Tanya Wheeless on a New Vision for Arizona
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Welcome to Broken Potholes with your hosts Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. We have a great program for you today. In the studio with us, Tanya Wheelis, candidate for Congress in, well, what is currently Congressional District 9. May not actually be that by the time you're running. Yeah, we'll see, right? Or by the time the ballot comes around, yeah. But Tanya, tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your background. Sure. And...

why are you why are you sticking your neck into that shark infested waters it's a great question well first thanks for having me sam and chuck um it's great to be here with you um you know my background i'm an arizona native um i grew up here and i think like a lot of folks um who are listening you know i come from a pretty humble background um my nana uh

immigrated here from Mexico as a young girl. They waited two years on the Mexico side so that they could come in the right way. And they weren't fancy folks. They were migrant farm workers. And so as a young girl, she was following my great grandparents around the Midwest and ultimately settling here. And so that hard work ethos is something that's just been built in. And then... If I can ask, what made the family choose Arizona? Yeah.

That's a good question. I've actually asked my I mean, my great grandparents had passed by the time I was thinking about these things. But I think they they liked the area. They were out in the West Valley. They had over time worked at several of the farms out here. And I think just thought this is a place where we could put down roots. And and I mean, it's a great American dream because they did and ultimately moved from being, you know, workers on the farm to having their own little shop.

out in the West Valley, buying some land. My tata had homes that he rented, and that was it. And again, it was nothing, you know, it wasn't this rags to riches, but it was that hope. They got here, and they just created something better for their children, my nana, and then my dad. And then for me, I became the first in my family to graduate from college. Went to ASU. Let's go Sun Devils. Got a big game this weekend. No, no, no. Stop. Ah!

I think we have to throw this woman out of the studio right now, Chuck. And Tanya, I'm in Utah. I'm a BYU grad. Yeah, I had a hunch about that. We've got a lot there. Tanya, I don't want to stop your rhythm, but being the first graduate of your family, did your parents express just this extreme pride? Did they tell everybody on the street and at church and the

the park that my daughter graduated college. Was it a big deal? Yeah, it was a big deal. And I will say from a very young age, you know, I was told like, you can do anything. And I would say that's one of the great gifts that I got from my family and certainly my parents was a belief

that in this country you can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. But they also impressed that that was going to be up to me and that nothing was promised or handed out. And so it was going to be hard work and focus. And look, I had a lot less fun in high school and college than a lot of my friends were

But I had my eye on the prize. And so, yeah, Chuck, there was a tremendous amount of pride. I've got this great picture of me with my nana at my law school graduation. I went on to law school. And, you know, you look back, it gives me chills even saying it now, right?

That's the American dream, though, isn't it? Right. It's that opportunity to work and better your family. Absolutely. And my Nana, she actually quit going to school, I think, when she had about a second grade education. She didn't read. She didn't write. Oh, my goodness. And so, again, to see that that is what fills me with so much pride in our country. And yes, my parents were thrilled. The other thing is, I think it's important to know that my mom and I, we've been together for a long time.

thing I would say, though, too, is interesting is because we were just sort of like, you know, be good people, work hard. My mom's parents, my grandfather is retired Air Force. My grandmother was a nurse. We were just kind of like, you do good, you take care of your family. And so as proud as everyone was of me graduating from college, I would also say there's this sense of but

But you're not better than anyone else. Like, you haven't done anything. The stuff that still matters is, like, showing up for your family, your community, and working hard. And so I got to say, to grow up with that kind of ethic built in, it served me well. And we need more of that in our kids, frankly. A lot more of it. Yeah. I mean, really –

There's a huge difference between that version of the American dream and the version that Democrats are selling right now, which is.

Sit home, do nothing, take a government check that covers your basic needs but has no dignity. No. And no future. I mean there's no ladder to climb there, is there? No ladder. And it's even worse than that. When you look at – I was talking to a friend. Now they're doing the checks for the child tax credits. And he said, you know, my son lives up in – I believe it was Minnesota –

He and his wife both work. They don't have a ton of money, but they're getting by. And he said, "We got this check in the mail for the kids." And I'm thinking like, "I don't need this check, but I'm not gonna send it back." And so it's beyond even just covering basic needs.

The Dems want to send money to people who haven't asked for it or don't need it. And I think that is creating right now we are at an inflection point where we have got these two versions of America and we have got a very clear choice about what that can look like in the future. Right here at home, the city of Phoenix City Council next week is considering implementing a thousand dollar a week stipend.

For individuals who sign up, who make less than $65,000 a year in a lottery. I mean, this is an insider game. Completely. And $65,000, I mean, obviously you have family, but I mean, you know. It's not poor. No.

No, my brother is a teacher. We've got a lot of educators in our family. You know, they come out and they make, you know, maybe $30,000, $35,000. I'm not saying it's enough. I'm not saying you can raise a family on that. But you get by this idea that I can make $65,000 and have the government send me a check? And they're saying that people are automatically eligible if they have had Phoenix pay off their rent. Now, they were getting state monies. They didn't pay their rent with the money they were supposed to pay it with.

