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A case study on running for local office

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Two Women Inspiring Real Life with Stephanie Coxon and Kathy Anderson-Martin – A Veteran and retired police officer, Jeff is hardly a career politician. But he wants to serve his community, work to lower taxes, provide school choice, and rein in wasteful spending. He shares his journey – 10,000 doors knocked, 3,500 phone calls made. Jeff’s experiences as a candidate also shed light on...

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A case study on running for local office

Political | America Out Loud News

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Political | America Out Loud NewsA case study on running for local office. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

0:00I'm Stephanie Hawkson, and I'm Kathy Anderson Martin, and we are two women influencing real life. So let's throw. So Stephanie, we have talked on this show a number of times that politics, government, it's really about your local races, your local representatives, your township commissioners, all of those kind of things, even more so they have an impact on your daily life, even more so than the president of the United States. And that's why it's so important to pay attention to who's running locally and to vote in those local races. One hundred percent. Most of your protections are going to come at the state level, like your local level, and that's also where you have the most control. And you know, our constitution was set up that way to protect us.

1:03And so we love to highlight the local issues because it's never what is happening just here. It is happening everywhere if it is happening here. That's right. And we've had people on from all across the country, Arizona, Minnesota, here in our home state of Pennsylvania, running for local office, and we invite them to come on to tell their story. And also, so whether you're here where we live or any part of the country, you can be aware what's happening and go out and find those local candidates who vote and you expect will vote like you want to vote. So that's what we're doing today. Yes, super excited. So I'm Stephanie Coxen. And I'm Kathy Anderson Martin. And we are two women inspiring real life. So let's twirl. So today we have Jeffrey Clark and Jeff is running for local office here in Pennsylvania. And Jeff, welcome to the show. And if you could just start by sharing a little bit about yourself and your background. All right. My name is Jeff Clark.

2:04I grew up in central Pennsylvania. I'm running for Pennsylvania House of Representatives. My background is a graduated college and worked in law enforcement for 22 years. I was also decorated in the military during does your shield and storm. Nice. Thank you for your service. Yes. And what possessed you to go from law enforcement, the military to one in position in the Pennsylvania state legislator? Last year I ran for a local race called Madness Zero District Judge. And during that time, I had door knocked over 10,000 doors and also made over 3,500 phone calls. During that time frame, I got to meet a lot of people on the campaign trail. And I got when I was speaking with them, they had told me a lot of concerns that had been

3:07going on in Pennsylvania that weren't really related to the district judge position. However, I just took note of this. And when this year came about at the about the end of January, Cheryl D'Loser, who is the current House of Representatives, holds the 88 seat. She's retiring at the end of this year. So I figured this would be an opportunity for me to move forward and expand on what I had learned last year from talking to the citizens and trying to bring that towards the state and help them out. So when you were knocking on 10,000 doors, which is a lot, that's really what it's about when you're running for local office, going door to door, and my brother was successful in his candidate to see for a state representative two years ago. And that's exactly what he did. What kind of things are people telling you, Jeff? What did you hear as you went door to door and made all those phone calls? What were the main issues that people brought up?

4:10Main issues were, of course, tax is the rising cost. There are some families that said that once they retire, they'll leave in Pennsylvania because of certain taxes we have here, the inheritance tax. They were just tired of paying more at the gas pumps where other states don't have a high gas tax, so to speak. The environment and stuff where we're living in, it just seems like the school choice program was another thing that was brought up. Things that, as the district judge, I couldn't handle on it of itself, but as a legislator, I can try to answer their questions and help them out and vote for school choice programs, health care programs with the rising cost of health care, things like this. Yeah, we see, I hear all the time, I mean, people are just really, really struggling and

5:14you think you have your house paid off and you go to retire and your taxes have increased so significantly, it's like paying another mortgage. I was shocked when I got a house in my tax payments where such a huge part of my mortgage bill, going into the escrow account and stuff, and I hear that a lot, just Pennsylvania is very, very expensive, so I am hoping, is there some legislation that you're currently following that you're hoping that you can be a part of and help bring to the house floor for voting on? A lot of things that they've done so far seem to be wrapped the alley, but one of the major proponents that I want to do is try to look into the school choice programs to have give power back to the parents instead of the school board.

