He has shaken up the ballot in the 46th District primary race for State Senate with the Speaker’s seat in jeopardy, Democratic candidate Bobby LaPin joins Nestor to discuss his modern, grassroots local campaign to oust four-term Bill Ferguson in South Baltimore on Tuesday.

Bobby LaPin, a candidate for District 46 in Baltimore, discussed his campaign against incumbent Bill Ferguson. LaPin criticized Ferguson for taking large donations from corporations like BGE and Fanduel, which he claims influences his decisions. LaPin highlighted his grassroots campaign, funded by small donations, and his background as a disabled army veteran and school teacher. He emphasized his commitment to working people and his platform, which includes addressing issues like public transportation, affordable housing, and immigration concerns. LaPin noted recent polls showing him leading Ferguson and urged voters to support his campaign.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Arrange a post-election in-person meeting with Bobby Le Pen in District 46 to have a longer, uninterrupted conversation about his campaign and Baltimore issues.
• [ ] Continue promoting the campaign website makegoodchange.com and its platform to supporters and the public as part of the ongoing campaign.

Introduction and Context Setting

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning the Maryland Crab Cake Tour and the upcoming election.
• Nestor highlights the support from the Maryland Lottery and other sponsors.
• Nestor mentions reaching out to various candidates, including Bobby LaPin, and expresses his openness to all political perspectives.
• Nestor and Bobby LaPin exchange greetings and discuss their potential past interactions.

Bobby LaPin’s Background and Campaign Motivation

• Bobby LaPin explains his background as a working person and his frustration with the current political system.
• Bobby criticizes his opponent, Bill Ferguson, for taking large donations from special interests.
• Bobby provides an example of a BGE project in South Baltimore, highlighting the significant cost increase and the lack of action from Bill Ferguson.
• Bobby emphasizes his grassroots campaign and his commitment to working people.

Nestor’s Personal Experience and Political Views

• Nestor shares his own political journey, including his run for mayor and the creation of Baltimore Positive.
• Nestor expresses his frustration with the influence of wealthy individuals and corporations on politics.
• Nestor and Bobby discuss the importance of voting and the need for better representation.
• Nestor mentions his personal experiences with the city’s challenges, including his wife’s cancer and the impact of the Freddie Gray incident.

Bobby LaPin’s Campaign Strategy and Challenges

• Bobby discusses the financial disparity between his campaign and Bill Ferguson’s, highlighting the influence of corporate donations.
• Bobby mentions the support he has received from small donors and volunteers.
• Bobby criticizes Bill Ferguson for his ties to corporations and his lack of action on key issues.
• Bobby shares his personal story, including his military service, nonprofit work, and teaching experience.

Bobby LaPin’s Policy Platform and Vision

• Bobby outlines his 18-page policy platform, focusing on issues like public transportation, affordable housing, and environmental justice.
• Bobby emphasizes the importance of building coalitions and bridges to achieve his goals.
• Bobby discusses his opposition to the 287g agreement and his support for reproductive rights and voting rights.
• Bobby highlights the need for proactive policies to address the wealth gap and improve the lives of working people.

