Supreme Court's TPS ruling sparks political fallout and more local news

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Without further ado, WBSM presents the Vary Richard Show streaming live on WBSM.com and the WBSM app. Call 508996500. Text us using App Chat on the WBSM app. Now, the Barry Richard Show. All right, welcome back to the program and it is a nice nice day today. It's breezy out temps upper 70s right now here on the neck. So it's not too too bad and it's going to get real hot tomorrow though I guess. Um so yeah be prepared for that. So anyway um we got a local story Tim's working on. I'm going to tell you about that in just a couple of seconds. But um you know staying with the Supreme Court stuff for just a couple of moments. As you know, two days ago, there was a decision by the Supreme Court to end the TPS status of um Haitians and uh and Syrians that are in the country. And um of course the left is uh their hair is catching on fire, their heads are exploding and everything else. Senator, you know, I love I I I got to call out hypocrisy and Senator Sheldon White House um or as he's known in his inner circles, uh Sheldon White's only house, um has issued a statement saying, "Rhode Island's Haitian and Syrian communities have contributed much to the vibrant fabric of our state. The right-wing Supreme Court's decision allowing Trump to end TPS will rip a hole in our communities and hurt the economy. I urge Congress to fight back on a bipartisan basis to protect Rhode Islanders who had legal status as of last week and who have been left reeling by the Trump administration's cruelty. Well, first of all, they didn't have legal status. They were uh protected. Um, which is a huge difference. And you know, you know, the funny part about it is I know people like Sheldon White House are worried about who's going to polish their shoes, right? Sheldon White House belongs to an all-white racist yacht club in Newport. His wife is a big wig there. They've been there forever. They've been associated with this forever. And when it came out in the media a couple of years ago um about the policies not to allow dark-skinned people um you know Sheldon said, "Well, gee, you know, it's an old club. We're trying to change things." And so he didn't quit. He didn't quit. He didn't talk about the um well the cruelty quote unquote cruelty of the art club. No, he didn't stuck around. So, you know, I think what shel people like Sheldon White House are worried about and others like Mora Healey and Andrea Campbell is where's the cheap labor going? Cheap labor's leaving. Oh boy. Yeah. Sheldon White House. Um what a piece of work. Oh my god. Um I already talked about that. That's boring. So, uh, we have a kind of a followup to the neverending corruption story here in Massachusetts, uh, which I have dubbed Signature Gate. Not very original. I understand that. But being a child of the 60s and 70s, Watergate was, um, you know, I used to watch the Watergate hearings with my aunt. My aunt's been long gone for a long time, but she um, she hated Nixon. Oh my god, did she hate Nixon. And we watched I watched with her as a as a kid uh that whole summer the Watergate hearings and uh Watergate. So everything's gate now. Every controversy is a gate. But you know when you say gate when you add gate to the end of it, you know, people know there's a controversy, but it's a signature gate playing out here in Massachusetts. So Michael Walsh was the uh Republican candidate for attorney general of Massachusetts. Uh apparently still is. He's he's I don't think he's going anywhere. His name's not going to be on the ballot, at least not yet. But um so Michael Walsh has filed an appeal to the state ballot law commission uh ruling that um or he's appealing the ruling that that kicked him off the ballot because the state ballot law commission held a hearing, heard from some expert witnesses and all and found um that there's a very strong possibility ility that a lot of the signatures on Walsh's signature papers, his nomination papers were fraudulent. The Secretary of State's office warned Walsh warned uh the two ans running for lieutenant governor a long time ago, at least a month or so ago, that they had a problem in a couple of communities. And um one of those communities was Weimoth and the other was situated. The two Ans and Walsh contracted with a guy named Bronky uh well known in Republican circles in Massachusetts. Paid him money to go out and collect signatures. Uh it's not an unusual practice. I guess this is the way they do it these days. But this guy was the discount guy. He was the hometown discount guy. You know, he he did it for cheap. While others were paying uh or charging, you know, 10, 12, 15 bucks per signature. This guy was going to do it for five. He's paying me five bucks per signature. Well, he didn't deliver. And at least according to uh evidence and testimony that has been collected by the ballot law commission, some of the signatures were fraudulent. May even include names of dead people and so on and so forth. So big problem. The two hands and Walsh were told you can't get on the ballot. Now, complaints