Confessions from the Campaign Trail: Post-Election Wrap-Up

0:00:01 - Holly McNamara
Hi everybody and welcome to the Salt Grain Podcast. I am your host, holly McNamara, and I am here in studio today with Dan Smith, my boyfriend, and the date is April 13. So it's been five days since the election, which was April 8. And we're both we're both kind of laughing. We're like wait, what just? It happened so fast and it's so last minute it happened so fast. We're like wait, what just happened? Did I really do that? And um, I mean, we have been through so much since 2016. When I first ran, we were already going through stuff before that, but then I was like oh, I'm going to run for office, everything's fine, everyone's like are you sure? 

But I just want to say that, and I don't know how you feel, but I feel like it was honestly the best decision I ever made. It was it's's. I love campaigning and I love, I love meeting everyone, like great people, even the bad ones. Like how do you feel um? 

0:01:15 - Daniel Smith
you learned a lot of lessons yeah um from 2016, especially until now, the two different campaigns, two different types of campaigning um. Yeah, it was definitely lessons learned yeah, um, yeah. 

0:01:34 - Holly McNamara
So I just you know, I made this whole list um of just things that the regular public like. They kind of see what I go through because of social media and what we go through as a couple and even you as an individual. You've had to deal with stuff on your own. People actually call him, call Dan, mr McNamara, which they don't mean it to be derogatory or like anything bad. They assume that we're married and my last name, I took his last name, but we're not married, so that he, dan, took it like a champ, like in the grocery store. 

0:02:13 - Daniel Smith
Hi, mr mcnamara, hey I get holly's boyfriend a lot too or hi holly's boyfriend um, but dantic it deals with like a champ. 

0:02:23 - Holly McNamara
it just awesome. So we have fun. And you know, when I moved home, I was like I had always seen the town through rose-colored glasses, because it's such a good childhood and even growing up like I left when I was 18. I went to college, then I moved out west for grad school and stayed. But I realize now that I really did see everything through rose-colored glasses and when I first bought the house I was like, well, I'm gonna stay, this is where I want to stay. I have my boyfriend and you know, and everything's great, my mom and sister, my dog and I'm like I'm just gonna stay, like I want to make the town better and. 

I got convinced to run for office. That was never even supposed to happen. They're like the only way you can have an impact is to run. I'm like, all right, I can do this. And you were like what? You're like what does that mean? 

0:03:18 - Daniel Smith
like tell them what I, what, uh uh and I said I said, well, okay, uh, you're doing something again, that's fine. Uh, something again, that's fine. I support it, it's fine with me. But what does that entail? And she said I just go to a couple of meetings here and there. 

0:03:35 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, which was far from the truth. I didn't know. I just thought, you know, because you only have meetings twice a month. I didn't realize, like I kind of knew I was getting into something, but I'm like it can't be that bad. Okay, we were naive. I was very naive and at the time, oh, we need to talk about this because it ties into the current, that state of the town. At the time, in 2016, I was like, yeah, I'm going to run and pull papers. I know everyone in town. I love everyone. That's great. Little did I know I was texting the enemy saying, hey, will you support me? That enemy at the time. Well, one of the enemies was Steve Monis. 

Captain Monis, former Captain Monis yeah he was always nice to me, you know, and but little did I know he was supporting my opponent, jeff Marks, and Jenny Andrade, who's, you know, was Jaisal Karei's former chief of staff. She was running Jeff Marks campaign and um, and we were running against the incumbent, scott laboe as well, and eventually lloyd mendes. But so little did I know that captain monis was supporting jeff marks because they all wanted to get someone in that would vote out chief mcneil, and I was. I didn't believe it. I was like no. I was like no, there's no way that people are doing that just to get rid of a police chief. Like I didn't get it. 

I remember that like people were like yeah, yeah, that's what's happening, and I'm like there's no way people would actually that mean yeah no, definitely too many politics in that uh process there um, yeah, it's uh alarming like did you believe it back then, when people were like, oh yeah, he's running to get rid of chief mcneil? 

0:05:40 - Daniel Smith
no, I didn't understand the politics of it. That, yeah, not 100. Like I knew what it meant. I knew on the end of a contract, I knew that there was a renewal, and then maybe not a renewal, but um, the politics and why, and why not right, um, why we're not renewing? 

0:05:56 - Holly McNamara
that is pretty deep very deep and we had no idea and I didn't know chief at all. So I reached out to everyone. I was like, hey, how you doing? You know, I'm running for office, I'd love to chat with you. And I got to know Chief McNeil. I got to know so many of the department heads that I didn't know anybody really. That were staff, um, and I was like giving everyone a chance. So I got to know all of them, including chief mcneil. 

He's a stand-up guy with a perfect record and very well respected across the state, and I'm like why are they trying to get him out? I don't get it. There's no way. It's that petty. Well, it's fucking petty, it's really bad. So, um, but we were mature adults, like there's no way. There are other adults that act like this. Well, we have some stories for you. So, um, so yeah, I ran and I got in a four-man race. I got almost 1900 votes and the next one was the incumbent, lebeau, who was seven 80 something. And the next was Jeff Marks seven, I think, 70 something, 60 something. It was a lot, a big difference. Like I could have lost more than half my votes, and still one, and that's more than a thousand votes. So I could have lost um and then um. How many did lloyd get? 128? 

yeah yeah, yeah, he didn't really, I didn't really get any votes but love lloyd, but, um, but yeah, and scott laboe took it with such grace and he came and spoke and there was no nastiness between us at all. Um, he was not, you know, people had told me he's a bully, but he was always nice to me. He's still nice to me, um, and he is. Whoever thinks Scott LeBeau is a bully has not met anyone at Save Our Bay, because it's such a great point. It's just like the town, it's like it doesn't exist right now. It's not real. It doesn't seem real. 

0:08:20 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, it's plagued with something. At this point it's hard to explain. 

0:08:24 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, and so, like all those five years of me being in office, like Dan and I loved it there was a lot of traumatic. There were a lot of traumatic experiences for our family. 

Which I think we spoke on in the last we did In episode two, yeah, yeah, and I mean mean that was so. You should watch that because that's a more of a detailed recount of it. But that was just one thing, but like a huge thing and but still the five years, we loved it. I absolutely loved it. And I said this in my facebook live that um clem brown, who was the lawyer for like 33 years, I think before he retired from the town, I was there and he retired and he said off camera he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but he said that my board with David and Steve Monis the selectman, steve Monis, not the captain he said we were the best board he had ever represented. Like that says a lot in 33 years. We had and some of us made mistakes, but we we weren't like hating each other and we didn't have people attacking each other. We just got everything done. We did so much together and we were positive and we enjoyed the meetings and we laughed and it was awesome. 

0:09:49 - Daniel Smith
But definitely not like that now no, it's gone. 

0:09:56 - Holly McNamara
It died something. It's dead. Um, you know. And last night I saw david because we went to his wife's surprise birthday and I remembered why I left Somerset again. Like it's sad that I have to see that so rarely now. 

0:10:16 - Daniel Smith
Um then previous boards making it as difficult as I can for Spirit of Somerset. 

0:10:23 - Holly McNamara
Everybody seems to really like that event yeah, they're taking that away yeah, it's just wrong yeah, they're shoving it down david's throat and it's for the town. Like for christ's sake, like what I just. Then they backpedal and then you know it's just too much. 

0:10:41 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, they get a lot of feedback and then all of a sudden, um oh no, we meant because they're sheep. 