6:15Also a few years ago, we were in into the situation back in 21 where people weren't really having choices for vaccines and not being able to take it or taking it. That was another thing where we got, we want medical freedom. My heart just fluttered right there, that's my number one issue in life is, well, from my perspective, if they can tell you to put something in your body, they can tell you to do anything, you have no control at that point, you have no freedom at that point, so that's why I stick so hard to that issue. I personally love, even though you're not my district, I personally love hearing that come out of your mouth because I think that is huge. And another thing that we have going on too is we have a large population of veterans and then you see a lot of them that are homeless.

7:17The programs that have been out there, some of them work but some of them don't and we need to figure out a way to help the programs that aren't working, what can we do to change that and find different spots like, say, drug and alcohol rehab programs for the veterans and some type of affordable housing for them as well so we can get them off the streets. I agree with you, I think it's a travesty and you said you served, Jeff, were you in the army or what did you serve? I was in the Air Force. I think it's a travesty that are active duty military that you see actually active duty military who are using food stamps just to try to survive and then are not taking care of and there's preference given to illegal immigrants over people who've served our country and I agree with you 100%. That should be our first priority as far as I'm concerned with helping

8:21the people we help should be our veterans. Right and on my platform where I said controlling spending that's some of it too and you know you look at the education programs some of them have been good but we're also throwing good and bad money out there and we got to figure out why is it not working and then the test scores we need to increase the test scores for the students and whether it's trying to give them better environment to study, work in with home programs, home schooling programs or cyber schooling as well. You hear people complain like the people that are against and you've mentioned school choice a couple of times. The people that are against school choice claim that you're taking their tax dollars away. I personally feel or we're taking it from the public schools which I feel that's okay because they're not doing their job quite honestly but I also feel that your tax dollars should follow the child with the school choice. Is that something that you're proposing as well? Exactly and that's what I want to do.

9:26Make sure that each child like back in the day they used to say no child left behind. Well were these children they're growing up and they're not getting the proper education or if we can take them out of one environment and put them in another by parents choices and give that power back to the parents so if they notice their student or their child is not doing well and they're excelling with the home schooling program or excelling at a Christian school or a Catholic school or even a cyber school why not let them do that. I agree again I think the people that are against school choice are the people that are the loudest and saying they're trying to help people but they're not because you have waiting lists and so I visited a school in our state capital a private school. They have 400 kids it's not a private it's a charter school a public charter school but they have 800 on the waiting list and to me that's a travesty parents know that they have

10:27these these opportunities are available and to make those you know should that should happen and when you were campaigning or as you're campaigning now do you hear that because we see so many people leaving the public schools for these other options. I do especially last year when I was running where district judge I got to talk to some of the other candidates that were running for other positions especially school board and I kept hearing that over and over again where the parents weren't really making the choices that they are they weren't being offered the choices that they could have had and educating them and telling them about school choice not me personally but the candidates that were running they really enjoyed hearing about that. Some parents know about it but other parents don't they just keep their child in there thinking that you know between the school and the parent they can work out the certain issues that the child might have but sometimes like I said it's just the environment maybe a child doesn't learn better like at nine o'clock in the

11:30morning where if the child would sleep then until 10 o'clock and then they can start on cyber school training and they can excel in giving every opportunity to a child especially at the ages where it's critical I think it's highly important. You know one of the things I love about the smaller private I'm not a big fan of online schooling I did some research in it and the kids don't retain a lot of information I'd love to get all the chrome books and phones and all that stuff off these children because it's so detrimental to their brain development and the way they learn and their retention but one of the things I have found I was is one of my kids really wants to do pre-calc and you know they said well why don't you take a geometry course if it aligns with what we can give you credit for we'll give you credit for that then you can go into pre-calc for your 10th grade year because he does so well at a public school you really can't do that and there is so much flexibility to teach to the child whenever you do get into these smaller schools who are more

12:34able to focus on the individual needs of these kids and that's why that's one of the reasons I feel like school choice is so necessary because otherwise kids will get left behind and you get stuck with kids who quite frankly don't want to be in school the parents don't really care if they're in school I see these all the time they're super disruptive children yes they've got a right to education don't know if I actually believe in that or not but it's disrupting the education of my child for them to even be there and so having the opportunity for them to be in a place where they can actually learn and thrive and be taught to their skill ability I think is wildly important absolutely and I I heard that a few times too on the campaign trail when I was running for district judge and also the money that's being spent for student I believe an individual had a lot of stats out there I think he read it to me I think it was like we're paying almost double for student and regular schooling and what you had just said about a child going into a certain

