I'm sitting here this evening with candidate for precinct two county commissioner. Uh his name is Gail Frey. Thank you, Mr. Frayne, for joining us and uh taking the time out to uh find out a little bit more about your candidacy and what uh you know what motivates you. Absolutely, thank you for having me.
All right, wonderful. Now, precinct two covers what he commissioner precinct two covers all of Carrollton, the colony, and for some weird reason the district is drawn in a way where it reaches over the waters of Lewisville Lake and grabs Corinth. So it's a pretty small geographically a pretty small area of Denton County.
But it is all of Carrollton, and the largest population density within this precinct two is going to be the Carleton area. I see. And your uh opponent in this race is uh well-known uh candidate that we're at and uh you said that he was the is he the current mayor of oh no, so uh Kevin Falconer was the mayor of
Carrollton for I would say almost a decade for quite some time. He's very well known in the area, which is why it's pretty interesting the way that I would say they kind of I don't know if the word jurymander is too strong to use or not, but it is interesting that they changed the map before Kevin's election and they made it focus on specifically Carrollton, as I said, it's
a very geographical district. So it's also very blue. And I think that's why they tried to create what would look like a democratic stronghold, but had a Republican who was the mayor for a long time run for that position. Okay, so at that point when, Kevin Faulkner was the mayor, the mayor is considered to be a nonpartisan uh
position. So when he ran for county commissioners when he had to choose which party and he sided with uh the Republican Party. Okay. And so you have some uh positions that uh you are advocating for strongly. Yes, and you think that it uh uh Democrats need
to hear about them. Yeah. What are they? Sure, and and this is gonna focus about the the why the Democrats are pushing to try to flip the Deton County Commissioner's court. Uh the reason is because we want countywide voting on election day.
Some people call these voting centers. I think that probably sounds confusing. So I'm gonna continue from this point going forward to call it countywide voting on election day. And what I mean by that is that right now, during their early voting period, you can vote anywhere in the county, anywhere within Denton County, you can vote. This polling location go there, you can vote.
However, on election day itself, that's not the case. On election day itself, you have to vote only at your one registered voting location. Right. This confuses a lot of people because the last day to vote is the election day. So you have to understand, by the way, about the number of people who vote during early voting, almost equal
amount of those people who vote in the entire early voting period tend to show up on voting day. So it's a very intense day with a lot of people traffic. Now, we have seen around 11 to 15 percent of people getting redirected on the last day to vote on voting day because of the fact that we don't have countywide voting on that day.
And we've heard stories from election workers talk about how they've been in college kids out there who say, like, oh, I gotta get the class. I I I I can't I can't make that. Uh there was another story of a guy who had to be hydraulically lifted out of his car He's on a wheelchair on a breathing machine, goes in to the voting location, gets told, I'm sorry, sir, you
can't vote here. You have to go somewhere else. So we we Democrats humbly believe that this is voter suppression. Because it confuses people. And this honestly, I don't believe there's any reason for this. Because over a hundred other counties in Texas have countywide
voting on election day. So unfortunately, it seems that the GOP, particularly the Denton County Republican Party, who's led by right now Melinda Preston, wants to go the other way. Melinda Preston had her way, Melinda Preston, by the way, is the uh D, I'm sorry, the RNC chair for Denton County. Okay.
So kind of like Delia Parker Minnesota is the county leader for Democrats. Um, who's the uh uh Melinda Preston is the leader for the Republicans of Dent County. Okay, and she on multiple occasions has shown up to the Benton County Commissioner's court, and she's constantly advocated to go the other way around. If she had her way, we wouldn't have countywide voting
even during early voting. Okay. So that's what her party is pushing for. So is this a uh county decision uh to have uh countywide versus uh center voting? Yes, so every county gets to decide its own way, and when does that when can that decision be made? Well, it can they meet every Tuesday at uh I
believe at 8 a.m. every Tuesday, and uh someone can make a motion. Any one of the commissioners can make a motion to do so and go in that direction. All the commissioners right now, including the county judge, are Republican, and because they don't want to violate their own party, I I humbly think that the Deputy County Commissioners understand.
I I think deep inside in their hearts, think they do know that it's kind of crazy to not have countywide voting on election day. But I'm willing to bet the reason they don't go in that direction is because they're worried about getting primaried, since after all the head of their party is demanding that they go the other way.
