listen to their voters.
20:11:55 If that makes sense.
20:11:59 Thank you.
20:12:02 Hey…
20:12:02 And I agree with you that that's… that sounds like a horrible bill. I think I remember seeing that when it came through, but uh… Yeah, that's… that's the power that the oil and gas industry has in Pennsylvania, unfortunately.
20:12:14 John, you have a question.
20:12:15 Yeah, Jeff, thanks, and thanks for coming on. I mean, I think this is great. Over the last couple of years, it seems pretty clear to a lot of us that the overarching guiding principles of March on Harrisburg align well with the forward party here in Pennsylvania.
20:12:29 I'm curious, actually, if you could just give us a snapshot of the nuts and bolts of it. So, we're organizers of political action committee, uh.
20:12:38 Right now, because we're not a… We're not an authorized party quite yet in Pennsylvania.
20:12:44 Are you… are you a registered lobbyist? How are you guys organized?
20:12:48 And… what did you have to do in order to get access to Harrisburg so that you can lobby? When you say, I lobbied for a bill, what does that look like? You personally put on a suit, you show up and knock on a door, and… That sort of thing, and how are you guys legally organized in the state?
20:13:05 Sure. Uh, so March on Harrisburg is both a 501c3 and a 501c4.
20:13:12 Uh, the C3 side, the nonprofit side, is more of our educational side. Uh, that's the side where we promote our policies, where we use that to promote ranked choice voting, uh, across the state. Um, I see there's a slide coming up on Ranked Choice Voting for one of our events, uh, so that would fall under our education side.
20:13:32 But most of our work is done on the 501c4 side, uh, where we do our political spending, um, that we don't do political spending as in contributing to campaigns or anything like that.
20:13:45 Um, it's where, um… Well, Michael Pollack, if you're familiar with him, he's our… he runs my March on Harrisburg, effectively. He gets paid.
20:13:55 Paid member of the organization. He and Andrea, um, are both paid.
20:14:00 Everyone else in March on Harrisburg is a volunteer, like myself, um, but the money that they get paid from is paid out of the 501 side of it.
20:14:09 He lobbies in Harrisburg. Which is why he's paid out of that side of it. And that's how we're organized. So it's just those two paid members, and everybody else in March on Harrisburg is a volunteer of some kind. Now, as far as lobbying.
20:14:24 There's no special, um… paperwork requirements or anything to lobby. Anyone here in this chat can call up your representative, ask for a meeting.
20:14:38 And go tell them about the things that you care about.
20:14:41 And go meet them in their office. That's exactly what I do.
20:14:44 I am not a registered lobbyist because I am not paid as a lobbyist, only paid lobbyists, from the way I read the laws. Only paid lobbyists have to actually register.
20:14:54 And submit financial disclosure documents. So I'm not paid to do this, I don't have to do this.
20:15:00 Um, but yes, I call up… Or send emails to the offices. I request meetings. I do put on a suit.
20:15:09 A student's not required, um, but But that's what I do, because I want to show respect to the office that I'm going to visit.
20:15:16 Um, and yeah, and I go in and I talk to them about the bills that we are promoting.
20:15:22 Thank you.
20:15:23 Is that a question? Uh, well, it depends. Uh, so the bills that we are promoting are relatively nonpartisan.
20:15:32 So, corruption is not a Republican or Democrat issue. Everybody cares about, uh, corruption. Uh, the same thing For the most part, with pro-democracy stuff.
20:15:47 So, uh, we're pushing ranked-choice voting right now, but we support a lot of other ideas, like ending gerrymandering, um… open primaries, same-day voter registration, and things like that. We don't have bills for any of those things, but the… all of those things are things that we would support.
20:16:04 Um, and again, those are… Maybe not as bipartisan, or as bipartisan as the corruption side, but… still, it's not too bad there.
20:16:15 So, yeah, so we get, um… So I will say this, if you talk about the gift ban, again, that's our… that's the one that we really, really want to pass, that's the one we always want to pass every session.
20:16:27 Um. I would say the rank and file legislators in Harrisburg are, for the most part, receptive to the idea. Um, I just talked to a freshman lawmaker last week, uh, who… was surprised that it was legal for lobbyists to give whatever. There were no limits. He was a former cop, and they have
20:16:47 Very strict, um… gift receiving laws around that. Public officials, government officials have really strict laws around that, but the legislature does not.
20:16:58 So, he was very surprised to hear that when I informed him of that.
20:17:02 Um, so the rank and file are definitely against it. Um, when you get higher up into leadership.
20:17:08 Not so much. Um… they probably get the better gifts. Lobbyists report roughly a million and a half dollars spent in gifts in Pennsylvania every year.
20:17:21 So somebody's getting all that. So… so that's the best answer I can give you, at least on that bill. Um… Ranked choice voting, um… We generally get good… feedback, good response from Democrats. Uh, if I am talking to a Republican who is not familiar with ranked choice voting at all, and I get a chance to explain it to them before they hear some of the misinformation that's out there.
20:17:48 A lot of times, they… they are very receptive to it, um, but those who have heard about it and heard some of the misinformation.
20:17:55 I do get pushback on those, but a couple of those people I have talked to, and… shown them where their understanding of ranked choice voting is and what they thought. Um, everyone now and then, I can get one turned, but it's…
20:18:08 Not that common. Um…
20:18:11 So, Jeff, how do you guys choose the things you're going to… advocate for. Do you have a, like, an executive committee, and… You take a look at everything that's coming down a committee, and then you decide you're gonna… target something this season, that sort of thing.
20:18:30 Yeah, so, uh, so we did make a decision at the beginning of the session. As I said, every session, we push for a gift ban Uh, the other two bills that we're pushing this session, um, are bills that We pushed last session as well.
