Dead Men Walking #126 Representative Joe Bellino on politics, the left, & America's biggest threat

Opening Banter and Sponsor Reads

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Support these brothers. All right, cool. Now that we've got the business out of the way, I'm excited. We have one of my friends and my state representative here in studio with us, Mr. Joe Bellino. How are you, sir?

Doing fine, and thanks for having me. Oh, our fake audience loves you. Look at that. Standing ovation in the studio. Standing ovation. I'll probably take a called strike three and walk back to the dugout.

Joe Bellino's Background, Family, and Recovery

So we've known each other a long time, and as people know on this podcast, we talk about politics quite often, and you are a current state representative. You're running for state senate. We're gonna get into that, but before we do, can you just introduce yourself to the listeners?

Let them know a little bit about yourself, what you're all about. Sure. Joe Bellino. I married my wife Peggy. Margaret's her real name. Peggy, we call her. About 38 years ago, we have three daughters, basically 35, 33, 31, and six grandkids.

I grew up at Detroit Beach. My parents stole my grandpa's car, went to George and got married because my mom was 16 and wasn't allowed to get married in Michigan. Okay. And when he got back, my grandpa gave my mom and dad a 680 square foot cottage that he rented at Detroit Beach in the summers.

Yeah, that's back when it was Detroit Beach. People from Detroit would come down and rent the cottages and go on Lake Erie, right? There was no AC, and it was cooler by the lake. Seriously, that's what it did.

It was cooler by the lake. So we lived in that house till I was 12, and then moved out in the country when I was 12 years old out near Holy Ghost Church. Went to public school till high school, and I wanted to be like one of my uncles, and I ended up going to Catholic Central.

Okay. I wanted to be a football star. That didn't work, but I got through. It was injuries, right? It definitely wasn't the talent. Injuries and probably lack of size. But went to Catholic Central, then I got my two-year degree from Monroe County Community College, and took on life.

Really. And somewhere along there, I think you became an entrepreneur and a business owner, didn't you? That was a little bit later in life. Okay. I had to go through a lot of ups and downs before that.

When I was 25 years old, I went to rehab. Okay. It turns out that when you drink and drug too much and not know what you're doing to become a complete idiot, you might have a problem. Okay. So it was pointed out to me many, many times I might have a problem, and one day it sunk in.

I got a moment of clarity and went to rehab and been sober. So how long have you been sober? 37, almost. December 28th. So long you can't remember. December 28th, 1984. So it's almost 38 years. Yeah. Wow.

It's crazy to think that 84 is 38 years ago. It was a good year. Tigers Wonder World Series. And you got sober. It was a good year all around. Very cool. So then you moved into business ownership, because that's kind of where our friendship started, was you were the owner at Broadway.

Yeah. I worked with my family when I first got sober, selling booze for a living. Okay. Tried to do something different, so I worked six years for St. Vincent de Paul in Detroit. And I challenge anybody, if you want to learn about life, and you want to get humble, and learn how Christ works in life, go work at a charity in the inner city.

Yeah. You'll see how it happens. That was a great job. It molded me who I am today. Yeah. And a couple years after that, I bought Broadway Market on smoke and mirror and a prayer. Yeah. Long before the bank collapses and stuff.

Right. And bought the store, and we had it almost 24 years. It was a great business and a great, great thing to grow up in. Yeah. Isn't it crazy the difference between people who talk about a belief and actually live out their beliefs, right?

Like you're saying, volunteering in the inner city or things like that. People can talk a good game about believing something, or you should do this, or you shouldn't do that. But when they put their money where their mouth is and actually live that out, I think that's a real life changer.

It was a wonderful experience, and I would wish that on anybody, although it doesn't happen to everybody. It was a great job to have, and great to learn that Christ puts you there for a reason. Yeah. Take care of that reason.

Campaign Life, Work Ethic, and Government Philosophy

Now, I would assume, or I think, you might even be busier now running your campaigns than you were even when you owned your business, because I see you out everywhere. I see you door knocking, putting up signs.

I see you at events. I see your social media posts, and I feel like you somehow have 28 hours in a day, and most people have 24. So what's that been like? You know, all I lack from the old days is probably 700 amphetamine pills.

They can be long days. They can be long days. So what powers you now? Are you a coffee guy? Energy drink guy? I love coffee. So you said you had a roaster here. That's good. Let me check that out. I love my coffee.

I love my Red Bull. But you try to eat right, and it's a long day, and you got to pace yourself. Don't have any heavy, heavy lunches. It's a sin in Lansing to have a heavy lunch, because you're going back to session.

