AD45 Candidate Greg Abdouch Joins Us

[00:00:00] On tonight's episode we have a special guest who fresh off of a June primary fight has turned it into a real fight in the 45th district in San Bernardino. Greg Abdouch said that he is going to fight for affordable affordability for families for education and how is he going to take on Jorge Ramos the incumbent we're going to learn all of that and more tonight on this episode of the California Underground starting right.

[00:00:42] What's going on everybody thanks for tuning into another episode of the California Underground we have a special guest and apologies for starting a little late we are we were getting stuff going so without further ado I'm going to bring in my trustee co host the best the fastest researcher in the West Camille as well as our guest Greg welcome to the show and I'll let Camille take it from here so Greg welcome to the show Camille I'll let you introduce Greg and. Okay, tell us about him.

[00:01:11] Um, thank you. Yeah, so I'm just really excited because, you know, we've had tons of candidates on the show and it's always so fun because some of them I'm like kind of like a fan of and um, and then we actually um candidates as well as elected officials and we get to have them on and really get to talk to them and you know it's it that's so great but this is the first time I've been on this podcast for like three and a half years this is the first time the candidate is also a personal friend of mine and Greg is not just like.

[00:01:36] a friend Greg and his wife are literally like family to me they are such special people. And, um, well, I he's running for the assembly district 45 in San Bernardino County and I'll let him talk to you more about that but I just want to share that Greg is quite literally one of the most genuine people that I know and I hope that you keep that in mind whether or not you like his politics that this is this man is the real deal.

[00:02:01] Um, I had this like health crisis a couple weeks ago and I um normally I I update Greg and his wife on these things and I was kind of like oh you know he's it we it was like the primary had just passed when all this happened and um. And you know he's he's a father he's a husband he's a candidate he's busy I didn't want to bug him and he quite literally just somehow knows and he reached out to me that same day.

[00:02:26] And I was like, well, do I have a story for you and I sent him a 10 minute audio text and he listened to the whole thing you guys and he said to me. You know, he's like, you know, yes, I am a father. Yes, I am a husband. Yes, I am a candidate, but I am also your friend and you know I always have time for my friends and so I just like this just really special for me because. I keep my circle very small but Greg is a part of it. So without further ado, Greg Abdos for Assembly District 45 in San Bernardino County.

[00:02:55] Thank you so much Camille. Thank you Phil. Wow, what a. I don't know what to say after all that introduction. That was kind of amazing and it's it's funny because my prayer. Yeah, exactly. Mic drop. We're done. Um, my prayer through this entire campaign has been that I don't lose who myself is. Like I've I've never been a politician. I'm not a politician. And this isn't really about politics. It's about really taking back California and doing what we need to do.

[00:03:23] And for my friends, because Camille is truly a friend. I still remember the day I met Camille and I remember conversations and trips and everything else with her. It's always been just amazing and fighting for Brian Dolly to win the governor's seat. We way back when is is when we really got close. And so we kind of our friendship was intertwined and and birthed in politics, but it's become so much more than that. So to have a friend introduce me like that. This is this is a pretty big honor.

[00:03:53] And thank you Camille. I appreciate that. So, yeah, I was just going to say let's hop in. Brian, why don't you give yourself a quick introduction? Why did you jump into this race? Let's start there. Give a little bit of background who you are and what prompted you to jump into the 45th district for assembly?

[00:04:15] Well, we can start that. I want to make sure that we go into in the beginning of this conversation, kind of what the heck is a assembly person, because I jump into these podcasts all the time and we start talking and a lot of people really have no idea. And first and foremost, a lot of people on our side of the fence. And first of all, I want to I want to make very, very clear. I don't think there's sides of fences.

[00:04:39] I think really the reason we're in the situation we're in in California is because we have drawn a line of the sand and we had to pick sides. And everybody in the middle are the people that are being affected by all these different laws. But when I started going back and forth to Sacramento and negotiating and fighting against bad bills for our kids, I started to realize what the assembly was.

[00:05:03] And I also realized that up in Sacramento, there are legislators up there that are affecting us in such a bad way in California in so many different ways. For example, Scott Wiener is probably one of the worst legislators that we have ever seen in California as far as conservative biblical belief values. He's probably one of the worst. He's probably one of the worst to affect our kids. He's probably one of the worst. Yeah.