0:10:48 - Holly McNamara
I mean, I never expected to be in this position. People are like, why do you care? And I'm like I don't know why you like ice cream. Like I care, because what's wrong with me caring? You know, like I want. Once you get involved, you understand it. When you're not involved, you really can't understand it really at all. You have to live it and you'll understand, like why it's important to vote, why it's important to be communicative, and like it's just so important, why it's important to be kind. Like they attack me and attack me and they're like, oh, she plays victim. Well, maybe I am so, well, I hate her. She's like that's offensive. So I'm like, okay, oh, you're just such a victim, what? So you want me to let you say whatever you want? Like what? I don't think that makes no sense. 

0:11:43 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, they don't want it. They don't want any consequences, they don't want any. 

0:11:46 - Holly McNamara
They don't want to get into the mud it's exhausting, it's embarrassing, but they're it's growing in numbers. Like I said, it's a cancer. I said that when I lost this election. It's a cancer taking over our town and what I noticed is the pendulum keeps swinging back and forth. And you hear from people, from you know, that were involved decades ago and it was the same. It would swing back and forth, but it would never get better. There were some very monumental things that happened in the past couple hundred years, but, like right now, it's just. The trend is it's getting worse. It's been three years of hammering everyone down, down, down down. You know what I mean and you can feel it. It's like I don't want to. There are a lot of people that don't feel comfortable going out in public. How about that? Uh, remember that party we weren't invited to. 

0:12:49 - Daniel Smith
Oh, yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. We just find out that I ran into someone in a local establishment and they told me said uh, oh. I said, oh, I haven't seen. Um, oh, they said that they were going to said party. Uh, and we used to attend this party and we found out from this person. They were like, oh, they didn't want to invite us because it made other people at the party uncomfortable because of politics yeah, they can't be adults yeah, they can't be adults, they can't just let you, can't go. 

Uh, enjoy a fourth of july party that you used to go to for years yeah, and you're not choosing me over them, so let us make the decision. 

0:13:36 - Holly McNamara
It's not up to you. If I'm uncomfortable, I won't go right. If they are, they don't have to go either. Like so, you chose that person. You let her decide I'm pretty sure I know who it was, but like it's so dumb, like nothing ever happened between us that's the other thing. Nothing ever happened. They were uncomfortable because they were bullying me and they were guilty as guilty as all get up yeah, yeah. 

0:14:02 - Daniel Smith
They didn't want us there because it made them uncomfortable. They don't want to face me. 

0:14:05 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, none of them. They, none of them. There was, a few weeks ago, a woman in a coffee shop that I went to with my friend and as soon as my friend saw her, she knows exactly who she is. The girl comes in, sees that I'm there. There's a woman with a stroller and a baby with her and it's not her baby, but she's the friend. They make this whole thing. They sit down, the girl sits down and then her friend sees me and was like we have to leave, made her wrap up all the baby stroller stuff and leave, because she saw me sitting there. It was like instant, why? Because you don't stop bullying me, you won't leave my name out of your mouth. They don't stop, they're obsessed. It's nuts, no, and people like I don't know. You probably know who I'm talking about, right. 

0:15:05 - Daniel Smith
I know exactly who you're talking about and they, just like you said, keyboard warriors. They say and say talk and talk and disparage and the victim, the playing victim, and they just can't face the music if they actually encounter someone yeah, god. 

0:15:34 - Holly McNamara
So actually encounter someone? Yeah, um, god, um. So campaign mistakes I thought about this a lot, you know, you know because we've talked about it. But we, I can look back and think, oh god, I was running the campaign like it was 2016, like I had an extra month, like I, um, didn't have early voting, I didn't have mail-in voting, um, and I got the numbers later and remember, like I was sending things out as if it was 2016 again, I was like, okay, we're gonna hit hard at the end so they remember to vote. 

Monday 90 90 of the people is about 3 000 people voted by mail and early, which was by like april 3rd, just very, but the mail-in requested ballots there are about 3 000 of those. Probably not everyone voted. So in total, about 3 000 votes came in at the end of march. Everyone had made up their mind before I started even campaigning, like, so people needed to re-meet me because I did resign, and that's a big deal. But they don't. They need to hear the story like why I resigned. So which brings us to and you need to tell the story about Captain Monis, oh. 

0:16:52 - Daniel Smith
Well, last weekend was a couple of days before the election, hammering door hangers and making sure that everybody got the pamphlet and the information which we just established was probably too late at that point way too late and not we didn't get enough anyway, but yeah, a lot of people had pretty much made up their mind, or hey, I already voted um what? 

0:17:17 - Holly McNamara
they wouldn't tell you who they voted for, which is fine well, a lot of people said they voted for me, which I was shocked. A lot of people but I respect the fact that somebody said oh yeah, if they say, some people don't, you can't and you don't ask, and if they want to offer, that's fine, but you, it's a personal thing, I get it. 

0:17:33 - Daniel Smith
Um but, um so so. But somebody wanted to uh, make a point in the street and I thought it was bullshit. But um yeah, captain Steve Modis, he ended up after I hung a door a hanger on his door. He felt the need to. You were like 40 yards away. Yeah, I was about. 

yeah, I had already gone down to the next two houses, that's far which was far on the road that he lives on, so I was coming across the road to go to the next one and I was encountered. He was coming toward me and like barreling towards you. 

Well, he seemed like he was, he was, um, he felt he was walking with a little bit of purpose and and, uh, he wanted to make a point to me that, uh, that he did not want my handout, and I said, okay, well, you could just throw that kindly in the in the recycle bin if you'd like, and I'll just move on with my day. But he made it had to make a point to um. So you know, I'm not sure if he knew who I was at the time at this time he definitely didn't maybe he did it. 

But um, he bucked right up me and and said, uh, I don't want this in my house or whatever it is, take the pamphlet back. And uh, he's then called out. When he got 10 feet from me, he said she, she resigned, remember or she. 

0:19:00 - Holly McNamara
No, he kept saying I don't need this. I don't need this yeah, yeah, well, he was very aggravated why did you walk 40 yards like can you just put it in I? 

0:19:08 - Daniel Smith
already stated, he was just trying to make a point to me by handing it back to me without frantically, yeah, instead of just crumpling it up and throwing the recycle bin, and? 

0:19:15 - Holly McNamara
but he wanted to make a point and I thought it was uh, just just absolute bullshit. 

0:19:20 - Daniel Smith
So he walked up and and uh, handed it to me and I, I he said that she quit remember and I said I know I do, and I remember why, and you know, and I said thanks, steve, and I tried to walk away. 

0:19:31 - Holly McNamara
Called him out. Yeah, so I mean I what he didn't. 

0:19:33 - Daniel Smith
He probably didn't know. 

0:19:34 - Holly McNamara
I knew who he was, but until then yeah, people in town, those are the people that just they just have to be heard and yeah, and the thing is with him like we have always been cool, always. There's no reason why we shouldn't be, even though he was one of the people that wanted to get chief mcneil out because he wanted to be chief, I get it, but we were still nice to each other and then I actually went to his retirement party and supported him like, but now he hates me, like you had to do that to run to you and make it a point to tell you that he has no need for me in his house. 

0:20:14 - Daniel Smith
It's flyer well, still, still no names. Somebody had um a member, if you remember. Somebody had encountered you and said, um that no, maybe this isn't for you anymore, or and somebody had you know, it's okay to have that opinion, but to make it a point, yeah look, you don't have to like me, you don't have to do more for me. 