Nestor’s Support and Final Thoughts

• Nestor expresses his support for Bobby’s campaign and his admiration for Bobby’s dedication.
• Nestor and Bobby discuss the importance of voter turnout and the impact of grassroots campaigns.
• Nestor shares his own experiences with political activism and the challenges of running for office.
• Nestor and Bobby agree on the need for better representation and the importance of community involvement.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively getting the Maryland Crab Cake Tour back out on the road after the election, and this is an election piece. Been doing a lot of that lately. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have some scratch-offs next week as we get up to beautiful pastoral Hampstead, Carroll County, will be at Green Mount Station. One of my favorite crab cakes, one of my favorite legendary places. We’ll be up there at the OTB. Orioles are playing four. We’ll be there from noon to four with some great guests. It’s all brought to you by GBMC and our partners at Farnham and Dermer. Oh, this side here. Here we go. I’m wearing my new Hawaiian shirt. Here we have an election a couple days away, and I’m sort of getting some candidates in that have reached to me, or I’ve reached to them. I just, for the record, I’ve reached to everyone, so if you haven’t heard Ed Hale here, it’s because, yeah, you haven’t heard West, like, whatever, they’re all invited. So, if you find them in the, in the audio vault at Baltimore Positive, or out in our repository, I have enjoyed our conversations, including about to enjoy one with this guy here, East Side of Baltimore. He’s shown up on my social media in many ways and many platforms. I don’t know much about him. I can’t say that I don’t know Captain Bobby Le Pen. Have I, if I ever met you in the 46 somewhere along? Did we do what you’re making me crazy party at the Bay Cafe back in the day without me, dude, dude,

Bobby LaPin 1:21
I’ve met so many people in this district, I can’t imagine that you and I haven’t met at some point someplace doing something.

Nestor Aparicio 1:29
Well, you’re the captain, so I give me the background, because you have shown up in social media different ways. Why are you running? How did you get involved in this? And clearly, I’ve had Ferguson on one time, six seven years ago. I see him maybe once a year. I invite him on, I get his, his bulletins and his newsletters. Um, I’m nonplussed either way. I don’t think the state’s doing a great job. I don’t think many of our politicians are doing a great job. So that’s why I’m opening the forum for everybody, but even Republicans, I let them on too, but I see you, and I just don’t know much, but I know you’ve been showing up, and I want to give you equal time and hear why and how.

Bobby LaPin 2:11
I mean, it’s I’m a working guy, right, and working people are struggling, man. We’re hurting right now in Maryland. Well, we’re hurting in the entire country, to be honest with you, and I’m running against a guy who takes gobs and gobs and gobs of money from special interest. I mean, you know, there was this, for example, here, here’s a good example. Okay, there was a BGE-like luxury project, a half billion dollar project they were going to build in South Baltimore, in Baltimore Peninsula, right in 2016 when BG said, “Oh, we really need this. It’s, it’s imperative that we do this project. It was $100 million right. 10 years later, it went up to $540 million What people don’t realize in this state is that BGE only makes a profit. They’re guaranteed a profit of 9.5% They only make a profit on new projects, and BGE is basically allowed to come up with all the new projects that they want to make or want to do, and the more that they do, the more profit they make, right. So, in 2000 and it was 2004 November of 2004 the Office of the People’s Council, which is like the people’s advocate, like it’s our only advocate against BGE, they sent out this request for an investigation. They alert, they alert everybody, the General Assembly, the governor, that BGE is doing this luxury project in South Baltimore that’s going to cost rate payers $540 million Do you know where my opponent, Bill Ferguson, was when that came out? He was in Colorado at a dude ranch hosting a $25,000 per ticket campaign fundraiser, of which the CEOs of BGE, Washington Gas and Light, United Healthcare, Care First were all in attendance. I mean, the same organizations that are squeezing working people in this state, and I’m just tired, man. I’m sick and tired. Look, I’ve got, I’ve got a lot of people don’t know me, you know. A lot of people just see me from social media. I mean, you know, we, I get millions on that’s where I am,

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Nestor Aparicio 4:09
right? I mean, I, yeah, I’m coming to you because you’ve been, quite frankly, running the kind of campaign I would have run 25 years ago. I mean, I did all of this as Nasty Nestor Sports Guy to run for mayor in 2020 because I was just pissed off. I, this was my view, dude. I lived at Harbor Court on the 20-third floor with a four wrap. I could see in every direction, and I saw the city on fire back in, you know, Freddie Gray, and my wife had cancer twice in and out of Hopkins, and I got pissed off. And I created Baltimore Positive to give guys like you, a platform instead of sitting here bitching about Peter Angelos all day, which also was not good for the city either, but in a general sense the rich people and the caretakers here, not in this generation but in every generation, need to have done a better job and not just say I’m moving to Florida to avoid the taxes, which I get a lot of that too, so I. I am the angry citizen, and saying, like, who’s in charge and who’s doing what, and