City of Phoenix went in and paid it off. But now we're going to give them another thousand dollars a month on top of it. This is just this is buying votes, isn't it? It is. It is. Absolutely. Right. And that's, you know, Chuck, I was going to say I've said to folks, you know, people, Democrats act like this is benevolent. Right. Like, look, we've got hard Republicans. They just don't care. And I've said, look, this this has very little to do with this.

benevolence and everything to do with power and control. Because once you are reliant on government for a monthly check of any kind, guess what? They got you. And they're going to hold that over your head for every election in perpetuity. And again, I go back to, you know, we talk about my story. It can be done. There are

everyday examples of people who can overcome their circumstance. You know, I always like to say it's not how you begin, it's how you end. And as long as we can get government out of the way so that folks can make an honest living and pursue their dreams, then

To me, that's what we should be focused on, not these crazy handouts. I've talked before on this program, and Chuck, you and I have talked about it. When I first moved back to Phoenix, I rented a place here online. Didn't really look or consider the Phoenix. I think I was used to the Tucson rental market, so I thought, oh, that sounds like it probably looks okay. It was a nightmare, right? It's in a terrible, huge, awful complex. But I had two neighbors, one next to me, one directly below me.

The one next to me was on their third generation of government-dependent poverty. Yeah. The one below me, and I never asked, pretty sure that they were in the country illegally, or at least one of the two parents was. But the family members all had jobs. Very similar families. A couple of kids, you know, approaching adult age, mom and dad. But one, awful circumstances. Really miserable all the time. The family tearing itself apart all the time. The other...

with no benefits, no help at all, pretty happy all the time, having a good time. You could see it, great family, strong structure.

That's the difference in the dignity of work. Yeah. And it's also that is a mindset. You know, I believe we talked about, you know, how we're raising our kids and the lessons we're teaching them. Look, you can there's a great book by Viktor Frankl, Man's Meaning of Life. I'm getting that wrong, but look it up. You know, and his book is about how he was a prisoner in Auschwitz.

and how in that he could still find with his own mental approach a way to survive. For him, it wasn't about am I going to have great things? It's like I literally need to survive. And it became his looking for meaning in every day and how he could do something. And I think right now as Americans, we live in the greatest country on earth. We are more prosperous as a country as we've ever been. I've traveled around the world.

it can get a lot worse. And so I think people have a choice. You know, you can look at it and see opportunity. You can wake up every day and say, I have an opportunity to go make my life better and my kid's life better. Or you can buy into the noise. And right now, a lot of the noise is telling folks, you're a victim. This isn't your fault. It's all just happened to you. And don't get me wrong. We all know that there is some

Bad stuff does happen. People do fall on hard times. You want a safety net. You want people to have a hand up. Yes, and we've got to be there. And frankly, if we would be more focused on providing that safety net for those who truly need it when they need it, we would have a lot more resources to do that. Instead, we're just trying to give something to everyone. We're spreading ourselves too thin, and it's creating a massive financial problem for our country.

Well, you know, you brought up a very good point. I have visited 64 countries in my life, and I always tell people, if you don't appreciate America, you need to travel more outside the country. For sure. And I was listening to a podcast lately with Jason Bateman, and Jason's quite a well-known Hollywood liberal, right? Oh, yeah. He's not...

And is it smart? He really listened. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And his point and his and his point was and he made the same point. He goes, look,

Every time I leave America to travel and come back, I love America more. And he goes, I wish people understood it more. And I go, I think if we did that and more people did that, we probably have less division in this country because he goes, this is a pretty damn good country. And he goes, and it's sad that you have to go. He goes, but every time I leave and come back, I love it and appreciate it more. Yeah, no doubt about it. And I think the proof is in the pudding there. Look, it's

People are literally putting their lives at risk to come here. You know, when I travel, right, you wouldn't be doing that if we didn't have something great to offer. And they're not doing that to Venezuela. They're not doing that to Russia. Exactly. And we need to spend more time focusing on that and the greatness that is our country, how we can build on that and less time trying to tear it down. That makes zero sense to me.

Yeah, absolutely. It is crazy what Democrats are talking about these days. And if you have traveled, this is not even remotely close to the most racist country on Earth. It's not remotely close to the most unequal country on Earth. Poor people here have opportunities that you have in few other societies to move up.

In so many places around the world, your birth is still your destiny. Right. So, yes. And that is what makes it markedly different to be born here is it doesn't have to be. And particularly in a great state like Arizona, where you can be anyone and become a governor or a congresswoman. There you go. Tanya Willis, candidate for Congressional District 9. We're going to be coming right back. Talk a little bit more. Broken Potholes, segment two coming up.

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Welcome back to Broken Potholes with your hosts Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. In the studio with us today, candidate for Congressional District 9 here in Arizona, Tanya Wheelis. We're going to be asking her all about her life. Tell us way too much here in just a moment. But folks, if you're out there, remember, tune in. You can catch us on Apple, Spotify, Substack, all the great places you find podcasts. And you always get a little extra segment at the end of the podcast.

