Cement City: Episode 9 | No Indictments

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“Oh, yeah, I think the answer is putting signs up.”

It is about 706 AM. And we are the manual Baptist Church on the second-end customer.

The answer is here in his silver SUV.

And he is pulling signs out of the back of it. And there is a woman with a Yancy Taylor T-shirt stationed in front of the door. Thanks. I'm Jean-Marie Lascas. And this is Simone City, Chapter 9.

No indictments. Hey there. How are you doing? Beautiful morning. Is that what you call it?

I am not the colonel. I am the colonel. I love this. This is the type of weather I love. Love the colonel.

That is what it is about. You are out here early, huh? Yeah, yeah, always come on. I think on all day, that is what you got to do. You want to do great things for your town and community.

You got to be here from dawn to dust. I am ready. It is November 7, 2017. The general election. This is the big one.

And it is a very different election from the last one we covered. Back in May, the primary.

“The best way to understand it is like a game of musical tears.”

Or maybe an episode of Survivor. One person is leaving the island. It is just a question of who. You ready? All right.

So I will see you like 10 or 15 minutes. All right. Let's see you later. And by the way, yes. Yancy Taylor is still in the race.

Although I cannot but notice that his campaign team seems smaller than it was last time around. So far, it is just this one shivering woman. And Yancy Taylor for Genoa Council T-shirt. She's got a pull over top of her hoodie. What?

I'm sorry. What is your name again? Sarah. I don't think we have. You guys know my kids.

Oh, oh. You're socially. Yes. I am recognized you with your hood on and with your children.

Frozen and third bed still.

Oh my God. So this is Sarah Shawley, Cameron's mom. He's our friend with the tooth. The killer teddy bear who loves bingo and baseball. That's true.

I play for sports right now. Cameron's a baby of the family. He's a sports person.

“So you've been playing since you were three years old?”

Yeah. Then there's Kiarra. She's this emo kid in a hoodie. I'm the music person in the family. Are you the sister?

She's a middle school. She's the music person. I like play guitar and mountain golf smart and stuff. And I listen to a lot of Shawn Mendez and other people that people don't really know. Anyway, we love this woman's kids.

Wow. What are you doing out here? I can't paint in free antsy. I can sure we get the votes. Wow.

You are trying true. Yeah. I'm going to do it. How did you get involved with the campaign? The antsy is good friends with my father and law.

So I got volunteered. By this point, we've kind of gotten used to the fact that antsy still running for a seat on council. But it's definitely taking some doing. We started to see his campaign signs popping up a few weeks ago.

And at the time it was kind of a shock. I mean, a lot's happened since the primary. But here he is. I guess he's going for it. And I guess he still has his base.

How do you think he's going to do? I'm hoping he does good. I'm hoping he wins. But only time will tell. Do you hear what he's doing?

Well, hello, people. You're up at early and early bird. I'm number one on my precinct. Isn't that wonderful?

That's the first sticker I've seen.

Yeah, how about that? I am. Absolutely. Number one. I am already freezing.

Hi. How are you? Cold. Uh-huh. You're absolutely right.

Oh, you and that thing. This is Jenny Ackerman. Cindy's friend. Don't forget to vote. She's not a huge fan of the microphone.

But she's a good support. Oh, good grief. Yeah. Jenny came in fourth in the primary. Yancy led the ticket.

He blew everyone out of the water. Then it was Cindy Bryce. Then Mike McDowell. Then Janey. It was a clean sweep.

And it was supposed to be a done deal.

“And DeNora, whoever wins in the primary, goes all the way.”

But then all hell broke loose. Yancy got indicted for scamming a woman out of her life savings and telling her the coffee was going to get her. Ed Parkett ruggled his way onto the ballot through some kind of Republican right in loophole.

And here's where we find ourselves. With live candidates running for four open seats on council. And the crowd favorite facing multiple felony charges. Which is the one thing no one seems to be mentioning. I don't know.

I don't know what's going to happen. I don't. That's the way I feel. That's just me. That's just the way I am.

I've been this way ever since May. Maybe you know, maybe I'll win, maybe I'll lose. I got my fingers crossed. That's it. That's just it.

Listen. Also. I'll see you guys. Good luck. Hey, you're here.

That's a good word open bottle. Thank you. How are you feeling? It's so great. How about you?

No. I'm here. Oh, I'm here. I'm here.

I always need one of those.

And never have one. Take two. They're small. Thank you. I'm sure because I don't want you right now.

We're inside the vestibule at the Catholic Church. Our Lady of the Valley. It's crammed with campaign workers handing out flyers. Orange and McDonald's case. Grippers.

Like you've been a pickle to our with. He's explaining that to voters as they walk in. So, okay, can you please read the slogan? Let's get a grip on Denora of McDonald's for mayor. Pretty much.

It's a good one. Jim's got this calm, almost priestly vibe. Handing out his grippers. It's like nothing in the world could ruin his day. Now.

Yes, sure. And I'm happy for Jim. He's basically mayor-elect. His race is uncontested.

But his calmness is stressing me out.

Oh, we allowed to talk about like other candidates. I've talked about anything you weren't. I know, but I don't know if it's like... It's taboo. Yeah, I'm hedging here.

And I hate that I'm hedging. But it's hard to know how to approach this. I want to know where Jim stands on the whole Yancy situation. I mean, he was backing dancing the primary. Yancy was part of the whole plan.

Clean sweep on council. And yeah, a lot's happened since the primary. I'm worried about who's going to get on council. Am I? No, no, who is going to?

“Oh, I think the only fighter there is, as of right now,”

it looks like the park hat. And I don't think he's... I don't feel he's a strong candidate. And I don't feel he would be good on council. And I told him that.