0:20:33 - Holly McNamara
This was someone that I've known for 36 fucking years and they I have not heard from them in probably about five years, and I resigned three years ago. So do the math. I've not heard from this person like, hey, are you okay? Like you know, which is fine, like I didn't hear from a lot of people. I heard from a lot of people, but some people are, that's fine, but that means that we're not very close anymore, and but we should be. We've been close for 36 years. So that, to me, just tells me that person isn't a good friend, doesn't even know why I resigned, does not involve themselves in politics, ever Put up my sign once as a 36-year-old friend. Well then it was almost 30. So, yeah, I was like hey, do you want to sign again? Like you had one the last time, wrote a fucking novel to me about how I'm not fit and they just don't like it, even though she'll always support me as a friend, and I'm like wait, wait, wait and oh too much going on in politics with you and blah, blah, blah. 

0:21:44 - Daniel Smith
Clearly does not know anything about why I resigned and what transpired in the past five years no clue yeah, instead of making uh, taking the opportunity to talk to you and ask you what your feelings are, what going on and educating herself yeah, as a friend, even. 

0:22:01 - Holly McNamara
yeah, like you'd 36 years, she would have called me like this is a big deal in your life, are you okay? Nothing. So she formed an opinion, nasty opinion. It was pretty nasty. The message wasn't. She thought it was fine because she's like oh, you're going to be mad at me for having a different opinion and I'm like no, this isn't about a different opinion. This isn't about a different opinion. This is about my 36 year old friend of 36 years Making a massive judgment on me without calling me once, didn't talk to me once. You are not my friend, honey. I get it now. You're really not my friend. Goodbye, like you shot on me. This is not about having a differing opinion. It's about you being a terrible friend and she's like I've known you for 36 years. Yeah, no shit. I would expect this from someone that doesn't know me, not someone that knows me for 36 years fuck off. 

Yeah, good, call on that story, um, but yeah, I had to reintroduce myself to the community and I did it way too late because I understand like I resigned. It's a big deal when you hear that you don't know why look, well, you know there's no excuse. Well, there wasn't a very good excuse and it actually helped the town. But when I don't like, when people don't listen, they just hear like, oh, she resigned. But that they don't understand how things work, because mean resigning had no impact and they didn't have to have that special election. That was alan's choice because they wanted kathy in yeah and it's exactly what they did. 

They did not need to do that. 

0:23:47 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, by the state if they wanted to, um, like they always saying oh, we're gonna cut, we're gonna cut, we're gonna cut um. I know we're jumping right off topic here, but that we could have saved money you're gonna save. If they were all about saving money, they could have saved yes that, uh, they did not have to replace you on the board. They could have done the next couple of the one year without you, right? 

and then had the regular election and then had the third person after that, after that seven months because they were already making decisions that they were already, uh, you know, violating open meeting law and making decisions on. 

0:24:20 - Holly McNamara
And they were you. It's very hard to prove they were yeah, it's yeah, just by. 

0:24:25 - Daniel Smith
Oh. What was the result? Well, that couldn't have taken place without you talking to him. 

0:24:29 - Holly McNamara
Yeah or her. And, um, yeah, he evaluated a 33 year police officer chief contract without ever talking to him once. He did it a week after he was elected. This is alan smith and lied on the air. She said you paid for two chiefs at the same time because you misread the contract. And he did. The memorandum says the right year. He misread it and his colleague misread it and they had to eat crow and they, but they refused to believe it or admit it, even though they signed the contract. It's like so you had to pay for two chiefs and he sat on the air. No, I didn't. You had to pay two chief salaries. You signed it. It's right here. They sat on the air. No, I didn't. Yeah, no, I didn't. That's who's in that seat right now. Like I cannot sit next to that man. That's why I resigned. I couldn't sit next to him. 

0:25:27 - Daniel Smith
He's so unethical, especially the other guy sitting next to him. 

0:25:29 - Holly McNamara
It was even worse and he was pulling the puppet strings too, lorne. So when I, when Helen, got elected, I'm like I refuse to make decisions with these two because even if I vote no, I'm still tied to it. And they were about to get rid of the police chief, and I knew it. And they were because we argued for a year about it, me and lauren, and we were about they were about to get rid of the town planner and they say it's financial. It's not financial. She paid for her salary with all the grants she got for 18 years over. I did the math so like I wanted no part of that. So I fought from the outside and it was more effective, wasn't it? 

0:26:09 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, yeah, I got them riled up pretty good. Yeah, Just as um, there you go. Um, yeah, it just seems like um. Fred I can't, can't think of all the sparking red. 

0:26:31 - Holly McNamara
Oh my god, sorry. So what were you saying? Uh, yeah, so I needed to get that message out before, like I had to get. I should have gotten that message out week one. So by the time everyone early voted and mail-in voted, they never got anything from me until it was too late. And that's where all the votes are. 

0:26:57 - Daniel Smith
90 of the votes are in that pool of mail-ins and early and early voters, but you're in a really good position right now yeah to hold. Make sure that people are held accountable yeah and just keep needling them and saying nope, nope. I heard what you said. I know the promises you made. Yeah, we're gonna help make sure that you keep them yeah, exactly, and. 

0:27:25 - Holly McNamara
And now, because you're like I wasn't planning on running again no I thought we had at least two people that one would probably do it. I wasn't planning on doing this just couldn't sit back and watch? 

no, but they all decided not to. They didn't want anything to do with it and they, they all convinced me to do it. So I'm like, oh my god, I was not planning on this. But you know what, fuck it, you only live once and I could not watch that him just walk right in, can't wait to see how much he spent. And so, now that I lost, I got a good amount of votes. I got almost the same amount that Jake got when he won, and I got just below what Jameson got when he won. It's fine, it's fine. And I did not get my message out. So I feel like I may not still have won, who knows, but I would have at least captured another maybe 500 votes at least with that mailer. And that's why brett zagraff was lost in titan. 

It's the same thing there's a sense of relief, though, oh it's a massive sense of relief because now we can you know the promises made yeah, I just wish I afforded people the chance to like, get to know me earlier, you know, and then they would have understood why I resigned and I converted. Oh, I should tell them about the, the guy converted. So that, wait, I didn't mention this yet, right? Um, so there was a guy I won't say where I never knew who he was or who lived at this house. 

0:29:03 - Daniel Smith
It was a nice house and he always has had, like the opponent's sign or the anti, like just the. What do you want to call it? The contrarian? 

0:29:24 - Holly McNamara
sign yeah, let's call it contrarian. Yeah, he'd always have a contrarian sign. Whoever the contrarian side yeah, let's call it contrarian. Yeah, he'd always have a contrarian sign. Whoever the contrarian um candidate is fine, whatever, no big deal. But I it's a nice house and I'm like, oh, I wonder who lives there, like they clearly support these people and maybe they're friends with them, who knows? 

Well, I'm on the campaign trail and I was giving out the flyers and I went to this person's door and I put it because I didn't see anyone, so I just put it in the door and as I'm about to leave the property, he comes over with a smile and his dog and he's like, oh, I was just coming over to make sure the dog didn't scare you. And I was like, no, no, it's fine, I'm not going to say who it is, but he asked me a bunch of questions, ended up knowing the girl that I was with by chance, like not very well, but similar circles, and so we had a great conversation and he, we talked for 30 minutes about the town and he asked me questions and all this stuff and uh, and he was clearly supporting my opponent and he was clearly supporting my opponent and I know he was a diehard Allen fan, but he was nice to me and we had a great conversation, and so that was it. I was about to leave and he goes. You know, you should do this all the time. I'm like what do you mean? He's like well, you should go around town and meet with people. You should go around and talk to them like this. 

I said well, I've been trying, but I started too late and I haven't really seen a lot of people out. But I've seen some really good people as well, but this is a great conversation. Thank you for talking to me. You don't have to, because you're not voting for me. He goes. Well, you should really keep doing this, because you, you just changed my mind and I'm like I did what. He's like oh, I'm not, I'm voting for you now, on monday it was saturday and he's like I'm voting for you on monday and I'm like you are like what, are you sure? 