Bobby LaPin 5:04
right,

Nestor Aparicio 5:04
I would hear everything you’re saying about corporations and influential people running the state at this point in some sort of way that isn’t positive for us. I, 100%

Bobby LaPin 5:15
look, you can’t take 25 Look, anyone that I run a small business now with my wife, my wife and I run a little boat business. That’s why people call me Captain Bobby. No business anywhere ever, unless it’s a crappy business, would invest $25,000 into something without a guaranteed return of investment. When BGE gives Bill Ferguson $25,000 every single year for the past six years, when they give him $25,000 it’s not to benefit the people of Baltimore or Maryland, it’s to benefit BGE and Exelon. And the greatest campaign literature I have for this campaign is every time somebody opens their BGE bill, and this is just like one of many things. Look, this guy has spent more than a million dollars to beat me, a working guy on Instagram who runs a small boat business in South Baltimore. He has spent more than a million dollars to beat me. An iGaming super PAC has dropped $288,000 into his campaign, or to promote his campaign, sports betting Fanduel’s and

Nestor Aparicio 6:26
Bobby, you went on the ball, mute on me. Here, if you said you said Fanduel, I want to get this straight. You said Fanduel, and then you muted out on me. I’m sorry, say that again.

Bobby LaPin 6:34
Oh, sorry, Fanduel and Draft Kings, they started a pack called American Futures. That pack has been mailing so much positive stuff about Bill Ferguson. $269,000 worth of mailers. You know, we’re a small grassroots campaign. We don’t have money like Bill Ferguson does. I don’t take a cent from corporations or from developers. We have people, we have volunteers, and we’ve been going door to door for the last six months. We’ve been on, you know, social media, obviously just spreading the message about, about what we want to do. I go to people’s doors and, like, look, I’m the Bernie guy running against a Chuck Schumer, that’s what it is. I’m the new school Democrat that believes that working people’s money should be spent on working people and not on corporate handouts, and people like that message because people are hurting, they’re absolutely hurting, man. And then in my background, you know, you have to understand, like, a lot of people just see me as some social media guy on a boat. But here’s the reality, I’m a disabled army veteran, right after when I was in high school, I was a volunteer firefighter. After high school, you know, growing up in Baldwin, it was a high school man, job and a good career. So I joined the military, like a lot of poor kids do. I was a counterintelligence special agent in the army while I was stationed in Korea. I started a nonprofit organization to help orphans learn to read, and you know, and mathematics, and so on and so forth. That eventually became part of the United Nations Development Program in Korea, I mean, that, that’s me, right? When I came back to the United States and got out of the military, I finished my college, I became a school teacher, a government teacher here in Baltimore City High School, at Walbrook High School, over in the West Side. You know, when they closed that school down, I went back over to Iraq as a contractor to rebuild schools and infrastructure, and so on and so forth. I worked at the National Operations Center and helped manage the US response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and when the bridge fell, I was the volunteer coordinator, coordinating 2500 meals per day for the rescue workers working on the key bridge collapse. Like, I’m not just a guy that’s on social media, the whole boat business thing, and social media was supposed to be my happy time in life, because I’ve dealt with so much struggle and so much darkness and so much fixing problems, and, but, but then Trump got elected, and the world’s going crazy, and the guy that happened to be my state senator was the one guy that just wasn’t helping out at all, and he’s a very powerful guy, a Senate president. So, instead of sitting home and complaining like you did with your podcast, I started knocking on doors, and now in the most recent poll, we’re at 52% and he’s at 45% And the poll that we just brought, that we just.. where’d you get

Nestor Aparicio 9:17
your poll from? Because I don’t trust polls from Dundal. I’m from Dundalk. Where’d you get your poll?