were filed by both um a member of the Democrat party and New Bedford Wood three city council, Sean Oliver, who is now the sole Republican whose name will appear on the ballot for lieutenant governor. about the signatures that there were issues of the signatures and they wanted the signatures reviewed by the state ballot the hell is it? State ballot uh review committee, state ballot uh law commission. So Walsh is filing an appeal. questioning the expert witnesses and so on and so forth. You know, nowhere is he saying though that the signatures were good. He's not saying these signatures are good. You know, prove to me that's not what he's saying. He's questioning, you know, in in the ends, too. That's a whole different debate. But what it boils down to is the mass GOP and its minions are pissed at Shawn Oliver because Shawn Oliver brought to light the fact that both an Manning Martin and Michael Walsh may have bad signatures and and they asked the state to review those signatures. Now, first of all, you would expect that to happen, right? And I mean, this is a campaign. You would expect that to happen, but um we all have been talking about this for months. I hate to keep repeating the same stuff over and over again because I think most of you know the background of the story at this point, but so we are at at right now where um the point in the story where Walsh has issued a statement because he has filed for an appeal. He is appealing the ruling of the commission that reviewed the signatures and said that you can't run. So what we're lost in here, what we are left with is a debate over whether Oliver is a rat think and as a result of Oliver being Oliver being a rat think Walsh and the Anns are not going to be able to appear on the ballot. Brian Schwarzle, who is the Republican candidate for governor, uh, running on the same ticket with, um, Oliver, is saying, "Look, we found what may be the biggest signature scandal in Massachusetts history." And, you know, you should be congratulating us and you should be working with us and you should be, you know, saying, "Hey, this stuff can't be acceptable." Uh but instead you were blaming us because you guys got in trouble and you can't appear on the ballot so you're blaming us. And so I mean the whole thing is pretty weird. And Manugg Mike Manugg has come out with statements uh blasting shortsleeve and Oliver as you know colluding with Democrats and so on and so forth. None of this recognizes or even addresses the fact that these signatures may be bogus. So, you probably heard shortsleeve on the program yesterday, and he was um he's pretty upset. He's called the Republican party um incompetent and ineffective for glossing over this, for ignoring it, for uh knowingly allowing bad signatures to uh to be submitted. So, um I mean, it is what it is. It's a it's a an allout revolution within the Republican party in Massachusetts at a time uh when the Republicans need need it the least. So Walsh is challenging um Manning Martin is is saying that she's going to challenge as well. So this story is not over yet and it could wind up in court and we've got a primary coming up on September 1st. But, you know, I asked the question today because uh Walsh posted something to social media about his challenge, about his appeal, and you know, it goes on again, you know, the same old stuff. Well, you know, this one does this and that one does that. I know. Colluding with Democrats and uh you know, this one's a Democrat, that's a Democrat, you know, but but and are the signatures good, Michael? Are the signatures good or are they bad? If that that's the root of the the issue here. Are the signatures good? Are the signatures bad? If they are bad, did you know they were bad when you submitted them? Are there in fact dead people on the signatures on the signature list? Are there dead people there? Did you know that? Did you know that uh any of the signatures were were duplicates? Because I got to tell you, I speak to people on the inside of these things and people have told me that they've had conversations with Michael Walsh about these signatures and that he was aware that there was a lot of trouble with signatures. So, that's what I've been told. Two months ago, I was told that. And the same thing with the two hands. Now, all of a sudden, it's oh, the last minute and oh my god, we're being kicked off the ballot. Uh, we submitted these bad signatures. E, well, you know, Walsh, let's talk about, you know, let's get rid of who's a Democrat, who's a, you know, who's a traitor, who's this, who's this, that, and the other thing. And just address the question. Were there bad signatures that you submitted? Did you know there were bad signatures that you submitted? Where did those bad signatures come from? because none of the other part none of the rest of it matters, right? It doesn't matter to me. I'm a bottom line guy. Did you have bad signatures? If you had bad signatures, then the commission was correct to boot you off the ballot. If you don't have bad signatures and somebody's trying to frame you or to somehow or another cause you harm, um, then I'll stand with you. But