Mornings With Gary Byron Podcast 10-13-26

0:00250 years of liberty. It isn't a given. It's a doing we talk truth. We defend the Republic celebrating the American Semaine Quince and 10 on the talk of Connecticut WDRC AM 1360 and FM 103.3 Hartford big elections coming up, huh? You know it's three weeks from today from today today is Tuesday the 13th right which next Tuesday the 20th and the 27th and we just keep going and then it's right there it's a whole not then it's November 3rd three weeks from today. That's went well hold on a second that's election day but truth be told early voting starts next week Monday I believe Monday that would be Monday the 19th. So if you think about it people you can start going to the polls is in an know less than a week from now. Well, you could have done it already because you have absentee belts. Well, this is true too. But, um, do you already know who you're voting for?

1:03I mean, let me ask you this because there's no overlapping anymore. Remember the back in the days of, well, some of the people in the parties had some common, I mean, they had their outer fringe as well. They would that distinguish them from one party to the opposite party. But there was some overlap. We're not living in an air anymore. They are completely polarized. So, uh, I mean, you the line has been drawn as far as how to differentiate one client, one client, one candidate, uh, in a party to the opposing candidate, any other party. Good morning. It's Gary Byron, 7-11 here on this Tuesday morning. So happy to have you on board the old morning train. Our first guest into the daily Conor to Memorial Company. The interview chair is the vice chair of the Connecticut Republican party. He joins us every other Tuesday. And indeed, she is live in studio or Facebook live right now. Let's welcome back to the show. Mary and Turner. All right, Mary and, uh, well, I was looking forward to this, uh, all weekend of

2:08getting you, knowing I was going to see you here. And, um, today and again in two weeks, I, um, I'm going to save that topic for two weeks from now. I got another great one for you because it's, it'll be timely. But I want to talk today about candidates and, uh, and, and, and there's, are people really wondering right now? Cheese, I don't know who to vote for. Yes. Are there really? Yes. Yes, there are people who still don't know who the candidate is. Well, that's a shame. Well, no, it's, it's part of the game, really. But before they don't know, they don't know who's running. Oh, they don't know who's running for governor. Um, they may know who's running for governor, but they don't know the under ticket. They don't know who's running for treasurer, for example, okay, they don't know. Um, but before we get to side track, I have to do something really important. Today is my 47th wedding anniversary. Mr. Turner is probably listening who gives me all these great things to talk to you about. That's Ted Turner.

3:09I wish he does. Oh, he passed away a little earlier. So I came to bundle a cash. I spent it. Of course you did though. So happy anniversary, Mr. Turner. Well, happy anniversary to both of you. How many years would you say 47? 47. Oh my goodness. I was a, I was a child. What is the secret there? Um, did you just keep plowing through it? I mean, there's always stuff in marriages. You just got to keep going. Yeah. You know, okay. Yeah, and all multiple properties. So that you can get away from each other. So he could say, I gotta go north. But actually you are hitting the nail on the head. We are three weeks away and working with candidates. And I have that privilege and I work with, I get town cheers who call me with stories. It's, it's very interesting. Some of the stuff they call me with the last three weeks. But candidates, they get caught in the soup. I know that kind of makes those sense. It depends on what kind of soup you're making. Some is junky, some is brought.

4:10But the candidates forget they, they think there's so much going on in their life. They're at every kind of event. Well, who are you meeting with? You see a lot of candidates out there spending their time talking to us. You know, if I'm going to an event and I go to a lot of them as Ben does too, there's a, there's candidates there talking to other Republicans. It's like these guys are already in your bucket. You need to be talking to the guys on the street. You gotta be talking to the folks at the grocery store. You gotta be out there, maybe at the American Legion or the rotary club. Get in your face in front of people who don't know you. And the campaign manager's job, even though the candidate forgets that they have one of these sometimes, their job is to keep pushing that candidate to be in something that's a little uncomfortable. And, you know, I've, I've been a campaign manager and I've had candidate to want to push me back. And I'm like, your job, my job is not for you like me. Okay, if you think I'm coming in here to be your buddy, I am not that.

5:11I am here to get you elected and I need you to listen and I've been a candidate and I wish somebody had kicked me around a little bit. I mean, I was out doing doors, but I could have done more. There's always the more and the biggest thing about candidates, there's limited time, there's limited money, and there's a lot of competing demands. And the question is whether you're spending their resources wisely. And even though the state of Connecticut forked over a big ton of money for Senate races, house races, down tickets and governor races, which is taxpayers money. I need everybody to remember that. You are funding all of these candidates more or less forget Lamont. He's, he's an anomaly, okay? Because he's independently wealthy and he could spend whatever he wants. But and there's nothing wrong with that. But there's a reason why they changed this. So we had a more even field and one of the biggest things is finding candidates. Come on, Gary, you did it. You actually got elected. I did it. I didn't make it through the, I didn't make it through the needle.

6:12You know, maybe I should have run again, but it takes a lot of courage for someone to be a candidate. So first off, everybody, stop being jerks to the candidates because it's really, really hard to make the decision to do it. And once you're in, you're in it. You know, you bring up something I didn't want to interrupt you because you on, on such a role, but boy, did you, you nailed something right there. So my, obviously for my second and third campaign, obviously, you're going to go with the team that got you elected. So that my team really didn't change from my first election. My campaign manager, you know, was somebody that I went to high school with. He was a, I don't know if he was one year or two years younger than me. Maybe we had an art class together. Didn't really know him all that well. I knew that he ran himself as a Republican candidate and he, he lost. But I did not hire, I don't want to say the word hire because he wasn't paid.