20:18:45 Um, and I will say, both… the Foreign Influenced Corporation bill that I mentioned, and the Ranked Choice Voting Bill's this session.
20:18:55 Actually came through us. To the legislature. We provided the text for both of those bills.
20:19:01 So not only do we find bills to push when they're out there, like the gift ban bills, but we will also provide bills.
20:19:10 Um, so… so yeah, so Rep Webster, uh, took our Foreign Influence Corporation bill last session.
20:19:16 Uh, and he ran with it, and he introduced it again this session.
20:19:20 So… so we do both of those things. Um, and on top of the lobbying side, we also do lots of other things. I mentioned education We do lots of, uh, letters to the editor, um.
20:19:32 If we feel the legislature needs a push, sometimes we will do non-violent direct actions.
20:19:38 Just full disclosure. Um, but, um… But yeah, that's… that's kind of how we operate.
20:19:45 How are you guys structured? How many people are in your organization? How spread are you around the state?
20:19:50 How big's your executive committee?
20:19:53 Uh, so… Um, so we are… we are across the state. Some places a little heavier than others. Uh, we're quite heavy in Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh areas, because that's where the population is. Um, not so heavy in most of the rest of the state, but we do have a presence most anywhere.
20:20:11 Um, Michael made a good description of our organization. We wanted to, we could be in any… Representatives District with 25 people.
20:20:21 To do whatever needs to be done in that area. That's… so it's a pretty large organization.
20:20:23 Well…
20:20:29 The leadership within… outside of the board, the leadership within March on Harrisburg.
20:20:36 Uh, I would say is probably 20 or so people altogether.
20:20:41 Um, we're actually getting ready to do a retreat this weekend.
20:20:45 Uh, to meet as a group and kind of plan out the rest of our year this year.
20:20:49 Um, but it's a… we've got quite a few people that are… that all take on, uh, different roles, uh, within the organization, and do different things, and take on different jobs that they're good at.
20:20:59 I'm good at the lobbying side. I suck at social media, somebody else is doing that. Et cetera, et cetera.
20:21:07 Um, I'm sorry, I see a couple other hands up, so I'm just gonna jump around in here. Alex, you had a question?
20:21:14 I didn't have a question, I just wanted to say, I've been following you guys for a while now, so it's cool to see one of, you know, in person, one of the… well, not in person, but virtually, so I'm a big fan.
20:21:25 Oh, well, great, great, thank you. Glad to hear it. Uh, I will say, I've only been in the organization a little more than a year, but I personally have jumped in with both feet, because it's just important work that needs to happen.
20:21:37 So… so, thank you. David.
20:21:43 Yes, thank you for being here tonight. I'm definitely a big fan of what you're doing, I'm, uh… In favor of ranked choice voting, independent redistricting, open primaries. I know that there are some other organizations in PA focused on that.
20:21:56 Mm-hmm.
20:21:56 Some of those things, like ballot PA focused on open primaries, um, Fair Districts PA focused on independent redistricting. I'm not aware of a PA-specific organization that's focused on ranked-choice voting.
20:22:09 Out of curiosity, do you know of any others focused on ranked choice voting, and do you have any relationships with any of the other organizations I mentioned?
20:22:05 Uh, we do have relationships with, um. With fair districts who's, um, pushing the, um.
20:22:24 The constitutional amendment. For Pennsylvania. Um, so we have a good relationship with them.
20:22:31 Um, we work with FairVote. For Ranked Choice Voting. Now, Fair Vote is the national organization, um, but we have, uh, somebody One of our members, uh, our main Sammy in the Pittsburgh area.
20:22:46 He's heavily involved in ranked choice voting, uh, he's worked on ranked choice voting software, actually, himself.
20:22:52 He's kind of our liaison between March on Harrisburg and FairVote. Fair vote is actually the organization that gave us the bill text that we provided to Uh, to Harrisburg, uh, to the two bills that are going to be introduced, uh, one in the House and one in the Senate
20:23:07 Um, so that's… that's our interaction on the Brain Choice Voting side. As far as I know, we're the only Pennsylvania-specific group doing Ranked Choice Voting.
20:23:16 Um, that I've heard of, that I'm aware of. Um, but we… we interface with lots of other groups. We're here interfacing with you guys today. We are a memorization of the Poor People's Campaign. So, we, uh, deal with the debt collective and, um, Medicaid Army.
20:23:34 And, um, what's the… there's an immigrant rights group that we interface with.
20:23:39 Uh, so we have lots of organizations that we work with.
20:23:44 Across the Pennsylvania and also nationally.
20:23:51 Rachel.
20:23:53 Not surprisingly, David sort of asked my question, um, he, like, read my mind, but um… I was kind of… I was wondering, I think the answer is no, um, but, like, I was wondering if you're a, like.
20:24:05 Spoke of any wheels that these organizations… he named all the ones already. I wasn't sure, I know we, like, have, um, you know, partner organizations and folks we endorse, and they don't endorse us, or in other ways, we cross-promote.
20:24:16 But they're all separate, right? None of you… and what I'm leading up to is.
20:24:20 Um, not to state the obvious, but, like, we align with all those things, right? Structural reform is one of our top priorities across Forward, and in Pennsylvania, the ones you name are, you know, really the top ones.
20:24:30 For us, opening the primaries, independent redistricting committees. And some form of, um… ranked choice, Final 2, Final Five Star voting.
20:24:40 Um, so I just hope, um, that you guys know that, and so when you say, like, our candidates, like, our candidates, we would… when we vet them, I would say they should be on board with at least most of that, you know, if not all of that. I would think that they're your people, and you guys are our people.
20:24:54 Right, right, right, right.