To be clear by the park hat, Jim means Ed. The guy with a briefcase. Ed dog bites dog park hat. We've had words before about he makes it very personal. And I do not want personal.

And I will expose that immediately if I see it. Jim is not exactly a fan of the park hat. Noted. Like he said, they've had words before. Remember?

Keep personal, yeah. You're a person. I'll do second. Honestly, they were hardly words. We were there.

And it didn't seem like such a big deal. So I'm confused about where he's going with this. I don't think it's a wise choice. For Ed, I really don't. It's too young and he's too personal.

That's it. That's the essence of it. It's actually kind of fascinating. The way Jim's talking, it's like the only candidate in question here. Is the 20-something-year-old insurance agent in the Page Roy haircut,

who's out to bring down the town, Vandal? So the only way for Ed to get in. You'd have to bump off one of those four. The way it looks is he would have to be Jenny Akron. That's your two lowest.

Go vote getters. Better in the race. No matter how I pitch a ball to him, Jim's not swinging. He doesn't even mention Nancy. He won't even say his name.

He's just so stuck on Ed. So we'll see. I've got the same today, but I'll have my cordial. Hello. Good luck.

Hope's the best for you. I'll let the Nora speak. That's it. Because at the end of the day, you can have all the opinions you want about me. Nancy, Ed Parkette and Penny Ashman, Cindy Bryce, or Mike McDowell.

It's what the people want. And I'll abide by it. Well, that's sort of also the elephant in the room with the auntie. I mean, he is indicted.

“I mean, people are still going to be able to vote for him, you think?”

People will make a decision they do. I mean, it's so elusive, the whole question of it all. Who knows? Who knows? I have no idea what is or isn't with him.

And I'm not going to waste valuable time digging a bucket sheets to find out what is true or not. I'm more of the wrestling coach. And unless I'm involved, I really have no sand. This is nothing more than here, say. Like I was talking right now.

I have no idea. That's what I'll tell you. I have no idea what he's done or what they saved. It's not my forte.

So I just not along and let him keep talking about how it's nothing more than here, say.

I don't challenge him. I don't mention the stated attorney general or the mugshot or the TV news. I'm at a loss. I'm just so surprised you hear him talk like this. But at some point in the conversation, it occurs to me that maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

Maybe I've been tiptoeing around the wrong question entirely. Will the indict a guy get on council? I thought everyone else was tiptoeing, but maybe they're not. It seems like there's just this unspoken assumption that, yes. The anti-tailer is going to get a seat onto Norbert Council and diamond be damned.

And everyone knows it. Everyone from Cameron with the Tooth's mom Sarah to the mayor elect. Have a good day. Of course, a few years from now Aaron and I will look back on this moment and find it almost adorable. How naive we were. But to be fair, this was a more innocent time.

Okay, we're talking about the anti-tailer. Yeah, so the mayor, Jim, that you'd be mayor, is talking about the anti-tailer. The anti-tailer is going to probably win. I wouldn't say. I mean, this indicted guy will be on City Council until I guess he goes to jail. I mean, everybody thinks it's going to jail, don't they?

“You know what I mean? It's just the only thing we know is from what we read in the newspaper.”

But that's part of it, too.

What Jim was saying is like, "Well, nobody knows. The story, nobody knows." Like, that's really... I've been around. Kind of thing. That's true.

But I was just thinking, I mean, in the way that it's like, "Oh, the excess Hollywood tapes come out." I know he's going down and whatever. And then he, you know, like, what does it take to not get elected these days? Oh, wow.

Yeah, that's like the Norse acts as Hollywood tape. It's 11 o'clock. It's been raining all morning. We've been driving around town looking for Ed. Ed, who's suddenly relevant. Ed, who's now against all odds at the center of this election.

Hello. A beautiful day to vote in there. We're at the polling place on 8th street. We pulled over when we saw the swimming holding a pink umbrella and a campaign sign. Ed, we're a parkette for Januarboro Council.

Where is Ed? We've been trying to find him today. Ed, he was here about an hour ago. We was, so... Yeah, around...

Yes. Yeah, he's going around in the polls. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, that's okay.

So, you're on Ed's campaign, too? Yes. Yeah. And, uh, rain or shine. Yeah, we're here.

“Hangin' out for Edward and, uh, on his cousin.”

Oh, are you? What is your name? Dana Veele, Steve Roberts. The answer. Why do we know that name? We've met some of the answer.

My sister is the mayor's wife. Oh, geez. They're one of the many sisters. Yes, that's how you start with D. I am.

We have them. Of course, the Viannskis. Good Lord, the Viannskis. The Viannskis are everywhere. Wait, so you're the youngest.

Next to the youngest. Next to yours. My name's Dana. So, let's review. This is Dana.

She's Dan's sister. Dan's the mayor's wife. Also known as a small queen.

Dan was our first Viannskis.

“Then there's Debbie, who we met up at Darlus Place”

at a party in a converted chicken coop. There's also Darien over at Mordys Pizza. She's the youngest. And there's another sister we haven't met. And of course, there are the brothers.

Donald and David. And I think that's it. But it might not be. But this one is definitely Dana. She's out here in the rain with these little gold crosses

dangling from her earlobes. Talking up her cousin Edward. Yeah. And he's very smart. Very smart.

Yeah. He's quite young. He's quite young. He's a pretty pretty piece of this 20s. I'm sort of remarkable that it's 20 year old kid once

to run for council. I think it's amazing. I don't know a whole lot of people that would want to be in council. You know? Just talk about like what what he would do if he got on council.

Yeah. I got. Well. Okay. Oh, look at you.

Inside your coat. You just happen to have a platform. Yeah. So apparently Ed has a platform. I don't know if we got that.