[00:05:34] Yet he is probably the most well funded Democrat in Sacramento. And a lot of his funding, I would even venture to say most of it comes from out of his district. And it's because the Democrats have figured out that if your policy, if you believe in what that person is saying, you do whatever it takes to get them in office. Because you want their voice in Sacramento.

[00:06:03] So every time I talk about politics like this, I tell everybody, I'm just a dad. I'm a business owner. I'm a guy that back in 2020 got extremely involved in school politics. But because of my business background, I understood and knew that it wasn't going to be getting in front of a microphone and yelling at somebody sitting on a board that was going to get something accomplished.

[00:06:26] It was going to be sitting in front of them face to face and negotiating through what our values, what our beliefs, what our ideas were about how to fix the situation we were in. And through that, I ended up in Sacramento in a very short amount of time. And I've been back and forth to Sacramento. I can't even tell you how many times.

[00:06:46] And it's been to not just go before the assembly and say, I'm here and I'll pose this bill, but to actually sit down face to face with our legislators and negotiate through what we're dealing with down here.

[00:06:59] And what I realized, and the reason why through my hand in the ring is, we as normal everyday people that go to work, that take our kids to school, that have to pay our bills, that go to the grocery store and have to negotiate between milk and eggs because they're so expensive right now. We as everyday people do not have a voice in Sacramento. I am that voice. I am that difference.

[00:07:27] I am that person that is going to take my skills and what God has taught me how to do in business and negotiation and moving things across a line when both sides don't necessarily agree with the table. I'm the guy that's going to go to Sacramento and get that done. And I've done it my entire professional career in business, in sales, in everything that I've done. I've done it over and over and over again.

[00:07:53] And one thing that we don't realize here in California is there's 39 million people in California, a little bit more, a little bit less, 39 million. And there's 80 members of the assembly. Yet when you meet at a person running for assembly, the first question usually out of people's mouth is, where's your district? Because they want to get excited about voting for them. And the reality is voting is only one step. It takes money.

[00:08:23] It takes knocking doors. It takes phone banking. It takes talking to your neighbors. It takes a lot of work and effort to win these seats. And right now in 2026, we have candidates all over the place that are phenomenal candidates. And if we flip just seven seats, the gas prices that we're dealing with go away. The bullet train goes away.

[00:08:49] The education system that we're fighting so deeply every day as parents gets fixed. The high inflation prices, but everything that we're dealing with on a day to day basis as normal citizens. Goes back to common sense. If we just flip seven seats. That's why I'm running Phil. Well, we have a lot to unpack.

[00:09:15] We got a lot to get to in terms of I want to break down a lot of these policy things you bring up on your website. But first, there's a couple of people checking in Mendocino County. I want to give a shout out to people in the chat. Mendocino County saying Jose, if you have any questions for Greg or any specific questions. You say that if we just get seven, it will change things. It'll go back to common sense. And I'm going to push back on that a little bit.

[00:09:40] That is that you're saying the super majority will be broken, but Democrats will still be in power. So in terms of these things will go away, it's more, it's a harder path for Democrats to just ram through their legislation. So is that what you're saying? Because I don't want to give listeners the wrong impression that it's if we get seven, all of a sudden we're like, everything's great. Gas prices, $2 a gallon, the high speed rail disappears and all that.

[00:10:09] Well, no, not to give them false hope. But what happens is we now have a seat at the table. The problem right now in Sacramento is literally Republicans can stay home. They don't have a seat at the table. They don't have a voice. They don't, they don't have any weight in California and Sacramento at all. And it's because of the super majority. They don't need us there at all. So they don't have to sit at a table and negotiate. There's no reason to. Yeah.

[00:10:39] And that's, that's what I wanted. We've, we've said that on the show before about how you have to break the super majority because without, you know, I think it's a little bit more about how you have to negotiate. I think it's a little bit more about how you have to negotiate at all with Republicans. There's no representation for how many Republicans are in California. I mean, what was it? 4 million voted for president Trump back in 2024. Most of any state. So think about there's 4 million Republicans who just voted, who did not get a voice or a seat at the table in our own state legislature.

[00:11:08] So that's something that, you know, it seems like it's not that far to break the super majority. It's not as, as powerful as people think it is doing the correct, the seven seats. Um, I want to also go back to the district you're running in, in the 45th district. It is, has been a democratic seat for several cycles. Now, Jorge Ramos is the incumbent.