13:36program where a lot of times they're tested or their the teacher believes that the child doesn't belong in that class and so they miss that year where at least a cyber schooling or private schooling would accept them and the child can excel in flourish versus public school and I think a lot of the testing is probably I mean from what I heard and seen a little bit skewed where sometimes the testing is inaccurate so if a child is testing they might be below the standards but they can excel because of their education acuity I you know I think Stephanie you said something about cyber school I mean it's not my preference either I think people are you I say it all the time created for community and to be together but I do think it provides a great opportunity and especially in some urban areas where the schools quite honestly our chaos

14:37are not safe I was this weekend with a person who's retired law enforcement police officer in an urban area and for 10 years her job was a school resource officer and she said you know meaning she was the police officer at the high school this was years ago and she said I quite honestly would not do that job today because of the chaos in some of these public urban schools of just kids so in those cases I think the cyber school just from a safety standpoint is a better option since some of these kids I don't know where you're running Jeff I mean it's where I live I don't think that's the case but there are still issues with our public schools Stephanie calls them government schools and you know with the school boards and so forth and had you has had you heard that as a concern like I'm concerned about my public school where my kid goes I have in a lot of different issues that have come up over the past couple years but one of the biggest proponents like we have talked about is having that school choice

15:42in the luxury of having that available for parents and I think more parents are finally starting to realize and been hearing during that situation that we had from 21 through 24 a lot of schools went to online training or online schooling I should say and during that time frame there was a lot of hiccups during those programs especially with either computer problems trying to log on and stuff like that so a lot of students lost almost a half a year of getting the education where at a cyber school or private school because I don't believe private schools closed during that time frame the students were excelling and the public schools were falling back and that was a major issue so going back to what we were just talking about I think parents definitely need the choice and for safety definitely for students be removed from that type of environment and I think it goes further than that because like I was saying earlier

16:47a student might excel maybe later on in the day and I know from different cyber programs as long as you log on for the day that's your sign-in that's your attendance for the day and you can either watch the videos of the class and then by the end of the week your your school works do so it gives it a little bit more opportunity for students to excel and get through the classroom material and then the teachers it seems like are always available from eight o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night it seems like either phone calls or on the computer versus going to regular public school where you only have that six or seven hours and in that timeslot there's a lot of other activities going on they got home room and not actual classroom training versus the cyber schools have the extra classes to take and same thing with the private schools the education I believe it is probably a little bit better and that's why we got

17:49to excel and what we do and make sure that they fall and suit I mean I know that they have these testing programs and stuff but we need to really look at the numbers and try to educate every child um in terms of taxes um Stephanie I think you started you started a minor rant there about your property taxes I did I pulled it back in okay I controlled yourself I did I controlled myself um you know and that's where you said it's an asset you purchase you pay for it and you're still paying taxes you don't leave but other store you know you buy an appliance you pay your sales tax you're done right except your your home you pay for it indefinitely to the point that seniors as you mention people on fixed incomes as the taxes increase I call it OPM because these local governments are government and schools rely on other people's money so they have no um oh concerned with how well just raise it here and there you know spend more our governor right

18:50now I think it's putting forth a budget that calls for billions more in spending then we have in revenue anticipated so what is your plan or what do you think about the issue of taxes and you know just rampant government spending without checks and balances Jeff I and for what you just said though I noticed that the state spending has increased probably about 65% under the last two democratic governors that we've had and how much did you say I believe it was 65% that's crazy and all of Pennsylvania needs to hear that number and our household income has not increased my biggest thing is also trying to limit this kind of goes and and hand what the property tax I want to see property tax to be eliminated for senior citizens and eventually everybody else because I've been reading a lot about other states that are proposing this and like you were saying you buy a