7:13I didn't go ask my best friend to be my campaign manager. In fact, I didn't even just ask a casual friend and acquaintance to be, I went to somebody who I thought knew how to do, new the strategy, knew what it took to win, but just didn't make a great candidate himself. Do you follow what I'm saying? I do. And I think what happens often is, oh, yeah, I'm going to run and you know what, buddy, you could be my campaign manager. And it's like, listen, I know that your friend or your best friend or your good friend. No, you don't have your good friend in your campaign team at all. Is it? Well, you have them as a volunteer. As a volunteer, they want to go out and do a Lyft drop for you and make some phone calls and, and right, but no, you've got to go to people, seasoned people who have a proven record of winning. You wait, there is also that caveat, seasoned people. Yes. Does that make them really that good or does they just make a lot of money? You know, because kids, campaigns spend a lot of money and campaign people do get paid.

8:17So do you remember when I was running for party chair? Yes, I do. 2021 against Ben Proto. Yes, I do. Okay. This is folks. This is when we had Jair Romano and then he resigned and Sue Hatfield took over. She was not going to run for re-election for State Party Chair. So it was going to be an open sea. I'm just going to tell a very short story. So I decided to put my hat in the ring and so did Ben Proto. And a couple others did as well who just fell on the way side. On the night of the day, there was there was Mark Lee. No, Mark Lee was years ago. Mark Lee gave my speech, gave my nomination speech. Joe Mark Lee. What's with him there? No, it was a, it was a girl named Jen from Florida. I'm Florida. Do you find us? You didn't even leave in the state of Connecticut. And then there was a Greenwich former RTC. Jim Campbell. Was he the former RTC chair for the town of Greenwich? He never even showed up on the day of the day. It was only Ben and I. There were only two names on that day and obviously Ben beat the pants off of me.

9:20So to speak. Okay. So somebody had asked me, who would you get as your executive director? I was already had those wheels in motion. I was going to bring in a person from Wisconsin who flipped that state from blue to red. And I wish I could, if I found my papers, I'd have you, I'd only have his name. I'd have his phone number because I had a very preliminary phone call with him. Would you be willing to move to the state of Connecticut? If I would have, if I would have paid you to be the executive director of, of the, a Connecticut Republican party, I want to, I want you to figure this state out. We've got to pick people that will help you. But I want you to, whatever blueprint that you had for flipping the state of Wisconsin, I wanted you to do your best to apply to the state of Connecticut. Okay. So I don't know this guy. I never met him. I knew his reputation. I knew his success story. But my point is that he wasn't my friend per se. And I think that's what people need to get away from is just hiring their friend.

10:21Yeah, but I don't know if people hire their friends because they hire their friends or they decide to rip for office and then they're like, holy no moly. How am I? What's the team? And where do I get them? And you got to remember the house folks, which is Mike Meadows and the Senate folks, which is Sean Cleary. They help guide somewhat, but they really don't pick your team. And where do you hire them? Where do they come from? I mean, really and truly, um, Chuck, a Tania and I work together. And people would say, you two are so different, you know, it's a good guy though. But the thing is when we hook those two, you know, terminals together, I think we do a great job. And we come up with stuff that's great. And we were able to stay focused and get the news, the money wisely, but he's a digital guy. And I'm a print guy and I'm a production guy. So I worry about the blitzes and that stuff, long story short, when a candidate comes and you maybe sitting there telling me, hey, look, I had a guy, I wanted to hire whatever kid. It's all had the same problem is building the team around them and who do they go to first?

11:24They go to what they know. And I did the same thing when I ran. If I could go back in 2000 and hire the Chuck, a Tania of the world or the PAM Salamones to do my ground game, I'd probably be sitting in the gold dome and I'd be right next to Rob, C. Emson, aggravating everybody. Because we need to be doing the job right. Did I make an error? Yes, I did. Did I do all the, I could check a lot of boxes, but it goes back to what I want to talk about today. Candidates can check all the boxes of being a candidate, but it doesn't make him a winning candidate. And I wish that I had that secret sauce so that the people in Connecticut could finally realize the Democrats are hurting you. And if you want a socialist government that's coming to a theater near you, keep voting for these knuckleheads. You have a gold dome full of them, of Jane, Jane Garibies, the, the Democrat out of Windsor. And she votes against a bill that would give the police the opportunity

12:25to pull people over who are smoking pot in their car, which you shouldn't be doing. It's like drinking alcohol. And she voted against it, which was supposed to give them the opportunity to pull people over if they had children in the car. She voted no on both amendments, 85 and 86. Okay, you sit there and scratch your head going, really? That would kind of make sense. Why would you not give the police one more tool in the toolbox to get bad people off the road? Won't you just talk in this morning about yapping on your phone or or crazy stupid driving? Let me take a 60 second break here. Then I'm going to give it right back to you more with Mary and Turner right after this. Wow. Wow. Nice. That's what it feels like to find the right dentist. And with all the personalized care you need available 365 days a year, same day in plants and 12 convenient locations. Columbia Dennel feels like just what you've been looking for.