Yeah. Like an official printed platform. Thank you. It's a bolted list of 13 items laid out on an eight and a half by 11 in sheet single spaced.

A lot of it stuff we've already heard him talk about. Crime control. Physical discipline. I'm scanning down the page.

Good internal controls on spending, for example.

But then I get to item number 10 on the platform. It's two words. No indictment. That's an actual item on Ed's platform. And I have to say it's a good brand.

It's short and snapping. You can put it on a t-shirt. How do you think he's going to do?

“I think that he needs to be to get more meetings that people.”

He needs to have more meetings with the people. That's where he lacks and needs. So... Data seems to be having a hard time knowing how to answer this question. And I get it.

Thinking back when Ed lost in the primary, Aaron and I were sad. But getting this is like... What was his last name? But we weren't really surprised. Is it broken?

Okay. I'm rooting for him. And had a lot stacked against him. He was so much younger than everybody else. Running without a team.

This lone wolf just learning how to put himself out there. I loved any idea ideas. But that wasn't the half of it. We'd later talked to Ed about what it was like running in the primary. Getting his name on the ballot was easy.

All he needed was ten signatures. Which he got from some of his insurance clients and relatives. Probably some of his many cousins. Whose names I'll start with D. I was the next thing you do.

How did they misspelled my name on the ballot? That's when things got tricky. How did they spell it? They put it with a B instead of a P. I thought they'd mess up the ending.

They didn't. All right. Ed barked. According to the ballot. That's what they put on the ballot.

And I had to go round until all the poll workers look after correct these people. And I don't know how many votes I might have lost over that. That stinks.

We never know what led up to that.

Whether it was intentional or not.

“I think some little bugger would have done that.”

Oh possibly. Do you think it would be someone specific? Who didn't want you on? Like the Russians. Maybe it was the Russians. I don't think so.

My mother's Russian. I don't think they'd bother me. Um. It's hard to say I like it's going to do here. He's definitely a little green.

But you know what? Ed wants this. He really, really wants this. And he's ambitious. He's aspirations.

He sees this seed on council as a stepping stone. It could lead to bigger things. Maybe stakes in it someday. So who knows? Ed clearly has a supporters.

His mom is your cousin. Sure. We don't know. I don't think so.

And I have some awesome ideas for the town of Denora.

Okay. We're in the process. Okay. Why don't we move? So I have some awesome ideas.

Okay. Okay. And we're not in the way.

“So I'm going to give my ideas to Ed work and”

discuss about the ideas that God has placed in me to do for Denora. Um. Yeah. This is so interesting. Thank you so much.

Well, I'm sure we're running. And thanks for this too. Now we now we have all this. We'll find it. Yeah.

All right. We're there, Cindy. Do you need anything? A coffee? A cocoa?

Cindy. She's great. She serves the people. She's all. I dinged off.

I can't come back at four o'clock. I'll see you girls. Okay. I'll see you. Cindy's really good.

Yeah. I want me to go make sandwiches for Jani's workers. And a little bit. I'll make them one more round with the hot stuff. And then I'm going to go back and make some sandwiches for lunch.

And you're bringing those around. So. What are you seeing up at the other poles? Slow. Yeah.

This frame is going to be a killer. Yeah. We've been everywhere. Sorry. We've got to go in here.

We've got to go. Uh-oh. We're done here. We're blocking the entrance. We head to our car to continue our search for Edward.

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This lunchtime. We're on our way to Andre Steley for some food. But we just put it in front of the crow club. We're getting out of our car. And it's getting into his.

And we're trying to catch him. And we're also trying not to drown errands microphone. We'll spend most of the day trying not to drown errands microphone. We're talking under the crow club marquee that reads "Pervatski Dom Bowling." We've been under this thing.

We don't know how to pronounce it, but we looked it up. It means Croatian Center Bowling.

“You were just coming in to here to check on this place?”

Sir, check on E.A. already, but a while ago, I've been going around checking the different places. What are you thinking? I think it's good this time. After everything that's happened with a certain rival.

Who's your main rival? Well, you can see, of course. And he's done more stuff since then. He's done some trouble down the sewage board.

Oh, yes. Oh, one second here.

It's fumbling for his phone. And I can't help but notice his ringtone. La Danna. It's classic. Oh, it's part of his whole vibe.

The trench coat, the briefcase, the whole insurance salesman get up. Yeah, they're up here now. Like, I'm not exactly sure how to say this. But sometimes it feels almost like he's an actor and a play about insurance salesman. Thank you.

From another era. I know. Like this time he told us about his strategy for sweetening the deal with new clients. Okay. How'll meet them at the home?

Yeah. Bring them a treat. Some candy. Maybe a pumpkin pie. Sounds good.

You and Rose enjoying the wine? It is a guy who knows how to sweeten the deal. Go ahead and crack it open. Okay. Very good. I appreciate your support.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

“I talked to my cousin Dana down at 8th Street, huh?”

We just did. Yeah. She was perfect. She gave us one of these. Yeah, platform. I'll tell you the knowing indictments. One here. That really scares him.

He's facing 10 years in state prison. I would leave the state if I was him. I wouldn't be sitting here running for counsel. I don't know. You think it's going to affect the way people vote?

Oh, absolutely. I've heard several people say they're not voting for him after this. And even if he gets on, they keep delaying. It's trial now. It's scheduled for January. And what do you think? What do you think that will be like? Well, personally, I'm hoping for a quick guilty plea.

Get one or two years instead of 10 and just him be off the council. Okay. So I don't get on so I can get in at that point. Do you think that that's your, that's your best shot of getting on council? I think my best chance is the election here. But if that doesn't work out, that's my next option.