Are there uh any other positions that you're strongly advocating? Yeah, so we also oversee the budget in Denton County as well, uh, the commissioners do. And there are other things I want to advocate for, like Meals on Wheels, for example, that gives uh food to elderly individuals who you know can't physically make it to the grocery store themselves. Uh there's a couple of uh other things with health
care that I would like to send money to as well. Meals on wheels is what one of the main ones. Uh, should have mentioned this earlier because you're talking to Ernest Leinberger, he's uh a chair member of that organization. Um but there's there is that there is the fact that we need to make sure that the opioid funding that we've been given by the state needs to be
fully allocated. Uh from what I understand, there's been quite a delay with that. So essentially the the state has given money to each county uh to handle the opioid crisis. And uh that needs to go to health care. I believe that Judge Eads was pushing more to go towards uh prevention, basically trying to uh reassign that to
I guess police force or whatever prevention is. And you think that it needs to work? It needs to go more towards uh towards health care services and centers that help people with addiction. Okay. And um do you think you can impact that uh on a is it a uh fully Republican core? It is right now, but there's an opportunity for the
Democratic Party to flip the Duncan County Commissioner's court this time. Right. the So each commissioner holds the term for four years and judge does as well. And it happens to be that two of the commissioners and the judge are up for re-election in this upcoming 2056 midterm election.
So there's only four commissioners and one judge. So that means three of the five positions are up for re-election. Okay. So what we're advocating for as the Democratic parties. We're trying to flip. If we can flip all three of those positions, then the Democrats gain control of the court, and we can
finally get our countywide voting on election day. What is the strategy at this time to flip? Yeah, so for precinct two uh it's basically coming out here right now. We're actually at the uh Carleton Democratic Club, um, sort of making sure that people know who I am and know what the positions are. Right.
And it's also it's really important for me to really kind of block walk and introduce myself to uh Carrollton residents because I mean, for one, um the pop the major population density is near in Carlton. And for two, it's because let's be honest here, um uh Mr. Faulkner's been the mayor of Carrollton for quite some time. So it's the struggle is gonna probably be here because
I've talked to other Democrats and they know Kevin. My pastor at my church has met Kevin before. Right. Now people know this guy, and I need to tell people who I am and what I'm running for. I want to need to make sure that everyone understands that I'm not gonna mudsling uh I respect the man, I'm it's nothing personal, it's solely about the policies that
we're advocating for. Main one being countywide voting on election day. So now um what if because it has been the playbook of Republicans all across the country, whether it's uh uh national or local, that um some say some propaganda is used. Uh maybe some dirty politics uh uh come into play or they change the narrative to uh not to talk
specifically about the issues, but about issues that have no uh impact upon what your job will be. How do you deal with that? Yeah, sure. So I'll be honest with you, in this particular race, I don't think there's much of a danger for that. I I I've I've seen Kevin speak, I've I know a lot of people who know Kevin, and uh he's
not that kind of candidate who does that. Uh actually most of the commissioners are are I believe McRae said that all the commissioners, including the judge, are are very humble. Um there they have had mean things said to them, and I've seen the way they handle it. So I don't think there's in this particular race, again, it's kind of unique, but I don't think there's much
of a danger for that in this particular race. But when it does come up, you always have to like throw it over your shoulder and just concentrate on the policies. Because I I have seen in the past uh Republicans will try to advocate based on your feelings rather than talking more about the policy decisions. I would say that Republicans don't necessarily always think with
this, they think more with this, they think with their gut, they think with their feelings. And that's where I think that we see a lot of this kind of rhetoric uh and and a lot of other Republican races used, is because it's more difficult to lift up people and it's easier to get people agitated if they're filed up and angry. As long as people feel the agitation in their heart,
they can get misdirected very easily. But the way that we Democrats combat that is by going back to the policies. Like I said with Kevin, it's nothing personal. It's about the policies that we're at that we as Democrats advocate for. You mentioned meals on wheels Yes.