[00:11:34] Um, you passed on, you've moved on to the general, but you polling wise, you were still behind Jorge Ramos. So I want to dive into that a little bit because it's important for people to understand in races that are uphill battles. How are you planning to make up that ground and catch up to a Jorge Ramos who is an incumbent who has that, that, that advantage? Yeah. I love the question. It's actually a great question.

[00:12:02] We've been diving in and breaking it down for over a year and a half now. And it simply comes down to who's willing to outwork the other person right now in my district. There are enough registered Republican voters and registered independent voters to overwhelm the Democrat voters. But here's what I believe. And this is the attack that we're having is I'm not willing to just sacrifice anybody that's willing to put their name under a Democratic point.

[00:12:32] Cause I don't believe my policies or what I'm standing for are really Democrat or Republican. So when we go out and we knock on doors, we're knocking on Democrats doors. We're having the hard conversations. We're talking to them because I truly believe that whether you're Republican or Democrat, you're sick and tired of the gas prices that we're paying. You're sick and tired of the road conditions that we're dealing with. You're sick and tired of the education system that we're calling education. Yet we don't teach our kids how to read a new math.

[00:13:03] Like these aren't Republican, Democrat history issues. Right now we have voter ID on the ballot. Well, voter ID is a 70% issue. You don't have 70% of Republicans in this state. The only way to get to a 70% issue is if you have Democrat buying. Boys and girls sports. That's an 80% issue.

[00:13:30] Like these aren't issues that are dealing with just one party. These are issues that are dealing with people. And where we've lost our state, where we've lost our politics, where we've lost the right to govern our people is where we've taken people out of the equation. And when you put people back, you start to win and move needles.

[00:13:52] And I love the question about the majority and the super majority, or not, I'm sorry, not the majority, but the voting parameters right now and the balance and the off balance of the Democratic district. It is Democratic district. And I know I'm in an uphill battle. I've known that for the last two years when I decided to run. But we also know that is a very flippable seat. If we flip just 10,000 votes in this cycle, we don't only win the seat.

[00:14:20] We actually secure the seats for future for future elections. And if you look at James Ramos's record, and if you look at his base, last cycle, he spent two and a half million dollars and didn't secure 60% of his own base. He's not liked in the district. He doesn't listen to the district. He's not listening to his constituents. You go talk to people that live literally five miles away from where he's at.

[00:14:49] They have no idea who he is. He sits in his Eiffel Tower. He sits on his throne, and he doesn't do anything for San Bernardino, Redlands, Fontana, Rialto, Highland, Mentone, DeVore, Widel Creek. He doesn't talk to them. If you're part of the Indian tribe, he's all 40. And he votes heavy in Indian favor.

[00:15:14] But the rest of it, he votes party lines up and down the ballot, and he doesn't speak up for his constituents at all. San Bernardino is one of the worst hit cities. I'll let you jump in. I'll keep talking up. No. I, I, let's kind of pivot on those points because you brought up a lot of things about affordability and education and sort of those issues that he votes straight Democrat. Sure. It's going to start one by one.

[00:15:43] You'd brought up that as a business owner, you're familiar with and you've accomplished lowering costs and prices and making things more affordable. Yeah. What would you do specifically in terms of affordability as an assembly member going to Sacramento? Concrete policies that you could introduce. So concrete policies is first you have to deal with, well, I mean, let's just talk about gas alone. You have to get rid of card.

[00:16:12] You have to put common sense back into what we're doing. Right? Californians pay the highest gas price in the nation. And I understand the left is sitting here and trying to say, well, it's Trump's fault and we have a war going on and it's because the world can't get here. And my question would be this.

[00:16:33] If common sense tells us that if we get gassed in the United States from the same source, then why is Californians paying so much more than everybody else? You have to take it back to common sense. You have to look at the, another affordable, you have to look at the budget. Democrats are just past a $355 billion budget. One of the highest budgets we've ever seen in our country.

[00:17:02] Ask yourself this. Just 10 years ago, it was $170 billion. Are you feeling $200 billion better than you did 10 years ago? Because if you're not, then something needs to change in Sacramento. And that's it. Like I'm tired of legislators that are sitting in Sacramento that are just pushing a button and voting and passing bills, passing legislation and not actually talking with common sense. Not speaking for the people.

[00:17:32] If you speak for the people, and if you are one of the people, then when you're looking at a bill that July 1st is going to raise your gas prices again, you don't only vote no, you speak up. You bring light. James doesn't do any of this. He has one of the most impoverished cities in San Bernardino in the state. And it's going backwards. Is he fighting for his people?