0:31:19 - Daniel Smith
yeah, you've had their camp signed in yourad since 2000, forever, forever, yeah, five years, even longer than that. 

0:31:28 - Holly McNamara
They probably had my opponent in 2016 so it's like the same people. So I think he did yeah and um, I was like, wait, I was not trying to change your vote and he's like, oh no, you convinced me. I was like I didn't mean to. That's amazing, thank, thank you. So that was like made me realize like if I got to really talk to the rest of the people about, about my resignation, I would have been. People would have understood better. 

0:32:01 - Daniel Smith
I think I have faith in some of those people you know, like but it's it's, so I get it, it's human nature, though the the it's like um like steve monas comes out and he wants to make a point and say that he, uh they, they don't understand why and how important it was to you to make that type of decision. They just say, oh, she quit, she's a quitter, she's a quitter. 

0:32:23 - Holly McNamara
Well right, I've known you for 10 years I know you're not a quitter, she's a quitter. 

0:32:25 - Daniel Smith
Well right, I've known you for 10 years. 

0:32:26 - Holly McNamara
I know you're not a quitter and I understand, thank you until, like, I understand why the optics of resigning like looks bad, I get it. And so for people that aren't, they don't know any different or they don't know who to ask, or they could ask me, but they just don't. Um, the people that aren't affiliated with the contrarian, people, like the people that are kind of middle of the road, um, they would be opening. Like that guy, he was open to listening to why things happened and and he listened and he was awesome. But the people that use that as an excuse when they're offered the information, no, you resign, you're a quitter. And I explain why they were never voting for me because they won't hear the, why they won't listen. So they were never voting for me anyway, so I'm not going to bother with them. 

0:33:18 - Daniel Smith
Oh, you said that he was always nice to you. Yeah, steve Monis was always nice to you. Well, I think he felt like you were so nice that he kind of was nice back and he just kind of left it that way, and then he used this as a segue to just not like you, and I'm not going to vote for you now. 

0:33:34 - Holly McNamara
Or he was fake the whole time Fake. 

0:33:35 - Daniel Smith
Exactly, he never meant it. 

0:33:38 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, yeah, I went to his retirement. 

0:33:42 - Daniel Smith
He thanked me and his wife thanked me as like. That's what it appears that way. It's just, it's not a genuine type of situation yeah, like, why did you have to do that? 

0:33:53 - Holly McNamara
that was a waste of energy, like for everyone, and it's rude it just annoyed me yeah, it just didn't, it was on. 

0:34:01 - Daniel Smith
It just was on, it just didn't need to happen well, that's why he's not chief yeah, right, well, yeah, I mean it seems like, uh, you have to make a lot of decisions and make decisions about this person and that person based. It's just too much. He seemed like he had too much emotion. 

0:34:18 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, you know so like sir, why are you so angry? Yeah, yeah he's. 

0:34:23 - Daniel Smith
He's carrying a lot of anger on his shoulders for you know, just going and and vote instead of stomping down the street and to give me a flyer back 40 yards later. Yeah so that you know that was. 

0:34:36 - Holly McNamara
There was a couple of people that said that they didn't want the flyer, or they, they were all you know they already voted, they already a lot of them already voted for me, but no one, no one made me think, no one did that false sense of hope. But yeah, yeah, yeah, that guy. And then then the planned um, the orchestrated, uh oh yeah bullshit at the polls. 

0:34:58 - Daniel Smith
The polls for the national primaries at least a dozen people came up to me and said, wow, that was just a big theatrical event wasn't it? 

0:35:09 - Holly McNamara
yes, it was staged very staged. 

0:35:10 - Daniel Smith
It was, yeah, just happened to be here they all showed up. 

0:35:15 - Holly McNamara
When we showed up, they knew that we showed up, so they all rallied. 15 minutes later they all showed up, yep, and then they were all there at the same time, the altercation happened and they all left. It was bullshit and they were filming the whole time. And she says in the article I just happened to be there. So, like this guy, eugene comes down the thing I gave. I was handing things out. I didn't even say my name, I'm just handing hey, a reminder for april 8th. Don't forget. Thanks for voting, um, and he's like you called me an asshole. You've never been called an asshole, I'm sorry. And I said oh, when I don't know you. And he's like I met you plenty of times at these events and I'm like what events? You've never come to my events. I have a sign-in sheet. 

I don't know who you are yeah and he's like, yeah, we talked and he's just making this stuff up and you called me an asshole and I probably did online. And then you called you, said I was the reason for these things, blah, blah, blah. He's screaming and his family went to the car and I'm still in the tent. I'm like, are we done now? Are you still that upset? You did it three years ago. I'm like, wait, wait, I did it three years ago and you're still this angry and he wouldn't. And then he got madder talk about carrying it with oh my god, and he wouldn't stop. 

And there's jess machado recording the whole thing, like so bland so I started recording just to mock them, and he was like, oh, you're recording too. Like yeah, she is, I want my video. So well, you and he kept repeating it. Then I started to get scared because I said why don't we talk about this? I want my video so well, you and he kept repeating it. Then I started to get scared because I said why don't we talk about this over coffee? 

or something no we're going to handle it now. Of course they left that part out. Yeah, we're going to handle it now. And I'm like, well, I can't handle it now. You're clearly angry. I'm so sorry. You've been harboring this for three years, like the word asshole isn't that bad. And yes, I probably said it and I own it because you're still being an asshole, sir. And then he got mad. I was calling him sir and I already owned it and I apologized. I said look, I'm so sorry. 

0:37:39 - Daniel Smith
Nope, no, they knew what they were doing. 

0:37:41 - Holly McNamara
They just kept screaming, videotaping scream, scream, scream. Then I got scared because I've already been assaulted twice and they don't hold back. 

0:37:48 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, they felt like they needed to escalate this to a certain level to make you. 

0:37:51 - Holly McNamara
And I was alone, yeah. So I texted Dan, hurry up, come back. And the guy's still yelling. So I started to shake and I'm like, ah, okay, he's not leaving, he's getting louder. And you finally stepped in and like, is there a problem? Yeah, and he's like, oh, yeah, so we left, pretty much left. Well, she called me an asshole. 

0:38:14 - Daniel Smith
Well, yeah, she probably did, probably good, because well look you're acting like an asshole, you know, my daughter called me an asshole because I drank the milk don't, don't make it like it's the worst thing that's ever happened to you I'm not a criminal dude. 

0:38:31 - Holly McNamara
If you can't handle that, you have problems. Yeah, so I'm saying you know, it's not that big, it's not that bad of a word it's really not, and that's not why I lost, and it's I didn't lose because of my debt. The people that were not voting for me, they care about that, but they weren't voting for me anyway. 

0:38:50 - Daniel Smith
The negativity, the venomous toxicity that they showed in this campaign. The negative campaigning was incredible. They drew first blood and then you went right back. It just never stopped from there. 

0:39:06 - Holly McNamara
They don't stop. 

0:39:06 - Daniel Smith
I don't have time for that no, and uh, you know that they actually this guy's support, their team, the people that support him. Yeah, this guy approved all this this is the uh committee to elect alan smith are trash. 

0:39:22 - Holly McNamara
They are all trash all of them and and now the negativity, the toxicity of the venomous bullshit we put up with and the guy saying my alcohol, my meds don't work well together and that's why I have a mental illness like what's wrong with you, sir? Like, first of all, I don't really drink at all yeah, sorry, doctor uh whatever your name is, it's you just don't like you, sir. I don't like you and I'm allowed to have an opinion, just like you have. So fuck off. 