So if you're not tuning in on the radio, be sure to do that. Tanya, thank you for, again, thank you for being with us. You have an amazing background, but tell us a little bit about your career, how you got to the point where...

you're ready to step up and run for Congress because it's a big step. Yeah, it really is. So my background has been primarily in the private sector. So I am not a career politician. This is the first time I'm stepping into the arena to run. As I mentioned in our last segment, went to law school, practiced law at one of the premier law firms for about three years, which was great. But I knew I was not meant to be a lawyer forever. Way too much. Yeah.

sitting at a desk by yourself. And so after about three years, one of our clients, the Arizona Bankers Association, had an opening. And at the ripe old age of 27, I became the CEO of the Arizona Bankers Association. And that was a tremendous honor and opportunity to work with our community banks who really are the cornerstones throughout Arizona in their communities. And that includes all the

credit unions and the local banks or is that the it's local banks but not credit unions yeah so banks banks hate banks hate credit unions sam you should know that no no i'm not it's always utah years ago had this battle bank and credit unions and you thought it was sort of like the cold war of russia the united states i've never quite understood it but they all feel the other one's getting a

unfair advantage in the world. Yeah, that was ground zero. And it's because of tax policy, I should mention. Like, tax policy is the reason. So, no, it was the community banks here. But we actually do have a pretty strong network of community banks here in Arizona, right? We do. More than most states. We do. Well...

The Midwest, they still have, for a variety of reasons that I won't bore you with, they still have a greater number of community banks because of their local banking laws. And you might have one in every county. And so if you've got 99 counties, you know. But we have an increasingly...

I would say expanding community bank environment here. It's certainly when I started back in 04, it was just going bananas. And that was really exciting because, you know, there is something to knowing who your banker is, because this is the person you're telling your life story to and saying, help me, you know, buy my first home, help me start this business that I, I'm going to put all the chips in. And so, so that was great. And I did that for about seven years.

Hey, Tony, let me stop you there. Sure. Because you bring up, it's a policy point here, which you're probably not asked much. I think there's something missing in this country when you don't have a strong network of community banks. There's something about...

being a small business owner or getting a mortgage and the banker knows your name. Am I wrong on that? No, you're absolutely right, Chuck. And I mean, Wells, Wells Fargo is so sterile. I mean, I, I mean, we, we pulled our accounts out of there. That was like talking to a wall, right? And the big banks are horrible. So if you're in a state with a good community bank network, it makes all the difference to the world when you're trying to do that loan, that home mortgage loan, um, second and all that stuff. And I, I, and I,

I wish Congress somehow would maybe do that more because I think we always talk about how small business is the backbone of America. Well, getting a business loan from a bank, especially one of the bigger ones, you know, it's like pounding your head against the wall. Yeah. It's not a good situation. Actually, my father said once, try to go into a major bank and ask for a $100,000 loan for your local business. You're going to be forever. If you go in there and ask for a $100 million loan,

Right. It's going to happen a lot faster and a lot easier. A lot of truth to that. And Chuck, you mentioned that, you know, and I agree our small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Well, it's the community banks that can be the partner with those businesses in doing that. It's a very relationship driven business.

very relationship driven business. And look, in this time where everything's going mobile, everything's going remote, there is still something about looking across the table from someone. And you guys know it. I mean, you got a lot of people in here on the show and you can get a sense of who they are, right?

And what they're really trying to do, it's the same in banking. And I just love that about our community banks is they are also great community sponsors. So, you know, you go anywhere in the state and you're going to see the community bank sponsoring the little league team, sponsoring the local high school, man. And that is just gold. So, yeah, I was very proud. And they are key, key to our economy. Yeah, that's it.

A perfect example, I was on the Boys and Girls Club for a dozen years, bored. And they kept every year trying to bring in somebody, say, from some large corporation and hoping that they would buy a table and give them money, right? And they never did. So I finally went there and said,

Tell me, you know, so what happens? And you know, this, Tonya, big corporations go and say, OK, Sam, you need to go serve on a board. We're going to sign you to one. Tonya, you're another. Right. And so we our board was two thirds of those people than small business owners. And one day I was talking to our executive director. I've been there 30 years. They said, who are your most productive members? And he just went through the list. He goes, everybody who owns a small business in the city. Yes.

He goes, the corporations send these people, they buy a table, they think they've done it. But these guys are the ones that raised $100,000 sponsored the tournaments. And the community bank is the same way. And I don't know how I got from this tangent today, but I just know as a small business owner,

You know, the banks are not there to sit my knee to fit my knees, except I'm going to put a hold on an out of state check we don't recognize for 10 days. Yeah, no, the community banks like small businesses. And this is why I love small business. I ran my own for about five years. What I love about it is they're scrappy.

again, it goes back to that thing we were talking about, right? About nothing is promised, nothing's given. You got to dream, you go out there and make it happen. And I will take, you know, I will take a hustler and a scrapper any day on my team because they are going to work hard and they also believe in what they're doing. And I think that is so key. It's got to come from the inside out. And so, you know, we've talked after the bankers, I worked with

the Phoenix Suns as an executive. I mentioned I had my own business, but why now? Why am I running? It's what we talked about where we've got this divergence in America and we've got a choice to make between what Pelosi and company wants, which is division and control and this cradle to grave socialism and the America that I was born into that I want for my kids.

which is about uniting around love of country. It is about creating opportunity. And it is about limited government, not bigger government, right? So that we can do these things. And so I looked at my husband and, you know, and I said, this is going nowhere fast. You know, Biden, it's a mess. We can talk more about that. I said, but people have got to stand up and get off the sidelines. And he looked at me and said, well, I wonder who could do that. Yeah.

Did he tell you? Yeah, he did. Did he make you keep guessing or did you know the answer right away? Oh, no. When he gives me that look, I know the answer. And so we had a long conversation as a family. It's a family decision and, you know, decided to step into the fun here, the circus maybe. Yeah.