13:27Finally, Columbia Dennel just feels right. Columbia Dennel.com About 41% of Americans do not have enough life insurance. Are you one of them? This is Gary Byron. Insufficient life insurance can leave a significant burden on family members when a loved one's death occurs. Fortunately, my good friends at Turgent Insurance carry several different products to help find the perfect life insurance plan for you, your family, or your business at a very reasonable price. Comax at Turgent Insurance Services in Newington at 860-5085282 again. That's 860-5085282 online at Turgent Insurance.com. From a spark in Philadelphia to the greatest bastion of freedom on earth. 2026 marks 250 years of the American experiment. Chief It Litt, the talk of Connecticut, Hartford FM 103.3 and 104.5 FM Littfield. 24 minutes after the hour of 7 o'clock, our guest is the vice chair of the Connecticut Republican Party, Mary and Turner. Mary Ann, you were on such a roll. Please continue. I know.

14:28Go's the, you know, you get me talking about politics and then the job itself. I have the privilege right now of working with two candidates, one senator Jeff Gordon who could not be a better candidate. Just had him on the show yesterday is folks, you are so lucky to have a Jeff Gordon to you can vote for if you're in the 35th. And then we have a young woman who she and tell Anchorman who's running out in Windsor and Windsor Locke, new to the great game attorney family. And she really gets it. She is truly, I'm telling you, you're going to have to make she is not a party line girl. She's going to go into the gold dome. She's going to read those bills from commas to punctuation marks and she is going to vote to the best four what's right for Windsor Windsor Locke. And you know, you have this chance to make a change. And I know everybody says, you know, it's we need to bring something different. But the only way you start with something different is to send somebody different. And maybe it's somebody, you know,

15:28I can't vote in Windsor Locke. You know, we have a chance here in Enfield. We have we have a new person who's running in the 58th Marie Pister, you know, breeze on the council. She's, you know, well known in town. Maybe it's time to give her a shot. Let her get up there and sure she could do. I like and tell you and my husband, Mr. Democrat, you know, who fills my ears before I leave the house every other Tuesday. He's the one who says these Democrats are not your your parents, J. of K Democrats. They are socialist Democrats. Is your husband a socialist Democrat? No, he is, he is probably a, he is a huge Trump supporter. He loves our president. And he wants him to sometimes be a little more forthright than he is, you know, that's like, he's a Democrat. He is a Democrat. And some every once in a while, and he'll tell you this, I'll look at him and say, your Democrat show and get out of my office. Yeah. Get on his, but the Democrat party that he originally joined no longer exists. No, but you got to remember, we all joined the Democrat party back of the day. I'm a little older than some, but your father and mother were

16:32Democrats. You just, you know, your J. of K Democrats, when you registered to vote, you were a Democrat. She just did no better, until, you know, President Clinton said I didn't have sex with that woman. And I lost my mind. Yeah, I was done with that. So, bottom line to it, you know, the Democrat party is hurting Connecticut. And I don't know how long we're going to put up with that. I mean, Stephanie Thomas can't get any in the woman's inadequate for the job. She absolutely does not know how to do this job. And she constantly is putting out the post that I see or emails that I get. And she's very socialist. She'll, I mean, come right and answer, crying out loud. I want, I want Peter Lumaugh to go out there and start making it clear why she needs to be fired. I don't care. Don't fence, Peter. I love you. I'm glad you have a nice family. Mary's a wonderful gal. But you know what? I want you to explain to the public why Stephanie Thomas must be fired. She has so many things that she's

17:35done wrong. Just the last one, just an infield where she ran the campaign. How do you see any Peter Lumaugh commercials? I've seen them. I've seen them. But I want campaign messaging to be a little more to the point. I mean, I already know you're a nice person. Everybody who runs for everybody in the United States as far as I could start with the checkbox. I'm a nice person. You move from there. You move from there. So yes. So what do I want? You asked me, what do you think about campaign three weeks out? Folks, you are in what? One, two, three election cycles right now. You have an absentee ballot. And he's already started. My husband has already filled out his because he will be in his hunting trip. Then you got early voting where I will show up. Republicans. That begins on Monday, the 19th. That's where we ease people. Stop with the nonsense. I have to wait to November 3rd. Let's get in the boat room. Vote. Get off the list. So the the candidates can stop worrying about you and spending their hard earned dollarsly on people who are going to vote for them anyway. So just go do it early. Get it off the

18:36books. Even two years ago, Donald Trump said, uh, get vote early. Bank your vote right. I'd write a physio in here a couple of weeks ago. He said the same thing. You know what? Don't wait to election day. No, vote early. You're coming right from the the the candidates themselves. Go ahead. But it's about money. If I am looking at the list as your campaign manager and I have this whole pile of Republicans who haven't voted because they're going to wait till I until November 3rd, which I get you have that right. But you're making me have to put my resources time, energies, phones, money, taxes to completely push you to vote. And then you're constantly hearing, you know, that we have the the voters who only vote in a presidential election. And so we have to focus on them. So bottom line folks, candidates are no longer November 3rd only. They are in three election cycles now and every season. It's brutal. When we come back, um, I want to ask you how you would differentiate local, state and federal elections. Uh, if if someone were, um,