0:39:51 - Daniel Smith
And these people, like they're insane and most of them were the bullies in high school like they're known in their high school class to be horrible people a lot of them and they haven't changed and they don't give a fuck and alan supports all of that yep with open arms, because he never, never told him to calm down, quiet down, to stop it yeah because he knows that if uh, no, that's just going to continue to berate him and talk down to him and yell at him when he doesn't do something that they want, it's just going to continue for another three years. 

0:40:32 - Holly McNamara
It will yeah at to the, at the expense of the town, at the expense of and um he's not. 

0:40:41 - Daniel Smith
He's not for the whole town. He's bring, you know, bringing in, saying that he's bringing in 50 businesses. 

0:40:49 - Holly McNamara
No, that's not even accurate. No, it's not even accurate. 

0:40:53 - Daniel Smith
These are businesses coming in saying they want to be organically yeah they're not paying for our taxes, tiny, tiny bit. But his support team's still fighting and appealing permits and how to get this business, but his support team is still fighting and appealing permits and how to get this business on. You know, off and running, prismian, off and running. Is this still just still? 

0:41:15 - Holly McNamara
still appealing and fighting his supporters. Yeah, the biggest supporters the group he founded. 

0:41:19 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, Say the person who was put in the appeal was holding an Allen sign down in Buffett. 

0:41:30 - Holly McNamara
And supporting him in other ways too, and he was nowhere to be found. From what I'm told from someone that was actually firsthand involved, he was nowhere to be found when it came to anything prison. He did not communicate with them. It it made them think that it was not something the town wanted. Then the boards were giving them hell because alan and savor bay controlled the boards and they almost walked because of all of that and it's all related to him. And then I think he, so I think he helped me get votes because of all of that and it's all related to him. And then I think he so I think he helped me get votes because of the bullying, because there were a lot of people offline that were telling their friends that those um trash articles pissed them off, so they were going to vote for me instead, so that there's some of that going on. And and then cause they also could relate to my debt, they're like well, I have debt, there's nothing wrong with me, like you know. 

0:42:29 - Daniel Smith
So yeah, you get behind, you dig yourself out, it's it's not the end of the world. 

0:42:33 - Holly McNamara
It's a life problem. It's normal. 

0:42:35 - Daniel Smith
Yeah. 

0:42:38 - Holly McNamara
And so if that's all you have on me, like no one cares, and all the Facebook posts and everything on that web, stupid website they made I by design for three, the past three years. I put everything out there I mean everything, and I was still selective at times, but like I did it, you know, on purpose, so nothing could be leaked right, and they made a website they still felt the need to compile all the stuff that you willingly put out on the internet, which you knew would resurface at some point but they compiled it all in one big, happy little bucket and tried to disparage you and slander you to make it twisted. 

People don't like that. That's not why he won. It's just not. People don't like that. They like that. They feed off of that. But they were always like that, all of them. So a big chunk of it was because of my resignation and me not getting that's on me. I should have gotten my message out day one and had a really good bigger conversation with to reintroduce myself into the community. I totally get it. So that had a huge, good bigger conversation with to reintroduce myself into the community and I totally get it. So I had a huge part of it. It was um, and another part of it was people eating up their bullshit which the taxes him promising eleven hundred dollars per household. 

0:43:57 - Daniel Smith
Oh, that's six and a half million dollars, right mathematically impossible it is mathematically so we'll be watching you every step of the way so guess what exactly? 

0:44:10 - Holly McNamara
like you said, next year, if taxes go up at all which we already kind of know they might be going up a lot, they most likely will then he only has himself to blame. Who promises $1,100 per house? You'd have to cut police, fire, highway, town hall. That'd be about six. I think she wouldn't have a town. 

0:44:37 - Daniel Smith
No, you have volunteer fire. You're going to bring your trash to the highway department every Saturday morning and prison is still not a done deal. 

0:44:46 - Holly McNamara
They could walk and they're delayed because of Allen supporters putting in these two appeals, or whatever they are, they're still under appeal. That could take a year. 

0:44:54 - Daniel Smith
There was an appeal and now there's a brand new one. 

0:44:56 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, Ridiculous, and so, even if Prismian started tomorrow, for the next six to ten years they bring in one and a half million a year About. Taxes go up on average every year because of cost of living increases and contractual obligations by like about 2.1 million. Do that math. You can't get six and a half million from that. You're not making money. No, you're not making any money. 

0:45:26 - Daniel Smith
You can cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut all you want. You're still not going to cut to the rate of inflation. And, uh, you know the obligations and yes, it's not going to happen, right and I can't wait I know and people ate that up. They bought it it's going to be fun to see, it's going to be hurtful to the people in town that can't afford to live here anymore. Yes, that's what we're really worried about. Yes, and we've got maybe figuring out ways to help with that. 

0:45:53 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, it's just not the same town. People that lived here ate it up. I don't get it it's not Camelot anymore it's not, it's just not. Oh, you had a good point. Back to the asshole thing. You had a good point that, like we're Gen X, we were taught to call people assholes to their face if they were an asshole. Like, yeah, we are proud to be Gen X. Yeah, yeah, we're just you don't. You don't question what we're thinking. Like, stop being such a wimp I could use other words, but I won't. 

0:46:30 - Daniel Smith
But uh, but this man, he, he fits into. He's even older than us, I think, maybe slightly older than us, yeah and so he's. He should be even tougher, like something should be one or something should roll off his back, you know, like a little easier, uh, water off a duck's back, if you will, and and not have that much of an impact on your, uh, your emotions to to be called an asshole oh, the other, yeah, yeah, when you're really, when you're really you know when you're being one yeah, when you're being one like be, have a little bit of self-awareness be prepared for that if you're being right, oh, and then this is another uh way to tell. 

0:47:07 - Holly McNamara
It was set up right before we got home he was already on the facebook page talking in the third person, pretending he was a witness, and I was like, um, it was you, I see you oh yeah, yeah, it was you. 

I saw you taking those yeah, you're like, you're pretending it's what you think we're not gonna figure this out and then when he, when he knew he was caught, he, uh, he admitted to it he did started talking in the oh, and going back to the message getting out, I remember telling you that there were probably three different people, completely unrelated I've never met them in my life approached me at the polls saying I got your newsletter and I'm only here voting for you because of it. I'm like what was that? Like effective. And they were like oh yeah. And there were a couple people that told my friend that they called her and said we just got her news Holly's newsletter and we're now we realized we have to vote, and so the newsletter was so effective. Like why didn't I do that out the gate? That was so stupid well. 

0:48:17 - Daniel Smith
I think it had the same uh impact on the voters as your um. I really loved your um campaign video in 2016 yeah, it was yeah I mean, I think John did that as well, right? 

0:48:30 - Holly McNamara
He did an amazing job. He shared it with that newsletter. They could go to watch it. 

0:48:34 - Daniel Smith
Right, you could watch it. It was just so well done. And that video had a big impact on their campaign back in 2016. Like this flyer did, but like you said, the timing was just. People had already early voted by mail and didn't and a lot of it is they're voting by mail, uh, early, because they don't want to go to the polls, they don't want to walk by the. I don't want to be threats and right, I did it too. 

0:48:58 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, I didn't even want to stand there that day and look at them, so they got louder as the day went on. It was just too much, oh. But so what did I say? If you can remember, what did I say when we were deciding to run? 

0:49:23 - Daniel Smith
How I wanted the campaign to be, oh. 

0:49:26 - Holly McNamara
I mean Well, you had a. 

0:49:32 - Daniel Smith
I think when you had had your back problem really it was a lot of pain, um, and I still have it, but it's not as bad so there was a lot of uh rest bed, a little bit of bed rest and uh being on the couch and you know, uh on the computer and figuring things out, and I basically ran the campaign from bed. 