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Bobby LaPin 9:22
Where do we get our polling from?

Nestor Aparicio 9:23
Where’s that polling from?

Bobby LaPin 9:24
Ah, I don’t know the organization. It’s, it’s, it’s in the Washington Post, and on the, on the banner. Um, sorry, I didn’t do the poll. I’m not a political guy, so the probably means more to me than some poll shot you would give me a country.

Nestor Aparicio 9:38
So, yes, we’re in a little bit of a delay, Bobby. So, I apologize. Bobby Le Pen is here, Captain Bobby Le Pen. He’s running in 46 It has become a hot button as we all go to the ballot box, hopefully on Tuesday, and all get your asses out and vote. If you’re an American, I don’t want excuses. Republican, Democrat, into whatever you’re doing, maybe I need to pendant, but and vote again in the general and. We need to be voting out here, so that’s part of this. What high school did you go to? Because I did ask you that, I just want to clear, clear that up.

Bobby LaPin 10:06
Sorry, man, I can hardly hear you, buddy. What’d you say?

Nestor Aparicio 10:08
What high school did you go to? I

Bobby LaPin 10:10
went to Mount St. Joe, man.

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Nestor Aparicio 10:12
All right, all right. Are you a Mount St. Joe?

Bobby LaPin 10:13
Saved my life. I say three things saved my life in this world. My mom, because I was, I was raised by a single mom who taught me how to work hard, and taught me all my morals. She got a loan for me to go to Mount St. Joe, and the third thing that saved my life was the US Army. I’ll tell you, those three things had the biggest impact on my life, and all I’ve ever done is try to serve my community and my country because of those three things. What I’ve learned from those three: my mom, Mount St. Joe, and the US Army.

Nestor Aparicio 10:41
I’d like to get together and get a crab cake with you somewhere down in 46 wherever it is, win or lose, draw, wherever you are, just to talk to you at length, where we’re not in this weird delay, and you’re not in the middle of an election that’s four days away, but you’ve given me a little bit of the platform, but like getting in, what was the moment that you sat with your wife and said I’m really going to do this, and started putting together ideas of, you know, pins and shirts, and the things that would be the most grasping. Have you ever run for anything? I mean, you run for.. yeah, I ran for the House

Bobby LaPin 11:12
of Delegates in 2014 It was another cause. CSX was going to build an intermittent little facility in southwest Baltimore, and the University of Maryland did an environmental study that showed that, you know, basically people would have had like three or five years cut off of their life because of all the pollution it would cause. Moral Park was an area where my grandmother grew up, and so I got involved with that. I went to the community meetings, there were like three people at the community meetings, and then the CSX, the CSX, you know, representative, you know, just steamrolling these working people, so I got involved, and I said, “Hey, you know, we need to go door to door and tell the community we need more people at these community meetings, and that’s what we did. We went door to door. I literally said to people, “Look, you got to be at this meeting, or CSX is going to come and kill us. And the first meeting we had was 50 people, the second one was like 300 and then by that time it was like 500 people by the third meeting, at that point they’ve already pushed me into running for the House of Delegates, because the delegates weren’t fighting back again against CSX. I had Heather Mazier join in, who was running for governor at the time. Um, and in the end of the day, Martin O’Malley killed the project, and because of that, because a whole bunch of working people in southwest Baltimore stood up, myself stood up, Heather Mazier stood up. It stopped that project, and it’s the reason why the Howard Street Tunnel today is being expanded for double stacking trains, which is like there’s like the domino effect, and in this, in this, it’s sits in this scenario for me running for state senate. I live in Upper Fells, like the, you know, there’s always been a cause, right? I live in Upper Falls with my wife. A lot of my neighbors are immigrant folks. They’re great people. We have cookouts all the time together, block parties every single month during the summer. Um, and then when I love their area, by the way, would

Nestor Aparicio 12:55
you call it Butcher’s Hill or no? No, no,

Bobby LaPin 12:58
we live in Upper Fells. What’s next to Butcher’s Hill?

