'We have guns, too.' Indiana Democrat Jaime West viral interview says she'll fire 'all Republicans'

[0:00] Welcome back to the candidate forum for the November 3rd general election. [0:04] I'm Amy McCarty with the News Examiner and with me is Jamie West, a candidate for County [0:10] Council. [0:11] A second candidate running, Gary Keener Jr., is unable to be with us tonight but has sent [0:16] a statement that I will read to you. [0:19] It says, first, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to the constituents [0:23] of District 4 for showing up in a big way to the May primary and providing me a pathway [0:29] to represent our district in the general election on November 3rd. [0:34] It's truly a humbling opportunity and I appreciate your confidence as represented by your votes. [0:40] While I am unable to be in attendance tonight due to prior business obligations, I have never [0:45] been more excited and committed to work diligently and tirelessly to assure every tax dollar [0:51] is spent in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. [0:56] Our mutual goals are simple, local economic growth leading to a more robust tax base via [1:02] new business, both industrial and commercial, and providing the ability to spread our fixed [1:08] cost over an expanded and broader income stream and hence lowering the individual taxpayer burden [1:15] as a result. [1:16] It is the obligation of the Council to deliver a product that provides services that not only enhance [1:23] quality of life for the residents of Fayette County, but also presents well-to-land business [1:29] prospects that are looking for new or expansion sites. [1:34] Exciting times lie ahead for Fayette County and as District 4 Councilmen, you can be assured no stone [1:41] will be left unturned as we celebrate our rich history and plan for a future that generations [1:47] ahead of us will thrive and prosper in. [1:50] Thank you in advance for your support on November 3rd. [1:53] I look forward to and am ready to get to work on day one, serving our friends and neighbors [1:59] of District 4. [2:01] With respect, Gary Keener, Jr. [2:04] With that, I want to go to you, Jamie. [2:06] How are you today? [2:08] I'm good. [2:09] How are you? [2:09] Good. [2:10] Would you like to share with us a little bit about yourself and read your opening statement? [2:14] Okay. [2:15] I didn't write one, so I'm just going to not read it, just say it out loud, like from my [2:22] heart. [2:23] Perfect. [2:24] Okay. [2:25] My name is Jamie West. [2:26] I'm a mother of three. [2:27] They're all grown children. [2:28] They're all pretty successful. [2:29] I'm proud of them. [2:31] I own a cleaning business called Queen Bee's Cleaning LLC because I am an environmentalist. [2:38] I do, that's why I named it that, and I am a gig worker. [2:41] I deliver a lot of groceries and packages for my community. [2:46] So if you trust me, you know, delivering your groceries, you should trust me with your vote. [2:52] But I'm here because I have been going to the State House for years, fighting this legislation [3:06] that goes through Senate Bill 1, Dale Strong mentioned that, and how much it hurts our communities. [3:13] It doubled so many people's property taxes. [3:17] Only about one or two percent of all Hoosiers benefited from it, and it harmed our communities, [3:25] our rural communities especially, our schools. [3:29] And I love the schools. [3:31] I'm total supporter of the schools and the teachers, but our emergency services are the [3:37] ones that we really need to worry about. [3:41] And I spoke to the Connersville chief of police, or I'm sorry, fireman, the fire chief today, [3:49] Scott Jones. [3:51] And he is also very worried about what will happen to the fire stations. [3:56] And you might need to get a Kleenex out, man. [3:59] It makes me sad what the Republicans in the State House have done to our rural communities. [4:08] And he told me that if we don't do something different, which means, to me it means voting [4:20] for Democrats, that we will lose one of our firehouses. [4:25] He doesn't know which one yet. [4:27] By 2029, we're going to lose it. [4:28] Are you okay with that? [4:30] I'm not. [4:33] And Kaye Payton, who was just here, she, I was at a town hall meeting with her and Lieutenant [4:41] Governor Beckworth, and she groveled to him for emergency service money. [4:50] And he looked at her and he's like, oh, I'll look into it. [4:54] And then two minutes later said, we don't have enough money for your emergency services. [4:59] We have enough money to do the redistricting, which we fought and won. [5:05] And, you know, so I've been fighting at the State House for years for our community. [5:13] On my own dime, our local representatives have not, you know, parking is expensive, driving [5:20] is expensive. [5:21] Going and have to face your elected leaders face-to-face is scary alone. [5:30] I need help, you know? [5:33] And that's my opening statement. [5:37] I'm a fighter and you ought to vote for me. [5:39] Well, Jamie, you mentioned SEA 1 and the, how it is affecting Fayette County. [5:47] So let me ask you our first question, which is, would you recommend a local income tax increase [5:52] to cover funding loss from SEA 1? [5:55] Did they, didn't they already do that, though? [6:00] Didn't they already raise their income taxes? [6:02] Because a lot of counties did, and I thought Fayette County did. [6:05] They didn't do, did they, did the full 3%? [6:10] Because Union County didn't do, they want the 2.67%, they didn't want to go to 3%. [6:17] And that was last September. [6:19] And I don't want to see