19:52house you're constantly spending on that even after you die you have the inheritance tax and your family is left with that massive burden we can we can eliminate the inheritance tax and we can do something with the property tax especially for seniors as soon as you retire it should be eliminated I completely agree and there are states that don't have property taxes this is a very doable thing and your taxes are based on consumption rather than just being alive and living and trying to put a shelter over your head that is necessary well if you look at our budget I believe it was a fifty billion dollars that we had spent on this last budget and then for this coming year I was reading something I believe he wants to raise another three billion where to every person who pays taxes that's an extra I believe was two hundred and thirty dollars

20:53per person an increase in their taxes and then if he increases another three billion that's more money coming out of our pockets and especially for the retirees that are on a fixed income and they don't get what they call coal a cost of living adjustment that really puts a massive burden on them and that's why after speaking on this part of the campaign trail and when I was out there getting signatures there were a lot of people that said once they retire they are moving out of the state because of that tax yeah I can completely understand that I think every state has to agree some kind of property tax it's just the matter of how much and you know the range of it because that's you know government has many different ways to get money you mentioned Stephanie a consumption tax a higher sales tax so you know that to me makes sense because you're taxing the people that are making purchases you know so technically you should be saying if you're

21:53a higher net worth or net income you're buying more stuff because you can because you have a higher income so you'd be paying more in sales tax they have income tax the thing is with our state Pennsylvania we have income taxes property taxes sales tax you know we have all of those gas taxes one of the highest we you know have one of the highest when you travel from our state to others our our government down a dollar a gallon in other places Pennsylvania our government actually makes more profit off our gas than the oil companies well there you got a percentage so you know there's that yes so with with the the tax situation you have other things that are of concern with that you know we have property taxes the other things we talk about Jeff with the income tax the sales tax and so forth well with government it seems like there's a massive overspending and it runs downhill to the states to the counties especially from the

22:55federal government and when you start getting these states that are going broke and counties that are broke you know where do we get where we return to and they just keep raising taxes and it's not fair to the individual property owners and business owners and so with that I had mentioned earlier too about our expanding Pennsylvania energy I mean we need to make Pennsylvania a leading a leader in the energy process especially with what we have in our ground up in northern Pennsylvania we have oil natural gas and we need to start having Pennsylvania flourish with this and put it back into Pennsylvania I think that's a concern absolutely I mean that's that goes from the federal level I mean the President of the United States is that we should be producing our own energy we're you know relying on these other countries that hate us when we have our own resources under our ground and that's

24:02certainly in Pennsylvania and are you talking like natural gas and some of those things Jeff let's answer that when we come to when we go to break real quickly let's get to break and come back it's a good topic America out loud talk radio plays an I heart radio network you can also listen in an army to a player from any web browser anywhere in the world we're the best in class apps available in Apple Android and Alexa where we stream 24 seven all of our shows go to podcasts typically a day or two after the broadcast is heard and talk radio you can hear them on Spotify Stitcher Pandora and I heart podcast and many more be sure to subscribe and rate our show this Dr. Peter McCullough you know me from America out loud pulse and the McCullough report while I'm inviting you to join me in Nashville July 2nd 3rd and 4th for a truly historic experience in 2026 America out loud news 250 slash 10 Nashville I'm calling all patrons to be a part of this unforgettable weekend packed with inspiring entertainment incredible fireworks and

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27:13order oral hygiene hasn't changed in 50 years but our diet and the way we eat has creating an environment in your mouth for bacteria to wreck havoc on your teeth and gums for better oral health get spread dental defense and oral care line designed to combat acid creating bacteria the toothpaste mouth washments and gum all contain xylitol and natural ingredients shown to dramatically improve oral health spray can be found online and it all find natural retailers let's dive into that dive into that really quickly so you know go ahead coffee let's let's go back to your your question there and I think it might be on on mute as you're talking so maybe I muted myself sorry uh accidentally um yeah can you share a little bit more about the idea for energy um you know removing the barriers or uh you know regulations or whatever that you think

28:17is hindering that Jeff one of the biggest things I what is what the um federal programs I believe from what I read there's certain guidelines that they have to follow and stuff and I'm not well versed in that aspect of it but I hear different um or watch different I'm gonna stop for one second I keep hearing a dingin is that me or you guys I'm sorry there's no dingin on our on our part okay because is it bothering you guys because I'm looking and I don't have anything around me no yeah there's no dingin for us okay I apologize for that I'm sorry all right then we'll continue so I think the best bet is if we start looking at this and I would need to talk to some of the major companies and seeing what the best course of action we could do to increase the production of our energy and also create new and advanced um