0:49:46 - Holly McNamara
It was pretty funny yeah, that's what I know yep and uh I still got 1300 votes, yeah and I told him I'm like, no, because the first time I ran it was crazy. 

Like I ran like a massive project, like I'm used to, and we had weekly meetings. We had about 30 people in the house at a time, we had meeting minutes and agendas and delegated stuff and I sent down a ton of mailers and there was so much. I started a TV show Like, but this time I'm like I can't do all that, like I know exactly what I need to do and I'm going to do it with you and not just you. I'm not going to ask anyone for help, just a little bit. But some people do, and I'm going to do it with you and not just you. I'm not going to ask anyone for help, just a little bit. Some people offered, so I asked them at times, but like I wanted to enjoy it, I'm like we're just going to enjoy it. We're going to run this campaign. We know exactly what we're doing. We've run a few now, all winning campaigns and I'm like, okay, but you all winning campaigns and okay, but you know what, you can't win them all can't win them all, but that's all I wanted. 

I enjoyed it. Spinning out of control oh, we're spinning. 

0:50:55 - Daniel Smith
Oh, I forgot, we're spinning out of control and, uh, just absolutely devastated and on the floor just crying oh no, I hope Alan's on the floor crying in, crying in the year from now he will be, but that's not our problem anymore, no, um, yeah, yeah. 

0:51:13 - Holly McNamara
So like we, we said we're gonna enjoy it, we're not gonna let it take over our lives because we don't need it. We did it as a bonus. We wanted to help because shit's going south and it has been for three and a half years. Like we did it as a bonus, like it helped me heal a lot of in a lot of ways. Like I reconnected with the community. It was awesome. I had a great time and it's not the end of the world, not being a select like when I resigned. It also wasn't the end of the world if it was such a relief because I could not do it anymore. It was not effective anymore and running was a way to be effective. 

0:51:51 - Daniel Smith
This time I mean, we ran a campaign. You want to win. I'm competitive, like you. Yes. Yeah it would have been great to throw your hands in the air and win that, but we didn't. And it's okay, it's just a campaign. 

0:52:05 - Holly McNamara
Yeah. 

0:52:09 - Daniel Smith
It would have been nice to be able to uh, but you can give them hell from here yeah, it's just, it's better this way. 

0:52:14 - Holly McNamara
And you know, having been through all this for the past let's say five to ten years, um, because it's been about eight since I first ran so eight years, and especially the last five years, having been through all of it, like when I resigned, it was like three years ago I was tapped out and I wasn't effective anymore because of the two sitting next to me. It wasn't, it didn't matter, but I was also emotionally and like like all around tapped out. And so having that three years off from it while still helping, it felt good for me to help. I wanted to help. I promised everyone I would help. But having the three years off now I see it so differently and I handle it differently, like you you even said so like I didn't really realize it at first, but I'm like, oh it's, it's kind of bouncing off me now, like it's not as bad. I would have been able to handle it. 

A fresh, you know, after three years of it off, a fresh, like start and it would have been awesome to work with jamie and jake, but it's fine, I can still work with them. Yeah, my first donation was senator roger. It's like I had a lot of support, but, um, and everyone's so nice, the good people, they're so nice. Yeah, even the ones that weren't necessarily voting for me, like there were some really nice people yeah, just didn't ask. 

0:53:36 - Daniel Smith
There were some people that weren't you know that said you know good old friends and from growing up. 

0:53:42 - Holly McNamara
But they're not mean about it. 

0:53:44 - Daniel Smith
No, they're not mean that, even if they want to vote for alan, it's fine. They just wouldn't know people that this group just can't be that way. Yeah, it's too toxic yeah. 

0:53:52 - Holly McNamara
So I was just like I was shocked at first because people made it sound like, oh, you got it in the bag. And I'm like these people that know what's up. I'm like they really think that, like I was not sure, yeah, it's gonna be closed, yeah, no, no, no, you got it in the bag. And I'm like they really think that, like I was not sure, yeah, it's going to be close. Yeah, no, no, no, you got it in the bag. And I'm like there's no way. 

0:54:12 - Daniel Smith
I didn't run into. Maybe one or two people said that, but most people said that it's going to be close, or they thought it was going to be closer, and they said that you have a really good shot, okay. 

0:54:26 - Holly McNamara
Which is. 

0:54:26 - Daniel Smith
You know, I didn't really run into a lot of people said you got in the bag. 

0:54:29 - Holly McNamara
I don't think a lot of people felt that way. 

0:54:31 - Daniel Smith
You did, I didn't. 

0:54:32 - Holly McNamara
But not a ton, just a handful of people that I would say like oh, they were like how are you doing? I'd be like I'm nervous. They're like why? You're fine, you're totally fine, you have nothing to worry about, and some of them were just reassuring, but some of them, I think, believed it, and I believed it at one point. I was almost convinced at one point, because I was running into so many random people that were like I already voted for you, I already voted for you. I'm like what. I was shocked and it was so positive for the whole time, except the end like I ran into some negative people that were not nice yeah we, we decided to, um, negative people that were not nice. 

0:55:10 - Daniel Smith
Yeah we, we decided to, um, we were canvassing on the day of the election, which, uh, it was more because, oh, we didn't, we didn't get these out to the neighborhoods we really wanted to and we thought that might be effective. But then we looked back on it, like, the decisions we made, we tried to uh, the timing was a little off, which was fine, but because, um, everybody had already voted or made up their mind on the day of the election, especially, and yeah, almost 3 000 people yeah, but we got, we got a few more um flyers out. 

We thought. We thought that, uh, it would make a difference and it did, but not enough yeah, there was a few, but it was too late. 

0:55:45 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, yeah, I mean I mean make mistakes, you learn from yeah, it's just the world's changing, elections are changing, the town has changed, we've changed, and I always say that phrase no man steps in the same river twice. It's not the same as it was, it's worse and harder. 

0:56:03 - Daniel Smith
There's some for good, some for bad yeah, I mean the, the group down there is just, uh, fighting to fight. 

0:56:11 - Holly McNamara
They want to hear themselves yell and scream like the guy we were on the street and you were like why did you flip me off? And I was like what's going on? Is that guy? 

0:56:21 - Daniel Smith
yeah, we, yeah. It was a couple of days before sunday, the uh, on the night before the election. We're just finishing up a neighborhood and and I was getting dark and family was walking and this guy just decided he recognized holly. And I don't know if he saw our flyer, I don't know, but he, uh, he was upset that we were in his neighborhood. He couldn't really put a sentence together. 

0:56:43 - Holly McNamara
He's mumbling. He's mumbling like he was drunk or something. 

0:56:45 - Daniel Smith
But he was drunk, yeah, and he was flipping me off and uh, kind of starting shit with me, and I just asked him why he's starting shit and yeah, like what yeah and I didn't. It wasn't something that, uh, the day before an election, we wanted uh to encounter or escalate anymore, so we just drove away and moved on yeah, um but this guy was just uh very rude and uh yeah he's doing little uh little, uh motions of and I'm like what? 

0:57:13 - Holly McNamara
like get out of here, leave, like get out of here. 

0:57:16 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, well, we think he, uh he was friends with uh, definitely fits, fits uh fits, the mold fits the mold for those people down there yeah, every single person that I. 

0:57:26 - Holly McNamara
There were only a handful, but the handful of mean people that we ran into were they were allen supporters, but they were so fucking mean about it like why do you have to? Why some guys? 

