Full video

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[Music]

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you know it's really been a game changer

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having having the May on my

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side he also does out of town visits

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it's really kind of a full-time job it

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probably makes a better politician than

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most

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[Applause]

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humans thank you so much for coming Mr

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Mayor this dog is the mayor of a town in

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California which raises a few questions

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around how a human politician can be

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replaced by an

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animal in search of answers we traveled

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to Idol world to Shadow Max and his team

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I Max do swear on my food bowl to

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Faithfully execute my duties as M

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vwell let's begin with a brief

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history towns Across America have been

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electing their pets into power for

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decades the earliest recorded mayor was

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Bosco Ramos a labrador Rottweiler mix

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elected in 1981 in the ' 80s a beer

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drinking goat came to power in leita

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Texas and from the '90s Mayors were

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popping up all over the place but these

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small towns have one crucial thing in

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common they're unincorporated areas

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which means they have no official local

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government and no need for a real mayor

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animal elections have become a tradition

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to bring communities together without

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politics frankly we weren't convinced a

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dog was up to the job but what we

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discovered with mayor Max was truly

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unexpected

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hi there nice to meet you this is Mayor

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Max come on

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in hi my name is Phyllis Mueller I'm the

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chief of staff for the May of V wild and

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I'm also his owner I run mayor Max's

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day-to-day activities with the help of

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my husband Glenn Max goes to um Bachelor

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parties bachelorette parties weddings he

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also does out of town visits it's really

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kind of a full-time job

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we spend a lot of time doing it all the

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background work that's behind the scenes

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that we do with social media um we do

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produce an annual calendar the marax

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calendar have we have since 2014 um

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there's a lot of expense involved in

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that though it's a it's a time and money

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Endeavor today running the mayor's

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office cost my husband and I more than

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$120,000 a year to run but mayor Max is

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not a business to me and I can't sell

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the calendar and so I give it away for

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free it's a gift because I actually

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believe that anyone who gets my calendar

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and reads it has a happier longer more

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successful

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life I get Communications not only an

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email but from every single social media

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account that we have and then we have

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the landline we have my mobile number we

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have mayor Max's website we he has

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different email addresses and I am the

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one who reads everything I'm the one who

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responds to everything people send us

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things this is a series of letters that

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I received from children and they all

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wrote mayor Max a letter from their

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class I got like 30 of them um I got

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this from the California legislature

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from Greg Wallace and it was a

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certificate of recog recognition for

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everything that we've done for the

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community some people create original

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art and then they give it to me mar Max

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receives sometimes hundreds of

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communications even in the day and then

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I manage everything in a database so

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that I can remember it so if somebody

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sends me a gift then I I note that in

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the database and what's funny about that

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is my husband and I are not retired so

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now we have two full-time jobs Phyllis

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and Glenn have taken time out of their

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busy schedules to show us what a day

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running the office looks like so here we

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have a copy of Mayor Max's oath and I'll

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read it to you it says I Max do swear on

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my food bowl to Faithfully execute my

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duties as mayor of V wild I am proud to

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take this oath knowing that my human

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campaign manager went above and beyond

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to finance this election campaign I will

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be a role model as mayor of all canines

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Felines and hum Min so help me AR so

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this is closet one of the Mayors where

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we have the ties what we do do is the

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mayor dresses up every day and so do the

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other Mayors we in this closet right now

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I probably have about 1 thousand ties I

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buy them 3,000 at a time because I get a

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better price discount that way uh this

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is known as a minii or Mini Max and I

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have to buy them 1,200 at a time and

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they cost about eight bucks a piece and

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so sometimes I can afford to get them

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and sometimes it's more challenging all

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right now we're entering the second

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closet for the Mir where I have all the

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vests for the mirror so I have the

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turquoise green red orange pink on this

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row and I have yellow dark blue and I

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have burgundy and then black and white

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um here they

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come this is the mayor and vice mayor of

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OT wild coming to work there we

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go we're lifting in the

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mayor and now the vice mayor

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first on the agenda a meet and greet

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downtown and news of their arrival has

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spread far and wide are these people