20:24:54 And with all these groups, I always wonder… You know, are we duplicating work? Are we duplicating, like, how much more coordinated can these groups get? And then just please invite us, you know, to your stuff, because… you know, we're all… we're all trying to do these things, and I wonder so much how much time we might be duplicating efforts, or you guys know something, or made something that we're now trying to make, but it's already made, you know what I mean?
20:25:16 Yeah, yeah, I know that… I know that we've been, uh, very much aligned on the pro-democracy side, all of the things that you just mentioned.
20:25:25 We're not a lot, uh, aware of a whole lot of organizations that really focus on the anti-corruption side, besides ourselves. So.
20:25:33 So, anything there that we can encourage you to support as well, uh, we would… you know, love to see that. That's, you know, one way that you can help us and get our message out. And like I said.
20:25:45 We've talked to a lot of the lawmakers, we know, uh, we have a pretty good idea who supports ranked-choice voting, who supports, uh, you know, the gift ban and all those things, so we can provide intel.
20:25:56 Yeah.
20:25:56 So to speak. On… on anyone in the legislature today, and kind of what their positions are.
20:26:03 Um, so that's how we can help you as well. Um… You know, and if you were… if any of your candidates were to go into district and go heavy into, like, a gift ban.
20:26:12 Platform or whatever. I'm sure a lot of March on Harrisburg people would show up and flyer for that issue.
20:26:21 So…
20:26:18 Mm-hmm. No, that's really good to know, because I think, you know, a lot of us optimistically are like, our time has come, everybody wants these things, but, like, corruption is the two things, like Norma mentioned, like, everything's stuffed in one big beautiful bill, and, like, we had to pass it, but, like, really, individual items they disagree with, that's happening here, it's happening nationwide, it's making the news.
20:26:38 Um, same thing with corruption, like. More so than ever, some might say, you know, I haven't been through as many cycles as some other folks, but, like, it's… You know, somebody runs on a strong anti-corruption policy at the state or federal level, like.
20:26:52 That's a… that's a ticket to victory, you know? So, like, it's, uh, hopefully you guys will get more Um, it's a new-ish message, it's like an old message that's really never had as much appetite or… blatant, uh, blatancy, if that's a word, so…
20:27:02 Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:27:07 Yeah, no, and I'll just say onto that, um, you know, we've always known, quote-unquote known, that politics is corrupt, but no one has really seen it or understands it, or understands how it affects them.
20:27:21 Well, right now, it's affecting them. You know, uh, what's going on in DC, you can draw a straight line from corruption to what's happening.
20:27:30 So, people are now being affected by it. So, we just need to make that point.
20:27:37 And, um, and we can… try to fix that in Pennsylvania, too, because Pennsylvania has similar problems.
20:27:44 Um, so, yeah, no, absolutely agreed. There's definitely gonna be… we're hoping.
20:27:50 There's gonna be an awakening. After what's going on right now.
20:27:58 Right? Getting back to this slideshow, and… Kind of going off of… Rachel's point of cross-promoting, uh, events, uh.
20:28:08 If I can get the slide to go forward…
20:28:15 March on Harrisburg has, uh, ranked the Coffee event in that elementary coffee.
20:28:21 In Harrisburg? Uh, if you can… if you are able to scan the QR code there.
20:28:28 Uh, it will take you to… their… their website?
20:28:33 For you to… RSVP?
20:28:38 It's, uh, scheduled for… Saturday, June 28th.
20:28:44 So, if you want to speak more to that.
20:28:48 Sure, so we've got this event going on in Harrisburg. Uh, we do these Ranked Choice Voting events periodically, um.
20:28:56 It's a good, quick, like, fun way to introduce Ranked Choice Voting to anybody who's not interested in it.
20:29:03 So, what we'll do is we'll go to this coffee shop, and you'll get a flight of coffees, and you will rank the coffees that you like, and we will vote on which one is, like, the consensus favorite of everybody.
20:29:14 In the shop that has come to participate in this. Uh, we've done very similar events. We've done rank the beers, uh, in the Philadelphia area. We're looking at doing a Rank the Beers event in the Pittsburgh area as well.
20:29:27 Actually, on this coming Wednesday. We have a rank the hard cider event in Germantown in Pennsylvania. I'm sorry, in Philadelphia as well.
20:29:37 Uh, you might be able to see other Ranked Choice Voting events.
20:29:41 That you can come and participate in if you're curious, uh, on our website.
20:29:45 Um, but yeah, but that's what we're doing, and uh, and this is a way for us to promote this reform to the general public.
20:29:55 Thank you, Jeff. Now, moving on, uh, we have another announcement.
20:30:03 Gabe, who has been, uh… active with our… we're gonna… our state organization, uh.
20:30:09 He leads the young Fortis. You might… might have to move your… a little screen what has all the other people's faces on it.
20:30:20 Uh, but national, uh, names of Volunteer of the Month, and this month.
20:30:27 It's been, uh, Gabe, so… We congratulate him.
20:30:33 For his efforts, and… Check out the Young Forwardists whenever you can.
20:30:39 Um, moving on… Uh, as… as we are a political, uh.
20:30:52 Already, we're looking to become… The more official political body.
20:30:57 We're getting close to a deadline. You have to be… you can still get on the ballot.
20:31:05 Uh, for the November elections for the municipal races?
20:31:11 You have to be registered as an independent or non-affiliated voter.
20:31:17 Uh, to do this. But you can… Uh, just like Christian did, uh.
20:31:24 There's a race that opened Throw your hat… hat into the ring, and… you're… likely to make a wave in that, if not get elected yourself.
20:31:38 So… but the paperwork does have to be in by the end of July.
