YouSaid · the spoken record

Tom Dart

lines on the record: 62
first: 2015-12-03
most recent: 2015-12-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I had no interest, I never did, though. I mean, even when I was in law school when people were scrambling around to try to apply to this big firm or another, I never even followed any because I had no interest in that.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, exactly. Yeah, so there wasn't a lot of people queuing up to run against her. I thought there was a limited number of things I could do better in that office for one term. It was really going to be something where I thought I could be positive, have an impact for one term, but after one term, there was no reason to be treasure anymore. So I looked at that as a place I can do something and then see if I want to stay in government, get out. But I didn't want to just leave. I didn't want to just leave. I thought that I could be impactful, but I needed the right place.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, you know, I often tell people that for me, I had run my course in the house. I could have been elected and re-elected down there, but it wasn't serving any purpose. You know, what's the title if you can't do anything? And I hadn't made a lot of friends with a lot of people and some of the power brokers, if you want to call that way in the party. And so the Treasurer's race was open. The reason it was open was because Judy Depenca was.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had the most outrageous consulting. Me being the principal. Yes, it was you, actually. Yes. It probably was your last loss. I want to get this off my chest.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Had my heated arguments with our own members about and fought the Democrats more than I fought the Republicans because it was like, you guys, we can't do this. We need a lot of legislation, not less. And it got down to three bills a year, and the bills all had to be approved by the leadership. Otherwise, they weren't going anywhere. So it became clear to me after a few years I need to get out because I wasn't able to make any difference down there anymore.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But so the legislature dramatically changed. And for people who are not familiar with legislative processes, they can't conceive of how something as simple as a rule change could be of anything of note. They think it's just, okay, you got your parking place moved over one. What's the big deal? The rules run the whole place. And if you change the rules so it can be more conducive to autocratic rule, it changes the entire body and the way it operates. And that's what happened. It happened in the Senate, mind you first. The Republicans took over the Senate. They changed the rules. Then the House followed suit. And so it went from a pretty freeform, free-flowing place to where you literally were given three bills a year that you could sponsor, which I”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Actually, unfortunately, my office is in the jail and I hear sirens around the clock, so it is sort of second nature to me now where I don't even look anymore. It's like, oh, well, whatever. So the legend.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it is now, and I'm not saying that I had this unique window because my first two years we were in the majority, and it literally was a free-for-all in the best sense of the word. I introduced a hundred-some bills and I don't know how many I passed. I passed a lot of them. I was literally on the floor all the time, putting my bills that were dead as amendments on other people's, but it was real free-wheeling and really nice. And then about two years into it, the rules were changing.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting because it goes through cycles, and I do think it's almost a recurring theme that everyone always looks back on the generation or the sessions before saying those were the good old days. But when I first started in the early 90s, it was a different place where individual legislators had ability to introduce hundreds, which I did, hundreds of bills. You could amend anybody's bill at any time. And there was a freedom there that frankly was somewhat how I believe it's supposed to be. And after two or three years down there, having nothing to do with me, but the rules dramatically changed, similar, I believe, to what goes on in Washington where it's so top heavy that individual members have very little voice whatsoever.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I always felt at a very young age that I want to be engaged in making change and making a difference. I mean, it sounds naive and it sounds simplistic, but it really was that. I didn't have a precise notion of how I want to do it, but I often thought that government would be my best vehicle to make change in our communities. And so it's always what I want to do. And even though my dad, who I loved horribly, was always pushing me to go more into the law because I've been a lawyer to go in the business of law. It never interested me at all. And so when I left law school, I went directly to the state's attorney's office because that was something that intrigued me and I thought it could help victims of crimes and the like. And I did, and I enjoyed it, but it was very limiting. And so when a legislative seat was somewhat available, I decided that was going to be my attempt to move to another level.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah. He said, Tommy, you'll never survive. And so he did everything he could to keep me out of politics. And I think when I ran the first time, it was his dream come true because I was running against, I think it was an 11 or 12 year incumbent African-American state legislator in a district that was AD, some percent African American. I was running head to head. So I think it was his dream in the sense that I was going to get out of my system. I'd run. I'd lose.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well No, there is nothing straight about it. And it's interesting because my father was involved on the periphery of politics. He worked for the first mayor daily as a first assistant corporation council. So we had government in our DNA, I guess, but my father was obsessed with the notion that I don't shouldn't get involved with it. He thought I was too honest and he wanted me to make money because he never had the opportunity to make money.”
2015-12-03 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 14 - Sheriff Tom Dart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source