Well, it needs some new ringmasters. Yes, it does. I mean, that is one disorganized circus at this point. Absolutely. Needs new ringmasters. And I would say we need, you know, we don't need more career politicians. Yeah. You know? Absolutely the truth at this point. It's time to turn them over. Absolutely. Thank you for your service. Enjoy your retirement. We've got some fresh voices here. You got a nice check coming. Go home.

Broken potholes coming right back. It's the new year and time for a new you. You've thought about running for political office, but don't know where to start. Before you start any planning, you need to secure your name online with a yourname.vote web domain. This means your constituents will know they are learning about the real you when they surf the web. Secure your domain from godaddy.com today.

Welcome back to Broken Potholes with your hosts Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. In the studio with us today, Tanya Wheelis, candidate for CD9. Coming up next segment, she's giving me a dirty look because she knows what I'm going to do. It's the irrepressible Kylie Kipper with the sunshine moment. It's been a while since we had any sunshine in the studio. I know, I have a cute sunshine moment today. So that's coming up next segment. But before we get there, let's talk about something not so cute.

That's policy in Washington, D.C. right now. Oh, man. Let's start with the border because we just had some news breaking about that today. Yesterday. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. And it's heartbreaking. I mean, look, the Biden administration has failed.

failed. I mean, they don't want to call it a crisis. I don't know what else it is at this point. We saw the images, I think, last night of the 9,000 people in Texas, many of whom I think were actually from Haiti, as it turns out. I mean, this is a humanitarian crisis, you know,

Folks there, I think yesterday it was reported here in Arizona, they found a little girl and her baby brother abandoned in the desert. Look, this is something people are not talking about. There is trafficking happening online.

Women are being assaulted. These babies are being abandoned. And that is because we have created this situation. It is unconscionable and it has got to stop. Yeah. And 10 or maybe 10 to 15 years ago, and I don't think most of the country understands this, but

there was a big shift in who's coming across our southern border. It really just used to be essentially migrant Mexican workers from northern Mexico or central Mexico would come up, work a couple of years, maybe just for one season, then head back home and

This is different. Yeah, it's very different. And I think we need to be very concerned also about the fact that it's not that same demographic coming across. We don't really know who's coming across. And I think that's something we have to be concerned about. Because look...

I think the vast majority of people want that American dream. I also think there are bad guys in the world. And what bad guys do is they look for vulnerabilities and they exploit it. You want to hurt America? This is the way to gain access. You want to spread your drugs and organized crime? In July, I believe they seized, it was over 700 people.

of fentanyl. Fentanyl. It was, I think, 17,000 pounds of methamphetamine. Okay, my friends, that does not stop at the border. That is making its way across the country. We have created... And that fentanyl has caused a...

Wave of deaths across the country, including some fairly famous folks. Yes. And what's terrifying. So I'm a mother. Our youngest is in high school right now. We just got a mailer actually from the city of Tempe with a picture of two pills. And they said the problem with these pills is your kid can't determine which is laced with fentanyl and which isn't.

Oh, gut punch, you guys. And so so that is happening. And so this is about so much more than just this traditional historic immigration debate. This is about safety in our neighborhoods. This is about safety for these these poor people who are being taken advantage of as they try to make the trek up here.

Yeah, absolutely. You hit on the cartels aspect of this. That's another thing that's changed. And again, I don't think most people understand. You do not cross the southern border of the United States without paying off a cartel. Oh, yeah. Right. No. I mean, that's a try it and you're going to get killed. They will kill you.

Yeah, it is an organized system. Again, I go back to, you know, this is bad guys. What bad guys do they do bad? And so they're not, you know, they're taking advantage of this opportunity. Someone pays them enough, they will smuggle a bomb. Heck yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And it's, you know, again, to watch the Biden administration fumble with this and really show very little interest. I think that's what's the most disheartening. You know, we saw the vice president do this dog and pony show visit down to Central America. I don't think we've heard.

a word from her sense about what they're trying to do. And it's got to stop. And I think, unfortunately, circumstances like what we saw yesterday with those 9,000 people, I think circumstances are going to overtake them. And something really bad is going to have to happen before they'll wake up and move into action.

You know, it's sad that you say that because really bad things are happening every single day. I mean, you've worked in southern Arizona. Yeah, good point. You've seen the rape trees with the chains and the ropes. I mean, you've seen the debris that gets left behind that tells you a lot of the story of what's going on on these migrant journeys. You've seen the bodies, the skeletons. We have dozens of people every year who are found long after they died in the middle of that desert. Yeah.

It is a humanitarian crisis. There is nothing humanitarian about our open border. Couldn't agree more. Absolutely unbelievable. Well, Broken Potholes, when we come back, we're going to talk about something much, much more uplifting. All right. Sunshine. Sunshine coming up. Broken Potholes coming back.

The 2020 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2021. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a yourname.vote domain from GoDaddy. Get yours now. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

Welcome back to Broken Potholes and this week's sunshine moment with the irrepressible Kylie Kipper. Kylie, take it away. No, this is my favorite time of the week. I know it is.

I know, I can see the grin on your face. Yeah, okay. Suspiciously like a grimace. So animal activist Scott Poore started a company called Mission Driven Goods. And basically they sell pet-centric, they're on a pet-centric venture promoting products aimed to helping animals that have been in a shelter long term, not just short term. So he is on a mission now to help an 11-year-old pit bull named Sally Sue who has been in a shelter for two years now.