29:26processes that they always come up with it seems like and especially as long as we're doing it cleanly and economically and not destroying too much of the land when we're doing it which they have been and it seems like it's working in other states but Pennsylvania for some reason we're falling back and we have like I said natural gas coal and um other natural resources that we can be pulling from yeah we do we do have a lot in this state a lot of a lot of natural resources have you been following any of the data center stuff by chance I not following it by just hearing bits and pieces and the amount the one one of the biggest things was like the amount of water that's going to take to cool these um facilities and I know where I live at the the past township supervisors were all on board of trying to get one into my township and then the new um the newly

30:33elected individuals I heard that they don't want one which you know I don't know how much controversy that's going to end up bringing to my community but in other communities I keep hearing they don't want them yeah we have some um upcoming shows on this and it is astounding and we're pro Stephanie I'm speaking for you because I know this is true from you and myself we are pro business we are pro capitalism we are pro development but the data centers are very concerning with as you mentioned Jeff the um drain on water resources and what it does to the environment what it does to electricity rates um so we have next after this show um some stuff I think that people's eyes will be open I know one thing uh Stephanie we've been talking about this and looking into it it is very very concerning yeah I agree there's I think the more information we get and understand the the better it'll be to make educated decisions but these these things cannot

31:35be in neighborhoods and they can't be a drain on the population there's families out there who can you know go buy their eggs I mean we have a serious issue happening uh within the populace of affordable living and we just can't take anymore and it's costing it's costing billions in other states that were um yes they have an actual reverse a reverse economic impact these data centers than a then a positive economic data set over a couple years right so very concerning things a lot of stuff on energy that needs to needs to be understood needs to happen so I'm glad that you're paying attention to energy and stuff you know energy and stuff like that um super important for all of us because that's part of our major cost of living unfortunately because none of us are self sustaining anymore Jeff you're running in uh for Republican seat here in Pennsylvania that has been held by a Republican for many years uh so she's retiring um local official so um are you

32:36uh within this primary there are others running in the Republican ticket for this um race is that correct that is correct and how has been your experience with um working within the party and you know to get on the ballot of course in Pennsylvania you have to collect signatures which you have mentioned going door-to-door you have to get the signatures so that you show that you have enough support to be on the ballot uh how how's that process gone for you? and common county I would imagine it's probably same throughout Pennsylvania it is a process when you first decide to run for office the party endorses one individual prior to the primary and the party gives the support to that individual. Unfortunately I was the one that was not selected for that but I am moving forward because I have a lot of good support around me and individuals that kept pushing me to run and they were

33:41tell me the reasons why I should run because of my will and determination to change things and for the better especially where we have seen so many negativity in the past years and I want to help people out and continue on with that process especially with being in the military for four years and also being a police officer for over 22 continue on with public service. I I think um again you had said earlier Stephanie thank you for your service because the police officer's a hard job as is being in the military but something you said they're Jeff with the process that I'm going to just say it that bugs me endorsing when the party makes an endorsement in the primary because I think that the people should choose their candidate not the party. I I don't mind I mean after the election after the primary this is your candidate I'm a Republican I'll support that candidate but I have a problem and that that

34:46bugs me I know some people would disagree with me but I just think the people should make that decision not have the party insiders do it. Do you feel that way Stephanie? 110% I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they will stand behind one candidate when the people need to be choosing um and we have seen the GOP do this numerous times and then really go after the candidate that they didn't choose which to me makes no sense why are we not uh giving the people their choice. I don't in what world do we live in where we have freedoms where we're supposed to have an open election to allow allow this and and we don't because we have big organizations deciding who they want personally. Well I'm glad you guys brought that up because last year and I hate to refer to last year because it was passed I'm moving forward but last year during um the primary going into the primary I did not know anything about this process and a local

35:47our local township where I live at had endorsed a candidate and I worked extremely hard and diligently ongoing out there door knocking making phone calls and I end up winning the primary beating the Republican endorsed candidate for the primary during the primary she um got right in votes from the Democrat party members or voters and at that point we ended up having another battle for the election and I ended up losing that election but I won the day of election votes and lost to the mail-in ballot votes and when you won the primary were you supported by the party I mean you won the voters picked you as the Republican candidate did even though you were not endorsed did that did they switch to support you at that point to say well the voters so we're gonna work work for him too. Absolutely not um there were a couple people that were in support of me