20:31:43 So…
20:31:46 Is it… so, I have two people in the Borough Council that are… that are currently registered Republican, and I'm saying… I'm trying to see… the legality of it, I believe you can just… switch to independent, and then you can start gathering signatures, correct?
20:32:02 Or do you have to wait a few weeks? I don't know how it works. I don't remember if it was, like, a two-week thing or something.
20:32:05 So the… So, Pennsylvania, unfortunately, is a state that has a no-sor… a sore loser law?
20:32:15 Where you actually have to be registered as an independent non-affiliated or third party, those… or third party.
20:32:27 30 days prior to the primary, and maintain that status from that day.
20:32:33 All the way until November. So if they are registered as a Republican right now.
20:32:39 Unfortunately, they cannot run. Or get on the ballot.
20:32:44 For the November election, their best bet would be to the right amount of write-in campaign.
20:32:50 Mm-hmm.
20:32:51 And basically show up on the November election day with a stack of papers, and try to get all their… friends to show up at all the precincts, and Just hand a paper out to every order coming in saying, please vote for me on this
20:33:09 Please write me in on this Uh, for this race.
20:33:14 Gotcha.
20:33:14 It can be done. Two years ago, uh, I'm actually originally from Dubois.
20:33:22 Mm-hmm.
20:33:23 And… you might have been… you might have seen the… issues with Dubois in the news.
20:33:33 Over the past couple of years, uh… Fake. Uh, the people in charge at the time were very corrupt. In fact.
20:33:42 Terminally corrupt. Uh, like, stacks of… or bags of cash being… discovered, uh, so… At the last municipal election, a group of About 3… People decided to… about a write-in campaign, and they were able to get elected, and… All three… uh…
20:34:10 If I remember right, it was two council members and the mayor all got elected as… Uh, without… in a write-in campaign.
20:34:21 So… It is possible, uh… So…
20:34:29 I thought the Sort of Loser law only applies if they… if they ran in the primary.
20:34:35 The way it is written, it actually… uh, kind of screws over anybody looking to run as a third party or independent.
20:34:43 Because if you've… If you literally vote in the primary.
20:34:49 You can't, uh, front as an independent Uh, yeah.
20:34:52 Interesting.
20:34:56 It really sucks. Uh, it… came up, it does come up, uh, more prevalent in a presidential year, because Last year, uh… I forget who it was.
20:35:14 Which party it was, but some of the challenges to the statewide candidates last year Uh, for the electors in the Electoral College.
20:35:24 Was that they had voted in the primary, and… the way the, uh… role is written.
20:35:34 They can't do that, and they… Probably. I didn't follow that case too closely, but it… It's very difficult to overcome a challenge when If somebody challenged you on voter registration, because… it's pretty… cut and dry in the in the language of the bill.
20:35:59 Hmm. But they do have to challenge them first, I believe, right? Because with Berks County, they just take it unless they're challenged.
20:36:08 Yeah, that's the way it does happen. But if anybody is… if anybody… is paying attention and really wants to be a… Uh, that type of person, uh… they can challenge, and they… they… they'll probably win.
20:36:34 All right.
20:36:34 Because…
20:36:38 Dan, could you clarify something for me? You were speaking about running as an independent.
20:36:43 In the last election. Um, the forward party got… sufficient votes So that Eric Settle could run as… on the forward party, right? So, in other words.
20:36:58 So, are we now on the ballot? In other words, are we… Do we have to… do we have to qualify over and over again, or…
20:37:09 Uh, no, uh, what happened last year with actually, for anybody looking to run as a third-party or independent, they have ballot access, they just need to gather the required number of signatures.
20:37:24 Uh-huh.
20:37:25 Uh, what we were trying to do last year was to become a minor party we did not hit that mark.
20:37:32 We didn't know, I thought we did, okay.
20:37:34 No, unfortunately, we did not. Uh, but it was still very important for us to run those two races, because it… activated our entire… Uh, everybody across the state, and helped us gain experience running an election, because when we have municipal elections like this.
20:37:57 We have Persian running in New Kenzan. New Kensington, uh, but… or… runs over in Philadelphia.
20:38:05 Don't even… live 100 miles from the… From his, uh, municipality, so it… It's very important, uh, for us to It was very important for us last year to have a statewide race.
20:38:23 Where everybody got to participate in it. Even though…
20:38:26 So now… so now Kristen will run… as a member of the forward party, right? Or will it be in a… will the ballots say independent, or…?
20:38:33 Yeah.
20:38:37 Uh, he's running as a Fordist, uh… We actually have… in… actually, 2 years ago, we were able to get Chris Woodward, elected as a township auditor.
20:38:52 As a forwardist, we always… If we can gather enough signatures for the race.
20:38:57 They can appear on the ballot as afford us. Chris Woodward appeared on the ballot as Fortis.
20:39:04 Eric and Chris Foster last year? Uh, we're able to qualify as Fordis.
20:39:11 And as long as Christian, uh, gets 100 signatures by the end of July, he's going to qualify as a forwardist.
20:39:20 Okay, thanks.
20:39:23 Yeah, and… And if you're…
20:39:27 Excuse me, Ben, I'm confused about something, so I imagine some other people might be as well.
20:39:33 Sure.
20:39:34 When you say forward est. Um, sometimes I hear the word forwardist used to describe even Republicans or Democrats who are just aligned with forward ideals.
20:39:43 So when you say forwardist, do you literally mean a member of the forward party registered as such?
20:39:51 Uh…
20:39:54 He… the ballot is going to say forward. Uh, technically, we are what is called a political body.
20:40:02 It is the same status as any independent is running.
20:40:08 So, they can say whatever they want to… whatever party they want to appear at.
20:40:14 As on the ballot. Technically, there has even some Then some people who… claim to be part of the Jedi Party, or… or weird parties like that.