[00:18:01] He's not. He's not speaking up for San Bernardino. He's not speaking up for the constituents in his district. And that's what they need. So when you ask specific policy, it's that. Bring common sense back. Bring the votes back to what actually makes sense.

[00:18:22] Don't vote for a $355 billion budget that has these loopholes and NGOs tied into it and things that are not helping California improve its situation. They're basically lining the pockets of the politicians that are up there. Yeah.

[00:18:46] Yeah, it's it's I'm going back to your point about how it's tough to kind of you don't get to see at the table if you're a Republican in Sacramento. So it's tough to kind of propose any policies. But one thing that Republicans have been doing more of I haven't seen them do it recently. They probably should do it more was propose and bring up bills knowing that they're probably going to lose that the Democrats are not going to take them up or they're not going to listen to them.

[00:19:18] But they take up these bills, they bring them to the floor and then they say this is a common sense solution. And then when the Democrats don't take it up or they vote it down, it's a great PR move to then go have a press conference and go tell the California people, hey, we introduced this bill and the Democrats voted it down. Now, that's assuming that you can't break the super majority.

[00:19:42] So that's why I'm kind of asking impressing about specific solutions, because these are things you could introduce. And even if they have a snowball's chance in hell, at least you can make Democrats be on their defense and make them put them on their heels of saying, I'm trying to think what's the one with that Shannon Grove introduced about child sex trafficking?

[00:20:07] Yeah, that she introduced and it got so much public pressure that they had to pass it. So that's why I'm pushing back a little bit more on the specific policies is in terms of repealing the gas tax. Is it a bill that would increase drilling here in California or there's things like that that are kind of percolating in your mind that are specific policies? Well, I understand where you're going, Phil, and I want to answer the question.

[00:20:34] I'm not trying to dodge it, but the challenge is until you until you do something in Sacramento, it's not really about policy. Like even you're talking about right now that that legislators, you haven't seen them lately, put bills forward that that they have to like basically use a bully pulpit to get a current in Sacramento. And I would counter that and say, I think they are. The problem is because they are so outnumbered.

[00:21:03] They literally don't even have to hear them. I was in Sacramento just two months ago where they were, I was on the steps of the parole board. And there are five bills that Republican legislators are trying to get passed and get through the system. And the Democrat majority would not hear a single one. And the bills were such like this. Back in 2020, there were, we thought COVID was going to kill us all.

[00:21:33] Well, some people did. And so they started changing laws and releasing prisoners early out of prison because our prisons were overcrowded. And they were afraid that we were going to lose a bunch of inmates and people were going to die. So they changed the death row sentencing laws so that if you were 50 years old and serve 25 years of your sentence, you could get released early.

[00:21:59] Brian Jones tried to pass a bill that said, we need to change it back. We don't have this issue anymore and make it 60 years and 25, 60 years old and 25 years of your sentence. Wouldn't even hear it. They released six prisoners this year alone that were serving life sentences. One of them was serving 355 years and they released them.

[00:22:27] The only way you get a 355 year sentence is if you're convicted of several things. And this man was convicted of 16 accounts of murder, molestation, rape of little boys that were between the age of four, I think, and 12. And we put them back down on the streets. So, yes, there's laws and there's policy in my head right now. For example, a homeless issue.

[00:22:55] We need to put together and change the laws right now that we're dealing with, with our homeless population, which is we aren't allowed to take a person that's homeless on the streets and treat them in a mental place if they're using drugs. And we can't treat them in a drug place if they have a mental issue.

[00:23:16] So essentially, we have a situation where we can't treat this person if they have multiple issues because we don't allow cross contamination in our system. Well, how is that helping the person that's homeless? It's not. It's not. Right.

[00:23:35] And it's, it's going to be incumbent on, I guess, to make any changes in Sacramento, it's going to be incumbent on working with some rogue Democrats. Yes. Who are, who are going to want to do something about that. And that's something that I think is going to be, we kind of bring this up with every candidate who is running for state legislature because we, they know, we all know that it's a super majority that you have a tough uphill climb.

[00:24:03] So it is a lot of working with moderate Democrats trying to form a coalition in terms of getting something passed, at least getting something heard, maybe even getting something to the floor. But let's go back to this issue of public safety because public safety has become so, I think the pendulum has swung from one side to the other in terms of public safety.