Nestor Aparicio 13:00
Yeah, okay, all right. Good enough.

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Bobby LaPin 13:01
Yeah, I live right. I live, I live near Ministry of Brewing. Um, but when, when ice would come into the neighborhood, into Patterson Park in November, and stuff, I want.. I went down to go get tortillas from this place on Eastern Avenue, that most.. if you’re from Baltimore, you know it’s Sinaloa, Tortoria, best tortillas in town. it’s great.

Nestor Aparicio 13:25
I know Sinaloa. Yes, yeah,

Bobby LaPin 13:27
right. So I went down to go get tortillas because I was out, right, and her doors locked on like a Wednesday. So she comes out, she unlocks the door, I walk in, and she locks the door behind me, and I asked her, “Why? Why are you locking the door? And she said, ICE, the guy I’m running against since, since 2021 has used his power as Senate President to kill what they call a 280 7g agreement ban, a 280 7g agreement, it allows Maryland law enforcement to actually be deputized as ICE agents, to have access to ICE databases, and so on and so forth. It, what happens is, when local law enforcement have access as ICE agents, if somebody gets robbed in the immigrant community, or there’s, you know, like abuse or child abuse, or whatever, people are afraid to call 911 to report it, because you might be afraid the police are going to act as ICE, you know, officers, and deport you for five years. 130 nonprofit organizations, civil rights organizations, were asking Bill Ferguson to bring this up for a vote, and for five years he killed this legislation using his power as Senate President until this election year when I’m running against him. We saw the same thing in 22 In 2022 he used his power as Senate President to kill a reproductive rights amendment to the Maryland Constitution, saying that it wasn’t needed. And then two months later, Roe v. Wade got overturned. This also, this past session, he used his power to kill redis. Gang, even though I met with him, and I said, Bill, voting rights will be stripped by the Supreme Court. We must have defensive redistricting in Maryland. He said, people are angry, they’ll get over it. And here it is, voting rights have been stripped by the Supreme Court, and he’s, and he’s flip-flopping, and now he wants to redistrict. It’s just like in politics, whether it’s with our BGE bills, our medical bills, our potholes, our teachers, our public transit system that doesn’t even exist, we need to start electing better Democrats that are proactive, not just reactive. All of this taking contributions from corporations to basically do the will of the corporations and not for the people of Baltimore or for Maryland, people are done with it. The, the, the, the wealth gap in this country is the largest it’s ever been, and the politicians seem to think it’s okay to continue to do all the crap they used to always do. But here’s the reality of it: I am winning this race against the most powerful guy in Maryland, who dumped over a million dollars to beat a working guy, and the reason I’m winning is because working people have my back, because they know I got their back. Bottom line,

Nestor Aparicio 16:11
Bobby Le Pen is running in the 46 His time is short. The election is a couple of days away. I wanted to give you equal time. I’ve invited Bill on. I know Bill. Hi, Bill. You’re welcome. On hi Billy

Bobby LaPin 16:24
buddy,

Nestor Aparicio 16:24
yeah. So, for you on a personal level, how many times have you approached Bill about anything? I mean, because it feels to me like if you were doing the will of something, you’d be okay with it. And by the way, when people ask me about my politics, most people know I’m left of Bernie Sanders on most issues, except the death penalty, so you know when it comes at it. I, you know, I’ve attended one presidential political rally in my life, was Bernie Sanders at the arena, and I thought, these are some really, really nice people here, we’re effed, is what I thought, you know, literally, that was 15 years ago, and here we are, Trump running the country, so that was before Trump was running the country. I thought that, so I.. I’m in line with you. I was the angry Baltimorean. Most people are, you know what I mean. You