20:40:28 They happen every year. Uh, but… if you can get on your nomination papers, uh.
20:40:38 They'll ask you what party you want to be listed as.
20:40:41 When you run as an independent. And you can select that.
20:40:46 Once you become a minor party. Uh, then you have to be registered to that minor party to run as that in that party.
20:40:58 So I'll give you guys a data point. A year ago.
20:41:01 I changed my registration from Republican to Fordist. When I got my new card in the mail, it came in as, uh.
20:41:09 Independent. So, there is no forward party in Pennsylvania, as far as I know.
20:41:17 Legally, you can register to. You, as Ben says, you can… say what you want.
20:41:24 On the ballot. Like, if once you get signatures. But if you were to have an actual registration, you're essentially either independent or unaffiliated.
20:41:33 Right now. At least that's the data point from my experience.
20:41:40 And it can vary from, uh. County to county, because I also… uh, registered as… artist, myself, and my… A voting card actually came back and said, forward party, but I had I actually had to… physically write in forward.
20:41:56 Oh, cool.
20:42:02 To do that. Yeah.
20:42:03 I did. I wrote it in, and they… That's interesting. Okay, well, that's another data point I'm very happy to hear that, Ben.
20:42:12 For what it's worth, I was able to do that also. My voter registration card does also say forward party.
20:42:18 Yeah, so… Uh, so what happens?
20:42:21 That's in Franklin County.
20:42:24 So what we do in the Forward Party is we have a… We have two approaches. We… for races where we don't think we can run somebody ourselves, we do have a strong endorsement game.
20:42:38 And we are currently interviewing several candidates, uh, to… to possibly endorse.
20:42:47 Uh, but we also have the ability to run people as Uh… on the ballot, saying that they are Ford that they are a part of the Ford Party.
20:43:01 Yeah, they… but it… through the independent process. So that's how we get on the ballot as a… forward party.
20:43:14 Uh, did that answer your question?
20:43:18 Um, mostly it did. I do wonder if the word forwardist is ambiguous, something to possibly consider later, but I appreciate the clarification.
20:43:30 Sure. Uh, Rachel.
20:43:32 Yes, I was gonna jump in and sort of, like, try to help clarify, so… Um, so Forwardist, I think, like, if you are a Forward Party member, which again, you can go independent, you can click the drop-down or type in forward, I've also done that. It may vary by county, I don't… I don't… I don't know, actually, what my card says. I know if you go online, it says that I'm…
20:43:50 Registered as forward, and if I recognize that, but the state necessarily doesn't recognize it as a party, and it's a weird Pennsylvania thing, or maybe other states have it, but there's a value also in doing that, because I'm sure there's data to be had of, like, how many people are registered as forward, if that data's available, but also if you run, and you're an independent, you run for judge of elections, or whatever, you're getting people on election day used to seeing the word forward on the ballot as they work their way down, so there's some…
20:44:19 I don't want to say passive, but, like, tacit marketing that goes on, that we're… what's this that maybe someone goes home and Googles it, maybe somebody, you know, getting people used to seeing us out there.
20:44:27 But because we run forward-aligned Democrats and forward-aligned Republicans, because again, we can't finance that many, we don't have that many candidates at one time, we can only, you know.
20:44:38 It's both of those things. We also can only be involved in so many races, but when there's an aligned candidate who's willing to seek our endorsement.
20:44:44 And call themselves a forward Democrat or a forward Republican, you know, they're considered a forwardist.
20:44:51 Um, so I think when you say, like, they're running as a forward candidate versus, like, there are forwardists out there, there are forward… you know, people in our networks that we would say they align with us, but they may be registered, you know, in another third party, or as nothing, or something. So Forwardist, I think, is more that big tent, like, who's a forwardist, who's aligned with these things?
20:45:12 And a forward-party candidate, or a sitting forward elected, is really, you know, the full shebang. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that might help clarify.
20:45:23 Yeah, so… Yeah, so there is a little, uh… Because we're trying to be a bigger tent, there is some… ambiguity between how we refer to as a forward Democrat and a Ford Republican versus somebody who's appearing on the ballot.
20:45:44 As a foreignist. Uh, because, one.
20:45:49 Another problem with the… Uh, sewer loser rule, it's also regarded as the No happy winners role. We're not allowed fusion voting in this state.
20:46:02 Uh, where… where if we wanted… Other… in other states, uh.
20:46:11 What, uh, third parties are allowed to do is to Uh, basically run… the winner of a primary.
20:46:20 Additionally, as their own candidate. And then… They would appear twice on the ballot, and if they get enough votes across both ballot lines, uh, they would… when the… win the race.
20:46:37 But we don't allow that in Pennsylvania because of the SoarLoser slash Happy Winner Rule.
20:46:51 Uh, National is also having a… an event on June 25th, uh.
20:47:00 Or Carrie Ann is hosting. And informational meeting.
20:47:04 About running for office with the Ford Party. I encourage you to attend if you are able to, and Learn more about running for office.
20:47:18 At that time.
20:47:23 Alright, what else? Uh, yes, Rachel.
20:47:27 So, I just happened to get this, um, email while The gentleman from… Marsha Harrisburg was speaking, and it's from the Maryland Forward Party, and I'm gonna get this to somebody where he can post it or send it out, but if you want it personally, you can reach out to me or Brian, and I can send it to you, but they're hosting… it's an online event, it's June 26th, that's next Thursday at 7pm.
20:47:47 It's a multi-participant panel on getting money out of politics, that there's some candidates in it. All four panelists are pro Additional parties and aware of the stranglehold of money in politics, it should be an interesting discussion. So, you know, cross-promoting things in other states that are, you know, towards our same ends.
20:48:03 Um, it's virtual, so if somebody's interested in that. I can certainly send that along.