36:53but during um a individual had a fundraiser another candidate for another racist she was in and I attended it and during that time the Republican chair publicly announced that there was not enough room on the whole cards for my name to be put on it and then when he was leaving he congratulated me for winning the primary then he told me that they were gonna put both my opponent and my name on the poll card initially but then he said that there was enough room and that was clearly a mistake because there was enough room on the cards because individuals that were really upset over that had went to town and or went to bat for me and they actually got stickers and they try telling all the um committee people which are the individuals that stand outside the polls and hand out the cards to put the stickers on the cards and

37:56a number of them did not do what they were asked to do but the committee chair never told them to do that either but the individuals that were actually doing it got permission from him and that's how it ended up going down so it was frustrating but like I said I moved on from that and I figured probably with the same individuals here and the same type of politics so I'm moving forward and I think I have a lot of like I said a lot of people supporting what I'm doing right now and what you experience is not an isolated incident we we have seen that you know in other races as well that the GOP if it's not whoever their chosen person is they make sure to exclude them they limit funding they do everything they can to act like they're behind you but not actually stand behind you oops oops we forgot right it's darn it can you you know forgive us yeah you know which is which is why it's such a struggle you know recognizing these things and I know I've

39:00gotten in trouble with the GOP um I can't I can't believe that I know I can't believe that I know I'm quite sure of issues as well because yes but they gave up on me thank goodness um like we can't fixer yeah that I think they decided one night after five or six phone calls that it was better if they just leave me alone um but you know we we see this and we have to fight against this especially in the primary so you know I am all about those open primaries and more so that once we just like you said Kathy once we get to the general we do need a rally behind that person because that is the people's choice but only if that's the people's choice because it honestly in my opinion if the people didn't choose that person then I have nothing to rally behind I'm going to be very honest I'm just I'm not going to do it so unless the GOP gets their act together I don't listen to a single thing the GOP says because I think they are not just ridiculous ridiculous that's my word of the day Jeff I totally agree with you I don't think that they should be putting their

40:11money behind the candidate until after the primary because last year it showed that I was a stronger candidate going out there and throughout the summer like I said I continue knocking them between the primary and the general election I do or knocked about 10,000 doors a little over 10,000 doors and made over 3,500 phone calls all on my own and I would start early in the morning not too early but around 9 o'clock and I put the sun down and some days it was even right after sundown so I was going to say my brother became a state representative doing the same thing I remember him calling me one Saturday night it was like it was after nine o'clock it was going and he was still out knocking on doors and I said Mark go home nobody wants you knocking on their door at 930 at night go home but I got about like eight I would be pissed right now I'm in his districts so lucky you're knocking on my door I said you're going to get shot or something people

41:14think you're robbing their house at 10 o'clock at night especially where we live yes well that's why normally I would either have my cell phone on my flashlight facing my face so they could see who it was and not trying to hide behind like the wall or something like that I always stop up out on the ring if you were a police officer you know these things right exactly I was at your plan with this current election are you still out there knocking on doors and doing what you did before we are and we're constantly also looking for funding I mean we have funding right now coming in but this race is going to be extremely a tight race especially from the rumor mill and also from what the House Republican committee had told me that the Democrats have already raised over two million dollars for this race well let's be real the CCRC

42:16is more than happy to put a Democrat into the seat if they don't like the candidate that gets chosen by the people so you know there's that you're fighting on all fronts yes I mean you are and I don't think people realize Jeff and you can comment on this you know running campaigns is expensive I know people say oh it shouldn't be about the money it is you need to raise money because you have to do so much I mean in terms of literature just everything is expensive so is that your number one challenge as you campaign it's part of it right now is getting out there and also getting volunteers to during the petitions I end up running into a couple problems but we overcame that situation I pulled in more people take a lot with us but initially it was a little bit tough in the beginning because I wasn't going to have what other candidates have are pizza parties or