Bobby LaPin 17:09
could see it. It’s a progressive movement that’s happening all across the country. You know, people are fed up. Like, how do you think Graham Plattner and Zoran Mamdani and AOC, and. and. and tell a Rico why they’re doing so well. Look, we’re not going to get rid of corporate money in politics unless we literally elect better Democrats that vow never to take corporate money. That people, everyone knows that is what’s souring politics. When a politician takes corporate money, they’re no longer answering to the people. And by can I give a quick plug. By

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Nestor Aparicio 17:41
the way, that money goes to WBA L and Jay Z. It doesn’t come to WNST. Yeah, like that money literally is then going to media organizations to buy ads at a premium rate, at a high rate. The only one making money over there, you know? I guess Marty left, and you know, but like those television stations, it is a bonanza political advertising, and it’s just slush money coming from wealthy people and corporations that go into a name that then go into a media organization, which makes me sick to my effing stomach, Bobby. It does, and we can’t even afford

Bobby LaPin 18:19
that. We can’t even touch that kind of stuff, you know. We have this, you know, our little grassroots campaign with an average donation size of $35 His average donation size, $1,400 you know. Since January, we’ve had more than 2200 individual donors, $35 average. He had like 66 with a $781 average. You know, the only way that working people can stand up against that stuff is like literally every working person that’s watching this, you got to go to the polls on june 23 this Tuesday and vote for Bobby. Then you got to call your friends and your neighbors and say go vote for Bobby, you know, he is like I said, a million bucks he’s dumped on like you said those big corporations to get his message out. We’re relying when people grassroots to spread the message. And if I can give a quick shout out, we are $34,000 short from our goal to win this race on Tuesday. And if people want to just drop in five bucks or 35 bucks to help out, the website is Make Good change.com Make good change.com This is a totally 100% working person fueled campaign, and the only way we win is if working people stand up because they’ve had enough. They stand with me, and we take back our voice. Sorry to be all up about it, but man, you can see that I’m just fired up about this.

Nestor Aparicio 19:39
What does make good change look like the morning after an election? If you win, I mean, you, you’re saying you’re up there, polls saying I don’t believe in polls and all that. I don’t look, man, I don’t know how many people are going to vote or not going to vote, that’s always the biggest question this right. Yeah, I wake up there, that’s why I thought I could steal the mayorship, because nobody votes and. It was me against Sheila, I might have had a punch, so and you would have been one of the guys voting for me, and you would have been one of the guys on my team had I won, and you would have been loud mouthing for me, because you want Sheila, you know, like that, that’s that’s what got me involved in this was buying a condo for $439,000 in 2003 and selling it for $380,000.20 years later, after putting a quarter of a million dollars into it, because I believed in the city, and I lived in Harley Place, so you know, I hear you loud and clear on your, you sound like one of the

Bobby LaPin 20:37
guys that should be going to make good change.com and dropping a couple of bucks in there.

Nestor Aparicio 20:42
I’m doing better than that. I’m giving you an audience.

Bobby LaPin 20:45
Yeah, man, thanks buddy.

Nestor Aparicio 20:46
Make good change. What the day after the election? What, what happens, and what? Now you’ve just upheavaled Annapolis, right? And you’ve just pissed off B Genie, and like, good for you, good for us, you know. Okay, great. Now, what? What can you do in Annapolis, and what makes you more than like the social media loudmouth guy that would have been like me, saying, like, how are you going to make the city better? I would have said, as the mayor, I’m never going to make a decision that that’s corrupt ever. You know, that was my platform, but to your point, you’re pretty serious in on this, like Wednesday morning. You might be the dude. What happens when you’re the dude?

