FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
#AL02 GOP nominee Caroleene Dobson for Congress - Jeff Poor Show - Thursday 10-10-24
(upbeat music) - We're back to the Jeff Force show and I put talk 106.5. They ever stay with us on this Thursday morning. 2513430106, you wanna be in touch with the show? All you gotta do is text me, still to come on the program. About an hour from now, we'll hear from April Worry Fogle, our Thursday regular, and then in that 11 o'clock hour, former state Senator Dick Brubaker, who's back in his normal rotation, he'll join us as well, so please stay tuned for that. But joining us now on the line, I'm always excited to have her on and she's running in the second congressional district, what will be the second congressional district here in Alabama, but Caroline Dobson joins us on the line. Caroline, good morning, how are you? - Good morning, I'm doing great, how are you? - Doing well, doing well. Thanks for making time for us. We always appreciate it. Well, give us an update how the campaign is going. We're within the month window. Are you tired yet? - Well, as we were talking before we went on air, when you got little kids, you're tired regardless of what you're doing. And so I know when I was on maternity leave and not even back to work, I know I was really tired. So I think tiredness is the permanent state of existence for any parent, but no, we're a month out and honestly I'm energized by all of the support that we have throughout the district. We have a message that's really resonating with people in large cities and small communities, people that have had enough of the last four years and they don't want to send someone to Washington who's been part of the problem. And I say send someone to Washington, but my opponent lives in Washington. So it's more like allowing him to remain and continue his Washington insider lifestyle at the expense of folks in this district. People want change. - Talk about that a little bit now. - That was the knock on him during his primary with Anthony Daniels, but the allegation is that he doesn't live in the district. He lives in, I believe Maryland, right? - Yeah, he has a million and a half dollar home in Bethesda, yeah. - Yeah, and those realistic Bethesda's just like right outside of Washington, DC. Like you cross the district are calling me a boundary and then there it is. You're still inside the beltway, but I'm a little surprised more has it been made out of that. - Yeah, no, I think, I mean, it's definitely, you know, indicative of kind of where his priorities are. He started leasing an apartment in the district two days before the filing deadline, but I think it shows that you've used this seat as, you know, the next step in his career path. He's had his entire adult career who's been outside the state of Alabama, mostly in DC. And for him, this is just the next step. Whereas, you know, we have a lot of families that are struggling in this district. They want someone to be their voice in DC. It's very important to be that if elected, you know, I'm living in Alabama, I'm raising my daughter here. Both my kids were born in Alabama 'cause there's nowhere else on earth that I wanna raise my family. And any minute that I'm not voting in DC or have committee meetings or, you know, or hearings, I'm gonna be back in the district hearing from folks throughout the district because so much of this district is rural areas and small town. And those are people, you know, I mean, with all due respect to Mobile and Montgomery, there's so much going on there. And, you know, I've spent a lot of time in Mobile to try to get educated on all the opportunities and issues there are Mobile, but the cities have lobbyists. You know, branded Alabama doesn't have a lobbyist Crawford, Alabama, Chatham. You gotta go there to figure out what's going on, what the needs are. And I think for too long, too many folks in this district and throughout America just feel like they haven't been heard. They're struggling and they don't have a voice. And I wanna be that voice within the Washington. - Well, you know, it seems like I've seen you everywhere. Now I see this all the time. I don't run in these circles, but I haven't seen as much of your opponent. Now he has a presence in Mobile and in Montgomery. I mean, well, why is, how often do you run into him other than these debates? Because we, I mean, I'm out and about in this political world a lot. And it's such a strange campaign, unlike any I've covered in the past in this state. - Well, you know, and I'm coming at this not being a politician. So for me, it is imperative that I get out throughout the district so that folks can know who I am and what I stand for. But just as importantly to that I can hear from folks in every corner of this district. And so that's my strategy for lack of a better word, although I don't even speak in those terms because I'm not, I'm not some political animal. I'm just, you know, a working mom proud of Alabama and that wants better for the folks in this district. So, you know, I don't run into him very often. But again, you know, he's