[00:24:28] And I remember the story you're talking about, we actually did a video on it several months ago of this prisoner, David something or other. I can't remember his last name. Yeah. I watched your video. It was 350 years and they released them early or he then went back because he got caught doing something that violated his parole. But thankfully he's not back out on the street, but it's insane that happened. So public safety in California, I think the people have swung back in the other direction where they want public safety.

[00:24:58] They want more policing. They want people who are bad, horrible criminals to stay in jail. And it seems like people in Sacramento, especially like Gavin Newsom, who was not a fan of Prop 36. He didn't fund Prop 36. He didn't want to. He hated Prop 36. Do you get there's a sense going on in California that public safety is becoming a bigger issue that is resonating with voters in San Bernardino specifically?

[00:25:27] I'll ask you that first. And then also statewide. Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, I'll tell you what, let's let you and me get in a car and it's almost dark. We'll cruise out to San Bernardino and hang out at a bar down there. You don't do it. Because you don't feel in San Bernardino safe.

[00:25:47] And San Bernardino isn't safe because our poor police officers that work tirelessly to try to stay within the lines and protect us have had their their privileges and their authority stripped. You're right. Prop 36.

[00:26:05] I think I love answering this question about public safety, because when I decided to start running, I was told by several law enforcement offices, oh, James is very strong on public safety. He supports law enforcement. He supported us in Prop 36. Okay. Well, let's go back to the percentages that we started talking about. Prop 36 passed the California.

[00:26:30] California general with a 68% vote. Nothing passes with 68% in California anywhere. And again, you cannot get a 60% vote without getting Democrats to vote on it. So explain to me then if he's pro public safety and he's pro police, how he's voted several times on budgets to not fund it.

[00:27:01] How? And now I believe it's maybe 21 08 that he's actually voting yes on which strips the authority of Prop 36. Oh, it's not even being funded. Yeah. So the Sacramento is putting through legislation now. That will that will weaken Prop 36, which was written by district attorneys and law enforcement officers to give them back the authority to protect us. The people.

[00:27:30] Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And a pro public safety candidate. Or I'm sorry, legislator that's pro in law enforcement has not said a single word. But I'm sorry. On a bully pulpit on a microphone on the floor in committee, anything. Hey, rather than passing a $355 billion budget without funding Prop 36. My constituents in San Bernardino deserve to have Prop 36 funded.

[00:27:59] Let's fund that first. Hasn't been done. It is 21 08. Is that the one where they're going to force district attorneys to find a reason for a diversion program? Is that the one I'm thinking of? Yes, I believe so. I'm looking through my notes right now to make sure I've got the right number. Yeah. But to your point, it's the record speaks for itself.

[00:28:26] If if even though Gavin Newsom doesn't want to fund it, it doesn't mean Democrats in Sacramento can't fund it themselves. There has been more of a swing and more candidates. I mean, look at a Daniel Laurie in San Francisco. Right. Look at the district attorneys in Los Angeles, who was a former Republican independent, who is a hard line on crime one in Los Angeles.

[00:28:50] So there is a swing back into more policing, stronger criminal sentencing. So in San Bernardino, what what is one of the biggest issues in crime facing your area right now that is not being addressed by your opponent? Um, wow, we could go through that list all day long. Homelessness is not being addressed. Um, smash and grabs are not being addressed.

[00:29:19] Um, early release of prisoners is not being addressed. Your, um, the drug like even the drug situation in San Bernardino County, one of the biggest things that's going on right now. And this is a city and state issue, but you have you have legalized potency in California now. Yet the regulations are not being enforced.

[00:29:42] So you have stores that are opening up without the proper authorization, without the proper permitting, without the proper, um, documentation to do what they're doing right next to a legitimate business. And when they do that, they're doing their funding, they're making their money, but the business guy next door can't get the proper permits to open his door and make his living.

[00:30:06] And you don't have authority in, in the hands of law enforcement to change these things. That's where our problem starts alive. You have to allow police to police. Right? Sam and Ino police department has done an amazing job. Chief Goodman has been in there now for a few years. He's been cleaning it up substantially.

[00:30:33] But when you don't have authority as a law enforcement officer, you have to wear to work within the lines. You can't color outside the lines of law enforcement. And when your state is removing your authority. You can only do so much. Murder rates are down in San Bernardino. But they're not down enough. So kind of dijo the police. The police are holding to their flight.