So he goes to jail. I'll just make some arrangements with people on council and get a motion to get a point. If need be.

This is the side of that I've never seen before.

He's got this whole chess master thing going on. Like he's four steps ahead of everyone else. Moving his bishop into place. We have a town band all unfortunate life. It's an underdog.

But I guess that's the thing about underdogs.

“You should never underestimate an underdog.”

Especially one with a briefcase full of muckshots or alleged muckshots. We have a question. As I noticed, you got all the city council meetings for council meetings. But now we always bring that briefcase, don't you? Yes. What's in that briefcase?

It's my work computer and a notebook. Okay, so somebody wants a quote afterward and I have had that happen. Really? Yeah. So they may want to buy some insurance from you?

Yes. Absolutely. Unfortunately, farmers does not cover a municipality I tried. So that's within the briefcase. That's within the briefcase? That's within the briefcase.

Except, I'm not convinced that's all that's in the briefcase. It's definitely not, if you listen to our friend Jamie Colter at Andre Stanley, who rumor has it has some of his own secrets in his briefcase. Metaphorically speaking. I swear, keeping up with all the scandals in this town is like a full-time job.

It's like a game of whack-a-mo. You get caught up on one, and another one hears this little head. Um, are we locked inside this place? Most likely, yes, but we'll walk in separately so they don't blame me in case it's not a good idea. We walk into the crew club separately. We need a few minutes to warm up, and I need to use the ladies' room.

It's where we met with Donnie and Ian for that first interview over beers and little plastic cups.

I'm happy to report, it's still well-stocked with Aquanette. Hey Bob, good, how are you? Aaron beats me outside and runs into Bo. He's that college kid who sits next to Ed at the council meetings.

They can back the town the last, sneak in the boat, so remember how to do it.

Click park out once and then ride in three times after that. Okay, thank you. Sure you go for Peter's stuff. Give him a vote. All right, yeah.

“Wait, so what? You can actually do multiple votes like that?”

Well, you can vote for one person four times. You click their name and then click right in three times after and write them in three more times. Everybody gets four votes, but you don't have to go for four different people. You can give all four votes to one person. I had not even thought of that, that's crazy.

Gosh, no money came up with it, and it's actually how I got on there. I've been talking about, so... Yeah, that's worth it. And a few minutes, I'll walk back outside and Aaron will walk me through Ed's strategy. Click park at once and then write it in three times.

And we'll both ponder it for a moment. And we'll both think, huh. Is that a thing? Then we'll head across the street for lunch at Andre's Daily.

We told Bo the college kid we'd meet him at Andre's.

He's already standing at the counter when we arrived. Flipping through a service manual for a 1964 billet. And getting a scoop from his buddy Jimmy. Jimmy B. Colter, proprietor of Andre's Daily. Jimmy with an IE.

Also known as Mr. Colter, Council Vice President. Or that criminal right there, depending on who you ask. Hey, let's see, let's see, here, I'm here at home. I put the chips in the lemonade. I didn't want it back, but I come in into a different order.

It's been a while since we last saw Jimmy Colter. He doesn't look great, but maybe he's lost some weight. He seems a little off. His bright blue eyes just aren't as sparkly. Which fair enough, a lot's happening in Colter's world.

Like for example, those ethics violations Cindy told us about. Six ethics violations, tied to his position on Council. He was in the paper. The investigations have been dragging on for months. Okay, the cheese.

The cheese fries.

How about the potato chip?

No, that goes the one made. Okay. Then there were these other rumors about some even deeper city stepped into. Things that other people have been telling me. These look around for a while. He's going to big half.

“I think I'm not quite sure what to do with.”

Our friend in the truck. Your friend in the truck. Oh God, it's over nine, six, seven. Seven, nineteen. Two, seven.

What do you think girls up to besides, no good? Following you around. I think not to follow here. They've been out the polls today, whether voting. Yeah, we made it complete.

Round. Oh, hey, you gotta make some type of rounds. So what else do you want all about? What's your business here? Oh God, how do you work now?

You don't want to admit to nothing, man. They're all bunch of crooks and they know it. Yeah. About. I told you Mary's nothing but a thief.

That was telling the truth. I told you I was truth. He didn't like it, but I told you the truth. I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna tell you something.

“They don't have this burrow in bankruptcy within two years.”

At this point, culture is leaning over the counter. And that familiar crouch. Over the Lafay Tafi and Bucket of Slim Jones. And he's got that look in his eyes. You can see a flash of it.

How much he's enjoying this. I laid out to him. I don't care. What am I going to do? I'm just telling the truth.

He asked you who's up, but I told you. He asked you. He starts going on about antsy. And the sewage board. Then Cindy Bryce.

And she's down people. She's there for the colleagues. Then he's back on the antsy again. Then back to the mayor. They thought that he was a joke.

They wanted them to do with him. Those resting is elbow in the counter. Noting along. Throwing in affirmations. You get the feeling these two do this a lot.

But what lies? See what I mean by starting lies already. Like you said, we're a people. If they do this to their own town. What else is going on?

I don't care. You know, I should dare not tell them. I'm glad I got two more mediums. And that's it. I got to get back here.

I know. Check out my plan back here. What do you want? No burger. I'm standing here watching him.

I just find this guy totally fascinating. And if he really is and is much troubles, people say he is. He's trying to be pretty interesting. All offense. Go in the attack.

It's like he's on a team of one.

You're going to be around tonight after the election. I think I have a class at two. But it should be around. What do you think is going to happen? I think antsy is going to win.

You know, he has overwhelming support. But he also has a lot of opposition.

“If he does, because he just recently had his was a Raymond.”

He had that stayed until January. That's a third time. It was delayed. But what do people say about him? I mean, they're about to farm.