You're probably going to fall asleep. Yeah, it's nap time. So you've got to pace yourself, and luckily, I've got my wife who's with me. She's here in studio, making sure you don't say anything she doesn't like.

She walks with me. The manager. I take the right side of the street. She takes the left side, because I'm a Republican. Well, let's get into it a little bit. So what is your, you know, you're an elected official.

You're running as a state representative right now. You're running for state senate. What's your philosophy on government? You know, I didn't have a philosophy until I bought my store. And I saw... Classic.

And actually, I was a Dingle Democrat. Okay. Age 90s. I voted for John Dingle every time. Yeah. He was pro-auto, pro-gun, pro-life back then. Yeah. Things have since changed. When I bought the store, I saw the tax I was paying, and the services I was getting.

And I liked what I saw, but I saw deficiencies in other areas of the state. And I got elected to the community college board in Monroe. Right. Great school, Monroe County Community College. As a trustee, correct?

As a trustee. Okay. We were always battling K -12 and the big schools, like Michigan, Michigan State, to try to get money for our school. We were the ugly person on the totem pole. Right. A low person.

So, like, even this present budget. I mean, we're giving a lot of money to the big schools. And we worked hard to try to change that. It didn't work. Maybe next year it'll work. So, I saw that having a voice in Lansing would help the community colleges.

Because we had, we had a lobby firm, Munchmore Harrington. Okay. Pat Harrington's a community college grad, so he was our lobbyist up there. And we paid for the association to lobby. Plus, we lobbied as trustees.

Right. That was one way. The other way was owning my store and seeing all the laws being formed to help Walmart, Kroger, Meijer, and nothing for the small guys. And in Michigan, we have a thriving small store business.

We do. I got involved that way. So, those two together. And I saw one day that my rep, I felt he wasn't doing much. And I decided to run against him. And I knew I was gonna lose. But I had to learn how to do it to run the next time.

Because we all knew that his wife would be running for his seat. And that happens a lot in Lansing. Right. I think there's 10 or 11 spouses. Yeah. Brothers and sisters. On both sides. On both sides. Yeah.

That are serving in the legislature. Because it's name recognition. Right. That's where it's at. And you kind of came out of nowhere, really. Because you had, I mean, you had been at the college and you had some elected experience.

But generally, when you go to state rep, I mean, that's, you're biting off a lot. I mean, your district is. You're running against somebody who averaged 60 in two elections. I mean, Bill had 60 .2 and 59 .8.

Yeah. So, everybody knew I was gonna lose. Nobody in Lansing gave me a shot. I think maybe Dale Zorn thought I might win. And my wife, well, actually, she didn't think I was gonna win either. A little story.

We were about, we were about two weeks to go for the election the first time. And we knew we were gonna lose. We were down 7 to 11 points. Somebody did a poll and told me about it. And I said, I sat her down in a restaurant and said, honey, we're gonna lose.

We're gonna work hard. We're gonna make it close. Yeah. We're ready for the next time. And when that night came and receipts were coming again, we were looking at numbers coming. I thought, gee, I should have lost this by a lot.

I should have lost this by a lot. Yeah. Well, I won this township. And next thing you know, I won. And that night, from 11 o 'clock till eight in the morning next day, I got 400 friend requests on Facebook.

Because nobody knew who I was in Lansing. Nobody wanted to know who I was. Yeah. But I had to get up. I was up till four in the morning that night. Yeah. I had to get up and open a store. Yeah. And work and then go to Lansing.

Oh, you had real man problems, not career politician problems. I had to work and then go to Lansing to go to school. They send you to school for a couple days, learn about the budget and the departments and things like that.

And we had to do that. So I feel like this says a lot about your work ethic too, because you were a first timer. You were, I think back then it was majority Democrat. You were running in the Republican party.

I think it might've been trending, but your district was, oh, my district was heavy. Dem was heavy. Dem, right? So everyone goes, this guy isn't going to win, but man, I saw the signs. I saw the door knocking once again.

I always preach that here. Go out, meet the people, talk to them, connect with them. Signs don't vote. People do. They're nice, right? They're nice. We, we work, Peg and I work the first, we work every, uh, primary, like it's a general.

Yeah, absolutely. We walk a lot of doors today. We hit 120 doors this morning until they got too hot. And then you put lots of signs up and you meet people and you're always smiling and you wear your orange, your bright orange stuff and just go from there.