[00:31:04] The police are holding up in four hours. And action out of the police department is beingальных. I'm calling out. The police department was very complicated. I don't know what I mean by this woman. Not having your body in the law enforcement or data. And I don't remember the police department. I don't know why this person is going to be on a daily basis, or a daily basis of or a daily basis of the police department. so you have to treat them differently why i thought every person is equal so we're dealing

[00:31:31] with things like that in san ronino we're dealing with things like that all over california but predominantly in our lower income areas in our areas that have been hit the hardest it's it's harder to deal with and if we don't fix things like that then you don't bring businesses back to california you don't bring businesses back to san ronino you don't bring economy back because people don't want to be involved in that environment

[00:32:00] people right now are driving around san ronino they're not stopping in san ronino and that needs to change and that doesn't change if you don't allow law enforcement to clean up the streets if you don't clean up your homeless situation if you don't clean up your trash if you don't clean up your graffiti if you don't do those things and the cities and the police departments locally can only work within the bounds of what sacramento is willing to give them and that's why we need to

[00:32:29] change it yeah and to your story i don't think people often see it a lot of people do but i don't think a lot of people often see that public safety is also an economic issue it is an economic issue because when businesses feel like they are not operating in safe neighborhoods they either leave they see reduced profits they don't hire as much i mean san francisco is a perfect example of what

[00:32:57] happened when crime overran downtown san francisco and you saw a lot of the big stores the big anchor stores like the macy's and a lot of these big store that people used to go to in union square just got up and left and said we're not going to be here for if it's going to be like this so it's important that people also understand crime is an economic issue because it hurts the businesses

[00:33:21] which hurts the town overall and it stops people from coming into your town to spend money and it's just a a horrible deterrent or kind of i guess weight on the on the specifics of community um is that a good way to put it that's a great way to put it so i was in construction for 16 years and i'll tell you a real story um i'm i'm in my truck i'm on the phone with my business partner i'm on

[00:33:51] my way to get parts from home depot we all know home depot this particular home depot in san verdivino had a a armed guard at the door and as i'm getting out of my truck i realize there's a guy running at me and the armed guards running behind them so i immediately get off the phone and i start chasing the guy to help the officer or the security guard and then i realize in a couple minutes

[00:34:20] the guard is now chasing me and he's yelling at me and all of a sudden i'm like what is going on so i stop and i turn around i go what he goes don't chase him i go aren't you chasing him he said well no i'm just i'm kind of sort of pretending to chase him i go what do you mean he goes we can't legally touch him we're only trying to deter him from coming back i'm like what do you have a gun on you for

[00:34:47] he said looks he goes i literally do not have the authority to do anything when did that become okay like do you don't want to take your your your kids to the grocery store and watch that and and the like you're saying it affects us the economy yeah because if businesses are losing money because we're allowing people to steal goods then we as law-abiding citizens pay more now for the

[00:35:17] goods that we want because the store is losing money on the goods that are being stolen it's a circle effect yeah it absolutely is uh we have before we get too deep into public safety and all this i do want to pivot to public education in california come on uh right now we rank 38th out of the whole nation

[00:35:41] uh for the amount of money we spend per pupil is one of the highest in the nations as well in terms of public education uh obviously not seeing a return on investment for students here in california so let's dive in there what are your initial thoughts about public education here in california well i think you can't talk about public education without talking about parents rights

[00:36:12] and as i've started my race and as i've really kind of dove into that conversation poor camille i feel bad she's like off and on this whole entire podcast she's trying i know she's trying um i remember when i was going to school i even remember when i was raising my daughters

[00:36:33] that the conversation on um parent teacher night was parents we need you involved it's your responsibility to give your kids a good dinner get them to bed on time help them do their homework and get them to school on time we need your kids here awake alert and ready to learn so we can teach them

[00:37:02] now the conversation is uh like ab 1905 that ramos voted yes on parents shouldn't have the right to know what's going on in their own kids lives medically sexually the gender expression don't want them to be involved so i'd ask you as californians is that better because we've gone backwards in education

[00:37:30] there's a statistic out right now that i i researched and i would challenge you viewers google this check this out see if i'll see if i'm right most children if they don't know how to read by the third grade if they're out reading by the third grade their success rate in school drops by over 50 percent

[00:37:54] our fourth graders in the state of california 29 of them can read most of our graduating seniors right now cannot read at an eighth grade level what are we doing to our children we have spent so much time and so much money and so much energy in our education system on creating