19:37a candidate looking for a team of people, I mean, is there anything that you don't answer this now? Would you run a different campaign if you were running for mayor as opposed to state executive branch as opposed to Congress, which is on the federal or US Senate on the federal level. More with the vice chair of the Connecticut Republican Mary, um, what's her name? Mary and Turner. There you go. Vice chair of the Connecticut Republican Party right after this. From Governor Jonathan Trouble to the local patriots who answered the call, Connecticut's spine of steel shaped America, celebrating 250 years of freedom on the top of Connecticut. AM 1360 Hartford and AM 610. Let's feel as the House Republican ranking member of the higher education and employment advancement committee. Our next guest has been a leading voice in demanding accountability and systemic reform amid recent high profile scandals within the Connecticut State Colleges and University system. Beyond policy, he has set a benchmark for

20:45modern civic organization effectively leveraging TikTok and other social platforms to connect directly with the state's younger generation and make state government accessible. Now with the general election approaching on November 3rd, he is here to talk about the future of Connecticut's public universities as well as digital outreach and his campaign for reelection. Good morning. It's Gary Byron, 8-11 here on the old morning train. So happy to have you on board. Indeed, our next guest into the daily Conor to Memorial Company and the chair, the ranking member of the state's legislature's higher ed committee. Let's welcome to the show, state representative Seth Bronco representative. Good morning. Nice to see you. Morning, Gary. Thanks for having me. Are you kidding me? You're making your debut here. And in person, nonetheless, wow. What's taken so long? I'll come. I don't know. We don't get you on the phone during the session. They give us the same eight people over and over again.

21:49I'm going to switch it up. We do. I'm glad to be here, though. I'm glad to have you. I never served on higher ed, but I can tell you this. It seems like every day I'm talking about a different scandal. You got the board of regions. And I'm wondering, do we even need a board of regions in the first place? The second thing is you got this chain who was making almost a half a million dollar a year. And then he was getting paid an extra, I don't know, $30,000 to move out of New York and into Connecticut. Well, he took the, he took the, he took the dough and then said, no, you know, but it didn't return the money. So what they do is they reassign him. He already vat, he already broke his contract. He broke it, you know, so you would just say, hey, you know what? If you broke the contract, we don't owe you anything. But no, what is Lamont? Dude, he reassigns him gets his other guy, which is named Maduco. Maduco come in there. He's sending suggestive

22:51text messages and emails to people that he shouldn't be sending them to, you know, then he just abruptly resigns. And then you've got this, and by the way, meanwhile, Terrence Chang is reassigned for falling asleep. If he even, if he even dials in, he's like the banking commissioner there. If he even dials into a Zoom meeting, it's apparently that's even that's too difficult for him because he often misses those. And just to add more fuel to this fire that I'm going to have you comment on, then we learn recently that the president of Central Connecticut State University is just a very, very difficult person to work with and belittles and braze the people that work under her. And she's done this for years. And then when confronted about it, she doesn't just resign because with the resignation, you, I guess you could still hold people accountable to certain things, but she, she retires. And that changes, I don't know if it's the legality, but it changes on how you

23:55can further proceed with these allegations. So representative, you've got your hands full. It is a mess. That was well summarized. Yeah. So just a little closer. That's so, or you can pull, or you can pull a mic closer to you. Whatever you'd like. Yeah. So I came in two years ago now as in the Reagan member. And it's been nothing but mess after mess, starting with Chancellor Chang. And when that all that unfolded, you know, we watched it happen. And you're right. He was basically given a free year of salary to sit in the background and do nothing. If that's a $450,000 a year salary. That's our money. Yeah. Yeah. Tax parent only. You think what he was doing and you think it was a pretty cut and dry case for a firing steak dinners flights all over the world. I mean, you know, massages at our dime. Tax parent died. And the real thing was the real bonnet contention was the

24:58whole residency thing of listening. We're going to hire you. You're going to move to Connecticut. It's part of the deal. He's from New York. Well, he took the money to relocate, never relocated. Say living in New York for his whole time there. And then you uncover sort of the financial abuse. I guess the problem was it was sort of a gray area because the regulations in place were a little gray. So it was clearly a gross ethical violation. But it was hard to pin down a black and white violation. But nonetheless, really, yes, when the sort of the lawyer took a look. But regardless, just a horrible, horrible judgment and misuse of taxpayer dollars, whether it was black and white and text. So we spent that next year in legislation trying to nail down more accountability measures. And so you saw the audits from the comptroller and that uncovered more mess with more administrators

26:02across the system. So as all this stuff was uncovered, it just got worse and worse and worse. But meanwhile, he's handed a free year of salary to to, they call it to advise. So what concrete legislative oversight mechanisms? Do you believe are necessary to ensure that this never happens again? El for one, we did implement a residency requirement. So anybody getting hired as the chancellor, some of the top administrative jobs within the CSU system, you got to live in Connecticut. You know, we're paying taxpayer money. But that was already enacted and we didn't enforce it. So per his contract, but now it's in statute that now anybody being hired has to, you can come from out of state, but you got to relocate and take up residency in Connecticut. Secondly, one of the

27:03biggest violations was around p-card use, the purchase cards, where a lot of the administration starting from the top, we're using these p-cards like personal credit cards. So we tighten the reins around controls around p-card use in legislation. Why don't you explain what the Board of Regions function is? Because, you know, I wonder, do we even need this? And by the way, we didn't always have a Board of Regions. Yeah. You know, I wish it was so easy because as more and more of the stuff on covers, I'm not so sure what they do. They're, they're, well, you don't, you're the ranking member. How the hell are we supposed to know about their task is oversight of the state college system, overseeing the state schools and the community colleges. So their task with oversight. Because each and the community colleges used to have a president of the, of like a middle sex or a