20:48:10 Sure. Another thing, uh, going forward is Uh, we're making… we need to make a push for, uh, more county involvement.
20:48:25 So we need county leads. Uh, so if you want to make your… County herd… heard in the Ford Party, or Recruit Candidates yourself?
20:48:36 And organize events and local events, and signature drives. And to help build our movement, please consider becoming an accounting lead, and Email me, or the Pennsylvania Ford Party.
20:48:50 And let us know that you're interested, and we'll… uh… start you on the process of… becoming a county lead, and we'll… hopefully grow our movement.
20:49:09 Uh, I also need to mention that We can't grow without resources, uh.
20:49:17 Right now, we're making do with a couple hundred bucks a month, which basically pays for… our web services?
20:49:29 But… to… make the impact we need. We need to have more people, uh.
20:49:37 We need to have more donations so that we can actually have the effects that we that we hope to achieve, so… If you can, please consider Uh, monthly donation, even if it's as little as a dollar a month, but
20:49:57 We do need to… If you can, please consider, uh.
20:50:04 Donating, uh, even if it's a one-time gift, or hopefully more with the monthly donations, and you can do that But… and… be clear, uh, there is Pennsylvania Ford Party has a different donation length than the national one, so make sure
20:50:23 Uh, you're donating to the Pennsylvania Party. Because we need it more.
20:50:34 Uh, our next… meeting will be on July 21st, uh, 2025.
20:50:42 Same time, uh… Same link, I believe.
20:50:47 But we'll… whatever the link is in our emails and And our communications, uh… Please, uh, use that one, but…
20:51:02 Open floor questions? Almonds, concerns?
20:51:13 Uh, Rob.
20:51:18 Go ahead, Norma, you can go ahead.
20:51:14 I have… am I… can you hear me? Okay, um, I just got a flash a week or so ago, please donate, and I donated, but I'm not sure if it was to the national or to our local group.
20:51:32 I could sort that out. Um, if you maybe send an email.
20:51:37 Um, back to, um… Brian, info at…
20:51:41 Yeah, yeah, I can help with that, Norma. Let's talk, uh, offline, we'll figure it out.
20:51:48 So, uh, so, yeah, I had a question. If anyone was, um… Did anyone kind of do the, uh… the No Kings March, I think Pennsylvania, um, Philadelphia at least, I think we were the, uh, the biggest march.
20:52:04 Um, out of even bigger than LA and New York, I've been hearing from some media outlets, I'm not sure how, um, how true that is, um… that surprised me, but um… just wondering how, um… I guess marked on Harrisburg, how they feel. I mean.
20:52:21 It's clear you guys like marching. I think I… I think I met some of you back maybe 4 or 5 years ago, when it was, uh… entity first, or, uh, something like that.
20:52:30 So, very, very good organization, I see, but um… whether or not… I personally wasn't at any of those marches, um, for one reason or another, I just… kind of, uh, block going on, but, um… Yeah. What do we think about this last weekend?
20:52:49 So, Rob, um… We were in Ocean City, New Jersey this last weekend.
20:52:55 And I went to breakfast, and there were, like, 15 or 20 people carrying signs on the 9th Street Bridge.
20:53:02 Ate breakfast, came back, there were hundreds of people. It became like a love fest. Everybody was driving by, toot horns and waving and giving thumbs up.
20:53:11 It back… backed the bridge up all the way into Summers Point. It was… It was pretty amazing for little bitty Ocean City, New Jersey, so…
20:53:20 Oh, it's… yeah, it's… I think a lot of pent-up, uh.
20:53:24 Angst over the past couple months. That people like to get out, but whether or not It's directed well.
20:53:32 Remains to be seen, I think.
20:53:37 I lost it.
20:53:36 I mean, there was very little… I think there were no arrests or inter… altercations. I mean, someone always falls or gets hurt or gets heat strained. It wasn't hot this weekend, but, um, I think it was, like.
20:53:46 80 or 100,000 in Pennsylvania. It was a big one here in Philadelphia. It was, like, the home base, I think.
20:53:47 Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
20:53:52 And I think there was a lot of… people discouraged from doing it in DC, though there was still some turnout. San Francisco, I think, had a big one. In Minneapolis, I think, got 80,000, even though they told people to stay home, or something like that. Don't quote me on the number, but they had a turnout, even though…
20:54:07 There was a madman on the loose, so…
20:54:10 Wow, yeah, that's super impressive, considering I mean, in DC, there was, uh… I didn't see any white… shot of any kind of, like.
20:54:18 Of any of that gathering, so… Um, it's interesting.
20:54:20 Well, I mean, the whole army was there, so you might not want to risk it, I don't know.
20:54:25 Everybody was just kind of…
20:54:25 There was this balancing act of, like, not… you know, still respecting veterans, not interrupting that parade, things like that. So there's a lot of consideration, things like that.
20:54:35 I think.
20:54:35 Next, yeah, maybe similar to when the Pope visited Philadelphia, it's not… a lot of people left Philly not because, you know, we didn't respect the Pope at the time, Pope Francis, we just… We're very concerned the whole city was going to be a lockdown.
20:54:48 And you won't be able to do… get out and do anything, so… Very interesting to see.
20:54:55 Yeah, so, um, yeah, DC, they… they didn't want the protests to appear to be a protest against the military.
20:55:03 That was the big thing. They also didn't want to add to the numbers for the parade, so we can see what the actual numbers were, which turned out to be less than 10,000.
20:55:10 In DC, so that's why they moved it to Philadelphia. Philadelphia alone had 80,000.
20:55:16 Yeah?
20:55:16 From what I saw, we had probably 5,000 in Harrisburg, which was more than double the hands-off protest back in April.