I can't get an answer out of them. And I've tried. I can't get an answer, you know, to where the signatures bad or not. I don't care about the other stuff. I don't care about mom likes you best or or you know, he's a Democrat on the commission and that one's a Democrat on the commission or what. So what? None of that matters. All that matters is are those signatures good or are they bad? If they are bad, did you know they were bad? And the information I have that I was told two months ago is that he knew that the signatures were bad and that he had a problem. And the same thing with the Manning with the the two ants and Brenley and and Manning that they all knew they had a problem a long time ago. We know that the Secretary of State, Bill Galvin, sent them letters saying you got problems with your signatures in these two communities. So, that's the issue. If you contracted with a guy that screwed you over, well, gee, I feel bad for you. You know, and I understand some some public campaign money was used, too. You know, matching, you know, how the state matches campaign money, gives taxpayer money to these candidates. What a waste of money. So, I mean, you know, that's the point that I'm at now. I want to hear Michael Walsh. I want to hear Ann Manning Martin come out and and, you know, have a a press conference or issue a statement and answer a very simple question. Did you in fact submit bad signatures? If so, did you know there were bad signatures at the time you submitted them? It's all I need to know. 5089960500, you're up next in WBSM. Thanks for hanging on. Thanks. First, as I was listening to you, I was just scrolling on the phone and going through TMZ and of course the story about that Empire State. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. proposal was on there and they were pretty. They were like at the top of that spire looking at the pictures and I'm sorry. And they they I'm sorry. They did what? They were at the They were like really high. They they were at the top of that very top. Yeah. I was like, damn. But even TMZ says, you know, you could have picked a different way of proposing. Really wasn't this kind of thing, you know? Well, everybody does it at the ballpark now, right? And you get up on the jumbotron and oh, that that's old hat now. Now, I guess they Well, one thing is they sure got enough attention. All the media was up there with um I I wonder how many helicopters were up in the sky filming that. had to be a few, you know, but I like I was like that's so you know what I mean? But anyways, on the signature thing, yeah, as I've listened to you guys, excuse me. Um, if I was like getting signatures for that that the company for these people because they've said uh a lot of the signatures look the same. I mean, I'm only thinking in my brain of, okay, I'd be signing right hand, left hand, try to make sure there's no dead people, you know what I mean? And just I'm just trying to think what, you know, what I would do wrong to help these people out. I mean, if that's what I would be, you know what I do? You understand what I'm saying? You were doing something wrong. I'd try to not copy uh the same name uh dead people. I would try to get a poll base because if that's a company Well, look, I'm I'm not going to Yeah. I'm not going to suggest for a moment that that Walsh or any of the Anns authorized those dead people or any of that. They they hired a guy. Yeah. They they paid a consult they paid a contractor to go out and collect signatures. They got the signatures in. you have to drop signatures at local election offices by certain dates and whatever. And apparently the folks in Situit and the folks in Wayouth uh called them up and said, "Hello, candidate. Um some of these signatures look pretty bad. We got some big problems here." So this has been known for a while. It's it's been out there for a while. But what they should have done is said, "Oh crap, we've got a problem here. Let's fire the guy that's collecting signatures. Get your cousins. Get your cousins wives. Get your nephews. Get your nieces. Get everybody you can think of to get out to the supermarket parking lots cuz we got a lot of signatures that we got to make up here. And nobody comes home until we fill up all these sheets. That's what they should have done. But it appears that they submitted signatures that were bad. Now, did they know they were bad when they were submitted? Yeah, but I'm talking about the consultant themselves. Oh, yeah. But that's a whole different issue. Yeah, that's a whole different issue. That guy is going to be sued. that cons that consultant get he should have told the people don't do this don't do that but you know if you're gonna make up signatures try right hand left hand you know what I mean but we we don't know at this point we don't know this guy his name is Bronky we don't know Bronsky's culpability in this did he I mean there there are a number of possibilities did he get weigh in over his head he's got a whole bunch of clients now he's got the two hands He's got uh he's got Walsh. The buck stops with him. Oh, it definitely stops with him. There's no question. Um