43:17you know come over get a pre slice of pizza get a drink and you can sign the petition I was more grassroots and going out there and talking to the citizens and the voters of the communities because it covers five areas and I hit all five areas not as much as I would have loved to but enough to get me on at least the petition signing portion of it to get on the ballot and now that the campaign has officially began I am now getting out there and talking to every single individual I can is your goal to hit every house every Republican voter in your district that's the goal of every single person that's running realistically I think I can do it but it's going to be extremely difficult I want to do it myself but I love people helping me out it gives me a great opportunity to come back and get with having a little meeting at the end of the day or you know after action report and hear what people have to say and especially if folks

44:23like talking to the candidate themselves I make it a special point to get over to their residents as well and speak to them directly I will vouch for Jeff because I was out taking out trash or pulling weeds or something and he came up my street with a friend he had a volunteer with him getting signatures for his petition so I can vouch for you doing that on a Sunday afternoon Jeff so well done thank you I appreciate that and I'd say Stephanie you and I have done this if you if you are listening you probably are concerned about America and you're probably concerned about your community it's one thing to just listen it's another thing to volunteer and to help the candidates that you want to the candidature supporting I did petitions for went and got petitions to friends and so forth for our congressman Scott Perry I know you've done that Stephanie Stephanie you and I have done that together we walked yes and I say that if you find a candidate like Jeff or

45:24someone in your community go help them offer a few hours give them some money because it's one thing to talk about it and say I oh everything's gone to hell you know this has to change well you're the change mr. and Mrs. America yeah absolutely and it's a good way to get your steps in trust me yes we did very well I know and then we went out for lunch afterwards we did we made a to date which was even better so make it fun and do it with the group of friends you can even have like a little class that you take along if you need to just as a police officer that's joking I'm joking illegal that's illegal I would never recommend that Jeff how are you doing with volunteers I'm doing good but we could always use more help on Saturday we were out there during the newcomer and festival for St. Patty's Day and actually ran into a really nice couple and the wife had indicated she would love to help out so I obtained all her information and we put it into our

46:27roll of decks so to speak our our computer system so we'll definitely be reaching out to her in the next week or two and let her know when we're coming over to her area because I told her I wanted to make sure that you know the individuals that are helping me out are going to be in their home-based area and not having them drive all over God's creation and stuff and also on campaigning I brought up one point I'm also religious and I don't like campaigning on Sunday but this is one of those things that needs to be done to get out there and make sure people get the word out especially on our campaign that we are out there on Sundays and I usually don't start until one o'clock in the afternoon and end about four or four thirty because I do know that there are families still getting together on Sunday dinners so please forgive me if I do need a doorknob in your home dinner I apologize I want to get the message out there that we are out there every single

47:30day it's a good it's a good opportunity for you to join in and get free food I don't see the problem here just go ahead sit down meet the family I mean I see nothing wrong oh so Jeff why why are you doing this I'm gonna have to wrap up here soon with you but why are you doing this and what's the number one is someone says why should I vote for you in the primary ongoing what's your number one appeal to donors of why it's so important to get you into office I think it's a calling so to speak and like I said I want to continue on with public service I love helping people out answering their questions and kind of guiding them into giving them correct the answers and if I don't know an answer I usually try to get back to them within a day and try to find the answers out and over the past several years we've seen so many different politicians going into office for the wrong reasons and I'm going in there for the right reasons

48:32which brings out one last fact about term limits I'm all about term limits and if you can't get done what you can in a short period of time then it's time to move on so do you have specific numbers in in mind with your term limits or I would say probably eight years I believe that the centers are in there for four year terms and the representatives are in there for two year terms and federal you know the president the governor they can only do two terms why not make it for the legislators as well yeah I don't feel that we are founding fathers desired public service or our elected officials to be a career option but sadly that's what so many have done and then they vote and they become more about their own job than about serving the public so I would tend to agree with you on that so what is so we have to wrap things up here so if people doing a

49:34volunteer donate you know pray for you everything under the sun like what do you have a website do you have a way for people to to start to kind of get in there and do some work we have a website it's or sorry that's in the works right now and I apologize they can contact us by my phone number at 717 615 0872 and also on Facebook it's vote Jeffrey Clark and also my email is also vote Jeff Clark at gmail.com so they have to understand Facebook is Jeffrey and my email is Jeff J E F F and do you happen to know what the website will be once it's up we're we're going to a domain name of vote Jeff Clark dot I believe it was net NET but as soon as that gets up and running

