For this episode of The Empty Office Podcast, Senator Tobin is joined by the newly elected Mayor of Fairbanks. Prior to being elected Fairbanks Mayor, Mindy O’Neall served six years on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly and was the Executive Director of the Cold Climate Housing Center.

O’Neall is originally from Iowa. She moved to Alaska in 2004. O’Neall holds a BA degree from Iowa State University and a Master’s Degree in Professional Communications from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“It did not surprise me one bit that Mindy went into politics. What she was passionate about, she was very passionate about and always believed in what was fair and right, and that that’s the way things should be.” - Michael Peters was the band director for Creston High School, where Mindy O’Neall graduated (Quoted by the Creston News Advertiser)

During this episode of the podcast, Mike Mason referenced a speech delivered by the late Jess Jackson at a rally in Philadelphia to support his run for President in 1984. The speech is often referred to as the David and Goliath speech.

“Because you must never forget that about the time we began to take over the cities, Nixon shifted the power to the suburbs. Now Reagan has shifted it to the states. So you have mayors who have more and more responsibility and less and less power. We got more and more votes and fewer and fewer services. We can not stop. We got to rise on higher.” - Jesse Jackson

The music used for this episode of the podcast is the song “Embers in E Minor” by The Venterues.

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