And by doing that, he's used to promoting everything on social media, but he feels like he's just been targeting the same audience. So he recently bought a 30-foot billboard in Mission, Kansas, featuring Sally Sue's smiling face. And it's actually a really cute photo. She is smiling really big and is hoping to find her forever home. And so he just basically said that putting them in the public eye, it'll just take the right person to...

Find this forever home for her. What you're saying is that Erin Morris, who works for us in our office, is not allowed to listen to this program? Yes. Well, she's not allowed to visit Missing Kansas. No, no, she's not. For those of you out there who don't know, Erin has a few pets.

something like 40. yeah we've lost count yeah but um so now he's just trying to find permanent funding for this because it's been successful and he's gotten a lot of great feedback for it so he's just taking um one pooch at a time advertising them on this billboard once they get adopted so i encourage everyone to go visit their website um they have cute apparel that they sell they've sold over 50 000 shirts and have raised over 500 000 dollars

So they not only just do this billboard, they also help animal shelters. And they said that there's been a lot of animals because of COVID that has been returned. So the help is increasingly needed. But you can visit MissionDrivenGoods.com if you want to donate, learn more, purchase a shirt. They just came out with a Halloween collection. Folks, this sounds like a good one. MissionDrivenGoods.com.

They got a good mission. Let's get these dogs out of the shelter. They shouldn't be there. And folks, if you took a pet home during COVID, you need to step up and be a human and keep the pet and treat it right. Personal responsibility, people. You got the pet, keep the pet. Yeah. You made a decision. Yeah. I mean, why do you expect it to be a salmon? You and I were talking before the show, the Washington Post did a story today about a

two to three percent of all deaths in the United States go unclaimed, which means family and friends just don't come claim them. And so they have these basically this, you know, these maskless, nameless funerals. And so, I mean, when we have a society that does that, you're going to have a bunch of people return a pet. That's

pretty terrifying yeah sad do you guys remember pets on parade used to be a thing here I don't know if they still do it but it was kind of like that like off social media and like look at these pets and give them a home well I you know I think that's one of those industries that's really been hurt in a lot of different ways by COVID including how they're interacting with the public I think it's been limited and that just makes it that much tougher definitely yeah well help help the doggies out help the pets speaking of limited interaction with the with the public because

I gotta go there since I've been working until last week at the city of Phoenix for about five years and had the pleasure, if we want to call it that, of working there while Greg Stanton was mayor. Greg Stanton, the current holder of the seat you're running for. I don't know about you, Tanya, but my experience with Greg Stanton is that if you want someone who doesn't do a whole lot of work, who looks really good in a suit at functions, Greg Stanton's your guy. He is a ribbon cutter extraordinaire. But if you want someone who actually accomplishes anything...

You do not want Greg Stanton in Congress because the guy has nothing. He's kind of an empty suit. Look, it's like a lot of Democrats right now. You know, there's a lot of talk, a lot of bluster, a lot of finger pointing. But when it comes to action and they're finding this out in the Congress right now, it's a whole lot harder to be the party in control that has to make the tough decisions.

And, you know, what's at stake in our country right now is too important to have someone who's a ribbon cutter. We need people who are ready to take action. We need people who are thinking about Arizona and this district first, not what Pelosi is telling them they need to get in line with.

And that takes backbone and that takes someone who's willing to stand up for their principles and fight. And, you know, frankly, I don't think our current representation is doing that for the district. And I know that I will. And so that's a big reason why I'm in here. We've got some clear distinctions. The day he got elected, I said Nancy Pelosi couldn't be happier because this is a guy who will do exactly what she says on every single vote without any consideration at all.

And look, you can look at it. That's not just guessing. He's voted with Pelosi 100% of the time. Interestingly, voted with AOC 95% of the time. So I think there's a feeling that our current congressman is a moderate type of guy. Well, folks, look at the votes. Votes don't lie. And right now, I would say that voting record is anything but moderate. Well,

Well, I think he got, I mean, frankly, I know he got the moderate reputation at the city of Phoenix where, frankly, he was known for not doing anything. And so as an advocate of limited government, I think, yeah, people were really happy with a government that didn't do anything for all that time that he was mayor. Now that is some good spin. And his reputation comes from that, but it really was a reputation of

Just Knight didn't take a stand. He didn't have any principles. There was nothing driving him other than ambition. And, you know, he did like the security detail in the car. Yeah, it's nice if you got it. Who doesn't want an armored suburban and a police escort? Look, I have no doubt there were great, great sacrifices made and a lot of time put in by by the former mayor. But I think

What we really need to focus on is action and action now. Independence. Again, you know, I think we need someone, and this is the Arizona ethos, right? We are fiercely independent in this state. And sometimes that means bucking your own party. And that's what it takes to really represent your constituents. We need folks that are willing to do that. And, you know, that's not what we've got right now.