So the first time, uh, we ran the primary hard and I kept hearing rumors that, you know, the Dem was upset because we were, why are you working so hard? It's just a primary and you have no, you have no opposition.

I didn't really care. I had to get my name out there and to show people I was working and you would be amazed how many people beep at you and say, way to go, Joe. And they see out there pounding signs in the ground, pounding those things in the ground.

They know you're a working man and they knew I worked. Yeah. And so I worked all those days at store and, and I, I won, I caught, I caught, uh, I caught the Trump wave. I caught my hard work. Um, uh, when I first got to office, I got a call from the New York times.

They want to do an article about Monroe County, how we switched big time. You called me on that. No, no, no. This was a CNN, CNN one that you called me. So they called you multiple times and why'd it flip?

Yeah. CNN, CNBC, New York times, you know, they wanted to put it all on Trump. And I said, no, no, my guy was lazy. He did. If my guy would have worked at all, I would have lost, but he was lazy. He did work.

And actually the whole damn party was lazy because they didn't spend a dime on the race. Yeah. They thought it was in the bag and if you remember back in the late summer, Trump's numbers weren't trending well.

So the Dems thought they were gonna take over the house. Sure. And, and that didn't happen. We, we had 62 seats when the election happened. When I won, we had 63 seats. And that next day when I started meeting people, I put everybody on my phone, but I didn't know, I didn't know anybody.

So I have Shane Hernandez, R. Jason Shepard, R. I didn't know if they were Republicans or Democrats. So Steve Johnson, the most conservative voter, R. Lana Tice, the most conservative voter in the Senate, R.

I didn't know. So you live and learn. So. Yeah. Well, you know, it's, it's funny because like I said, it, it's your work ethic, but it's also, I've noticed that the elected officials that I tend to gravitate towards are the ones with real world experience because they got into it because they saw an issue and go, I bet you I can fix that.

I bet you I can make that better or more efficient or help people with it. And those are the elected officials. I really gravitate towards because out of that, there's like a servitude there instead of, man, I'd really like that title.

Maybe I'd like that extra money. Maybe I'd like that notoriety, that insurance, that insurance or whatever it is. Right. And I, yeah, I got elected and, and I'm there and, uh, I don't know what I'm doing at all.

Not a word, but they sat me next to a young man on the house floor named Tom Barrett. Now at that time, I had no idea who Tom Barrett was. Okay. I love Tom Barrett. Yeah. Tom Barrett. I would run through a brick wall for Tom Barrett.

He's going to be a great Congressman. You watch. Yeah. And I think his race is doing pretty well. He's out. Well, I mean, he's out there. He's talking about a worker, one of the five races in the country that they're putting a lot of money behind on our party.

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, you've been a state rep. Now this is your third term, correct? So six, six year, all done in six months, all done in six months. And we do have term limits here in Michigan for those listening outside of Michigan.

Legislative Accomplishments and Bipartisan Recovery Work

Uh, what kind of things are you proud about that you've accomplished in the state house? You know, when I first got elected, I was there about a couple of days and I get a call from Ryan Kelly and he's our Lieutenant governor at the time.

And he says, oh, you're going to be on an opioid committee. We have a Republican and a Democrat from the house, Republican and Democrat from the Senate, where we got some bills, we got formatted and we're going to help this community and I want you on it.

I said, well, thank you, sir. Thank you. So I go to the first meeting. It was, uh, Senator Annick and Senator, uh, who ran it for AG against Tom Leonard, Senator lady. Oh, uh, uh, blonde, uh, West side of the state.

Who is it? Come on, Peggy. I can see her too. I don't, uh, Tanya, Tanya, Tanya. Shoemaker. Great lady. What a hard worker she is. What a hard worker. She was Randy's best caucus mate. He, she brought a lot of big weight for Andy when he brings the Senate.

So they were in the Senate and it was myself and the, and now the now president, uh, governor or a mayor of Lansing, Andy shore was the Democrat. So we're talking and we're at this first meeting. I know I, I get there.

I'm a novice. I'm a new fight. I know nothing. So I'm sitting down listening and, uh, and Lieutenant governor said, we have these four bills and all your names will be on them. And then, and then the guy next to me who was Andy shore Democrat, I don't know him at all.

He says, well, my party is going to be upset that his name's running. He just got elected and Lieutenant governor said, well, that's too bad. Andy, everybody's names on it or nobody's names on it. And that's how it is.

So we went to the next subject and we kept going around and somebody started explaining some things about recovery. And, and I looked at the Lieutenant governor and winked and he goes, yeah. And so I told him a little bit by myself and I was brought into the group and Andy shore.