but there is nothing, you know, the the Secretary of State said this well over a month ago. There's nothing I can do. You know, you would like to say, man, you guys get screwed over. But the state law is the state law. You know, it's up to you. When the signatures come back from Bronzeky, you're supposed to review those signatures and you're supposed to make sure those signatures are good because if you don't, what's going to happen? and you're going to get kicked off the ballot. Well, that's what happened. Nobody reviewed the signatures and um you know, they didn't have time to do that. Well, if you're going to mess up on that smallest of detail in running for public office, it's probably a good thing you don't get elected. Now, question. I don't know if I because I I I mean I only listen to you guys so I I'm not sure if I heard it with the news or people talking but wasn't one of the Anns or aren't they like kind of like married to someone or inside people? Wouldn't they be aware of this kind, you know, this kind of stuff? You don't do this kind of stuff. Well, Ann Brley um I believe is a select woman somewhere uh where she's from and um so she's run for public office before. I'm not sure if Anne Manning Martin has ever run for office before. Um I don't think Michael Walsh has ever run for office before, but when you run for office, you get people to advise you who know what the rules are and you know know about collecting signatures and and how the process works, what the deadlines are. Um you know, rule number one, you don't submit dead people's names, you know, but when you get your signatures, you always collect more signatures than is required by law. If you're supposed to get 10,000, you get an extra, you know, get collect an extra thousand. Uh so that if names do get tossed out, you got a reserve to draw from buffer. Yeah. So, but the select woman should have known better. If she's run, if she's run, she's obviously won. She was a select woman. Yeah. She should have known better. Well, you know, this is a woman who came to this thing with some baggage anyway. She had a couple of significant tax leans that she hadn't paid over $100,000 each and um you know there was you know different things like that. Boston Public Radio BUR uncovered that information. Um and you know so I mean this one was kind of questionable in any anyway but I mean you you know you look at and and I'm not I'm not here to speak for because you know me I don't speak for Brian Shortsleeve and and Shawn Oliver. I think it would be a great thing of Sean Oliver. One, because um it would be great for New Bedford. We would have our own guy for the first time ever up there at the state house that would be, you know, working on our behalf. So, I think it would be a great thing. He's the only candidate for lieutenant governor now anyway. The others are off the ballot. But, you know, the the one thing I I look at Manog's campaign and I look at Shortsleeve's campaign. Manog is hiding in the basement eating ice cream like Biden did, right? He's not debating. He's not doing anything. and Short Sleeve and and Oliver are out there and they are barnstorming. They are going to every single thing, shaking hands, issuing statements every day. These guys seem to be taking this seriously where the other guys just don't seem to be taking it as seriously. So, you know, there's that. And um you know, you've got to have you've got to have your your people um on your team that know this is a rookie mistake. If you submit bad signatures, that's a rookie mistake. I mean, that's the Oh, yeah. If you can't you can't possibly get elected for office if you don't submit signatures. You got to get the signatures to get on the ballot. And if you screw that up, that's step number one. So, I don't know what to say about, you know, Michael Walsh. if if he can come out and prove to us that number one, his signatures are good and number two, he had no knowledge of any bad signatures that might have been submitted on his behalf. Well, you know, I might listen to him, but I mean, he's got apparently a bunch of bad signatures and he's not addressing that. And I think that's important to to hear him. And the same thing with an Manning Martin. Uh Brenley has already, you know, she's already said, "Okay, fine. Yep. They got me. I'm done." And she's out. uh she's not running. She's, you know, she's accepted it. But um in fact, she testified last week of on Friday, Thursday or Friday in the review of Ann Manning Martin's signatures. Uh because they had the same guy, Bronky. So, you know, she talked about what she learned and what she went through and so on and so forth. And she's saying, "Yeah, look at my signatures. They're a mess." And and look, her signatures look look just like mine. So, that was one of the witnesses that they're objecting to. So, I mean, this is a circus and and and in the meantime, Sean and Shortly, the best of luck. Yeah. So, instead of, you know, instead of, you know, Amy Carnival, who's the uh, you know, the head of the mass GOP and and the other Republicans saying, "Oh my god, look at this mess." Well, we we want to stand on