It's not Greg Stanton. It's not the modern Democratic Party, really. I mean, no, they are being driven by by their Twitter extremists. Yeah. You know, and that is something I mean, just to go off a bit. I think right now in in the the body politic as a whole, there's this whole group of folks that really enjoy making a ruckus. You know, I mean, we can think about AOC at the Met Gala, laughable people.

hypocritical. I could go on and on. Right. But that gets the likes that gets the look at me, look at me. And, you know, that's fine. But I have no interest in making a ruckus. I want to make a difference. And that is the difference. We need more people back in Washington who are like, forget the

the noise, forget the trappings. We, you know, we need folks who have been on the front lines as parents and business owners and, you know, just folks in the community, you know, that citizen government. That's who we need back there fighting, not someone who's looking for the next office or figuring out how to stay in the current office. Chuck, you and I have talked about that before, but I think people are just tired of politicians who aren't getting the job done.

Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't believe people think government works anymore. And that is the reason why I think you have a lot of COVID vaccine hesitancy. If you look at all the polling, all these institutions besides the military are South of 50%. We just don't believe government works anymore. And that is, um,

That's not a good thing. I don't I don't think you have to be a Democrat or conservative or anything to realize that's just not a good thing, that they don't believe they're elected officials anymore. They don't believe what's coming from D.C. They don't believe they're working in their best interest. And somehow that takes leadership that communicates and is honest. And I I don't know how we're going to repair it. It can't be repaired because.

People do have short memories, but it needs to be repaired and it needs to be repaired quickly. And if we, you know, this COVID crisis, and we'll call it a crisis because it has been, this is not the first time we're going to see this in our life, guys. Our world's too interconnected now. Yeah. And I mean,

I think to your point, no, Chuck, sorry to interrupt, but you're right. People don't think government's working, and I would tend to agree with that, frankly. And I think one of the things on day one when elected I will do is, look, we have to be real. In Congress, you are one of 400-plus people, right? So for me to say I'm going to get five bills passed, that would be – you guys would want to know which of those pills I was taking. Exactly.

But what I can do on day one is be the bulwark, be the check to the Democratic's balance. And right now, I think the fact that they have got a lock on the House, the Senate, and the White House is what's leading us towards these massive bills, all of which our current congressman has supported, H.R. 1, the PRO Act, this large $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that's coming up.

So on day one, that's what we can do by sending more Republicans to Congress is we can say, no mas, we're not doing this anymore. I think the other thing that I will be really focused on is some reform measures in Congress. So a few things. I mean, one, we've got to rein in the power of the executive. And personally, I believe that regardless of who is in the White House. We're sitting here, I believe it's as we're recording Constitution Day. This is very incongruous.

Do we still have a constitution? It's starting to get a little questionable. It's super questionable. And it's very inconvenient to those on the other side of the aisle that we even have a constitution. But we need to go back to that. There is a reason our founders created the systems of government that they did to have checks and balances. Right. We need to rein in the executive power. We need to rein in the unaccountable bureaucrat.

morass that is our administrative state. This is not sexy, but I went to law school. You know, we've got to talk about Chevron deference. And I think we might see some of that. You know, the Supreme Court might look at limiting that. But frankly, that's something Congress can do as well. Chevron deference flies in the face of checks and balances by saying you administrative state, you get to make the rules and then we're going to have to make the rules.

going to let you interpret them. Now that's the job of the judiciary. Right. And there have been efforts to do that in the past. I would support looking at that going forward. And then the last thing that's kind of a personal picadillo, and this is going to be a tough one because this goes to leadership. This is my understanding is leadership creates these rules, but enough with the thousands of page omnibus bills.

That is the only way that Congress works right now. And it lacks transparency and accountability. And frankly, the vast majority of members have not read any of these. I mean, they're too long. You get them too late. I always laugh at the city of Phoenix because we get a 800 page document on a Thursday night and they're voting on it on Tuesday. That is nothing compared to the hijinks they pull in Congress where they're

They'll hand out to a thousand different staff members 10 pages each of a 10,000 page bill and then pretend everyone's read it. Yeah, it's insanity. And it's by design. It is by design because this is what allows us to concentrate power in a very few people at the top.

And again, I go back to representative government and accountability. That is not what we should have. There are other ways to do it. You know, we can we can have single subject bills. Is it harder? You bet it's harder. But what they do now is they create, you know, these must pass bills.

Right. Must pass bills. And then they put all sorts of junk in there and they put pressure on you and they say, look, you got to vote for this. Otherwise, the debt ceiling won't be increased. You got to vote for this or, you know, children and widows won't be fed. I mean, it's just it is a control mechanism. It's got to be reformed. And I'll start working on that and talking about it on day one.

And frankly, I view that as being the fault of Congress for all these years not wanting to step up and take criticism or risk. Yeah, it is. In leaving too much to the executive branch. Yeah, because it's much easier to punt, right? And then to punt and pontificate. Yes. Oh, I like that. Punt and pontificate. I'm going to use that, Sam. Please. All yours.

So, no. So I think there's those are important issues. And we have to get back to them because we you know, no one gets excited about process. But here's the thing. You know, a garbage process generally produces garbage results. And I'm afraid that that's where we are right now. And we can change it. Yeah, absolutely. Chuck, any last questions?

Well, Tanya, yeah, we're closing up here. Can you tell our audience where they can find you, how they can volunteer, and why they should vote for you? Absolutely. So you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Tanya4Arizona, T-A-N-Y-A-F-O-R, Arizona. And you can learn more about me on my website, which is www.Tanya4Arizona. And there we've got a place where if you are in district, please sign my petition or

If you would like to volunteer, get in touch with us and let us know what you would like to do. We'd love to see that. And if you are so moved, obviously donations are always appreciated. I'd like you to vote for me because we need change. We need a fresh voice. I'm a proven leader, and I'm ready to take that. Got to happen. Broken potholes. Come back.