And I became great friends after that day when he ran for mayor of Lansing as a Democrat, Peg and I wrote a $200 check. We believe in that guy so much. He's such a good guy. So we worked hard on some stuff together.

That was a great feeling, a great way to get your feet wet in Lansing is to be with a group of people and try to get some things through. So, uh, I didn't know at the time though, that there were a lot of people in the house upset that they put me on that committee.

There were people that wanted to be on that committee because it's a big highfalutin priority, you know, big, sure, sure. A big, it's a lot of press starlight. Yeah, whatever. And the worst one I think I heard was that the president, uh, prosecutor of Macomb County who was upset he wasn't put on it.

So, but they didn't know about me. They didn't know I was an addict in recovery. Right. And, uh, and, and that, and that's a lot of the bills have come my way that with, uh, with recovery, with alcoholism, with the drug addiction, if you want to know my, what I think about it, uh, what would you do about it?

How can we format this bill this way, that way? So I've done a lot of bills with that stuff right there. Um, so I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the fact that, uh, we, we finally got a one DUI exemption bill passed.

I saw that. Yeah. 300 ,000 people. When we passed the bill, 300 ,000 people in Michigan have one DUI and they wear it like a scarlet letter. Yeah. My deacon at my church got one 35 years ago. Yeah. Why should he still be penalized today?

He's a great man. He made one mistake. Yeah. I know a lot of law enforcement was against it. My, uh, my opponent in the Senate race voted against it. Uh, that's too bad. Yeah. It's not made to help addicts that are still, that are still working hard to keep their addiction up.

It's made for people who are sober or people made a mistake. Yeah. And it was for a single, not a repeat offender. Right. Right. And we put a lot of, uh, stop marks on it. If you have more than one, no way.

Somebody got injured in your, if you had an accident, somebody injured, no way. You got to wait five years and the judge still has to okay it. So you could be not getting a DUI, but still be an idiot in life.

The judge will say no. Right. It happens a lot. So I'm proud of that and proud of, uh, a lot of bills we've had to keep the taxes down. Yeah. Um, I would love to see us take the sales tax on gas and put it toward roads.

Yeah. Well, we've been talking about that a long time, long time. Or do you get a tax cut? I heard somebody on WGR today might've been, uh, Chad Lyman was talking about, there's all this money. Why don't we have a tax cut?

Well, we don't have a tax cut because we don't want to do it the way the governor wants it. She wants to give a check to you with her name on it before the election. We say, no way. Let's, let's cut the taxes.

So we, we, we, we benefit for generations. Yeah. Not for two weeks. Yeah. Her, uh, fix the roads kind of went to the wayside. I feel like I haven't heard anything about, well, I did see her post a video of them putting throw and go on a County road and she goes, see, I'm fixing the roads.

I could have done that. Come on. There's a lot of roads still to be fixed. You're correct there. Yes. Yeah. Uh, you know, we talked about this a few weeks ago. I heard you mentioned something where someone from the opposition party said, I don't want his name on it.

He's new here. There's some of that in Lansing as I mean, in politics in general, where it's, whereas everyone's jockeying and it really disturbs me. Can't we just kind of get along and do what's best for our communities and for the taxpayers and the constituents, but you got to fight that all the time.

Don't you all the time? Or we can, we can pass those bills after the primary. That happens a lot. I mean, there's a lot of things out there that we want to do, but nobody wants to put their name on it before the primary.

So nobody wants to look less far right or less far left like that for the Dems. So they don't want to touch anything. So, yeah. So why the run for state Senate? What are you going to, what do you want to accomplish there?

You know, I never thought about it, uh, till about last November, December, October, somewhere in the fall thinking, you know, I'm my last year, what am I going to do? And, uh, I didn't run for the house to be a Senator.

Right. But I'm still have real good health. I'm only 64 years old. Yeah. I can still get 10 ,000 steps in a day without a sweat. I mean, I can still do a parade and run half it like I did an Adrian the other day.

Right. Uh, I just think that our area, Monroe, Lennon, Wayne Hillsdale, they need someone that with real work experience, someone has suffered in life. Someone has lived through hell and someone that wants just to help the people.

I don't have an agenda to, to bring, to do something crazy. I want to keep us flowing down a good, hard Republican path. We've been the last few years and we, and, and it's gotta be someone there that can still fight the governor too.