What do you hear? This guy says, you know.

It's basically you saw that.

And again, he has a lot of friends downtown Duke's cafe. That sort of thing. You know, that he buys his votes. You know. Did he get votes?

And he has their support. You know. So money talks. You got to remember he has 500 grand he stole from people. And we're probably.

For the record, we've looked into this. And there's no evidence that antsy's been out there buying anyone's votes. Down at Duke's cafe or anywhere else. And there's 500 grand figure, both throwing around. It's actually 159 grand, which is not insignificant.

But it also hasn't been proven. At this point, it's still just an allegation. I really don't know too much about antsy. You know, I don't like to say too much. You remember in a Bronx style?

Yeah. It was a one kid. Some guy owned him. Out of like five bucks. He chased him all the way down the street.

And the wise guy says to him, for five bucks he's out of your life.

“You know, what are you going to chase five bucks for?”

Yeah, it's a sunk cost. But. Like I said, I know just as much as him probably a little bit more. And if you'd ever liked for me to sing, I'm ready. I would like for you to sing later.

Yeah, my number. All right, jump.

I've never seen a Bronx tale.

Later, I'll go home and watch it. Trying to get into both's head. I get the sense he watches a lot of dinner in movies. Oh, wait. It's my grandma's seat.

I've got to get out of here. I'm talking to you later. I can't. I've got to talk to you. It's my fucking money.

Fucking devil. I can't you. Come on. An astrogemy culture? With bow doesn't know.

What none of us knows. Is that less than a month from now. A bunch of state troopers will come in rake culture, Delhi. They'll execute a search warrant,

“and charge him with several felony counts related to food stamp fraud.”

Basically, alleging that he's been caching out people's food stamp cards and pocketing some for himself. So Nancy's not the only one in trouble with the law. Or about to be. Or about to be.

Right?

He's never going to bother you again?

He's never going to ask you for money, you bet? He's out of your life for $20. You got to have cheap, forget it. As a reminder, cultures are sitting council member. He lost reelection in the primary.

He's on his way out. So if Nancy doesn't end up getting on council, I guess it's just a one for one deal. You're getting your undidied guy for you soon to be a undidied guy. It's basically a wash.

What do you know about that? Yeah, let's sort through everything. All right, we'll talk to you later on. Okay, we'll be here. Yup.

See ya. Okay. Ready? Come on. Thank you for both.

We've done it for me. It's after seven o'clock. The polls close at eight. We're back at our lady of the valley, the vestibule. And I would just like to take a moment to comment on the size of the R lady of the valley.

Best of you. Yeah, we're here. We're here. And we're parked at the council. And a word?

It's small. Really, really small. We're all crammed in here. And you've got giant gym and giant it. I mean, these guys are big.

Ed six, three, gyms even taller. They're standing across from each other, greeting voters, facing each other like two heavyweight, sizing each other up. And one of them is wearing a lot of clothes.

How's it going? A little bit better now when I've got warm head dinner. Good deal. Thank you for joining us. So how are you feeling about it all?

I'm hopeful this time. It's up to the people to make the right choice. I hope they're taking all factors in the consideration. Which one? Which one?

Which one is sensitive economics, some financial accountability, honesty, integrity. These are that nature. It's hard to describe the look on gyms face here. It's hard to describe the look on gyms face here.

It's somewhere between an eye roll and a death stare. It's a look of a man thinking he's too young and he's too personal.

That's he has since up it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

“I remember a part of Ket for council four times.”

I think we're good there.

Yeah, that was my second cousin.

See, I already have the instructions four times. I'm telling him to check the name once and then write in three times after that. And still, instead of going for four different people, give one person all four of us that way. I have it.

You're going to get four of those for that. One person's only a lot, one vote, but. They've been clicked on the name and then hitting right in three times and writing in three times. You don't get four votes. You get one vote.

It worked with the Republican right into the spring, actually. How many Republican ratings did you get? 50. And a lot of them came that way. They were writing me in four times a piece.

She wants things. Yeah, like ten people write you in four times these. You got 40 votes out of that? Essentially. This is exactly the point where gyms look turns into a

full-on death stare. He starts pacing in circles. Then ducks into the corner over by the preroggy freezer. His wife Anne just tried to calm him down. Like she doesn't want him to make a scene.

What point? You say that there is nothing wrong with getting more than one vote from one person. At what point do you think this is not only do you think it's legitimate, but you think that that is.

“Didn't he just say he's running on honesty and integrity?”

I know. You know. You're very good. You're very good. Thank God.

How could you think that? When you listen to it, you just sit there and want to go. What is wrong with it? You just said you're running on honesty and integrity. And then you said, well, if I can get one person and still four votes off a week,

that's not the way this works. I can't wait for you.

I've never seen Jim work up like this.

He's usually so above at all. And I feel for him. I mean, I'll be honest. I wasn't really paying much attention to Ed's whole four votes strategy. Beyond that little hum moment, Aaron and I had before lunch.

But the more I think about it, the more it does seem kind of anti-democratic. Like, maybe it's not that far afield from filling out absentee ballots for dead people. At the same time, I am a little surprised by Jim's level of outrage here. Given how nonchalanty seemed when I brought up the whole gang's situation.

And yeah, I get innocent until proven guilty and all. But these are some pretty serious charges. I'm not sure what to make of the disconnect. Jim's just so focused on Ed, never Ed. Anyone but Ed.

Hey, thank you for voting. Okay. See, as far as the park head kid goes. A few minutes later, we're sitting with Cindy inside the church hall.

This is the first time all day we've been able to pin her down.