20:55:25 I mean, the protests were more than double. From last… from April. They've totally exploded. Every time Trump does something really stupid and crazy, like the… No automatic deployments, the, you know, we get more protesters, so… And, you know… We march from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. I wouldn't call those marches, but anyway, they were good protests.
20:55:50 Yeah, that's a hell of a distance to be… to be marching.
20:55:54 We do multi-day marches when we march. That's how we get attention.
20:55:58 It's in our name, it's what we do.
20:56:07 Any other, uh… Thoughts, comments, questions?
20:56:16 Well, uh, Christian is a candidate now. He's gonna need, um, you know.
20:56:21 Door knockers, and… signature gatherers, and… you know, uh, you know, some support to get him out on the street and, you know, promote his candidacy, even though You know, it's like this weird thing where he's running unopposed, you know, as long as he gets on the ballot, but…
20:56:38 That's, like, 70% of races, right? If a Democrat is running unopposed.
20:56:45 We still want them to run a campaign, so… You know, you just need to embrace it and run this campaign, so… Uh, you know, we'd like to… use his campaign as a… as a building block to get people involved?
20:56:58 And, um… yeah, we're gonna… do the thing. Um… Yeah.
20:57:05 Writes that's name down, he said he'll go, because there is a point to be made that you don't know what other people are collecting signatures, like, at this point, there's no one running from a major party, but that doesn't mean that he will be unopposed.
20:57:17 That's a very good point. There could be, yeah, there could definitely be other people, uh, collecting signatures at the same time.
20:57:25 Um, yeah, Zach, uh, I'm gonna… does someone have your contact information?
20:57:29 Um, I'm not sure I do, but… As long as we… Oh, Ben does? Okay, great. We'll get in touch then.
20:57:38 Um, yeah, and um… I wonder, Alex, would you have a moment? Would you be interested in sharing what you're… you're doing with the group?
20:57:48 Oh, yes, um, I was seeking, uh, I'm talking with you guys, I believe.
20:57:59 Yeah.
20:58:00 26th.
20:57:54 Hold on, I gotta look at my calendar. I know we're talking… We're talking next week. Um, I'm trying to see… the 26th, yes, I'm trying to seek the endorsement of the Ford Party. I'm running for mayor of my town.
20:58:06 So let me just give everyone a background. Alex emailed the group.
20:58:14 Oh, yeah, that was a wa… I'm surprised you remember that.
20:58:12 Forward party, uh, like, 3 years ago, very early, he's… He said… No, no, I remember, because he was holding a college… group, highlighting third parties in Pennsylvania.
20:58:26 The stair party is what you… maybe you could… I mean, I don't know. I know that was a long time ago, and you're out of college now.
20:58:31 That was a long… yeah, it's long… long gone now.
20:58:33 But… Yeah, it stayed… it stayed on our mind since then, and I'm glad you're running for office now.
20:58:41 And, um, yeah, what are you, uh, running for?
20:58:46 Uh, it's… it's a town of 439 people, uh, good ol' Lyons… Lyons, Pennsylvania, if anyone knows where that is. Uh, it's right outside of Kutztown.
20:58:57 So, um, the mayor, unfortunately, passed away, and so… Um, I was at… there was an open house going on in Lyons, and I went because that's the most interesting thing that has happened in life since I've been there. Um…
20:59:11 And so, someone said, you should run for mayor, and I said, yeah, sure, why not? And so, I'm running for mayor now.
20:59:18 Really? Oh my gosh, that's wonderful.
20:59:22 And wait, so there's no mayor right now? What, what… there's someone running for mayor, right?
20:59:21 Thank you. Yeah, there… Yeah, there's no mayor, um, it's… I'm running as an independent.
20:59:32 Uh, I put my signatures in in, like, June, I believe.
20:59:37 Um, and then, uh, someone's running a write-in campaign. So, that's… it's me and another dude.
20:59:46 Did you, excuse me, did you say someone… you… Ari, were opposed by anyone, or you're… no, nobody's opposing you?
20:59:57 Uh-huh.
20:59:53 If someone's opposing me, it's a write-in, but write-ins… rarely work if there's a person on the ballot, so… Um, I should be fine.
21:00:03 Well, I'm excited, you know, I gave your name to the young forwardist, too, because I'm sure they'd be excited to talk to you, and um… you know, that's… that's great. Uh, you can… You can be the next, uh, Mayor Pete.
21:00:16 Yeah, there's…
21:00:22 Just…
21:00:22 May or be. I was gonna say, uh, he emailed me, so, uh, I emailed him back. Um… there might… I'll say this, is there's nothing… I'm going door-to-door in my town, so I'm… it's a very personable campaign, because there's… it's…
21:00:38 I can knock on every single door in a couple of days. Um, so I'd rather talk to people in person and gather their their issues and concerns and aggregate them. But, um, I do want to do, uh, events in the town of the future. I think there's a lot of potential with the town, so…
21:00:57 I'll… I'll keep you guys informed that, you know, about… about all that.
21:01:00 If there's anything that could… you guys can help out with.
21:01:01 That's great. Love it.
21:01:07 Cool.
21:01:10 Thank you.
21:01:11 Thanks. Thanks for sharing.
21:01:16 Hey, sorry if this is obvious, are you running us forward?
21:01:21 Independent, okay.
21:01:21 Independent. Independent. I didn't… I put in my signatures before I considered getting endorsed. It was… that was… I was talking, because I work… I work with… I have good… like, I'm signed up with Good Party to do this campaign.
21:01:33 And I… I was… they… I asked, I was like, is this strategically a good idea? And they said, yeah, we recommend it, so I was like.
21:01:40 You know, I probably should dip my toes in the water, and I've been observing for, like, as you can three years ago, I emailed about the Ford Party Uh, so I've been watching the forward party.