the side of honesty. So, if there's any corruption here at all, or if there's any screw-ups, well, we, you know, we can't uh we can't condone that, we condemn that, and so on and so. But instead, what they do is they go right after Sean Oliver like it's his fault that these guys submitted bad signatures. Oh boy. It's a circus. This is providing you with plenty of uh stuff to talk about for a while. Yeah. And meanwhile, more Healy's out there. All she's got to do is Trump Trump jump Trump and and she gets all kinds of nice press and uh and everything else. She's got no controversy. This is why I said last year and you know people say no Barry we got to have a primary. We got to get all these people involved. The Republicans if they had any brains in their head would have because they haven't done anything in forever. They should have gone behind closed doors and said we're picking one candidate. Well, I want to run. Well, I want to run. Well, guess what? You're both not running. We're getting one and we're going to have one candidate and one candidate for lieutenant governor and you're going to run. We're going to have a unified party and we're going to go out more a get more aily. That's our objective. They had a good chance. How do you not beat Mora Healey? Okay. I got a quick question for you. Yeah. Uh for the lieutenant governor, let's let's say Mara Healey wins the governorship. Yeah. But could Sean Oliver win the lieutenant like different party? Would that is that they run as a team? Once you get past the primary, you run as a team. Now in Rhode Island, you can run. You can do that. You can have a uh a Democrat governor and a and a Republican lieutenant governor, but you can't do that in Massachusetts. You run as a team. Oh, okay. I was cuz Yeah. Just like the the president and vice president everything. Yeah. Once the primary is over, then then the the top vote getter for the Republican lieutenant governor, top vote getter for the uh you know, Republican governor, they they're a team. So, it is conceivable that it could be Mike Manugg and Shawn Oliver. Oh, because Sean Oliver is the only candidate for lieutenant governor now. So, he's going to be running with whoever the uh whoever the Republican gubanatorial candidate is, Sean Oliver is going to be the running man. Oh, okay. All right. If now that we're all totally confused, I don't know. Maybe hopefully I helped you out there. U Thank you for your call, my friend. I got to grab the next one. 5089960500. Thank you for hanging on. You were next on WBSM. Hey Barry, how's it going? Good afternoon. Pretty good. How are you? Hey, did I hear you correctly? That was saying he was taking the hometown discount and $5 per signature. Yeah. Yeah. That's 10,000 signatures. Correct. Uh well well yeah for for three different candidates. Yeah. So that's a cool 50 grand a piece if I'm if I'm doing my math correctly. 10,000 time $5 a piece and that's the hometown discount. 50 grand and usually you said they could get up to like what? Uh Harley told me to $12. Yeah, I asked Harley about this on because you know what I was totally unaware and apparently this has been going on for years now. Uh hiring people to go out and collect signatures for a fee. Okay. Um I was unaware that this was was even a practice and Holly said, "Oh yeah, this has been going on forever." So, she told me on the program that they're getting between 10 and $15 a signature. I mean, where can I get that gig? You know, a few weeks of work for 50 grand or in this case, three different So, 150 grand for a few weeks of work and these people can't hack it. Like, where can I get that gig? You know, I'll gladly get 10,000 signatures for uh for 50 grand. You know what I mean? Take the rest of the year off. Keep in mind now you've got to pay the people that are out there collecting those signatures for you. So you might sit back and be the boss, but you got to pay the guys that are collecting the signatures for you. And you got to make sure that the signatures are good. If you don't work anymore, you you're a Bronzeky and you and that this was his first and last election, I suspect. Yeah. for 50 grand times three, uh, I'll gladly walk to 10,000 homes and knock on doors and get real signatures. I mean, it's crazy to think about that. Like, the amount of money that goes into this nonsense and the dude couldn't do a basic task. Like, that was your only task. You know what I mean? There was Well, you know, there there's always the the element of this, too. And and you know, how many people have ever, you know, you've talked to about your job and they think your people think your job's so easy, right? You got such an easy job. You don't have a hard job like me. Your job is so easy. I hear that my entire life in my business. Oh, when I used to be a news guy, right? It was like all you do is work for 3 minutes an hour. You go on the air for 3 minutes and read the news. You know, like somebody comes in and gathers the news and writes the news and everything else, right? Um, your job is so easy. So, you hear that all the time. So, you get a guy like Bronzeky who's looking at, boy, this is easy. Anybody