What was all the Twinkie delivery? We're getting the rundown on where she thinks this is all headed. Given the turnout and the rain and the whole Ed factor. So even if those 50 Republicans come and vote for him, no one else did. Except if they changed their mind now, what Yancy and the mix.

Since Yancy got in trouble, they, those people who were originally voted for Yancy, might come out for a park head. Why would they not come out for Jany? Well, I would hope they would. Well, me, but like I see.

Cindy doesn't have anything to worry about as far as her seat goes. She might make dollar basically shoe ends. And she doesn't seem all that concerned about Yancy, one way or the other. She's mostly just worried about a friend Jany. The parrot lady.

I don't know. It's a free for all. I hope she gets it because with me, like if you heard earlier, I was just telling people just vote for me and her. Okay, that's called plunky. All right, even though you have four choices, you only do two.

So you cancel out two votes for the other people. So you're two votes ahead of them. So if they only plunk for you.

“So you were talking to people about plunking for you?”

Of course. Yeah, that's the thing. Well, one of our formal politicians, Mr. Menendes, that was he was famous for that. He was famous for telling people just vote for me.

Don't vote for anyone else. Just vote for me. All right, so if 100 people just voted for him, he has 100 more votes than anybody else. Get it? Because they didn't get them.

Yeah, so even if someone went in and voted for four, but 50 people voted for one, you're 50 people ahead. No matter how you look at it. It's impossible. It's possible.

Well, I'll give you a little insider scoop here.

Um, what was it supposed to be like that? So this might be the first time, maybe ever, but we know something Cindy doesn't know. At least I think we do. I tell her about Ed's scheme, and she clearly does not approve.

Although it's hard to tell if she thinks it's wrong, or if she wishes she thought of it first. Either way, from where I said, Ed's four votes strategy doesn't sound all that dissimilar to plunking, maybe just like plunking on steroids.

I've never heard of plunking, by the way.

But it sounds like a denour tradition,

“which makes me wonder, does anyone in this town just vote the normal way?”

Like, what is up with this place? We'll see you in a little bit, right? What? Which? Shivalry.

I always tell you, I know Shivalry's dead, but that's not put a knife in its back when I'm around, all right? I can hold the door for you. If you've gone home for the night. I can, oh, are you kidding?

It's just getting to the good part now. Let's say he'll take a few days to everything and be calm. I know, they'll have it back tonight, but the official certified pound. It won't be close enough. It'll be there.

We'll see. What are you going to do, like, to celebrate, or whatever, wait for the things to come in. I stayed up last time to midnight. The Nora was the last town to report it.

Are you going to go home and chill out? Yeah, get some rest. Cool. I'll look around this town all day. With that?

Been prowling around here all day. Hi. Good luck, everybody. We'll see you later. Bye.

We're at the Crow Club.

“We came to wait for the election results,”

and we ran into this. Holy crap. Okay, this opens up a whole, oh, look. It's late night at the duck bin lanes. Oh, they're here.

They're here. Are you in the lead? Oh, we've been in the lead, yeah. This is Jim Anderson.

He's the guy we met with Guido at the bar when we first got to town.

You want a ball? Seriously, you want a ball? Well, you. I should mention Jim's our neighbor. Soon after we met him,

we found out he lives two doors down from our house and cement city. I didn't know I was supposed to call you. We've been over for coffee with his wife Peggy. We've talked about his kids and his grandkids, and what books are reading.

We've heard all his dirty jokes. Whose ball is that? We're out with the ball at your, at your polling place, thinking maybe you're going to show up and vote. You're not for God.

I honest to God for God to vote, and I feel terrible. 'Cause we have a strong selection of candies in this town. I can't believe with the one. The Anci Taylor, who's been a primary and he won,

then it was exposed. And he'd built the woman out of 120 grand, and he has the balls to run anyway. And if he wins, I'm definitely leaving town.

(laughs) Got signs on ball over to place. Thinking might win. Oh God, that's frightening. That is, that's frightening.

You know, you would think with a high intellectual capacity, the people in the town need no better. You've got some deep thinkers, deep thinkers. It's Jim's turn to ball. He grabs the ball and holds it in the palm of his hand.

It's small, like a shot-put ball. This isn't regular bowling. In duck pin, the pins are shortened fat. And fly like ducks. If you're hurl the ball at them, just the right spin.

You get three tries. Babe, these women are bothering me. At the end of the lanes, they're pin boys. Actual children, perched above the pins. Dodging the stray ones,

and then jumping down to set them up again.

We've never seen this in action before.

These duck pin ligars are very into what they do. This is a competition here, and it's just gearing up. Oh! They're picking teams, sizing each other up, making their own predictions.

“There's a reason people remember late night at the duck pin lanes.”

But forget to vote. So what's your deep girls been doing? Talking about you, mostly. Um, what are you even doing? Uh, this.

Nope. Wait, touch it. Wait, touch it. Wait, touch it, my thigh. Yeah.

Let's bitch beat a chick man. It really is, you know. Hey, that's all you need. Weed is here too. Weed is always at the Crow Club.

Every time we come. In fact, in all the time we'll spend in Denora, we'll only once ever see Guido anywhere but the Crow Club. We'll see him at church at the annual Fishry. He's the delivery guy.

He does it every year. Now, if I'm telling you, Guido really looks like he knows what he's doing. Oh!

Come here and kiss me. Give me kiss. Seeing Jim and Guido back together, it feels like a reunion.

“It's like we're circling back to where we started when we first got here.”

Before we even knew there was an election, before we even knew there were council meetings and coups and rap sheets and briefcases.

Back when we were first standing there, awkwardly,

outside the American Croatian Citizen's Club, wondering if we should open the door. Hey, I am admiring your technique. Why? Why?