21:01:51 For… since its inception, actually, so… Um, I've been observing from a distance.
21:01:59 Well, we're happy to have, you know, to hear about this, so that's exciting. Keep us posted.
21:02:02 Thank you. Absolutely.
21:02:04 I'm curious… I'm sorry to interrupt. Um, I'm curious, are there any special circumstances that led to your running almost unopposed?
21:02:12 I don't know how large a town Lyons is, so that might play into it.
21:02:12 Uh. It's a town of 439 people, so, um, what happened is basically once I said I'm running for mayor, a lot of people who were considering it didn't do it because it's a lot of work that they… It's a lot of work that they don't want to do.
21:02:31 And because Lions is, uh… a very small town. We have a very small budget, and so, therefore, a lot of the responsibilities that maybe a professional professional staff would have, I'm probably gonna… so basically, once someone's realized that someone's running for mayor, they're like, oh, thank God, I don't have to run.
21:02:49 And so that's… that's what happened. That's a lot of… that's a lot of local municipal stuff, um, it's… it's… it's usually, uh… Oh, okay, someone else is doing it, so I don't have to do it.
21:03:01 So, Alex, congratulations in advance for your win in November. He, uh, um… So, anybody want to have some fun?
21:03:06 Thanks. Thank you.
21:03:12 I had no idea where Lions is, and I thought I knew Berks County pretty well.
21:03:16 So I just went and looked it up on Wikipedia. You have a whopping four and a half miles of roads, public roads.
21:03:24 Yeah, it's… it's, um… there's nothing… you could… you can drive through the town. I was… you know, it was funny, I was… I was just at the Parks and Recreation Board meeting today, um, and I said that we should have a block party in town, because if we have a block party, that means the entire town's in the party.
21:03:43 I'm surprised you have a mayor for such a small group of people.
21:03:42 You know what I mean?
21:03:47 Yeah, there's a lot of micro-municipalities in Pennsylvania. The worst I've seen is up in Schuylkill County, Gilberton.
21:03:51 Yes.
21:03:56 Gilberton is, like, a street, and that's a borough. I don't know who allowed that to happen, but it's a… It's a very… Pennsylvania municipal, like, our muni… how municipalities run in Pennsylvania and our government. It's very strange, uh… We do have a borough council, so, um…
21:04:13 Do you have a city council? A girl campf. Mm-hmm.
21:04:18 There's a… there's a lot of controversy. You wouldn't… you would be surprised how much drama and gossip there is in such a small town.
21:04:24 Oh, yeah. Well, I think we all ought to go in September.
21:04:25 No, it's Peyton Place.
21:04:30 When you have your world-renowned fiddle festival. Oh, no!
21:04:34 We… that move to Fleetwood, unfortunately, we… this is… this is a big… this is one of the dramas, dude. This is one of the dramas, is that they didn't fix the park, like, the borough Council was dragging their feet on fixing the park, and so they had to move the Fiddle Festival, and so we lost it. And the other issue is that, um, a lot of… there's a lot of volunteers for the Fiddle vest. That was very volunteer-based, and Volunteerism is declining nationwide, and so not a lot of people came… they just slowly… not a lot of volunteers.
21:05:04 So I, uh, just as a totally unrelated factoid, my ex-wife was, uh.
21:05:11 Uh, the science department chair at OLI, which I think is right…
21:05:13 Oh, yeah, that's cool. Nice. Um…
21:05:18 I wonder if some of it has to do with, like, the old charters in, like, Pennsylvania being such an old colony, and if, like, once you have a charter and you're a municipality, like, never let it go, like, because we do have, like… then there's, like… I live in Ambler, right, and there's in the borough, and then there's outside of the borough, and there's these boroughs and towns, and like, I've never Like, you're not gonna probably find that in, like, New Mexico, you know?
21:05:31 Yeah. Yeah, because Pennsylvania, it's in our state law that every land… piece of land has to be governed by a municipality. And also, uh, the way that municipalities, like.
21:05:47 Like, thinking about merging and stuff like that. Counties don't have a lot of power in Pennsylvania, because we're a Commonwealth.
21:05:54 So, it's very hard for, like. If, like, realistically speaking, a lot of these boroughs shouldn't exist, um, and they should be a part of a wider structure. And, uh, the problem is, is that there's not a lot of tools for these municipalities to use to
21:06:07 To do anything. Um… The whole thing, I'm not gonna… I don't want to ramble about it, because it's… that's my… that's my interest. I'm getting… I'm going into public administration. Um, but… I was gonna say, if anyone wants to… I'm trying to see if I can get, like, WFMC or the Riding Eagle to highlight what's going on, because I want…
21:06:26 To revitalize the town and advertise it, so I was hoping my… I want to get the Reading Eagle on my campaign, basically, so I can talk about the town. So, if anyone wants to… Email the Reading Eagle or WFMC so they pay attention to me more. Uh, feel free.
21:06:42 So, it's the only thing.
21:06:45 Is that the local newspaper? I'm sorry, the Reading Eagle is… Okay, okay.
21:06:47 Yeah, that's the local… that's, like, Berks County. That's what they serve.
21:06:54 Please do. You can drive a golf ball through the town!
21:07:01 Yeah, basically. It's such a small… you do a 40-minute walk, and you've done the entire town, like, every single street.
21:07:11 It's really funny. But if anyone drives through Lyons, you'll be able to see my yard signs here and there, so… you know, take a photo, send it to me, I guess.
21:07:22 Right, uh, anything else?
21:07:29 Ready? Uh… We're going to adjourn, then, and until next time.
21:07:38 See ya! Stay safe, see you again!
21:07:43 Thanks, Ben. Nice shops.