The 2020 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2021. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a yourname.vote web domain from godaddy.com. Get yours now. Welcome back to Broken Potholes. This is your special online-only, podcast-only segment. And we managed to keep...

Congressional candidate Tanya Wheelis in the studio with us here. So she's welcome to jump in. But Chuck Warren, he had to take off.

So he's getting ready for that BYU game. He's probably getting his face paint ready. And I know it's tomorrow, but it is tomorrow. And you know what? That looks like a pretty darn good team, quite frankly. Oh my gosh. I know the way they beat Utah last week. I mean, yeah, I know. Although I'm, I'm hoping they're going to have the come down, you know, like in sports, you always worry about the, like the big win and then you've got the come down. Like,

I don't know. If you listen to those kids, they were interviewing them all after the game, and they're like, hey, what are you doing? You going to go out and go party? They're all like, no, no, I got to get a bed and go to church tomorrow morning. So I don't know how much of a letdown you get from those kids. You can't even count on them coming back hungover the day after a giant win. Darn. I don't know. That doesn't seem like the best setup to me. It's going to be good, though. Good weekend. It is going to be good. I'm looking forward to it. Of course, then again, I root for ASU to lose. Boo.

Now, ASU, this is our year. I mean, they said, like, it's like Rose Bowl or bust. I'm sad to say, I know it's hard to tell, but I was in college the last time we went to the Rose Bowl. Jake Plummer, like, asked my jam. You remember when the Pac-10 had a chance to maybe bring the University of Texas and Oklahoma in? Yeah.

How times have changed. Yeah. How times have changed. Boy, they pooched that screw. I know. I also like the sound of that Pac-10. It's old school. I like it. It is old school. It was the right – it was a great league. I know. 10's good. Now it's the SEC. It's all SEC all the time. Yeah. You know, they're poaching the good teams, but, you know, whatever. You could take Alabama's second team. No.

And win most conferences. It's so sad. I forget who they played last week, but it's like, you know, it's like boys versus men, you know? Oh, it's absurd when you watch it. They don't even look like a college team. No. I mean, hats off to Nick Saban. You know, I can't say that I'm an Alabama fan, but you have to respect what he has built there. He's created a machine. It's tremendous. It's brutal. Now, fortunately, we're not talking about the Diamondbacks.

It's not been the best season here, folks. You know what? And it's tough because baseball seasons are so long. And so, you know, having been a lover of sports, you know, when you've got 12 games, when you've got even, you know, 80 games, it's like you limp your way out. When you've got a 160-game season...

Brutal. It's tough. I'm a giant baseball fan, but going in the second half of the season when you're completely out of it, maybe you're hoping for a good pitching matchup or whoever you bring to the game is entertaining at least, right? Yeah. It's interesting with news today. We didn't get to talk about in the show a little bit, but what's going on, and this is something we've been a theme on the show, but the press in this country is

their willingness to roll over for the Democratic Party and for Joe Biden and for his administration. When the FAA is banning drones over this bridge site in Texas, they're using, look, this thing, people need to see this stuff. The press needs to bring this to people's living rooms and homes because, frankly, this is really critical stuff for our country. And yet most people don't know what's happening.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that they cut that off. And to your point about the press more broadly, I mean, it's too bad to see, you know, again, sports metaphors, you know, they're like homers most of the time. And I think not to digress, but I think that tells you just how bad Afghanistan was, that the press actually turned on the administration on that, right? I mean, they were being critical. How bad does it have

to be until they will try and have some honesty or balance to their reporting. Well, now we know it's got to be Afghanistan bad. Right. And that's we're approaching that, frankly, on our southern border right now. I mean, in that scenario, folks, and I'll be the first to admit, I've said for many, many years, building a wall is kind of silly because there's lots of parts of Arizona where a wall doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Sorry, folks, I was wrong.

It made a big difference. It freed the Border Patrol up to patrol those areas where a wall doesn't make sense a lot more aggressively. The Remain in Mexico policy, the Trump administration worked. I don't care how much you don't like President Trump. You're throwing an awful lot of babies out with this bathwater.

I mean, it's really kind of a mess. And it's hard to see, isn't it? It's kind of hard to see that changing with this administration. Oh, it's not going to change. And it's heartbreaking. And look, it has to be an all of the above approach down there. I mean, it...

It concerns me that we're going to see any improvement when you still have an entire wing of the Democratic Party that wants to abolish ICE. I mean, I don't know how you talk with those folks. I mean, if that's where they're at, how do we get to any place of some, you know, reasonable, rational border security? You can't. And, you know, to your point in the story you were telling, which is amazing, it's the American story about your family coming here, right? My family...

A very similar story, especially on my father's side. My grandparents migrated here. My father was an infant, basically. And, you know, they came here. There was nothing promised to them at all. They fled the pogroms in Poland. Most of our family were killed and executed. They managed to get out. They got here. They ended up, you know, during the Depression, living in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the entire country, Los Angeles at that time.

The amazing thing is, and unfortunately now a lot of them are passing away or have passed away, but that group of guys and gals that my father grew up with in that neighborhood, they all went on to school. They all got educated. You had a California Supreme Court justice. You had two Fortune 500 CEOs. You had doctors, I think four or five doctors, right? You had a woman who was one of the leading selling novelists of the 1970s.