Like, you're like really in the zone up there. Like, what are you thinking or what? If I take my off my mark for a split second, I don't have a chance. You take your eye off what?

I have a mark. See, Jim, arrows up there? I pick a mark and that's where I want the ball to go. He's at a different mark, depending on the frame. It depends.

I try like hell. Not the all the time, apparently. Have you seen me bowl? Yeah. But you have a certain number of steps you take,

because it seems like it's the same. I'm all the way back.

I go up, I take a bunny hop,

I don't know why, but I can't change it now. I take a little hop in the middle. I can't see the hop. I don't know.

Maybe I got that from the Flintstones.

“Remember Barney Rubble, you should take a little hop”

when he's the ball. I don't know. What? You know you remind me of Barney Rubble, not that you say it.

Do you think it was how you got it? No. I love Barney. Aaron and I leave Jim and Guido to their game, and head upstairs to wait for the polls to close.

We sit down at the bar, to eat a $5 pizza, and catch the final round of jeopardy. But mostly, I'm just sitting here preparing myself to get back out there,

which now that we've had a little break from it all, is starting to feel really out there. I'm picturing Wally, the constable, waiting outside with his hand, and his shackles for transporting prisoners,

ready to load up the ballot boxes. People will be starting to crowd around the door now, waiting for them to post the tapes,

like they're waiting for the second coming.

I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it. I'm half tempted to just stay here and bowl. My man, Steve, where's our election? Where's our election? Where's our election?

Where's our election? Steve, where's it? This is like the history. Oh, mine. Okay, I can't see this high.

See, here we are, we're standing outside with Dan. People are huddled around the door. She's scanning the tapes. Donnie's out here too. We're all holding our breath,

waiting to find out which way this thing's going to go. Help me. Who's going to get voted off the island? Uh, Yansie Taylor, 18.

Cindy Bryce, 47. He runs up front in the thick of things. I'm standing back from it all, getting some distance. I'm just thinking how much simpler this was last time around in the primary.

You had your good guys and your bad guys. You just had to figure out who was who, or which was what. At least that's how it felt. And then, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 for pork cut.

Wow. But now, I don't know how to feel. Okay. Okay, now. Yes.

You tell her, eight. Okay.

“I mean, honestly, it sounds like half the candidates are cheating or half cheating.”

But nobody cares if they're cheating. Or maybe they're not cheating because everybody does it and they let you do it. I mean, Mr. Menendez, who over that is, was famous for it. And anyway, is it even cheating if you don't realize it's cheating and you're not even trying to hide it? Because, hey, it works in the primary.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight for every pork cut. And then, of course, you've got the answer. It's hard to know what to do with the answer. If I'm honest with myself, part of me can't help but root for 'em, despite the headlines.

What's that about? It's like, I just keep wanting to forget. Yeah. I guess this is democracy at work. They're low, really low.

It's like, this is what it's come to. Yeah. So we're telling right now. But, I'll let you know. I'll let you know here.

Give me a minute. Wait. What do you hear? What do you hear? Where the numbers on the ante?

I don't know. They're low. Lower themly thought. Wow. What do you hear?

Yeah. Twenty minutes later, we're down at the Legion. Where the ante told me to be, for his victory party. Mike McDowell's here, sitting at the bar with some friends, rock and sleep, and a few other guys.

Good. Good. How about you? Good. Are you getting me?

I don't know you're gonna do it.

So you're still good. How the poles turn out? Why are you hoping you wouldn't know? I don't know any of you. I want to be surprised.

No result yet for you guys. I don't know. I don't know.

“Mike's been flying under the radar all day.”

He seems to like it that way. He's not when to blow his own horn. We already know we won. It's just the fourth seat that's still in question. But I'm not going to tell him.

He wants to be surprised. I'm so curious. I'm so curious. I'm so curious. I'm so curious.

I'm so curious. I'm so curious. The more we get to know Mike, the more I'll come to appreciate what an asset he is to this council. But God sent really. He saw it.

He's not wanting to get caught up in the drama.

He's a guy in sensible shoes. A common sense guy. A guy sitting here talking about the school board. There's this teacher strike. It's a mess.

No one else is talking about the school board. Now we've got the teachers out on strike. Our kids ain't in school. Yeah. That's ridiculous.

You know what I mean. You know, if you have people in position in this post of look after your money. What do you mean?

“Here you have 84 million dollar project.”

Are you joking for your series? Wow. What's up, man? You know you didn't. You know you couldn't have lost.

There's no way. There's no way. Yeah, what's up, man? You know you didn't. You know you couldn't have lost.

There's no way. There's no way. There's no way.

That's way for the final.

That's way for the final. You know, it's early yet, man. I wouldn't trust anything he says. There's no way. There's no way.

There's no way. There's no way. There's no way. No way. No way.

I'm trying to put myself in my shoes here. He's on the phone with the answer. His friend. Who he imagined sitting next to on that platform. His friend who blew everyone out of the water the last time around.

His friend who's apparently telling him in no uncertain terms that he lost. All right, come on down. All right, all right. I can see how Mike could think it's impossible. There's no way he could have lost.

There's no way he could have lost. There's almost impossible.

“Except I think there's very possibly a way that he can't see could have lost.”

It's I wouldn't trust anything. You know, weight to the final count comes down. You know what, I mean, before you concede or whatever the final vote is. Not again. Yeah, exactly.

You don't listen, you know, you know, people. Again, there's highly prevalent in the area. You can't see that things like that get to it. There's no way that he could have lost. Not in whatsoever.

I'm sorry. Aaron and I pull ourselves away and let Mike and his friends have their space. To talk about how there's no way against it could have lost. None whatsoever. Jansie's supposed to come down here.

