Jo Bonner is president of the University of South Alabama and in that role is building the school in both students and infrastructure. A couple jobs before that he represented Alabama's Distict 1 in Washington, taking over from Sonny Callahan for whom he was chief of staff beginning in 1989. Joe spent a lot of time in Washignton and has insights on what has changed and what has driven the change in Washington. He, like so many of my recent interviews, is disturbed by what he sees. Joe and I discuss what's changed and what may it may take to return to country to decency to one another and loyalty to the constitution.

Christina Woerner McInnis is running for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner, and the job turns out to be far bigger — and far stranger — than most of us realize. Once she and I started talking, the scope unfurled like a county fair map: everything from how many gallons come through the gasoline pump to whether the grocery-store salad bar scale is honest, all the way to steering timber policy across the entire state.

Historically, candidates have fit a familiar mold: men in cowboy hats, thick accents, and a kind of mythic farm-boss swagger. Christina is a sharp break from that pattern. She's a woman who grew up on the office side of her family farm — the side where you learn not just how a farm works, but why it works. She'll tell you she can drive a tractor and pull a calf, and she can, but her real power is in understanding how all the pieces of a complex system knit together to create a viable, resilient operation.

That's the same lens she brings to the commissioner's office she's aiming for: a deep grasp of how Alabama's many agricultural worlds — fuel, food, timber, regulation, commerce — interlock. She wants to pull those pieces together with intention and clarity, not nostalgia, to strengthen the state's future.

Comments: Cam@CamMarston.com.

Bradley Byrne served in Washington for Alabama's First Distrct from 2014 to 2021. Today, he says, he couldn't get elected as a Republican. He's not Republican enough. The party has moved further right and any act of working with Democrats to find solutions to national issues or creating local opportunities would put a target on his back, almost literally. He, like the other poiticians I've interviewed recently, has received credible death threats and he tells me the story. What's the opportunity in Washtington today? What's the temperatue? Why are the sane people retiring and what happened to their desire to serve? Bradley and I discuss these things in a far ranging conversation.

Feedback? Cam@CamMarston.com

Governor Frank Keating was elected as a Republican in a state full of Democrats. He figured out how to work across the aisle to achieve some major accomplisments. He was reelected due to his success. Today Washington is in a standstill with a government shutdown. Gov Keating discusses what worked for him and what may work today. He insists that it is the responsibility of the citizens to give back to their cities, states, or country in the form of political service of some sort - it's a rare opinion today. But, he says, it's a way to find quality candidates.

Contact What's Working at Cam@CamMarston.com.

James Ballentine has lived and worked in DC for thirty plus years, lobbying and working for both sides of the aisle and serving in leadership positions for various members of congress. He's widely admired for his integrity and knowledge of how things work inside the beltline and, suffice it to say, Mr Ballentine has never seen anything like DC in its current state. He knows I think that a third party is sorely needed today to provide a voice for people like me. He and I discuss what it would take for a third party to make a difference. Two things are absolutely necessary, he says - tons of money and an immaculate candidate. Both are very very hard to find.

Kyle Sweetser is as sick of politics and politicians as the rest of us. His big beef, though, is that the people elected to represent Alabama in Washington, DC have forsaken their state and, instead, are puppets of the White House. They back the tarrifs that are harming Alabama citizens and businesses. Furhermore, they won't do their jobs as a branch of the federal government and instead are doing whatever the Trump admin tells them to do.

Kyle had bought a piece of property in western Mobile County where he was going to hole up with his wife and children and ignore the issue and maybe it would go away. But Kyle is a do-er. He gets things done. He's worked his whole life and has done his best to treat people right throughout his life and in his family business. Kyle couldn't stay idle and couldn't stantd what he was seeing. He couldn't ignore how the people he had voted for had abandoned his state and abandoned the Constitution. So Kyle declared his candidacy for US Senate to replace Tuberville when Tuberville announced his candidacy for governor.

Kyle's and his family have had death threats. He's been told no Dem will ever win in Alabama again. But he's quietely received significant support. And Kyle senses that people like him can be found all over Alabama - people who are ready for significant change. So much change that Alabama could become a Blue State.

https://www.kyleforalabama.com

Tony McCarron is Mobile's Public Safety Recruiting Coordinator. He and I first met three years ago and he came on What's Working, when the microphones were off he told me that the Mobile Police Department was 120 officers short of what they were budgeted for. That's a lot of law enforecement vacancies and the criminally minded, had they known that, may have taken advantage of it. Today they're fully staffed and it's because Tony found a recruiting recipe that works. He learned what today's youth, primarily males between the ages of 20 and 26, wanted in a job and, more importantly, a mentor. Tony delivers that message and stands behind it his commitment to the recruits. He also worked to up their pay. The City of Mobile is lucky for it. Furthermore, Mobile Fire and Rescue is now riding four to a truck and that's a big deal. The city's fire and crime numbers reflect fully staffed departments - success measurements for fire and policing have risen and stay high. Tony tells me how he did it, what his message was, and what private companies who struggle to recruit can learn from what Tony is doing.

We then turn to the Mobile mayoral race. Tony warns the wrong election results will cause droves of law enforcement to leave their job. "Mobile is in a good place," Tony says. "Let's not jeapordize that."

Tony offered his phone to anyone interested in joining the force: (251) 554-2298

What's Working has been quiet for a while. It's time to get back with a conversation with mayoral candidate Spiro Chieriogotis. His vision for the City of Mobile is what compelled me to reach out to him for this podcast. Too many mayoral candidates are running on their pasts or, in my opinion, grievances with something or someone. That makes for good fiction or TV movies but not good governance or leadership. Spiro is the only one that I've heard with a compelling vision on where Mobile can go and a plan for getting us there.

We discuss crime which seems to be the siren song of all campaigns everywhere. Crime in Mobile is down. Way down. But you'd not know it to listen to the others. The antidote to crime is not more police (where you going to find them?) or harsher sentencing. It's opportunity. And the majority of violent criminals are between the ages of 18 and 24. How to get their attention? How to present opportunity in a way they find it appealing? Never an easy task.

We also meet Spiro the person. He and I agree that a hot dog overlooking the Mobile River at some new riverfront venue is a great idea. And trolleys (aka street cars) add soul to every city where they exist. It's an ambitious idea.

If you're looking for an unbiased interview of a candidate, this is not it. I'm all in for Spiro. Mobile has momentum. Finally. There's a lot to be done but what CAN'T happen is to lose this momentum. This city was on the brink of brankruptcy and some candidates seem to think those were better times. Not so.

Meet Spiro and you'll see why he has my vote.