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Bobby LaPin 21:24
Well, we have, so you know, one of the things I want to go back and give you an example of a messaging that Bill does is give you an example about what I’m going to do. He’s going door to door, maybe I don’t know, it might be just be mailers, and he’s telling people, “Oh, I brought a billion dollars into Baltimore for new school construction, and that is true. He did do that, but he did that in 2013 when he was only in office for three years, when he was senator 47 out of 47 and had no power. It’s all about building coalitions and building bridges, and I am very much a bridge builder, literally, both in Iraq and when I was volunteering as the volunteer coordinator when the bridge fell. We have a ton of policy analysts and volunteers, lots of progressive folks who want to see the state move toward a vision of helping working people rather than corporations. There we have an 18 page platform, make with change.com has an 18 page platform. We have been working with countless organizations in the background, good handful of state senators already, who are progressives from like Montgomery County and stuff. We’ve already been working them with them in the background during this past session, and I’m going to continue that coalition and bridge building. See, when I beat Bill Ferguson, there’s a message that’s being sent. It’s not just Bobby beating Bill. Most people get that confused. They think it’s Bobby versus Bill. It’s not. This is the working people regaining their voice. So, when we win this election on Tuesday, it sends a message to every corporate-backed, you know, career politician that their days are numbered if they don’t start answering, listening to and answering to the people. This is bigger than Bill Ferguson. This is bigger than Bobby Le Pen. This is literally about tomorrow, not just in Baltimore or Maryland, but this entire country. And people in New York have proved that. People in Maine are about to prove that, and people in Baltimore are about to prove that that working people are getting their power. There’s going to be there’s this campaign, it’s going to have such a large voter turnout, and it’s from so many working people who haven’t voted in years, who are simply going to the polls to vote for me, and it’s not just me, it’s the message, man, and the message, any money

Nestor Aparicio 23:40
that back in 20 and 22 the turn at the anti Trump thing for everybody that lives in a community like ours that voted 96% in the city against him literally the first time that that would be the impetus to get more people out and more people activated and I look, I walked in Patterson Park during, I saw your new King’s gear. I was in Patterson Park, wearing my F Trump, F Trump, F Trump trick shirt, so you could sound the guy with the ponytail right up by the pagoda. There, you know, you know, so you know I’m totally about everything you’re talking about. So, let’s get a crab cake, win, lose, or draw. I wish I am very.. I’ve said this to all the candidates. I had a fellow running in the first district that, very much like you, was a street candidate running against the machine, as he would say. And I said, man, for all of you, the Teddy Roosevelt and me, I did not run. I had done everything other than.. but when Brandon won the primary, I couldn’t be Brandon at that point. I mean, it wasn’t about beating Brandon, it was about getting clean government into City Hall, and I think, honestly, and I’ll say this as a guy who left the city, and not because I, not for any Fox 45 reasons, I just, I moved out to Towson because that was the best place for me to be, my radio station, my business. Nestor Towson, but I’m in the city five days a week. I do my show at Fade Lees, you know. I’m a city guy, I’m more positive, you know what I mean. I would say this since Brandon came in, and I saw him and Zeke doing their swim thing the other day, whatever. And I saw Zeke recently, but like, I think the city’s getting better. I do. I, I believe in the city. It had nothing. When I drive around, it feels safer, it feels cleaner, it feels more active, it feels more represented. But the ice stuff, my family’s Venezuelan, dude. You know what I mean. You don’t have to tell me, like nobody’s more pissed off than me. And my son lives in East Baltimore, in a neighborhood where, much like our friends in Highland Tower, or any other business, they’re pulling the shades down that it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s Anne Frank stuff, man. It’s like, it’s, it’s, it’s nobody,