anybody's taxes get raised. [6:23] I want the legislation, the state legislators, we have a surplus. [6:29] I want to see them give that money back to their communities, because we've paid enough [6:36] in taxes. [6:37] Okay. [6:38] Moving on to our next question, and that is, if you could choose only one major area [6:43] for Fayette County to invest more money in over the next four years, roads and infrastructure, [6:48] public safety, economic development, quality of life, or another area, which would you [6:54] choose and why? [6:55] That's a hard decision to make, because there's so many that we need, but I would [7:01] choose our emergency services, I would choose the firemen, the police, the ambulances, I mean, [7:09] because who are you, who are you going to call when you're in trouble? [7:14] You know, you need them. [7:18] My top priority is the emergency services, the firemen, the police, and the ambulance services, [7:26] I mean, and then our public schools, and then our infrastructure. [7:31] I don't know why we have the worst roads in the whole country, when we pay a pretty good [7:37] deal in wheel tax, I think it's, I know why, but I don't want to say why, because it might [7:43] offend people, but yeah, it would definitely be our emergency services. [7:53] What do you feel Fayette County needs to do differently to attract new businesses, and [7:57] where should the county council invest its limited resources to make that happen? [8:03] Definitely not data centers. [8:05] They're horrible for the environment. [8:07] They will take, they want it, because we got, Fayette County is on an aquifer, which means [8:16] that we have a lake beneath us, miles beneath us, where we have so much water. [8:25] And the data centers want that water, man, so they can push it into their data, their cooling [8:34] centers, and cool it off, and then dump it back into the rivers and the lakes that we [8:40] all cherish. [8:42] And, you know, who wants to go swimming, or go fishing, or go enjoy the environment when [8:50] you have all these pollutants, and chemicals, and whatnot in there. [8:55] I mean, you're going to have poison fish, you're going to have wildlife that just escapes. [9:01] I mean, the hunters, the fishermen, you should all not be happy with this at all. [9:08] The data centers, got to go. [9:10] Absolutely not. [9:13] Well, you're leading me into our next question, which was actually, would you support a data [9:17] center in Fayette County? [9:18] No. [9:19] Absolutely not. [9:20] And what would you require from a developer before you could support the project? [9:24] If an AI Dentist Center wanted to build here, then they would have to pay for all of our [9:31] firemen, not the volunteer, thank you volunteer firemen, you don't even get paid, thank you [9:38] Everton. [9:41] They would have to pay for all of their salaries, all of their equipment, they'd have to give scholarships [9:46] to every kid that graduates from Connersville High School, they'd have to pay for all of [9:54] our new sewer system and our water lines, they'd have to pay for all of our new infrastructure, [10:01] they'd have to make sure that they did it the cleanest way possible by using solar power. [10:06] I mean, that is the only way that I would let them in. [10:09] They'd have to pay every resident here at least $10,000 a year. [10:14] We could make it happen. [10:16] They have the money. [10:17] They're the richest companies in the world, and we are letting them just stomp all over [10:21] us. [10:22] They act like we're stupid. [10:23] Well, we're not all stupid. [10:26] And that's what I have to say about that. [10:28] Okay. [10:29] And our last question of the night is, if elected, what is one decision that you expect [10:34] to make that may be unpopular with some voters, but you believe ultimately would be in the [10:39] best interest of Fayette County? [10:43] I wouldn't raise your taxes. [10:46] What is the one decision that I would make? [10:50] Hmm. [10:53] Repeat that again. [10:54] What is the one decision that I would make that might not be popular with Fayette County? [10:56] Right. [10:57] That may be unpopular with some voters. [10:58] Okay. [10:59] Unpopular with some voters. [11:00] But is in the best interest of the county. [11:06] Firing all Republicans. [11:07] I wouldn't let them, I mean, I don't even talk to them. [11:12] I don't like them. [11:14] I mean, they voted against our own state representative voted against her own party. [11:21] I mean, what do you want me to say? [11:25] I don't like being around them. [11:27] I mean, y'all did this to us. [11:29] You all voted for us. [11:31] You made this happen, this ice coming into our communities, stealing people's jobs. [11:38] I mean, I've been threatened so many times to my face by MAGA, we'll call them, because [11:50] there's Republicans who actually get it. [11:56] You know, there are good Republicans out there. [11:59] But then there's these MAGAs, who are just racist and aren't very intelligent at all. [12:08] They call you names. [12:09] My sheriff's nephew threatened to blow my head off. [12:15] But you know, what are you going to do? [12:17] Well, that brings us to your opportunity to say just a few last words to the voters. [12:28] We have guns too. [12:29] All right. [12:31] Well, as a reminder, the general election is November 3rd. [12:35] Early voting began October 6th. [12:37] You can vote Monday through Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fayette County Courthouse. [12:43] Remember to bring to the courthouse with you when voting an acceptable government issued [12:48] ID. [12:49] We'll be back.