28:03Manchester or a Tungus and, you know, whatever these, but now what they did is they consolidated in, there's no president and administration for each of the schools. Instead, there is this Board of Regions. Yes, we basically took the, the community college system in Connecticut, and they were all operating independently. Yeah. And predating my time in the legislature, they decided to come under one umbrella as the Connecticut state community college system. So instead of Narutag Valley and Tungus became CT state, Narutag Valley. So all the locations remain, but under the umbrella of the CT state. And so in doing so, they created a whole another level of bureaucracy with the, the CSU administrative system, the chancellors and the Board of Regions. So yes, in, in, in attempts to consolidate and make more efficient, we somehow added a whole another layer of government bureaucracy. Yeah. That's, that's just a shame. So you, you've broken

29:07the traditional mold by successfully reaching out to younger voters, right on TikTok and some of these other platforms. What, what, what's your strategy then for translating digital views and likes into actual civic engagement and, and voter turnout? Yeah. It's one of my passions. I, I still faints myself a young person, although less and less, as we go on here. So I, I sort of considered myself a bridge to the, the actual younger generation, but was really inspired. So before I was running, I, I had, was running a construction business. I, I transitioned to real estate was doing real estate. And every real estate is tough right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So every real estate training that we'd go to, it was all video, video, video. So you're not doing video, you're doing it wrong for marketing and stuff. Sure. And so we, we were doing all this as I was then getting into politics and running for office. And so I thought, well, listen, if it's, if it's going to work for real estate, it's got to work for politics because of the, the TikTok

30:10generation. And so that coupled with as I was going around campaigning and then serving in the legislature and I would have conversations with people. And I realized a shocking lack of knowledge basic procedural civics. And so I said, we got a problem here. So I sort of found a niche and decided to start making videos, sort of just basic explainer videos of telling you how the process actually works. How a bill becomes a lot. And how to from, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you, if you watched the old, the old bill. Yeah. Yeah. What that was, that's me street or was that electric company here? Yes. That's what it was. And so I took sort of the same premise. And I mean, you sort of up there. So you realize you think we have an idea of how things work. And then you get in there and realize it's a whole different world. So I've tried to sort of pull back the curtain on how things

31:11actually work with just basic explainer video. It's ugly. It's, it's, it's, there's a reason why they say you don't want to watch how the sausages made. They say that for a good reason. And, and I don't, I, I just had this conversation. Was it yesterday? I'm trying to think what the hell it was. I was very recent. You know, you've got a tougher job, though, than what I had in, in my terms up there. Because we were very close. I mean, we, I came in in a class and, and, I mean, we had, we were still in the minority. But I mean, we had to play ball with us. And then my second term, we, we want even more seats. And I mean, I think there was only four or five votes that separated us. So, and then a Senate was even tied. So I see what you guys are, are now in, and, and, you know, the gap that's really between the two parties in the, in the chamber, in both the House and the Senate. And I don't even know if I would be able to get any of my, the,

32:14the bills that I wrote if I ever get them through. It takes a lot more skill than I think you get credit for. I mean, I've served in, well, my first term, we weren't a super minority yet. But second term, super minorities in the House and the Senate and they have the governor seat. So basic civics, again, they control everything. And I didn't realize before coming in, you know, just how much control they had. And that's sort of what I've tried to peel back and, and show. Is that from the very beginning? You know, we all introduce our legislation that we want to see become law. Those bills, those ideas go to the committee chairs and they take our Republican ideas and go, nah, they take all their ideas. They're going to raise them. They don't even raise their votes. So from the very jump that's they control even what the committee is here. So just from basic legislation introduction, we're at a deficit because we have to convince the chairs to take up the legislation that we want to see become law. Representative, let me take

33:17one 60 second break here and then we'll come right back to you. More with state representative Seth Bronco right after this road. We know how to get from point A to point B. Yeah. From making alternate routes to finding the best cup of coffee on the road. And how to help get better mileage. Yeah. All diesel fuels are not the same synergy. Diesel efficient fuel from exxon and mobile stations helps you get further down the road helps keep your engine cleaner, you know. Keep this baby running. That's the goal. Get the job done and get home. Yep. Pros. Yeah. Learn more and find a station at exon.com compared to diesel without detergent additives. Results may vary. The original and still number one. Damn, damn the metal man. Damn, damn, the metal man. The metal man can be the highest prices for your scrap. Copper steel and brass. Don't throw it away. Bring the scrap to Eastern economic recycling and waterberry. This is Dan Dan and metal man with a stack of cash for you. Called Dan Dan the metal man. 203 756 3603.

34:20Denver Place Waterberry. Dan Dan on the metal man. 250 years ago, Connecticut stood as the provisioned state for the Washington Army. Today we remain the provisioning state for conservative values. The talk of Connecticut. WDRC AM 1360 and FM 103.3 Hartford 24 minutes after the hour of eight. Our guest is state representative Seth Bronco. He's the ranking member of higher education and with all the controversy with the higher ed and board of regions. Yeah, yeah, it's just one right after another. He'll take your calls if you wanted to call early to get into the queue with 86243 1360. Just this ongoing conversation about university funding and how do you plan to balance structural accountability with keeping higher education still affordable and accessible for working class, Connecticut families? Because boy, oh boy, the rates just gone through the roof.