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waiting for m

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y okay I have a few quick announcements

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I have calendars today for everybody and

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I also am deputizing children and dogs

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so I have small and large dog ties and

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uh if you want to be in the picture I

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can snap it on your

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phone honey you're now an official

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deputy mayor of OT wild represent sing

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Idle Wild where you live before we knew

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anything about Idol wild we knew we knew

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that we knew about Max that that is why

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we came that's why we came here today to

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see the

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dogs Max just keeps it like 100% up here

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so that you know it's just nature and

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people and being amazing like there's no

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politics here just be good these are

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really cute we're

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happy it probably makes a better

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politician than most humans good okay

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here look here that's cute you guys all

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four of you look great this is

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perfect next up a ribbon cutting

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ceremony at new local dog boutique

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Mountain

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[Music]

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Paws all right we just need D and Di up

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here no eating your tie all right one

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two

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three go all right

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right keep

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going you'll be in the paper next week

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you guys being a new business owner uh

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having a pet store in a town where the

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dogs and mayor it's

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been you know it's really been a game

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changer having having the mayor on my

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side he doesn't swing left or right Le

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let just say that he's uh he's just in

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favor of everybody having

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fun and Fin fin stop a local

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wedding oh

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my soy

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thanks highlight of the wedding I think

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it's just awesome to you know meet the

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mayor I've never met a mayor before we

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try to keep it a secret because we

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really wanted it to be a surprise

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everybody here uh again just feeling the

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love mayor Max just added to it um ID

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feels like home because of him Phyllis

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and Glenn have been proud owners and

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chief of staff for three generations of

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idol Wilds Mayors as well as two Deputy

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Mayors and a vice Deputy Mayor but it

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all started back in 2012 when the couple

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first moved to idle

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world I saw an article in the local

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paper I said you're not going to believe

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this the local animal rescue group is

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called RF or animal rescue friends and

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they decided that because we're an

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unincorporated town we don't have any

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human politicians we could allow people

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to nominate their dog or cat to run for

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Mayors it was limited to those two kinds

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of animals and uh they thought everybody

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would vote with a dollar per vote and

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that would be the fundraiser when I

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learned about the election it did touch

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my heart like a religious experience

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where I go I'm going to win that

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election I did not know it and I'm

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competing with uh beloved business

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owners in many cases who really wanted

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their dog to be the mayor and so I go

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how am I going to compete with that

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Phyllis entered Max into the race

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alongside 13 dogs and two cats

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campaigned hard we put um magnets on our

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cars said max for mayor we had a couple

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of banners up in town around Big Pine

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trees we went out and socialize with Max

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downtown regularly and got some local

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media presence um as well but my husband

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and I are also passionate animal rights

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activists so I wrote a check for $10,000

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to the animal rescue group not knowing

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at all if that was going to help and

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then the rescue called called me one day

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and and they said hey we just had a lady

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come in and asked how much is it going

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to cost to buy the election and I went

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oh no well it turned out they were

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really wealthy they can write a check

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for a million and so I go how much

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further am I going to go and lose so I

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did another

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10,000 and the results came in so it

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turns out she only wrote a check for

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$1,000 so we won the election in a

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landslide

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Victory m Max took office and became so

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popular the town extended his term by

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another year but soon after the

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announcement he tragically passed away I

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was crying but I'd have people crying

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would come up to me and just crying

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their eyes out to cheer them up I go

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what am I going to do to cheer up this

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town and that's when I decided I I'm

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going to keep going I'm going to get

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another mayor Phyllis and Glenn

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continued the Legacy with mayor Max II

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mayor Max I thiri and deputies Mikey MIT

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on

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[Music]

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medic it is something I think when

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you're on your purpose line it's no

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effort or energy to do it but the good

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that we've done for the town might even

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exceed the good of bigger towns with

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human politicians because we've done a

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lot of good and Max goes to hospitals

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schools nursing homes Mar Max the second

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was so good he could even lie on a

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hospital bed with a dying patient at

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hospice and comfort them

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and so I've seen him create Joy even in

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death which is amazing that's just dogs

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can do

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that all in a day's work hey Max