Did you say or believe that there has been a delay in the funding of meals on wheels? No, I just want to make sure that they continue to get their funding. I think if anything, we probably would maybe bump up the amount of money that they get. Okay. So Meals on Wheels, for those who don't know, is
an organization that gets food out to elderly individuals who are physically incapable of getting to the grocery store themselves. It only costs about five dollars a meal. And the meals are actually delivered by volunteers. So we don't even pay for the food delivery service. We're just paying for the meals. And you know, like I I just believe that if we can support, you know, all the fireworks that we
have, which are very beautiful, then we should also be able to support our elderly individuals. A good chunk of these individuals, by the way, are also veterans as well. So when I see things like the VA being underfunded by the current administration, things like that, you know, I believe that hurts uh a major demographic in this area. So it's just one thing that I believe we need
to support and support more. What about uh health care uh regarding your constituents? What do you see is the biggest uh deficiency, uh the biggest thing that you could help and and make it uh more positive for individuals, health care. Yeah, so when it comes to health care, what the county commissioners can do is they they do oversee the funding for the county, and so they can send some
of the uh the money towards uh organizations that help people uh with with health care. I personally think that when it comes to things like mental health, that not having a very good. public transportation system can hurt people in certain areas I understand that we have telehealth, but telehealth can only work so well. My pastor was actually trying to work on this because
he knows a couple of people who were having some mental health issues. He's saying, like, man, like because they don't have cars, they can't see these types of individuals who can help them with their crises that they go through and things like that. Okay. So a lot of these people feel as if they
are they're very helpless. But there's that. There's also, like I said, um, sending the opiate funding to uh addiction uh centers that helps those with addiction and and and all of that. It's it's a very serious issue of health care because Texas has more uninsured individuals than any other state in the country.
And we're also the commissioners court can't do anything about this, but I'll just plug this real quick. Right. Uh is the Medicaid expansion program. It's more of a uh statewide uh issue, but we're not part of the Medicaid expansion program. And what that is, by the way, is a big giant money bucket that we all spend money into through
our federal taxes. So we Texas put money in this bucket, and money flows from this bucket to states in the United States, but not back here in Texas, because we're not part of the Medicaid expansion program. We're losing 10 billion, billion with a B dollars a year. That's how much we spend into this bucket.
It does not come back here. City Texans pay for medical programs in California. We Texas pay for medical programs in New Jersey, but not back here at home, all because the governor hasn't vetoed uh us joining the Medicaid expansion program. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, uh, Mr. Dale Frey, we're talking with Mr.
Dale Frey, who is a candidate uh for the county commissioner, uh, precinct two. And uh, one last question, Mr Frey, I would like to for you to uh discuss or name the areas that you uh would represent. And got one last question for you regarding law enforcement. I do know that you, the county commissioner has some say as far as law enforcement is concerned.
And what are you what is your vision regarding that as far as your constituents? Yeah, sure. So to answer your first question, uh the areas for precinct two for the commissioners is all of Carrollton, the colony where I live, and then it reaches across the water of Luisville Lake and grabs Corinth. So it's it's those three areas and a little bit
of the edges around those areas as well. Okay. Now, when it comes to law enforcement, this has been an interesting thing that I've been going over with some of my colleagues about. So with the power structure, commissioners can't really tell the sheriff what to do or what or what not to do.
The sheriff is elected and the sheriff has more power in that area. But the county commissioners can supply leverage by because they do control the funding. So while the sheriff does get the final say when it comes to certain logistics, the commissioners are the ones who will essentially be funding the sheriff and the programs that the sheriff uh utilizes.
One last question. This really will be the one last question. What's the most unprecedented thing that you've seen happen in the last two years, whether locally or nationally, so unprecedented that you've never seen it in your lifetime? Good question. If I could respond with a graphic, I would come back with that Simpsons meme.
There's a Simpsons meme where Bart says, Man, I'm having I'm having the worst day of my life. And Homer comes up and says, You're having the worst day of your life so far I respond with that because in terms of the crazy stuff that's going on day by day, I can tell you what it is so far. Uh huh.
It's actually the more recent one. We had a state house representative in the House chamber, was told that she had to sign a paper that would allow a DPS officer, a federal officer, to follow her around and make sure that she shows up to this the House the next day. All the meanwhile, by the way, like she has to pay for the services, by the way.
And she said, No, I'm not gonna sign that. Right. And they said, All right, well, we're gonna basically incarcerate you inside of the House chamber. This is kidnapping. I think the legal terminology would be false imprisonment, false imprisonment. And it's insane to see this kind of stuff happen
to a lawmaker. This is someone who's been elected by her constituents. This is someone who has the power to make the laws of the land, and she's basically being incarcerated by the legislature. Okay. That is absolutely insane. And this is where I feel like government is starting
to break down. It's just absolutely crazy. Because when you're doing this to lawmakers, if this is allowed to pass as is, if this becomes normalized, I fear for what's next. Okay, and uh to coin a phrase, you ain't seen nothing yet. Uh hope that it doesn't occur that way, but uh
really want to thank you, uh, Mr. Dale Frey, who's running for County Commissioner, Precinct 2, and God speak to you, and I hope. you have much success in actually advocating and putting into effect what it is you see Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Nice to see you. Okay.