[00:38:22] diversity equality inclusion fairness love all do all these things right we've forgotten the basics we're not teaching math we're not teaching reading we're not teaching science the way we used to i'll give you a perfect example um i have two daughters that i raised my biological daughters i have two more

[00:38:49] kids that are now my stepchildren but my two daughters at arms raising both of them are brilliant both of them amazing both of them were ap students so my older daughter pre-covid takes an ap english class and read almost 16 books her senior year my 21 year old my second daughter took the same english class

[00:39:16] post-covid by the last semester the last quarter she had not read a single book both of them got a's in the class and my younger daughter did not read a book because she didn't want to do homework it was never assigned what are we doing to our kids that's my question and if you like what you're doing

[00:39:43] your kids keep voting the way you're voting if you don't then we need to change how much do you think is since we do spend an inordinate amount of money on public education um which is constitutionally mandated by the way that's something we can get into a whole issue about that in prop 98 how much of it goes to not the teachers because i never like to lambast the teachers i think the

[00:40:11] teachers here in california who are public school teachers they're not the the wrongdoers here they're not the no they're not the bad guys they're they're fighting an uphill battle where they have to they they're not dealing with the best situation which again brings you back to we're spending all this money on public education we have public school teachers who are still buying their own supplies where's the money going why is this not transparent with californians as to where is the money going

[00:40:42] and who is it going i have an idea of who it's going to but i want to hear your answer first before we talk about my answer sure so a lot of your education is going to to it's it's the wrong side well let me go backwards i would agree with you 100 the majority of our teachers in our schools right now if you look

[00:41:05] at what a teaching profession is they're not doing this because it's some lucrative job they're not doing this because it's celebrity status they're not doing this because of you know some great benefit package that they're giving as teachers they're doing it because they love teachers um and teachers on a whole are an amazing group of people they really really are and i think they're

[00:41:35] doing it because of their love of education and the love of kids i really believe that and i think we need to support them more i think one of the biggest problems with our funding is it's an upside down pyramid in my opinion they're paying more money to admin unions um facilities than they are to the actual teacher the teacher is the last person on the totem pole to get paid out of that funding for your

[00:42:05] students and so when you have like right here where i'm not um near my district not in my district you've got a superintendent of education for a district that's making over four hundred thousand dollars a year the governor doesn't make that much money so the governor governs 39 million people this superintendent is over less than 25 000 students and somehow that deserves 400 grand a year

[00:42:34] but when you're voting on your own raises when you're voting on your own budgets when your board is conditioned to keep you in the position that you're in that's what's happening in our education system and that is not a state issue but it does definitely need to get fixed yeah it's well you answered correct i wouldn't say correctly you you answered in ingredients with how i

[00:43:01] would say it it's definitely going to the bureaucrats it's going to the unions it's going to administrators who are making a ton of money um yeah someone said in the in the comments that she said her daughter teaches fourth grade in redlands many parents don't even show up for parent teacher conferences classes are 30 plus students some don't speak english that's an issue as well um what would you do we talk we talk about it now i want to hear what would be a policy

[00:43:29] that you'd like to introduce that could potentially fix what's going on with public education so i've actually been talking to some of the administrators and some of the principals in my district and i think one of the biggest things that's challenging our two teachers right now is um the extra amount of weight that the state has been putting on our teachers so for example when we were going to school we'd pack a lunch we'd eat breakfast at home we'd go to school and then we

[00:43:57] would get educated and then the other side of that is all the all the the extra emotional learning information that we now deem necessary for our kids all of that's being put on your teachers the school day is still the same length if not shorter than it was back then yet you're trying to add all this stuff in and and maybe our legislators in sacramento don't understand basic math and that's

[00:44:25] why this is not working right but you can't physically do that so my idea is this take it out of the responsibility of the schools put in the responsibility of organizations outside there's separate funding for already out of sacramento redirect the funding so that your your your breakfasts that are served to the majority of our kids now we don't buy lunches anymore every student gets lunch um there's

[00:44:51] after school care put the emotional learning into those programs take it out of the classroom do it in a different environment so that you could open the door for the teachers to actually teach let them educate that's what they were designed to do that's what they wanted to do that's why they signed up to be teachers let them teach