being a DC entire being a creature of politics. You know, he may have some more developed strategy and he may be running analytics on where he should be. I'm just trying to be where I can meet as many people as I can. So that means, you know, going to fish fries, going to football games, going to county fairs. You know, trying to hear from as many folks as I can. - Now, not to get too much away here, you got a debate and for whatever reason anale.com, but you got a debate today. How you feel about it? - Well, I'm excited for the opportunity to have a chance to discuss the issue. I think that certainly, you know, you said this is a very different race than it is because, you know, having a swing district, having a purple district here in Alabama means that, you know, we're talking about all the issues. You know, I think here to four, where you had six solid Republican districts, a lot of the time, you know, a lot of the discussion was just amongst the Republican primary candidate. So that means you're talking about, you know, issues that Republican wanna talk about. And in district seven, I've never lived in district seven, but I would imagine given that it's a blue district, but in the primary, you know, the discussion is amongst Democrats about issues that Democrats like to talk about. So I think this is really healthy to have these debates so that, you know, both of us have to talk about all of the issues that impact all of the voters in this district. So I'm very grateful to aale.com for hosting it and making it flat for the opportunity to share my view on how I can make lives better about me and my family. I'm joined by Caroline Dobbs. And she's running for the congressional seat in the second congressional district as the Republican nominee. Let's back it up a little bit. 'Cause I think so much of what people will be voting on on November 5th is the status quo. But let's start with this. Your proposal with the Haitian resettlement or resettlement in general, I guess is CHNV program, the Biden administration says they're rescinding, but it's this, Caroline, that they're resettling these refugees or whatever you wanna call them. But did I really, did I be really being upfront with the local officials and that's creating a little frustration at the local level, I'm sure you're aware. - Oh, absolutely. Yes, there's no prior notification, no coordination or collaboration, not really, you know, very little vetting process for the folks that are being resettled. But also, you know, when the administration just import a bunch of refugees in a community, you know, it puts those refugees at risk too because it, you know, there's just the situation of distress, lack of information and communication. So it's harmful, it's not harmful to everyone involved. And we're talking about the communities that are impacted, you know, whether it's a silicaga enterprise, like we've already sold Ohio, these are small towns that are already very strained for resources, especially given the rising inflation of the disadvantaged administration is put in place. And again, I think it's really indicative of just the lack of awareness of what life in small town and rural America is like. And that's one of the reasons I got in the race in the first place is because I think we have too many, you know, Washington quote unquote leaders, "No concept of life in small town America "don't realize that economic policies, "that economic policies can hurt a city, "but you really kill a town and just think that, "Oh, oh, this is less inhabited area, "less people per square foot, "less settled these refugees here "without notifying a town without, you know, "see, and you know, there may be some communities "throughout this country that would, you know, "that need workers, that would welcome "those refugees, that there's just been no communication, "and it really take small town America, rural America, "for, you know, take advantage of small town America "and rural America." - Yeah, so, and like you see the town halls and you've seen where this is impacting places, well, and I guess this would be more of a question for Shabari Fakers, but he's not really talking about these things at all. I've heard Project 2025, and then you could address that if you want, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. - I don't know, the first time I heard about Project 2025 was actually when Shabari Fakers accused me of that being some mastermind in my campaign, I've never read it, you know, and I'm not accusing him of facing his campaign plan on a document generated by the Brookings Institute, you know, I think it's very like a DC insider to try to, you know, create some sort of fear-mongering based on a, I think tank document that I've never read, you know? So, yeah, that seems to be a rallying cry, and it just tells you how locked up he is with a radical far left, you know, clearly they're sending, they're emailing out these talking points to attack your opponent (laughs) just not even based on any sort of reality. Also, like, intellectually flimsy, like, you're not really running on something