What do you know about your elected officials? Do you know what makes them, and the districts they represent, unique? Or why they ran for office in the first place? When we talk about politics, the national conversation seems to overshadow everything. But when it comes to the policies that impact your everyday life, your neighborhood officials are just as important as who’s in the White House. Join award-winning Spectrum News journalist Lindsey Christ as she helps you get to know “The People ...
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Rep. Jason Smith: The son of a preacher man becomes a congressman
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There are many roads that lead to becoming an elected official. As the son of a preacher/auto mechanic and a nurse, Jason Smith’s self-described blue-collar background found him working a series of jobs, graduating early and pursuing a career as a lawyer. After that it wasn’t long before he found himself a Missouri state representative at the very …
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Rep. Ann Wagner: From Broadway dreams to a career in politics
30:08
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As a child, Congresswoman Ann Wagner aspired to Broadway stardom. But her hardworking parents made sure she had something to fall back on — even if they didn’t necessarily expect it to be elected office. But after working at two well-known Missouri companies, she found herself married and living in Jefferson City, and that’s exactly what happened. …
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Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft: Politics at the Dinner Table
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Jay Ashcroft grew up in politics. It’s been a part of his life forever, and the family dinner conversations often centered around it. His childhood also included meeting presidents and Arnold Schwarzenegger, sitting first row for the St. Louis Cardinals, and sneaking around the governor's mansion. And while he also worked as a lifeguard, a Dairy Qu…
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Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe: Insights from the life of a restless entrepreneur
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Perhaps there’s no direct path from childhood to Lieutenant Governor, but Mike Kehoe’s story has a few more surprises than one would expect. Raised in northern St. Louis by a hardworking single mother, Kehoe was the youngest of six. He went from being a teenager washing cars at the Ford dealership to owning one. He also became a first-generation fa…
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State Senator Dru Mamo Kanuha: Deeply rooted in Kona life
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Dru Mamo Kanuha was just 28 when he was first elected to represent the people of his Kona community. Though his family can trace its local lineage back 12 generations, Kanuha has forged a path in politics all on his own. In this episode of the podcast, he explains how much the local canoe club meant to his childhood sense of community and how it st…
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Hawaii Mayor Mitch Roth: A high school dropout credits his rise to faith
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With several life stories that read like a movie script, Hawaii Island Mayor Mitch Roth had a circuitous path to elected office. In this episode of the podcast, he discusses the impact of several key moments in his life, from a teenage plan to take a trip around the world, to a side-job caring for his boss’s elderly mother, to almost losing his lif…
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State Senate President Ron Kouchi: Decades of service to Kauai
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Hawaii State Senate President Ron Kouchi hoped to be a high school history teacher and enjoyed reading novels in his spare time. But to get out of a job he was too embarrassed to quit, he began campaigning at age 24 for the Kauai County Council, and that was the beginning of a long career in public service. In this episode of the podcast, Kouchi di…
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U.S. Rep Ed Case: How a restless soul from Hilo found his way to D.C.
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Congressman Ed Case has had a life full of adventures, from a childhood “close to nature” in Hilo to working as a jackaroo on a sheep farm in Australia to weathering the culture shock of a small liberal arts college in New England. He first ended up in Washington D.C. almost accidentally as a young man but has found he loves public service and repr…
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Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami: Once rebellious kid, now island leader
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Derek Kawakami has gleaned lessons from all sorts of life experiences, from hustling to grow his paper route as a young boy to feeling like an outsider as a teenager to parenting while trying to build a career in public service. The mayor of Kauai thoughtfully reflects on his life experiences in this episode of the podcast and shares insight into h…
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State Senator Lynn DeCoite: A Farmer, a Hunter, a Grandmother, a Senator
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State Senator Lynn DeCoite is a third generation homestead farmer who grows purple sweet potatoes when she is not traveling from island to island representing her constituents in the so-called “canoe district”. She is also a proud grandmother of two, a devoted member of her community and an active hunter, who says she often has to remember to wash …
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Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi: From tenement to football to TV to City Hall
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Rick Blangiardi is new to elected office but not leadership. After a long career as a television executive, he became mayor of Honolulu in January 2021. Yet Blangiardi’s road to City Hall began on the other side of the country, in a tenement in Cambridge, MA, where he says he was raised “in a household full of expectations.” In this episode of The …
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Lt. Governor Josh Green: A doctor in the State Capitol during a pandemic
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Josh Green first ran for office hoping to work on some of the issues he had seen first-hand as an emergency room physician. But his experience and expertise took on an unanticipated relevance during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in addition to his role as lieutenant governor, Green became Hawaii’s Covid response liaison. In the first episode of the Ha…
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Listen to new episodes starting on December 7th. What do you know about your elected officials? Do you know what makes them, and the districts they represent, unique? Or why they ran for office in the first place? When we talk about politics, the national conversation seems to overshadow everything. But when it comes to the policies that impact you…
…
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Mayor of Augusta David Rollins: Making government more civil and bringing back local pride
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David Rollins says that back in the 1960s, very few people in Augusta, Maine would have expected a certain high school athlete to one day be mayor. But looking back at his 16 years of civic service, Rollins says this may have been the best period of his life. He ran for office in an attempt to bring more civility to the local government, and he say…
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Mayor of Portland Kate Snyder: Leading her city through the pandemic
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Kate Snyder always keeps a tab open on her computer with the mayor of Portland’s powers and duties, as written in the city charter, to remind herself what her role is—and isn’t. She is only the third full-time, popularly elected mayor in modern Portland history and says she is still helping define what that means for the city, especially as everyth…
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Mayor of Auburn Jason Levesque: From local boy to drill sergeant to mayor
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With family roots that extend back in Auburn many generations, Mayor Jason Levesque is an advocate for his city and state. He tells journalist Lindsey Christ why he returned to his hometown after years away at college and in the U.S. Army. Mayor Levesque also shares how confident he is in Auburn’s resilience, and that, even after weathering the imp…
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U.S. Senator Susan Collins: A work-ethic that stems from picking potatoes
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While Senator Susan Collins is often in the national news for her decisions in Washington, her conversation with journalist Lindsey Christ focuses on who she is and how she became such a significant national figure. Senator Collins describes growing up near the Canadian border with two parents who believed it was wrong to complain if you don’t get …
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Governor Janet Mills: From hitchhiking through Europe to leading the state of Maine
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Being the chief executive of a state during a pandemic is a job nobody could prepare for, but Maine Governor Janet Mills learned to work through challenges and thrive through adversity at an early age. In the debut episode of The People’s People podcast, Governor Mills speaks with journalist Lindsey Christ about the more unusual experiences that he…
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