50:38probably by Wednesday I could shoot you a message and let you know for sure okay now that would be that would be great I think it's important for people to know how they can get involved and everything that's going on in this world and I think you know Kathy I think this is a story that needs to be told right like he's he's running on his own he has been left out of the the GOP after after winning the primary right after winning the primary his story is not unusual and this is happening across the US and we as grassroots people if you want to make changes in your government you need to find the candidates like Jeff and get those people in who are fighting for for for you for the populace and we we have got to stop depending on the GOP to tell us who to vote for and I say GOP any major political party yes absolutely yeah and we we wanted to

51:41highlight Jeff here for a couple of reasons one just for the appreciation of people who choose to run that he is not a by any means a career politician he had a job in law enforcement wanted to continue serving his community and you know that it is a process and I say that anyone who chooses to run and we wanted to highlight him sharing you go get the petitions you go door to door you get people to do that then you're on then you have to do your website and your ways to contact and and then you're back to order doors so it is it is a lot of work for those who really want to do it and it also is I just I just think it should be about I have a bumper sticker on my car that says we the people that's who should be voting in these primaries not the endorsement of a few people under the top of a party and I don't care which party it is well 100% and that's I think that's the biggest message I think that we need to deliver is stop like stop listening to your GOP DNC whoever and start researching these candidates on your own because he you know Jeff is going to

52:46be giving is going to have a much higher uphill battle because of yes that's any candidate yes I mean he's in one of the worst areas you know in terms of the you know Republican party that there is in the state I mean there's several pretty bad ones you know that we hear about in Pennsylvania he's in he's definitely one of the top ones where they're very slimy you know so I mean they are come on Kathy they are let's just call let's call it what it is I was a committee person I'm not and I know there's different things people say on that you should be you know you should stay in the fight you should do ever um they're just print I'm a person a principal and um you know again I've worked very hard for candidates I helped my brother get elected I've helped school board members in my area that ran for office that the GOP did not support or they conveniently we actually had GOP people supporting the other parties candidates or school board in this area so you know we're we're shooting ourselves in the foot and we wanted to highlight someone

53:51who's coming on like I say as a citizen um who wants to make things better and represent the people as opposed to find another career he gave his personal cell phone number yes he did I don't think that's ever happened in the history of our show that's right I can't wait to see what happens five years from now he's like crap I should have never put my personal phone number out there but that's how much he cares like no one does that that's honestly like that you can tell someone was a good guy in genuine when they're like let me just give you my you know I would also get a second phone right now something else I love that he said he said I go to door to door and people ask questions and I don't have the answer because we don't know every no candidate knows the answer to everything but then he said I try to get back to the person within 24 hours with the answer that is to me refreshing yes because most of them if you watch politicians what they do is they redirect the question meaning that they just go on to a completely new topic they ignore

54:52that the question was even asked in the first place and they act like it never happened and then there's never any follow-up or they just spout off answers true or not truth you're right they don't really care about truth either yes so that's again that's refreshing to me versus saying oh he didn't know the answer it's refreshing to say I don't know but I will find that out for you that there's a lot of good things that just came out of this interview I'm like I mean I'm a fan if I if I were in in his district I'd totally be voting for him primarily because he put out his personal phone number I'm like that's that's real right there well I signed his petition while I was pulling weeds and then I actually came out and handed him petitions I was getting signed so it was a you know trained there so excellent that's the way to that's the way to do it so many good things so yeah you know anyone who is out there who can and who can participate who can help volunteer pray donate money walk doork you know not you know not scare people all that kind of

56:00stuff I'd scare people I mean you know he's like I'm gonna flash I'm gonna have a flashlight in my face to me I don't don't you remember those games when you're younger and you've got a flashlight in your face and the scary ghost stories that's that's the scary I mean I don't think just doing that so you know just saying like you got to be careful out there but you know any and all help I think is important especially because he is fighting the biggest the biggest battle which is the GOP itself and and what they do to candidates like him for absolutely no reason because they're against the people's choice and so if you're a person if you want choices this very well maybe your candidate look them up find them get involved and it's like everything that this podcast stand for and what we're asking you to do that wherever you are to the extent that you're able stand up step forward and speak out

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