can do this. You just you get a couple of stiffs and you put them out in a parking lot to collect signatures. Anybody can do that. And then all of a sudden you got a deadline coming and you got no signatures and it's like, "Oh my god, what do I do?" Well, yeah, let's start copying names out of the uh out of the orbituary column, you know, and and and apparently that's what they did is that's what it seems as though they did anyway. Um, you know, I mean, I'm just looking at the money after. What a racket. Yeah. Well, he's got to pay it back. He's got to pay it back. Insane. But uh yeah, like I said, I mean, but if you think about it, Barry, like this is this is like just about this guy. Nobody wants to work anymore. Nobody wants to do what they're being paid for anymore. Well, Sheldon White House is all concerned about the Haitians. Maybe we can get the Haitians and the Syrians to go out and be signature collectors, right? Hey, I guess I guess maybe that's the answer. But as I said, you just sit here scratching your head because everybody has their hand out. Everybody wants wants wants, but nobody wants to do the work. Nobody wants to put themselves out there. And that's what I'm saying. Like, like people say there's no money out there. There's no money out there like like this situation right here. A few weeks work, you know what I mean? A little bit of grind, but you can make a year's salary like right 150 grand around here. Don't get me wrong, around here 50 grand is a good salary. You know what I mean? But can be Charlie Hustle. You got to go out. Have you ever collected signatures? Have you ever done that? Have you ever I Because I have. That's why I'm asking. Uh what was it back in the day? We stood outside. We were young. Um what the hell? What was it? We stood outside a stop and shop. We went to Shaws to get signatures. It was something to do with the schools. Like this was like way back in the day when I was like elementary uh middle school. Um and we did that and you know obviously we're young kids so everybody wants to sign. But um you know the old school way of doing things, going out there and literally talking to people. Oh well, who was it? Um a few years back, Kathy, uh that's when I met her. I met her I believe she was outside of Stop and Shop collecting signatures for I forget what it was. Oh, for the um Yeah, for the the charter review. Yeah, correct. So, uh yeah, I mean you could do it if you do the work, but you got to do the work. Yeah. And you take a lot of abuse in the process. Kathy in a long time. I don't know what's going on with her, but she used to call all the time. And yeah, uh haven't heard from her in a while. No, I haven't either. Thank you, my friend. I got to hold you right there. I got to get a break. I'm overdue for it. Let me do the break and we're going to come right back. Your calls are important and they're next right here on WBSM. So, don't go far. As a veteran of the United States military, I can finally get the opportunity to enjoy special events like a date with my wife or going out together with my family and friends. Things that we couldn't afford thanks to Vectics. 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All right. 142 on a Wednesday afternoon. 5089960500. Thanks for hanging on. You're up next to WBSM. Well, good afternoon, Barry. I know a thing or two about signature gathering, but let's talk about another legal tenant called agency. Let's say let's say you hire me to paint your house, okay? And the next day you look out in your front yard and there's two guys you never saw before in your life and there's a pickup truck and they're starting to pull ladders up. Said, "Who are you?" And they say, "We work at Dupon." And you say, "Oh, okay." And about 15 minutes later, you hear this smash and one of them put a a ladder through your uh picture window in the front of your house. You don't have a cause of action against them because they were acting as my agents. You have a cause of action against me. And this is why the signature thing, you want to hire somebody. You hire somebody to manage your campaign. You hire somebody to write your ads. Well, as I'm concerned, you want to hire somebody to go out and get your signature. Fine. But if they break the law as part of that or engage in in an illicit tactic or, you know, offend a voter, you own it because they were acting as your agents. And there's no way around that. And that's the crux of why those people do not belong on the ballot under any argument you want to to raise. they were. Let let me ask you this because you've got a lot of experience in this area and I've been referring to you and and your experience that you've shared with us in your phone calls about this thing and um you know you were talking about back in the day about how uh organizations uh campaign organizations um and in the Republican say county committee and town committees and all of that they would organize these signature drives. We didn't have the paid signature collectors and all of that kind of thing. When did that enter the uh the picture here? Well, it bas it basically came apart after uh 