Like we have been. So, yeah, no, absolutely. So what is the difference between the two chambers? Really? I mean, uh, I mean, we know house, uh, deals with revenues, right? A Senate, like what are you going to be doing differently if you're to win the Senate than what you were doing in the house for those listening?

It's, it's a different culture. Usually in the Senate, that person has a lot of experience until the last Senate race, four years ago, five people got elected that never served in the house that never had before since term limits.

So no experience, no experience at all. Um, there's only 38 senators. And when a vote goes on the board, you have one minute to vote or you missed the vote compared to what house. Sometimes we have votes on the board for a half hour.

Okay. Um, in the old days, uh, I think uh, there was a Dem, uh, uh, running the house. Uh, he would put something on the board and go to lunch in Detroit and come back four hours later and finish the vote.

Yeah. And that doesn't happen in Senate 38 senators, the house. It's like herding cats because you're 110 people. It's loud. You got all the things you want. The Senate is more docile and uh, you get your stuff done and get out.

Sure. And there's only 38. So there's a little more attention paid to the 38. Yeah. Now do they do the late night sessions? Like you just did? Uh, I think a few days ago the house was, you guys did like an 8 AM to 4 AM deal or something like that.

The Senate got off early. They were running for Senate. You get to get off 10 hours instead of 14. We reconcile bills, send them back and forth and uh, go from there. Because you know, look at, it's very easy and sometimes acceptable to rail on some of these politicians and we, and I do it on this podcast sometimes.

Uh, but what people don't realize is when I text someone like you and you go, Oh, still in session and I text you, I think 1145 at night. I didn't realize it was that late. I'm a night owl. So I'll start sending texts when I have ideas ago, Oh geez, people are probably sleeping.

And I think that night I text you, I read the next day you guys were in session till two or three in the morning or two in the morning or something like that. Uh, and people don't realize that sometimes, yeah, you got to put in those uh, 18 hour days when you're wrestling through something.

Now that was for school funding. I think I'm referring to and their budget started the next day. So we wanted to, they knew they were getting a lot of money and we wanted to do the, get the regular budget done too.

So, yeah, we got it done. It took, took time. There's a lot of negotiations when you have, uh, an administrator, the governor who's a different party than you, there's gotta be a lot of give and take.

Now people may say, why are we giving her anything? Well, we'd nothing gets done then. Yeah. She can stop everything. So you ever think doing nothing is better than doing something halfway? Uh, not when there's $9 billion there and you don't want to leave it all to her.

Seriously. Seriously. If we, if, if we happen to lose the house and Senate and leave her $9 billion, there's three new programs being started tomorrow. Right. I mean, seriously, we don't want that to happen.

We want it to go to infrastructure, roads, water management, piping, things like that. Get the money out there so it can be used next couple of years and not wasted on a program that we don't really need.

Parental Rights, Cultural Drift, and the Governor's Agenda

Yeah. And you kind of alluded to this earlier. And I would say, you know, our governor has kind of proven herself to be pretty radical within the democratic party. Uh, I was watching Bill Maher and he, he, he said this and you know, he's, he's liberal and atheist and all that, but he goes, look at, I haven't changed.

I'm the same Democrat I was 15 years ago. My democratic party has changed. And he was kind of railing against some of the CRT stuff and the woke stuff. And you go, gosh, this guy 15 years ago, he was a radical leftist.

Now he's just a moderate centrist. Really? When, when you, you know, when you hear what he has to believe in, our governor has really went left on some stuff. So it kind of brings up that point of like, we've got to do something now or she gets her hands on that money.

Uh, I know I talked to a lot of parents and they're real concerned about parental rights and what's being taught in schools and, and if they have any advocacy for their own children when they're in public schools and the governor's just come out and basically said, I'll do what I want.

And we own your kids. Now she didn't say it that way, but essentially saying that, which scares a lot of parents, even those that might be softer Dems or more center left, you know, and I just don't know how far they can run to the left before people just go.

Cause look at, you talk to a lot of people when you do or not. I talked to about 5 ,000 people every cycle. When I, when I do or not, I start talking about common sense things. 80, 90 of the people go, yeah, I'll vote for you.

Yeah, I agree with that. You start talking about far left or far right stuff. They go, no, I'm not on board with that. And I'm wondering if, if you know, you have a minority of people driving a narrative or an agenda when most of us, I mean, most of us, we can sit down and agree on most things.

Now, of course there's going to be some stuff, social issues, maybe tax issues that are extreme that we don't, but for the most part, I feel like most people are moderate thinking. Does that make sense?