I don't bother like okay, you know, you don't have to be a, you don't have to be a dick, you don't have to be an asshole. Yeah, you're just being an asshole, there's no need. Then they call me the asshole for saying, like, give me a break. Like you've never heard that word. You're the biggest bully in high school and you still are Like, come on. 

Yeah, my campus is just full of assholes all the time. I can't enough's enough. Like grow up, oh it's, they don't need it. So it's like when I resign, I'm like here, take my seat. You need it more than I do to feel like you're worth something, like I don't need to be a selectman. It doesn't define me forever. I wasn't doing this for most of my life, like I have a life and I wanted to help and I'm now I'm not helping. I'm not, I'm done like I'll help a little bit, but I'm tired man, yeah definitely uh shoveling shit against the tide at this point yeah, like, oh, like. 

The guy day one had an allen sign didn't know that anyone knew where he lived. But there's a voter registration booklet that he doesn't know about and he wouldn't stop on my page writing novels but playing dumb Big time Like dude, the questions you're asking. You would have to know something to ask these. There's no way. 

0:59:05 - Daniel Smith
Someone's feeding them. The questions yes. 

0:59:07 - Holly McNamara
And we know that you have an allen sign and we're just pretending we don't know. Yeah, yeah, and then, oh, we'll meet for coffee. Let's meet for coffee first week, sure, even though he had a sign already, he wasn't going to divulge that. And then today, I'm like you had a sign. 

0:59:21 - Daniel Smith
Oh, wow, wow, wow, no, okay yeah no, I didn't yeah yeah, you did, you did. Did you not get a picture of it? I think you did, I think I did. That's good. Yeah, like little evidence. 

0:59:35 - Holly McNamara
It's like um, you know, but I I made some amazing new friends on this. 

0:59:47 - Daniel Smith
I think we both did from all over yeah, the support and the friendships are genuine, from even from long ago till now yeah those are the people that are hardcore and they support you. 

1:00:02 - Holly McNamara
I love it so much. I love them and just that's what I like about it. You, you know the negative stuff it's like most of it's just made up and you can't even make it up like they it's. But I'm so grateful for like the positive everything. You know so much, yeah, and I think this time like helped us too, like we really worked together well and you know. 

1:00:31 - Daniel Smith
I think we fought less. We did. Well you didn't yell at me as much, one or the other. 

1:00:36 - Holly McNamara
And I wasn't as stressed. 

1:00:39 - Daniel Smith
No, you weren't. 

1:00:40 - Holly McNamara
I wasn't, I would refuse to let myself get stressed. I'm like, nope, if I start to feel anxious about something, I'm going to go to bed or I'm going to like, relax and not. You know, I didn't let it get to me and that's, I think, how it would have been if I went back into office. But now I don't. I'm relieved, like I would have stuck out the three years, I wouldn't have resigned, like that was a very unique tactic that I did and it was good for everyone, including the town. It was the best decision for everyone involved. 

1:01:12 - Daniel Smith
Because it just would have. If you stayed in there, your vote wouldn't have counted. 

1:01:17 - Holly McNamara
No, and I would have just been yelling the whole time. 

1:01:19 - Daniel Smith
Right, it would have been yelling and screaming. For nothing and the toxicity and the attacks would have gotten worse, and it would have gotten worse and worse and worse, and I would have been worse and it would have gotten worse and worse and worse and you would have been tied to the whole thing and I supported you designing and I know why some people don't understand or they haven't put the made the effort to understand, right, but it was very hard for you to do that and I saw it. 

1:01:40 - Holly McNamara
Yeah. 

1:01:41 - Daniel Smith
It was something we discussed. 

1:01:43 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, in depth yeah. And but quickly. 

1:01:47 - Daniel Smith
And you're not a quitter. You know I'm a hard worker as far as I'm concerned and um even your education and everything you've done and I see all your projects and you know your new job um you put a lot of effort into things and getting rid of that um resigning from that position. I know it took a lot out of you. 

1:02:04 - Holly McNamara
It was like. So I felt like I was a nurturing mom for, like the town was my kid taking care of it. You know it was the right thing to do. Yeah, you get it, and most people don't understand until they talk to us and I just I would have stuck it out. But three years now is a long time and I'm grateful now because I can keep my peace, I can get involved at my own pace and I have no jurisdiction, but I have still have an impact. So it's like you know, I want to help these people survive, but I also can't control the outcome. It's about to sink. Like they don't realize, they saved me from the sinking ship. 

1:03:01 - Daniel Smith
Yeah. 

1:03:01 - Holly McNamara
Because if I was in that seat, I'd be sinking with the ship. 

1:03:04 - Daniel Smith
Well, let's see if Captain Smith goes down with the ship. He's in trouble, it's not going to be. Let's see if Captain Smith goes down with the ship. He's in trouble, it's not going to be tough, he's going to have a lot of you can't blame me. 

1:03:17 - Holly McNamara
I'm not in the seat. You didn't vote me in. It ain't my fault. It's coming. It's not my fault. You didn't want it, so you're going to get it. 

1:03:27 - Daniel Smith
I're gonna get it I'll say it, I'll say it again, I say it all the time that I'm really concerned for the uh, older folks on fixed incomes that have always lived here, love their homes, um, don't want to have to move out, but that tax bill is getting increasingly more. 

You know it's rising faster than any raises in their social security check or whatever that the government does. But, um, it's really important that those folks, the the, the salt of the earth, people that will still live in their homes, can stay there yeah, and what's crazy is that people. 

1:04:03 - Holly McNamara
So I reread my resignation letter and I hadn't read it since I resigned in April 2021. So it was the first time it was all applicable. Now it's the same. It got worse. Now it's worse. So I read it like in shock and like I already predicted all of this and it's. We're in the now and it's happening. And there was one year I had in that resignation speech. There was one year after we hit rock bottom when we raised taxes because of the closure of BrainPoint. There was a year after that that we lowered the tax rate by $3 per thousand. That's a lot. We lowered it. We hit rock bottom and then we lowered the taxes because we could afford it and we were saving. 

1:04:52 - Daniel Smith
But you got some of that money from. 

1:04:55 - Holly McNamara
That was not a Reggie year, I think it was after Reggie sunset. It was a free cash, some of it, but not all of it. We put most of free cash in the stabilization fund. We just had it had. We've planned it right. We planned it right. We had certain revenue starting to come in. We sold the power, like I mean we didn't sell the power plant, but they sold the power plant like there were things turning around. We won the arbitration case for the the price of the land at brayton Point. 

1:05:26 - Daniel Smith
Oh yeah, Alan said that the town was suing. 

1:05:29 - Holly McNamara
No, he doesn't know what he's talking about it's such. No, it was an abatement. 

1:05:34 - Daniel Smith
Alan yeah. 

1:05:35 - Holly McNamara
They didn't sue the town for the value. 

1:05:37 - Daniel Smith
They do that for the sale. 

1:05:40 - Holly McNamara
Your house value abated, that's to say like, hey, let's make sure this is accurate. And they readjust, they inspect it, they readjust it, they readjust the value of your home. Anyone can do an abatement. That's all that CDC did when they bought the property. Yep, we're going to get it abated and see, and that's what our arbitration is for. 

1:06:02 - Daniel Smith
Make sure they're paying market price. Yeah, I think that's a lot. 

1:06:03 - Holly McNamara
They're right. They market price. Yeah, I think that's a lot. They're right, they weren't suing the town, they're right. So, anyway, we got that $3.3 million back, right, okay, we had already planned for it. When we hit rock bottom, we had already planned to lose, so we had to raise taxes with that too. 

1:06:20 - Daniel Smith
That was part of the overlay. 

