Ep. 269: Candidate with Andrew Hayes - Candidate for State Assembly

[00:00:00] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the same person, this is the Political Podcast for you. It's the California Underground Podcast. What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning

[00:00:28] into another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I am your host Phil. As always with me my trusty co-host, the best and fastest researcher in the West. And tonight we have a special guest with us talking about his candidacy for the 75th District in the

[00:00:41] California State Assembly. And that's why I'm wearing my local elections matter t-shirt because local elections matter as much as we've been talking about presidential stuff. This is the stuff that matters. If you want to change California, it starts right here. Our guest

[00:00:56] tonight is Andrew Hayes. Andrew, welcome to the program. How are you? I'm great. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So why don't we just dive right in? Tell us a little bit about yourself, a

[00:01:07] little background so people can get to know you and then we'll go from there. Absolutely. Well, thank you again for having me. So I was born and raised in East County, San Diego, currently live in Lakeside. And where I serve is the School Board President

[00:01:22] in Lakeside. And I've served, I've been reelected twice to the board. And, you know, I got started in politics as a grassroots activist in college. So I started walking doors for our local Republican Party. And from there, I met a lot of local leaders and

[00:01:38] activists. And then I got hired to work in the legislature. And then I got encouraged to run for School Board and Lakeside in part because the person that I chose to run against at that time, she was a 24 year incumbent. So she had been there

[00:01:53] quite a long time. And I'd seen the district where I went to school starting to move in the direction of a lot of other school districts that we're seeing across our state, you know, like San Diego Unified and others that

[00:02:05] are just, you know, saying to the state, whatever you tell us, we're going to do kind of thing. And I just I couldn't accept that because that's not Lakeside. That's not my community. That's not where I grew up. That's not where

[00:02:15] my friends sent their kids, right? I mean, it's just not it wasn't a place to do that. So I said, I'm going to run and I won. And then I ran again and I won re-election. And so we've had a lot of great

[00:02:26] wins in my district that we can talk about later. But, you know, I really am just trying to make a difference locally. And as you say, local elections, they truly matter. And, you know, when I got elected to the school board,

[00:02:38] I was in a 4-1 minority. I had two Democrats there. I had two Republicans in name only really, because they would vote for tax increases and other things and then me. And so, you know, you can imagine that that's overwhelming because when you first get elected, you're going,

[00:02:53] my gosh, I need to get something accomplished. And what I realized is, you know what? I just got to speak out and fight on the issues. And now we have a 5-0 board that I've helped flip over the past

[00:03:04] many years. And I've also helped other boards do that. And so it's really about finding those issues. So that's a little about me and where I'm from. I went to UNSD in San Diego, I have two degrees and I've worked for

[00:03:15] the state legislature. I've worked for two different legislators and my knowledge about, you know, state and local policy is pretty deep. Yeah, we've talked about on this show and, you know, I want to dive into this.

[00:03:26] The, you know, running for school board. A lot of people are like, well, how do I get involved in politics? Where's a good place to start? School board is a great place to get started. And people, especially now, you know, maybe five, 10 years ago,

[00:03:39] it didn't seem super sexy, but with COVID and lockdowns. And now we have AB 1955, like school boards are really important. I think people are starting to realize that on a local level, how important school boards are. Can you talk about that a little bit in terms of like,

[00:03:57] how important it is to just pay attention to who's on your school board? Absolutely. So, you know what? I'm so glad you brought that up because when I first ran for the school board in Lakeside, I was going door to door and talking to voters.

[00:04:10] And one thing that it really shocked me quite honestly, what people would tell me at the door, they say, well, that's your job as the school, you guys handle that. And I'm going, don't give me that authority. Why are you giving your elected officials that kind of authority?

[00:04:23] Like, I mean, bad things happen when you just say, oh, hey, that's your job. You do that. No problem. And by the way, we've seen kind of the result of that apathy, if you will. And and so what ended up happening was when COVID and by the way,

[00:04:37] COVID really opened people's eyes, I think, to what is going on in schools. And the boardrooms, when I first got elected, there was nobody there. When COVID happened, everybody started showing up because they started seeing what was happening in their schools, what the state curriculum really looks like,

[00:04:57] what the state curriculum really wants to teach our kids, right? What all this stuff is being pushed on our kids. And so I think COVID really showed that that school districts are the front line of the fight right now in local politics.