This is victory party. Someone ordered food. We're all waiting around. Glancing at the door. And I'm just thinking, if Jansie did lose, this is going to be ugly.

I think he's embarrassed in front of his friends more than anything. If he actually lost. Pretty soon a half hours gone by. I don't know what to think. The food's getting cold.

We're starting to wonder if he's even going to show. Which honestly, he would be understandable if he didn't. You got to wonder how he's going to take this. How he's going to handle it publicly. He's either going to be devastated or angry or it's not going to compute it all.

Losing is hard for anyone. But for Jansie, Jansie's a winner. It's his brand. Okay. Let's just write it.

And then just as we're about to leave, Jansie walks in. Yeah, yeah, that's worthy. I swear to you, dude, at McCrock, every precinct I lost. It's weird. Yeah, I promise.

We just check them on the board. Listen up. I lost every precinct. I bet that's for them. That's for them.

I'll believe it. My policy. It happens. It happens. It happens.

It happens. You know, I want to thank A. I'm glad that you know, all the voters, you know, whoever want to I hope they do what's right for Denore and continue good. That's all.

And I lost the state championship. So it's part of it. So keep your hand up, keep moving. Yes. Jansie standing with his back to the bar.

His friends are gathered around him, arguing with him, pleading with him in various states of denial. Jansie's towering over them with this look on his face. It's hard to describe. It's like he's a piece with the world with himself.

With his faith. With his faith. None of this is what I expected. I'm standing here watching it almost in freeze frame. I swear it feels like a Renaissance painting of Jesus

All these desperate people in the guide the center has a job to do.

It's part of voting. I wasn't a primary. I lost in it. General. This just keeps going on and on.

Jansie's friends are all riled up. They're just not having it.

“Somebody must have messed with the ballots.”

Maybe there should be a recount. But Jansie's not giving in. He's taking control of the situation. He's calming them all down. He's assuring them all that it's going to be okay.

Assuring them all that, yes. In fact, he did lose the election. And it's still going to be okay. You got A-Raw. This flight goes boy.

That means we're going to win. I'm going to be in. If I wasn't out. Then new four people get in. You know?

Hey. That's part of it. You can't be mad.

The town decided to go a different direction.

That's her book. I'm on her for five years. Okay. Yep. Yep.

It's what it is, man. Part of it. I'm tired. I'm glad it's over. I'm tired.

I'm tired. No, it's part of it.

“I'm thankful for all you guys of support.”

Hey. Everybody, I'm very thankful. You know what I mean? Please. It happened.

It's a matter of the win. Rock I was shocked myself. Yeah. No. No.

Not prepared. A park cat. Edward. Eddie. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't believe that either. I can't even. I can't believe that he came out of nowhere. And one.

I can't. When the final count said and done, Ed will out to Yancy by over 100 votes, even without the extra items. Come January.

When the new council sworn in, Ed will be there. With his right hand raised in the air. We'll be able to see it. He'll take a seat behind his own nameplate.

Next to Mayor McDonald. With his nameplate.

“He will not be the change Jim was banking on.”

When something loose, something you could do. Hey. Hey. My life won't go on. And I hope this new council is able to work together

and get things done. You got great candidate. You got great people. They did well. They deserve it.

You know. You got to move on. I'm going to ask from my little girls. You went some. You lose some.

You guys know that. You know. They can't. And congratulations. Cindy Jenny.

Mike. Edward Parkett. They did a hell of a job. Great people. Great people.

I'm going to bed. I'm tired. You got tired. I'm going to get some meat. Did you guys get some meat?

Yeah we did. Thank you. Yeah. Nice. Wow.

Like a championship, right? You know the feeling of winning and losing. We stick around and have a beer with Nancy. Mike puts another song on the jukebox. And we raise a glass to his win.

We have another round of wings. And talk about basketball. In the school board. In the sewage board. And what this new council is going to do when they finally can be.

They've got a big task ahead of them. I see. Thank you. Thank you. But if I come away with nothing else from this day, it's this image.

Of Nancy Taylor walking through that door with his head held high. Facing up to the truth. Showing us all how it's done. How to lose with dignity. He's anything but a sword loser.

Nancy's a leader. You'll follow him anywhere. Nancy's nothing if not a leader. I feel bad.

It's just also though there is the elephant in the room that never gets mentioned.

Yeah it's a little hard. But I feel sad. Yeah I do. But then again, if you want. I don't know.

Yeah I don't. I just don't know what to do with Nancy. And I can't believe that's in. That's a shocker to me. Yes.

It's just a shocker. I can't wait to go to a council meeting with Edward. [MUSIC] cement city was written and produced by Erin Anderson. And me, Jean-Marie Laskus.

For Odyssey, the cement city productions. Our story editor is Michael Benlong. [MUSIC] Sound design and engineering for cement city is by Mike Woly. Production assistance by Kira Wittkin.

Research and fact checking by 10 Maddox. Our credits music is by Donora. cement city is an Odyssey original podcast from executive producers Jenna Weiss Berman. Leah Reese Dennis and Maddie Strong Kaiser.

To learn more about our series, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and X at cement city productions. Or visit our website at cement city.org. [MUSIC]

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] How was your game? Good.

We won by Tuesday. Good. You didn't. And I just got an MVP. You did.

Because I was beast out there.

Because you were wet. I was beast out there. A beast? Makes things that you guys lost. Did you choose to?

Oh my god. I forgot. You forgot your lost. I forgot.

Well, at least I was still at it.

Yeah. [MUSIC]

“For years, gone south has been a podcast”

about crime in the American south.

But for our new season, we're widening the lens.

Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the south. In in a lot of ways, the country itself.

“Follow and listen to gone south season five,”

an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. [BLANK_AUDIO]