1:06:21 - Holly McNamara
We had to raise taxes. That was part of the overlay and that's why taxes went up so much that year, because the rate point closed. We had to prepare that we were wrong for the value, but when we learned that we were right, we got the money back. So on and then going forward. 

Here we are three years later and the taxes go up another 16 yes, it's unacceptable and it's not because the schools it's not, because if the economic development hadn't decreased by 70 in the past three years that's a lot we would have revenue to cover the cost of the school, which was planned three years ago, four years ago, and got stopped by Alan Smith and Save Our Bay. It's all been stopped for at least three years. 

1:07:12 - Daniel Smith
We were way behind. When you don't support economic development, things get halted, things don't proceed, their tax revenue doesn't come in. 

1:07:21 - Holly McNamara
And then you can't pay your bills. You can't pay your bills Every year. You're going to have a project you have to prepare every year, whether it's maintenance of your buildings, capital improvements, um, contractual obligations are constant. And then we knew the middle school was most likely going to happen. We've got the msda approval and all that stuff, which is fantastic. It's 60 paid for by the state that's fantastic. It's 60% paid for by the state that's fantastic we needed that. 

So we were covering for the future cost of the school, knowing that, okay, we're going to work with CDC and bring in the revenue. And in prison, eventually they started negotiating. In 2018, which was back then we would have had all that revenue to cover the cost of the school, so the taxes would not have gone up and we wouldn't have gotten rid of our planner because she brings in millions. We wouldn't have lost the original wilbur school owner because he said after this the neighbors are so nasty. 

1:08:25 - Daniel Smith
Three years behind, because the guy wanted a coffee shop in the front of the apartment building. 

1:08:30 - Holly McNamara
So for the residents yeah, and he says the alan and his daughter said they were gonna afraid of them putting a shredder there a metal shredder which is illegal anywhere in town, but anyway and these are the people that this, this guy is running the town. 

1:08:44 - Daniel Smith
He, he's on that board and he has alternative motives. He's not for the town. 

1:08:53 - Holly McNamara
Right. Well, we'll see. When that $1,100 shows up in our pockets, I could use it. 

1:09:02 - Daniel Smith
Oh my God, such a joke. 

1:09:04 - Holly McNamara
Oh and I love. Recently they're complaining because and I I'm still trying to, I think I found one of the articles, but they're complaining saying commonwealth magazine, which is now commonwealth beacon, and wsar, and the herald all over herald. They they're claiming that they're writing these slanderous bullshit articles attacking save our bay, calling it like why are they reading a website or facebook page? Why are they talking about a facebook page? We thought you wanted to be relevant, like. This isn't the attention you wanted. Oh, I'm sorry, it's negative because you're negative. So the media is reporting on it, right. So you want the good attention of the facebook group, but not the bad attention because you've created this yourself but then, uh, their 501c3 or whatever they have or still have or don't have they don't have they're, they're not supposed to be a political group anyway, right, and they clearly are Still going. 

So it's just interesting that they're now, that they're not getting the attention that they want, that people are calling them out. That's the bottom line. They can't handle being called out, it's you know. 

1:10:21 - Daniel Smith
To attack, like piranhas, when they get called out and anything says anything negative about them. 

1:10:26 - Holly McNamara
Yes, and it's. When you disagree with someone. It doesn't mean you're attacking them. The attacks that they have on me are personal. They make memes. They attack you and your knee problem, like who does that? And then they talk about medication and alcohol, like in saying I have a mental illness. That's a clinical diagnosis that you're not allowed to make. But calling me a pathological liar, that was the funniest oh yeah that's also a clinical diagnosis. 

1:10:56 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, you can't say that stuff. 

1:10:57 - Holly McNamara
Oh, people are just open public forum that's why they hate me so much, because I don't put up with it. They hate me because I have a voice. They hate me because I don't roll over like everyone else and and I won't roll over because then I'm not giving them what they want. I'm doing what's right anyway. So I won't be being quiet. Yeah, I don't like being told to be quiet because that diminishes what I'm trying to do, my feelings on the matter. 

1:11:34 - Daniel Smith
I want to say one more thing. I don't know if we're getting to the end of here but, you ran a good campaign you really did. I'm just a sign guy no, you didn't. I just wanted to say uh to the people here listening, um, that you worked hard, you ran a good campaign and uh brought it nice job, thank you that's nice. 

1:12:05 - Holly McNamara
I uh, I feel good about it you should hold your head up high you know, I I was so sad at first, it broke my heart. But no, it's not meant to be, it's okay I'm relieved now, now that I got the cry out yeah, you're so competitive. 

1:12:20 - Daniel Smith
You're like me, just you want to win. Um, it feels good to win. 

1:12:24 - Holly McNamara
Ask alan yeah, he's won twice. It's one of the best feelings ever. 

1:12:28 - Daniel Smith
Congratulations, Alan Smith. 

1:12:29 - Holly McNamara
Yeah, you're still an asshole, but we're going to watch. 

1:12:32 - Daniel Smith
We're watching you. We're going to hold you accountable, yeah $1,100. 

1:12:36 - Holly McNamara
We'll be waiting, even though we're renters. 

1:12:39 - Daniel Smith
Yeah, we don't matter. Oh, we don't matter. 

1:12:49 - Holly McNamara
Because our and his taxes don't matter, right, right, because that doesn't affect us at all. That's what they say. No, we love our landlord. Yeah, we don't want his taxes going up. No, nobody does. 

1:12:59 - Daniel Smith
That's the thing. That's what that's. Another thing I want to say is why is it derogatory or negative to who we're renting and it doesn't matter to us? Yeah, we're. We're here, not not paying a property tax, renting, renting a property, and we still care. Yeah, we still care about the people that. You know that we see their taxes going up. We listen to them. You know it's gonna soon if this, this industry, doesn't get pushed through and start getting some tax revenue back. 

1:13:28 - Holly McNamara
Which it might, it might not. 

1:13:30 - Daniel Smith
The taxes here are going to be. Barrington is very, very high. It's a very high quality town. I love it over there and their taxes are upwards of $10,000, $11,000, $12,000. 

1:13:42 - Holly McNamara
They have more amenities than we do. They're nicer, yeah, more beautified, kind of so we're gonna be paying, though. 

1:13:50 - Daniel Smith
We're gonna be paying those rates and taxes soon and it's gonna be very hard on a lot of people here. 

1:13:55 - Holly McNamara
It already is. I think people are feeling it. 

1:13:57 - Daniel Smith
So next year they'll have so if they don't stop putting regret yeah, if they don't stop pushing back and putting the brakes on all these things, that uh, you know all these appeals and it's just detrimental to the town yeah, and they're outright admitting these appeals and people just don't. 

1:14:14 - Holly McNamara
They don't know that because it wasn't on alan's flyer. He lied, and then he just calls me a liar. Like calling me a liar doesn't change the facts, it's. You're just making up facts, they're not facts. Like that math it doesn't add up, but nobody knows that go back, if you really want the truth. 

1:14:33 - Daniel Smith
Go back to alan's postcards, and he he does the. Thing he does the thing. This is claim truth, claim truth. The claims are actually the truth and his truths are not. They're made up, they they're made up. They're twisted. 

1:14:47 - Holly McNamara
Some of them don't even apply to what he's responding to. I can't it's impossible to explain everything to everyone, because there's a lot, but just it'll happen. They're going to see it when it hits their pocket. That's it. It's coming. Let's pray Like a big wave it's coming. Yeah, let's pray, like a big wave, oh my. 

1:15:10 - Daniel Smith
God. 

1:15:12 - Holly McNamara
Well, thanks everybody, anything else no thank you for having me. Thanks for listening. Bye, everybody, bye. 

Transcribed by https://podium.page