that's a pertinent where all of that topic, you're just manufacturing an issue to castigate your opponent with, and it's not really any, it's, let's find something we can demonize, and we'll just attach it to our opponent. - Right, right, which, I mean, I have learned that, and the left uses this, every election cycle, you know, depending on different issues, but, you know, they're, when they can't stand on their policies, because their policies have objectively hurt the American economy, hurt American families, made our world less safe, then they're wholly reliant on fear to drive people to the polls. And so, if you're exactly right, they, you know, if they can't, you know, stand on the issues that they can talk, fear. - Well, I just, I don't know that that works. I don't really understand it, but all it is is this. It's just, hey, let's dust off the pages of the Harris/Bidenplay book, and see if that'll work in our district. And I mean, I'm gonna go out of limb here and venture a guess here, but I bet when you're standing there in front of the Rotary Club or wherever, they're not, hey, what do you think of Project 2025? - Yeah, no, I mean, to your point, I have not been asked about Project 2025, and again, the first time I actually heard of it was when I was accused of using it as a blueprint for my campaign. I mean, again, and it just shows you that they're recycling these same talking points over and over again. I mean, the Harris website campaign website listed its policy statements from the Biden website. They don't have a plan. They don't have a solution because they created a problem. And now they're desperate to concoct things, to attack Republicans on. - Talking about this, I would think that your campaign, and you and I are smoking about this in the past, no. I mean, it's really gotta probably, you're probably gonna have to some degree write Trump's coattails and he gonna have to write Kamala's coattails, but again, since as you campaign in that district that Trump is as a following. - Yes, no, certainly, I think people are recognizing that our economy was a lot healthier under President Trump and that the world was at peace under President Trump. And so, again, certainly President Trump could be a polarizing figure. And he has a very strong personality. So, that sometimes perhaps ostracizes the portion of the electorate, but when it comes down to it, we have to look at where we are today, compared to where we are four years ago. And I have yet to find somebody who says that we're better off now than we were four years ago. That's just the fact. - Let's move on. The last topic here, the hurricane response in other parts of the South. 'Cause these places aren't just like far away out west somewhere, but you watch this and you look at Western North Carolina, you look at North Georgia and it could have easily been North Alabama or someplace in Alabama, even in the second congressional district, just struggling with this sort of hurricane response. All this rain dumped on a locality in a short amount of time and the federal government's response by many accounts has been pretty lackluster. Well, I mean, what do you think we got to do there? - Yeah, well, we've got to focus on our own focus on American citizens who are struggling right now. In district two, we are a source of shelter for many folks that have evacuated from Nelson and so anyone that happens to fall in that category, please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you for those who've offered their home to share with folks evacuating. Thank you. But we have to take care of our own and I think when we go to said, oh, we're not gonna have enough money to make it through the hurricane season, it further put in stark relief just how we've been spending our money, how we've been spending taxpayer dollars, largely on non-tax payers, we know 1.4 billion on illegal aliens, which is just $157 billion to Lebanon to fund the people that are attacking our ally Israel. You know, we have to recognize that we have fine art resources in this country. We're already $35 trillion in debt. And that's enough. We've got to focus on spending less to bring down inflation and what we do spend, it needs to be spent a lot more widely and invested in American citizens. - Carolyn, last question, we'll get you out of here. Folks wanna get involved with your campaign. Are they just wanna sign or whatever it may be? How could they get in touch? - Yes, so please check out our website, dopsinforcongress.com. You can request a yard sign there. You can also volunteer to pull work or if you want a doorknob or phone bank, it all helps. And I'm so grateful for the support that we have for folks that have dedicated some of their value time to helping us and we're really excited about pushing hard the glass for eight and a half weeks. - Carolyn Dobson leads you, Joe. We carely best of luck to you today. - Thanks, give my best to Senator Rubak or an April Murray. - Oh, he'll do. All right, guys, we gotta get a break here. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff Porte Show at FITAC 10065. [MUSIC PLAYING]