You had this incredible collection of people who grew from this difficulty, from those tough times, and became really extraordinary people. Nothing was promised to any of them. There was no handouts.

They all got together. My father always tells the story of how the whole neighborhood would get together. And folks, I'm Jewish, so obviously it wasn't Christmas. But for Hanukkah, they would find a way to get one gift for each of the kids. And a lot of times it was crafted, homemade. The neighborhood would all come together. If a kid wanted a ball, the guy who knew how to sew would take a beat-up old baseball and recover it and give it to them. A glove that they'd patch or make themselves. I mean...

That's not what we're seeing today, that spirit driving the Democrat. If they were saying, hey, we want people to come here and you're coming here for opportunity, that's one thing. But if you're coming here for welfare, it's a different thing. Yeah. And I think one of the things that heartens me and I have to believe is that while we see our policymakers, certainly the Democratic leadership moving away from that, that

It is still here. And so, you know, there are still, and we see it in our community, the people who are raising their kids to be patriotic and say the Pledge of Allegiance. You know, the families right now who are struggling to make ends meet, but you don't hear about it because they're not out there, you know, talking to everyone, posting on social media because they got jobs to do and kids to feed. It is still here. It is still happening. I believe that many of the people coming here want that.

But that is not what we hear from our leaders. And that is a cry in shame. Yeah, it's a terrible shame. I mean, it really changes the basis of America. There's so many other things we could talk about. But before we go, I do want to get on one last little topic because this keeps popping up. These cash handouts Democrats now want to go to on top of everything else. The idea being universal basic income. We talked about the city of Phoenix looking at this.

Other cities are doing this. The idea behind it originally was let's replace all of our government institutions, all of our handouts with one cash payout maybe each month or whatever. Now, from a conservative perspective, that actually would make some sense. Yeah. Right? I mean, if we're going to get rid of all these other programs and just say here's your check each month, there's a lot of good that could come from that just in terms of getting rid of all the bureaucracy. For sure.

But they're not doing that. Of course not. Once an entitlement is given, it is never taken away. And they have no interest in clawing anything back while adding these supplemental checks. And I think that's something people have to be clear.

peeing into on this reconciliation bill that's going to create all of these new entitlements for folks and you know they're scoring them well look there's there's no budgetary trick like a congressional budgetary trick right and so they tell you how much it's going to cost but they but they as

assume that the program will end after five years. You and I both know, Sam, that not one of those entitlement programs, if enacted, would go away and they would still want to send supplemental checks. It's just completely out of control. Again, we don't have to beat a dead horse. We talked about this, but it is about control and it is about just, well,

It's redistribution of wealth. I mean, that's what they want at its core is how do we take more money? And by the way, under their current tax proposals, it's not just going to be, you know, high income earners that are impact. I mean, the numbers don't work. That's right. They don't work. And, you know, look, our families are lower and middle class in particular already feeling the effects of inflation, which is like a tax. You know, it eats away at their income. They're already feeling that we don't have room.

For another $3.5 trillion. I've always said I would be fine with them if they sold...

the future they're pitching, honestly. So if they said, listen, you're going to look a lot more like Europe, where people are, you're not going to have a car, or if you do, it's one for a family with seven, eight members. You're all going to be living in the same household. That household is going to be smaller than it is today. You're not going to own it because in most of Europe, home ownership is tanking all across Europe because these taxes have taken so much over so long.

And you're not going to have a whole lot of disposable income now. You'll have health insurance. It won't be very good. It's not a good standard of care, but it'll be there. You'll have something. Check the box. You'll have something. You'll have some child care. It won't be very good, but it'll be there. I mean, none of these things will be very good.

It won't be well run. They won't be they won't be highly productive because there's no evidence that we do that in government. No, but but you'll have it. And that is that I agree. There's no intellectual honesty about what the future they're trying to reach for looks like. And even in this tax proposal, you bring up Europe. I mean, with these, you know, on the highest earners, the top tax earners.

burden for someone living in New York City is going to be higher than someone, I think, in Norway. And they're going to get less for it, frankly. A lot less. A lot less for it. And so we, again, we are reaching that point. It is a precipice. And man, if we step over, it's a long way down. It is a long way down. And that's going to be the final drop here on Broken Potholes. Another axle just snapped. This country is coming apart. We got to fix it.

Tanya Willis, really want to thank you for sticking around for this extra segment and for being in the studio with us today. Fantastic and best of luck on your run. Folks, Tanya for Arizona, F-O-R for Arizona. Check out her website. I think you're going to like this lady a whole lot. And if you're out there on the coasts,

I had a special message. You got to fight the Democrats the way they fight us. They stopped spending on the races against each other in California, New York, and all these places. They're pouring that money here in Arizona. They're pouring it in against candidates like Tanya, like all our other candidates here. They're trying to turn Arizona blue. So if you're in New York or California, you're listening to this podcast, you want to know what you can do for this country, pick some of these candidates in the swing states and get behind them and give them your money directly and

ignore that text thing you got about saving the country because I guarantee you that ain't going to do it. That's the last word. Broken Potholes will be back next week. It's the new year and time for the new you. You've thought about running for political office but don't know where to start. Before you start any planning, you need to secure your name online with a yourname.vote web domain. This means your constituents will know they are learning about the real you when they surf the web.

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