In America we are, but, but the loud people are on the far left or far right and they want their way or that's that they want. And so the governor gets elected and, and it was thought that she would be a moderate governor.

You know, she surrounded herself with people far left and their policies are far left. And she believes in the AG and the AG I think needs to be changed. And she believes in the secretary of state. And I think we need to change the secretary of state too, because you can see what they've done the last four years.

Uh, yeah, she, she's a, the governor needs to be changed. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, before we get into our next segment and round this out, why don't you give us really quick a walkthrough of, you've see a problem, you're elected state representative, you go, we need to fix that.

Whether it be with a bill or repealing a bill, give us like a, just a one minute walkthrough of start to finish how that works. You have an idea, you see an issue, you go, Hey, who's the first person I'm contacting?

Are we contacting attorneys to write the bill? Are we contacting lobbyists, uh, legislative assistants? And then how do we move it through to get it maybe to the desk of a governor for signature? Okay.

How a Bill Becomes Law in Lansing

So I'm going to 12 step meetings and I see that my friends have to be picked up to be driven to 12 step meetings because they're paying driver responsibility fees. Oh gosh. It was brought out during the past democratic governor's reign.

They had to raise money. So they said, well, if you got over 12 points, you got to pay a thousand bucks a year away. You didn't have a hundred dollars to renew the license. So because you drove without it, now we're going to charge you a thousand bucks a year for two years.

And I thought that was so egregious. So I go to the speaker, Tom Leonard, he goes, Joe, we're working on something. So let's talk about it. So I meet with the staff. We talk about it. I look at the numbers and the people that had driver responsibility fees, fees, they owed the state $350 million.

And most of it was three years old or older. So if you're a bank and somebody owes you money after three years, they don't pay anything. You write that off, right? But not governor Snyder. Cause he was, he was an accountant.

He was an accountant that was money on the balance sheet. He wanted that money there. So we got the bill through with one, no vote with a lot of lift from Tom Leonard helped me out. Cause this is my first time I was doing this.

We had one, no vote in the house and none in the Senate, I believe. So anyway, the bill gets passed and I'm excited. I'm texting all my friends. Yeah. You know what? Your driver's responsibility is, you know, we're all excited.

The governor's going to veto it. He calls Tom Leonard the night of the, of the last day to veto it. He says, Tom, I'm vetoing that bill. And Tom says, governor Snyder, why? Well, it's $350 million hit to the state budget.

Tom says, governor, you know, we're not going to collect. That doesn't matter. It's $350 million. And Tom said, governor, this is a Bolino bill and we are going to override that bill next week. So veto it.

If you want, you had one, no vote. We may, we might have a couple of no votes more after you veto it, but we're going to, we're going to run it right through the next day. The governor signed the bill.

Yeah. He, he saw the numbers, but we saw how it was hurting people. And it's about people. If you don't have ways to help people, why are you even running? Why are you serving? Yeah. You can say all you want.

You can, you can say all those politicians just say what you want to hear and stuff. But I've been here five and a half years. I'm Joe Bolino. I was Joe Bolino when I got elected. I'm the same dude. I haven't changed.

Yeah. Uh, if, if I get a little ego and I go to a 12 step meeting with a little ego, my buddies knock me down to size and I'm Everyone needs those type of friends. If you don't have that checks and balances, yeah.

You're crazy. And you're crazy. And there's a lot of balancing and like that. So, all right, let's wrap it up. You want to play fresh 10 with us so we can find out a little bit more about you. Sure. Let's do it.

Fresh 10: History, Hobbies, Business, and Family Stories

All right. Joe doesn't know these questions and we're going to rapid fire them and see what he comes up with. Uh, since you're in politics, let's start with this. Who is a figure in history you look up to that inspires you?

A figure in, I met him yesterday. Abraham Lincoln. There was like six foot four guy looked just like Lincoln in the Adrian parade. We got a great talk. Abraham Lincoln. Okay. And, and, and I, I, I love what George Custer did at the battle of Gettysburg.

Here's a guy who was last in his class and barely gets there and leads the charge and helps us win. So it was great. Yeah. I think everyone only, only remembers, uh, remembers him for his last, uh, his last battle.

Oh, what happened in his last battle? I didn't get that. I didn't teach that when I was in school. Wait, Custer. We'll let the listeners go. Google it. You had me going there for a minute. You got a good poker face.

Uh, number two. Uh, what do you like to do to relax? What's up? Golf. Golf. That's relaxing for you. Sunday nights at six 37 o 'clock. After everything's done, my wife and I will go out and play nine holes.