35:23It is not cheap. It's difficult for any average family going in. Honestly, part of as I've been learning more and more, you know how it is, you get up there and suddenly like drinking from a fire host or just trying to really learn higher ed policy. That's a whole other different language in and of itself. So, you know, two years in now, I've kind of come to the realization, we got to change the narrative. Not everybody needs to go to college. I got to change the price, the price for sure, yes. And I think part of the reason the price of skyrocket is because we've sent the whole generation of kids to college and we kind of planted the seed as I was kind of coming up through middle school and high school. If you don't go to college, you're a failure. It was college, college, college. And so we totally removed the different pathways of professional careers. You have to go through college.

36:26And so we started giving out loans to anybody and everybody, you know, and I think that has helped drive up the cost. There's a lot of graduates though from our state university systems that are graduating with a degree. And they're still having a difficult time finding employment. And on top of it, they're still living at home. And these are not people who are just 22, 23 years old. They're 26, 27, 28, you know. And they're working. They're maybe a waiter or waitress or maybe they found some other job job, not necessarily career. Those are two very different words. And something else just to, you know, get some money in. So I guess my question here is based on that. Is it worth it? It's a lot of money for people to be sitting home not finding any careers in what they chose as their major and the school that they want to. It's worth it if you're going for a degree

37:28that will be useful in your career field. I think less and less worth it for people going to college just to check off a college degree box, which is why I think we have to change the narrative from the top down of, listen, E.B. is trying to hire 5,000 people a year. In jobs, you don't necessarily need college for, you know, electricians and welders and stuff. So there's other pathways. And so the higher ed committee, it's higher ed and employment advancement, workforce development. So we have oversight over both. It's not just college and higher ed. And so that's kind of what I've been learning. There's lots of programs that you can go and get training for, you know, a year to your program. Leave with a certification that, you know, makes you eligible for certain manufacturing jobs that can lead to much quicker hiring and success in the workforce with a whole lot less debt. And one of the initiatives that I'll be working on this coming session is,

38:32so my background, I went to UConn for Business Management, graduated, started a construction business with my dad who was a carpenter by trade. And so for 10 years, I was in the construction of world running a business, all the different trades, work with all the tradesmen. And it was very clear from the onset, being a good tradesman does not necessarily translate to being a good businessman. And so part of the problem we're seeing is we have an aging workforce, contractors and skilled tradesmen that are approaching retirement age and we are not backfilling their jobs with skilled labor force of the younger generation because we're pushing college so hard. And so what I want to work on is I want to introduce entrepreneurship education directly into the tech schools because a lot of these kids, they're going to school to be an electrician or plumber. Are they now, do you think we'd be put more emphasis on vocational education? For sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, because there's that whole field of work that you can go to school,

39:38you don't necessarily need college and you can make your career for yourself in the trades. If you want to get into owning a business, listen, you have a lot of potential for earning income. All right. Stay right there. More and your phone calls, if you feel so inclined, 860-243-1360, with state representative Seth Bronco right after this. For two and a half centuries, America has been the beacon of the free world, celebrating 250 proud years on the talk of Connecticut, Hartford FM 103.3 and 104.5 FM. Let's feel. Are we living in safer times here in Connecticut? I mean, Ned Lamont, he's been the governor for almost eight full years, two full terms. Got rid of police immunity. A lot of these judges are just giving people who commit crimes,

40:39slap on the wrist. If I were going to commit a heist crime, I'd come to Connecticut because I know that state's pretty lenient on criminals. Public safety and the practical consequences of criminal justice policy in general. And really, if we're going to have this discussion, it's not about slogans. It's about how governments balance public safety, accountability, rehabilitation. And you know what? Most important, the rights of crime victims. It's sad that they're the ones that get overlooked. A lot of liberals, they feel terrible for the perpetrator of the crime, the person who performed the crime rather than the subject,

41:44the victim of the crime. Good morning, it's Gary Byron, Night 11 here on the old morning train hour. Next guest into the daily counter to memorial comforting interview chair has been examining recent data on immigration enforcement parole decisions, bail reform, national crime trends, and even Washington's response to crime. And what we're going to do here over the next hour is separate the facts that are documented from the claims that still need proof. And we may even be joined on phone by a guest or two out of state. Let's welcome back to the show into the daily counter to memorial accompanying interview show, a chair, Dominic Rapini, Dominic Good morning, great to see you. Gary, thanks for having me here again today. I tell you today, we're going to really focus on a very specific thesis. And it's going to give you, make sure it aligns for

42:46everybody who's not enthusiastic about going to the polls or why am I voting, etc, on all these reservations, which are common in the midterm year. But it is not now more important than ever to vote for the Republican Party and the GOP. And if for no other reason, it's for law and order and public safety. There are two competing laws there that you have to, that you're going to vote on. Am I going to vote for the party that believes in, I don't know, that criminal should be accountable, right, that people who are who commit a rape should stay in prison. Those who are here or not country illegally, particularly the ones that are committing crimes, need to go. Unlike the two immigrants, the immigrants in the Bronx last week that stabbed a New York City policeman and should have been deported many times. You know, we're hearing these stories all the time. We're going to hear a story today about a young woman who was raped in Virginia. In fact, there's over 600 rapists and murderers in Virginia right now that are serving their senses and are all sudden