Bobby LaPin 25:48
no one should have that fear. People shouldn’t be terrified in their own neighborhoods, in their own country, you know. Um, you know, there’s a lot that we have to change, man. There’s so much. I say it every single day, as I’m driving around and knocking on doors, it’s like, man, there’s so much to fix, and while the city is getting better, it’s getting better for only a small portion of the people, and not for the great majority of the people, and that’s that’s what we need to change, like, you know, this recent thing about adding a 3% restaurant tax on to all prepared food and beverages in the city to raise a billion dollars for the convention center. Excuse me. In the end of the day, when I ask people what they love about Baltimore, everybody, like, if this was Family Feud, like the answer that would turn over is the people. What do you love about Baltimore? People will say, the people, the community, my neighbors, whatever. No one ever says the convention center. We still don’t have a proper public transit system in this city, and we can’t grow up if we don’t start investing in all these, these things, you know, the city is getting better, but we need to make people want to stay here forever, and we need to, like, have everyone look at Baltimore and want to be here, and that is really investing in some just foundational things that we’ve never really invested in, and one of the biggest things is public transportation, people have to get to jobs, and people, you know, have to stop relying on cars so much. I mean, all of my name, Red Line. I sat with

Nestor Aparicio 27:10
Larry Hogan, and you know, we asked him about the Red Line, and Molar was beating him up about, we’re setting Annapolis six years ago, and he said, “I ran on Red Line, I beat it, and I’m like, now, and so, what’s the residue of that sort of rhetoric from six years ago, and we all know it’s based in race. I mean, like, everything here the last 200 years has been. So, listen, I know your time is short, I know you have things to do. Bobby Le Pen is here, Captain Bobby Le Pen, he’s running in 46 You know, the weirdest part is on the video, I could share the legislative map of 46 and all of these things have been moved around. Do you want to tell people where your map is, just the edges of where 46 It’s really

Bobby LaPin 27:50
simple, it’s everything that touches the harbor, and like 25 blocks up, so it goes all the south Baltimore, from, you know, Curtis Bay, Brooklyn, Cherry Hill, in the Federal Hill, the peninsula of Locus Point, Riverside, we got the downtown area, we’ve got Jonestown, Fells Point, Upper Fells, Canton, Highland Town, Greek Town, Mount Vernon, basically all those areas. If you touch the water and you’re like 25 blocks up, you’re more than likely in the 46th district. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s huge. It’s the largest voting block of the entire city, that area. It’s by the way, we lost two votes

Nestor Aparicio 28:31
since the last election. My wife and I voted in your district, so, so we’re gone. I can’t vote for or against you one way or another. Well, you

Bobby LaPin 28:38
got five days to move back, man.

8

Nestor Aparicio 28:40
You know, I think that might be against the rules, but are there any rules? Ask the king, he’ll tell you that all the elections are rigged. He told the whole world that two days ago, dude, we’ll get a crab cake somewhere in 46 which is easy, because there’s 1000 literally. If you and I went back and forth with, like, a password game, I’d name a place, and then you’d name a place, and then I’d name a place, and then you’d name a place, and would figure out where we’re gonna get a crab cake, but good luck, Jenny Roosevelt, me on crab cake, which

Bobby LaPin 29:06
is Fadely’s and Lexington Market, but perfect, that’s just me. I also like LP Steamers, and I also like Coco’s, of course, right?

Nestor Aparicio 29:14
Yes, yes, and yes, yeah, yes. No wrong answers here, and this is a guy from the water, Captain Bobby Le Pen, running in 46 The Teddy Roosevelt and me honors you, dude. I mean, you’re getting in a circle here, and you’ve been battling, and I respect the hell out of what you’re doing in every conceivable way, as someone that was about to put my family through it and do all of that. That I wish you luck. And then, upon victory or defeat, I know you’ll be, you know, you live here, you know what I mean. You’ll be trying to make it better on Wednesday morning, no matter what, right? Like I

Bobby LaPin 29:47
always have, that’s all I’ve ever done my whole life, is try to make Baltimore better, man. But make good change.com folks. I love you, man. Thank you. I appreciate your time, man. All

Nestor Aparicio 29:55
right, man, go give him five bucks if you believe in what he’s doing, and more than anything. Even if you don’t like what he’s doing, vote. All of you, everybody out there, vote on Tuesday. I’m Nestor. We’re Baltimore Positive. Stay with