[00:45:16] mm-hmm yeah it needs to be a redirect of money and where it's going to the most important and it can't be going to bureaucrats and administrators um before we finish out we're coming up on nine o'clock uh one last question you had a story about how you were a pretty good baseball player in myself being a former baseball player and huge baseball fan um why don't you tell us a little bit about that personal story

[00:45:40] i thought it was a pretty interesting story um about yourself which one are you referring trigger my memory i've got a few stories i don't know which one's on the website it says a family first the baseball story uh when your family faced severe financial hardship oh pursue collegiate sports or into the workforce to support your yeah wow you're gonna hit hard aren't you phil so um i was blessed to be able to go to a

[00:46:07] christian school and up in apple valley you know the school doesn't doesn't exist anymore but my parents really felt that a christian education was going to be better than the public schools that were up there and so my sophomore year my dad actually lost his job um i was ranked in the state um i i i had a pretty good baseball career in high school i was looked at not really because of me but because we had some guys on the team that were really really good so when they're really good then you have scouts that

[00:46:36] are there that you get noticed if you're just good um so i had a bunch of different scholar college scholarship offers coming out of high school and i sat there one night and i was praying and i i was really struggling with the fact that i was getting ready to go to college on a baseball scholarship i was gonna have you know three square meals a day one bed all this stuff and my family was

[00:47:01] struggling my dad was was fighting to make ends meet he was fighting to put food on the table and i was a capable worker and i sat down with my dad and i said i'll tell you what i said if i get the offer from cal state fullerton i'll go to school if i don't i'm going to work well when the letter came from cal state fullerton i hid it in my top drawer which if he hears this podcast he's probably going to

[00:47:30] find that out and i opened it a year later and i got the i got the offer from cal state fullerton and i didn't take it i went to work because i couldn't see going to do all that and live that life when my family was was hurting so i went to work and i don't regret a single bit of it um god has a plan for us in every single way and if you truly believe that your path is ordained by him then when it comes down

[00:48:00] to it you're in the right place at the right time i could be anywhere in this country right now but for some reason god has put me in the 45th district he's put me in the state of california and he's made me a fighter from a very young age and i really feel it's to take back the 45th and to make california a better place and a safer place for us to live that's an incredible story so you had already made up your mind and just put the letter in your top drawer yeah i did

[00:48:30] yeah um so yeah it's an incredible story of choosing family over or over your personal ambitions but it's a it's a great story heartwarming to really speaks to you as a character which is why i think camille if she was here on the show right now positive having some technical difficulties i can see why you and her so close and she trusts you and calls you a close friend um what position did you

[00:48:55] play all of them shortstop no i played second base and saying catcher but second base was uh kind of my primary okay i was a third baseman and catcher so nobody ever wanted that's cool yeah nobody ever wanted to play catcher nobody wanted to sit behind the plate and i was like i thought it was cool mike piazza was uh coming up exactly big mets fan so mike piazza just got traded to the mets and i was like i'm gonna be a catcher and change my number to 31 all right greg we're coming

[00:49:25] up on nine o'clock where can people go find out more about you and support you so my my website is the biggest place to go abdos for c and that's a b d o u c h f o r c a dot com follow me on instagram same handle abdos for c a one of the biggest things i tell everybody when i'm talking to people is this

[00:49:49] if my story resonates if my ideas resonate with you if you believe that california is not done if you're one of the people that still live in california because you haven't left because i know every single one of us is considered leaving and you feel that california is worth fighting for than donate you don't have to donate a lot five dollars helps if you can donate five hundred dollars

[00:50:15] that's even better but donating running the campaign is extremely expensive i can't do this alone and even though some of your listeners cannot vote for me on a ballot they can vote for me now the other thing is volunteer we've got a massive ground game that's coming to fruition right now we need volunteers we have almost 100 registered now we are going to hit the doors we're going to hit the streets we're going

[00:50:42] to knock on every single voter's door that we possibly can and we're going to win the 45th and when we win the 45th it helps california up and down the state it's not just samarino so the biggest thing is follow me donate and volunteer awesome well greg thank you for coming on i'm glad camille recommended you for coming on as a guest tonight again yeah she was here with us to join in the chat i guess we'll have

[00:51:10] to have another show with you on to discuss more maybe later in the race or something like that um but for but for all those who are out there listening make sure you like share subscribe review all that stuff helps with the algorithm helps more people find us and the best thing you can do to support our show that is 100 free is make sure you share it with somebody else especially if you're in san bernardino share this show with somebody else and we'll see you on the next one later later you you you