43:51up for a parole because the Democratic governor believes has a different belief. They believe that, you know, these people are not criminals per se, but they're victims of their circumstances. They're victims of society that they are not accountable. Just like we, there are people who, many people who believe in the liberal side that a woman who kills her three children, it's not her fault. It's the drugs that she was on. It's the depression. I mean, all valid concerns, but none of them ever should be confused as excuses for crime and allowing anybody to escape accountability. You know, when we look at conservatives versus liberals and just the fundamental differences, the conservative perspective is that we believe that the realities of human nature, right? Man commits crimes. Man has an evil side that we have to protect against with rules and guidelines and laws. And as I just said, the liberal mind is like, oh, it's not their fault. They

44:53were oppressed. We need to, and we need laws that are based on equity. And that based on merit, and other merit, in other words, if you commit to crime, you got to do the time. And those two differences lead to really disparate, you know, implementations of the law. So that's why we have cash bail. When repeated offenders can, or released on their own with cognizance without having to come up with, you know, bell money. And then what do they do? They go out and commit crimes that I got plenty of examples where, you know, people have been committed, committed a crime, and now they're out there doing a thing again and again and again. And it's according to the liberal perspective, well, it's not their fault. They need to be given a chance. They can get better. They can be rehabilitated. But conservatives, we believe, and you know, maybe they're not going to get rehabilitated. Maybe we just got to separate them safely from society. And they got to do their time and we got to, we got to protect all the people that are law abiding citizens. And those are big

45:56differences. We're going to hear from a young woman today named Heather, who's going to tell you about one of her close friends from Virginia. That was a victim of rape years ago. They were able to find her killer. And now within a year, I didn't have her killer, but her rapist, they were within a year of this person's now eligible for parole on Virginia laws. One year. Yeah, less than a year. She'll tell you the full story, but it just reminds us, you know, with all these, this whole mindset is unsafe. And you know, you want to prove it's unsafe? I did, I did research here on AI. And I said, listen, tell me what are the 20 worst cities are in the United States for crime. And it came with Memphis, Tennessee being the top of the top of the number one. And the number 20 was Minnesota. And only one of these cities was won by a Republican. Now, is that correlation? Is that causation? I don't know. But I will tell you that the AI tool, after you did all this

47:00numbers, has said, well, this is not proof that Democrats don't run cities differently. AI is over here apologizing for Democrats. So guys, there is such a thing as bias in an AI. So those are one of the things that we have to be concerned about. But this is the type of proof that we're looking at. You know, we're looking at, um, gentlemen like, uh, Marvin or Tess released in 2016. And he was on an ice detainer. And then, uh, the next day, he committed a secondary murder. Right. We have Abdul, like a yellow. Uh, he was, uh, convicted in 2023, released on bail and on probation in 2025. And in 2026, charge with murder, right? And it goes on and on again. We got, no, that was very scary. County keep going. Well, we get axel chavez, right? He was, um, the best domestic violence conviction in 2024, uh, rest it, uh, ice had detainers on him. And then

48:02in May of 2026, he's charged with murder after, uh, veteran James written was fairly shot in West Point, Utah. And so that was like within a year of him being released. And then, um, how quick, how keen, walk in Val, that's got a, that's got a, that's, what's, uh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. They, you sound like, uh, from California. Yeah. Yeah. From, uh, and after several D.I. D.O.I. arrests, and, um, he was, uh, released. And I had a, uh, detainer on him. And then within a year, he was charged with murder, uh, uh, fatal savings of, uh, Miss Nunez and her infant son. He, this guy killed an infant and, uh, and a third person named Miss, uh, Valabos. And all this was within, within 11 months of him being released on parole in California. And then in Florida, uh, the, uh, drug trafficking and firearms convictions, individual was released from custody in 2023. And then secondly, remurder within, within two years. So, uh, how does this happen? What,

49:05why should this happen? Why should anybody who's committed a crime, who's already proven, who they are and what they are capable of? Why are we letting them, why are we letting them out on society? If you, we have to think about what we have to vote Republican to keep ourselves safe because Democrats are proven over and over again. They care more about the, they care more about the, the, uh, the criminal than the victim. Some people may ask you, Dominic, why do you not believe in rehabilitation? Does that not work? I, not a big believer of rehabilitation, the race of recitism, uh, tell us that these people are not, uh, didn't, well, they certainly are not being rehabbed and, and at time frame. And so let them run their sins. I believe in letting people run their sins. And then let's, uh, let's see if they, let me do something. I'm, I'm told that Heather is on the hotline. However, I've got some flexibility on taking the 60 second break. It's, it's a soft break, not a hard break. I'm going to take it right now. Yeah, let's say the

50:06break so that we can come back and not be interrupted. Sound good, Joe? Yeah. 60 second break right here, we're going to come right back with the very subject, the very person that Dominic Grappini was just referring to Heather. She's going to come right back. Stay right there. Wow. Wow. Nice. That's what it feels like to find the right dentist. And with all the personalized care you need, available 365 days a year, same day in plants, and 12 convenient locations, Columbia Dennel feels like just what you've been looking for. Finally, Columbia Dennel just feels right. Columbia Dennel.com. The original and still number one. Dan Dan the Metal Man. Dan Dan the Metal Man. A Metal Man can be the highest prices for your scrap, copper steel and brass. Don't throw it away, bring the scrap to Eastern Economic Recyclers in Waterbury. This is Dan Dan the Metal Man with a