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal because before uh 1966 was the last year we had what was called binding conventions. We'll talk about statewide office more than the others. In n up until 1966, first of all, the statewide office were two-year terms. But if the convention endorsed you, you went on the ballot. Period. All right. But if you wanted to run, and this happened in the Democratic party when uh Frank Botti, who uh wanted John Vulpi had been elected with a Democrat lieutenant governor, who then was opposed, the Democrat was opposed in his primary by Frank Botti, who uh won. But you get you to get on the ballot without the convention endorsement, you had to go get signatures and it was a very high threshold because it was a percentage of the previous elections vote. So that but the the town committees if you just take the town if the state committee is supposed to build the warden and town committees with local people and they don't expect you to go stand in the rain every day of the week or take time off from work but these are the people that you go out to and say can you get these are the people we want for governor lieutenant governor AG which is I think where the Republicans should be focusing and you would ask them to go get get me 10 and they would come by two days later and they had your 10 and but you had 20 people doing it and and in a bigger town, a bigger city, you had more people because you had more ward committees, you had more town committee members and and these people were not paid. These people did it because this is who the party endorsed. We're putting them on the ballot, then it's up to the But in the wake of the Watergate thing, these uh town award committee systems broke down because they changed the laws relating to campaign finance in particular. U and and no one the endorsement of a convention meant nothing. It's just okay, this is who the party organization likes, but it didn't didn't get you the signatures. But you'd like to think, and I'll say this as a statement of fact on the air, when I was on the Republican State Committee from 1975 to 1988, I was at every Republican state convention that was held. All right? And in 78, 82, 86. All right? And when the people who were endorsed, I went to the town award committees and said, "Can you get me some signatures for these people?" And they did. And it was as simple as that. And if every single state committee member, first of all, when when I was on the state committee, every statewide office only got 1,000 certified over 10,000 certified signatures from my district. My district was Hobbit, Dton, Secon, Swansea back in the day, Taon, Bridgewater, Middleboro or that way. And since and if you just took the town committees and every one of the members produced 20 signatures, just take a couple hours and go to the landfill, hang around the library, go around the neighborhood some Saturday and get them. If everyone What about the delegates? What about the thousand plus delegates that voted for uh these people to put them on as their endorsed candidates? Did they get any signatures? Yeah. and and and and I guess the the problem I've got Barry and and thank you for your kind words, but I said back in the day I produced candidates for my brag was every Democrat who had his name on the ballot my in any one of my towns knew my name and it wasn't because of how hard I worked for him. It was because I made sure they had an opponent. And then every year that I ran for re-election, I was opposed basically because of I wasn't with one wing or the other of the party based on the national splits. This the Republican party in Massachusetts hasn't elected a chairman by more than a three vote margin since 1964 when John Parker, the Senate Minority Leader from Taton was elected state chairman. Let me ask you a question. And what are we missing here in in this whole discussion that that seems to be never ending now about this whole signature gate and everything? What are we missing? What's the point? I mean to me the Yeah. What what are we missing is is the state what you're missing is the state chairman and the other officers of the state committee and the state committee members did not exercise leadership by saying, "Okay, we had a convention. This is who the party apparatus wants. Please get the signatures." Nobody did that. Nobody. And Carnival has got a lot of gaul accusing Sean Oliver of pointing out a truth. And you you want I mean the biggest scandal in my book right now is this refusal of the state legislature to submit to an audit and yet it's Diana Daglio a Democrat championing it. And you would said why is this person who's so at odds with the Democratic leadership not running as a Republican? Right? There's a real question to ask. That's a damn good question. Thank you, my friend. Appreciate you and I appreciate your experience and your knowledge. Uh, thanks so much for your call as well. 5089960500. President Trump right now is in Madora, North Dakota. Yeah, it's about as big as it sounds like. He's visiting the Theodore Roosevelt Library and he's going to have some uh some comments um from there as