51:07stack of cash for you. Called Dan Dan the Metal Man. 203 756 3603. Dan Dan the Metal Man. The American dream isn't history. It's our future. 250 years of providing that freedom breeds greatness. Wake up and win with a talk of Connecticut, AM 1360 Hartford and AM 610 Litchfield. 21 minutes after the hour of 9 o'clock. Okay. So now we've got at least to the bottom half of the hour. I'll tell you what Dominic, we're talking with Dominic Grappini by the way. Former Republican and Doris Candidate for Secretary of State joins us every other Tuesday. Why don't you take the liberty to introduce your guest into the daily Conor to Memorial Company and if you chair. Yeah, it'll be my pleasure. And her story. I told a little bit of her backstory already. Well, I'm going to have Heather tell lots of her story, but this is very compelling. Heather, I want to thank her for being on on such short notice. We just got her information. I got a

52:09hold of her. Can I ask her to come tell this story because people need to understand the sort of undercurrents are happening in our cities and our states, particularly where there's a completely different philosophy on on law and order and criminality. She's calling from Virginia. No, no. Heather will tell you where she's at right now. Heather, thanks for coming on such short notice. And and let's tell tell us a little bit by yourself and then tell us about Amanda. Okay, good morning, my name is Heather Joy and I am the director of Stan called Sexualist Law Advocacy and the author of the Way to Bear. And I am friends with Amanda. We had actually going to high school together. And I started my advocacy group after my assault and a few years ago and then Amanda I call her Amy. She had come to me and with an incredible story that I didn't know about that on Valentine's Day

53:12in 92, she had gone to a party, had come home from the party and the door jam of her apartment was broken and that she had fallen asleep on the couch and she was awoken by someone pushing her head into the pillow on the couch. She was sexually sexually assaulted multiple times and be in and he left and ended up coming back and brutally going forth with she he didn't leave right away. So when he finally left she took and went to the naval base because she was in the Navy at the time. The naval base centered to the hospital she had the rape kit done and because she didn't live on base nor folk Virginia police took a statement and that was it. She didn't hear anything for over 30 years. Then in March of 24 she gets a phone call that there was a

54:20SOCIA initiative where they were running back or they were running back kits of sexual assault kits and hers came up with a hit and it just so happened he was already in prison serving a 60 year prison sentence for sexually assaulting someone else the month after he had sexually assaulted Amy. So amazing thing was that he was on the ship behind Amy so he was actually in the Navy also. So when the police went to question him he initially denied it and then he was like I was wondering when this would catch up with me. So they had the he was facing over a hundred years prison for what he had done for her. Now he was supposed to be let out on parole for that second

55:25rape of the woman in Virginia and it was supposed to be let out September 5th of 26th. Well now he's being charged with six counts against Amy including two counts of rape, satamy, imprisonment, there was all these charges so in order for Amy not to testify they decided on he was going to plead guilty to two counts of sexual assault and the judge sentenced 10 to 24 years in prison. Now that was September 26th of 26 so a little over a year ago. Well 26 that was a month ago. I'm sorry of 25 and so he was sentenced to 24 years. So then in December Amy gets a text message that he's up for parole and Amy is like this has to be an error. So at this point Amy had brought me

56:31into the picture when she had gotten that phone call in March of 24. So then when she gets a text message I'm like Amy it's got to be an error. So he ended up going up for parole January 6th of 26th four months into his prison sentence. Now according to state law and part of the problem is because this all happened before 1995 they have to go by the law that took that was in effect at that time. So they were going by 1992 law. Right so that meant that he would have to go to over and you know there's a few states where their laws are very hunky. I have a couple bills going up before some of these states about advocacy and different things because their laws

57:38are just utterly ridiculous. So yeah I think in 1992 they burn witches in Virginia too. Yeah right right. Well and a lot of it has to do with you know they have this ridiculous thing where they think that once a prisoner is 60 years old and they've served like five years of their sentence or their sentence after the age of 65 they're considered Jerry Atra. So there's all these ridiculous laws. So in Amy's case he went before the parole board and then in June a bunch of us went with Amy another advocate from Virginia myself the detectives that worked on the case some of the parole board members from the last administration were they went before

58:38the parole board and asked to please keep him in prison and not to bother Amy yearly with having to go before the parole board for parole hearing. It is now October 13th and we have not heard a word from that parole board. So Amy is in just this constant limbo where she is sat for over 30 years now at this point because it's like oh well here's a little bit of justice but oh we're going to pull it back now and now her play is because this new we didn't want it to be political. You know we're really trying that for it to be political but it's happening that way because the governor of Virginia this new parole board that she has that she has these these felons these hardcore felons going up against they're letting like one in four felons out of prison.

59:42And here in life the problem lasts Thursday I sat in on the parole hearings. Really quick. I'm making about nine out of ten people. Oh that sounds like some of the Connecticut. It really does I hate to say it but it does. Do me a favor I got to take a hard break here. Just stay there Heather um to the break and then we're going to come right back with you. More with Heather more with Dominic Gapini and by the way your phone calls are to follow shortly thereafter. Got a couple lines open if you want to call out. Fox News on Roxanne Evans president Trump will head to Alaska today after a midterm campaign rally in Young's