well. Uh we got a breaking story out of Dartmouth that Tim just posted. Dartmouth Mall uh implementing a new and when I say Tim, I mean Tim Weisberg, not Tim Dunn, but Tim because we got two good journalists here. Uh Tim Weisberg, the Dartmouth Mall is implementing a new policy that will restrict when those under the age of 18 can be in the mall without an adult. Okay, this is important stuff. Uh the mall announced today that beginning this Friday, it is implementing a new parental supervision policy to provide a secure and family-friendly shopping environment. Beginning on that date, anyone under the age of 18 is required to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who is 21 years old or older on Fridays and Saturdays starting at 5:00 p.m. The policy may also be placed into effect at other times as well, according to the mall website. So, no more uh pre-teen takeovers of the mall. um you got to have a parent or a guardian if you are under 18 during specific times, especially uh Friday and Saturdays starting at 5:00 p.m. Um the U policy is stated on the mall's website if you want to check it out or you can better yet go to Tim's story at wbsm.com also on Facebook and you can read it for yourself. Uh the policy not only covers uh the inside of the mall but also extends to the parking lot in garages, mall walkways and any other corridor leading to the mall. It does exempt stores with exterior entrances such as Aldi or um Ulta Beauty and and those stores, Buffalo Wild Wings. Um, a security guard that called into WBSM this morning to mention the policy said that stores with both a mall and exterior entrance, such as the AMC theaters, Burlington or JC Penney, would also be exempt, but that a security guard would be posted at the mall side entrance of those stores to enforce the policy. uh security guards are to begin monitoring those entering the building starting at 5:00 pm on Friday and Saturday and any unrestricted youth at that time must leave the mall or have a parent or guardian present. Uh one parent over 21 years of age may escort uh all his or her children. The mall said additionally one parent or guardian over 21 years old may escort up to four youths. At least uh one of the youths must be the child of the parent or guardian. Parents and guardians are responsible for the actions of their escorted youth. Wow. Proof of age will also be required uh if not easily determined and that would include a photo ID from a state agency such as a driver's license or state ID, school or employer that shows the date of birth. uh both the youth or the parent guardian could um be asked to provide that ID. So, they're getting uh they're getting tough and parents will no longer be allowed to just drop off their teens at the mall on Friday and Saturday night and then pick them up later. The mall said these utilizing or or those utilizing public or other forms of transportation must schedule the departure time to ensure compliance with the parental supervision policy, meaning their little loved ones should arrive before 5:00 p.m. restrictions began. They're not I mean it's about time Dartmouth is doing this. It's been done at other malls. It was done at the Galleria Mall uh before they tore it down. It's done at Providence Place Mall. Um, it's bad for business. Bad for business. I used to work a part-time gig at the mall for some extra pocket cash. Uh, going back more than 10 years now. And um, Friday nights and Saturday nights, it was a zoo. Kids come on to the mall, they're unaccompanied by an adult. Parents drop them off, leave them there, come back and get them later on, and you know, the kids would just terrorize them all. in some cases. Um I don't recall this happening in Dartmouth, although it may have um I know places like the Galleria Mall in Tao with violence, stabbings, fights, that kind of thing. And um so this is bad for business. People don't want to shop on Friday night, Saturday night, uh because it's pre-teen party time at the mall. And I got to tell you, I had a kid, my own son, my oldest son, going way back now, uh, when he was a pre-teen. This was, you know, this was kind of thing was just starting. Drop us at the mall and we we were new at this. Well, that didn't last too long. We dropped him at the mall a couple of times and then we stopped. That was the end of that. No more going to the mall uh without one of us. And um, so there you go. The new mall policy for kids on Friday and Saturday night. Again, check it out on wbsm.com and uh on our Facebook page as well. Back to Barry Richard on WBSM. Call 508996500. All right, welcome back to the program. It is time to head into the newsroom. ABC News followed by WBSM news and all of that and the weather forecast which promises to be hot and steamy for the Fourth of July weekend ahead. Um so we're going to get that in. So, we've got the story about the Dartmouth Mall, a new policy that takes effect this Friday. No more dropping the teeny boppers off at the mall. Um, if you're going to bring the teeny barbers to the mall Fridays and Saturday nights from five o'clock on, you got to be with them. They got to be with an adult 21 years