[00:05:13] And one of the things that I always tell people who want to run for office and a lot of times people want to run for office their first time and run for Congress or run for the state assembly or whatever.

[00:05:24] And I always say, listen, I appreciate that, but we got to get people. You got to have that local experience because I'm going to tell you when you're elected to a local school board, and I'll just give you the perspective school districts like mine in Lakeside,

[00:05:38] we have a 70 million dollar budget and we employ 700 people in the community. We are the largest employer in Lakeside. And when you look at all of those things, you get a wide variety of experience. And why do I mention that? I mentioned that because you learn about governance,

[00:05:58] you learn about how to move the needle and you learn about how to get people elected and swing the politics of your board, right? And you get to you get to cut your teeth and advocate for issues and build a record.

[00:06:10] I had a mentor early in my career who said it's an older phrase. But when a man promises you the world tomorrow, ask him what he did. Yesterday, somebody who just says, hey, I want to go out and run. That's awesome.

[00:06:22] Now, if you're a businessman and you've built, you know, if you're Trump, right, and you've built billion dollars in business, right? OK, you've got a record. But if you've never run before or you've never built a business,

[00:06:31] you've never done anything and you've cut your teeth on a school board or anything like that and you have a record that you can point to that's fighting for issues, that's a good thing. Right. And that helps build our bench

[00:06:41] and we certainly need to build our bench more. So I think that when we look at all of the local politics, school boards are the front line because parents are being under assault from Sacramento constantly. I mean, AB 1955 is just one example, but COVID opened people's eyes

[00:06:58] and I'm glad about that. So I want parents to still come to board meetings and be engaged because they're the front line. That's where people should be running. They should be looking for waterboards, fire boards, all this stuff impacts your daily life more than more than quite frankly,

[00:07:11] more than the presidency does. Right. Well, what a go you mentioned when you were talking on doors and people were saying, well, that's your job, you do that, you figure it out. On your website, you mentioned that you defeated being on the school board.

[00:07:23] You defeated a 66 million dollar tax increase. And that would obviously hear they're saying that's your job. You figure it out. People don't realize actually school boards can increase taxes on you. Can you speak to that a little bit? What was that?

[00:07:36] And well, that was a great job because it was non. Yeah, no, thank you for that. It was nonsense is what it was. And I'll tell you why. So I get on the board and it was one of the first battles I had to fight.

[00:07:48] The next battle I had to fight was the equity math stuff that we hear about. But that first tax battle was over a bond. And we all know that school bonds are property tax increases.

[00:08:00] And so when a school district says, hey, we want to leverage a bond on you, we want to we want to increase taxes on your property. Well, what they do is they love to say, oh, it's only going to cost you,

[00:08:10] you know, six dollars a month and it's blah, blah, blah. All this gobbledygook stuff they try to tell you to move the needle. But what I tell everybody is look under the hood. Take a look at actually what's in the bond language.

[00:08:21] And so what ended up happening was as my superintendent and approached me and said, oh, Andrew, you know, as best dose is in our ceilings and our pipes are full of lead and the kids are there basically everybody's dying and we need to we need to,

[00:08:33] you know, build new school facilities, et cetera, et cetera. And the bond is the only way to do it. It was a 66 million dollar bond on property with 30 percent, 30 percent, mind you of that going to soft costs consultants. Absolutely.

[00:08:52] And I'm going, holy moly, no way am I going to do this? This is insane. Not only did the district previously to me getting on the board pass two bonds and those projects weren't even completed, right? You're asked you're coming back to the trough and asking for more

[00:09:07] and then 30 percent is going to go to, you know, a consultant fees. This is typical government crap that everybody hates. And so I fought back and we defeated it. So I was the lone no vote on that.

[00:09:19] And then what I did is I organized with our local community members and our local party and we defeated that. And then Lakesiders voted 66 percent to say, heck no, we don't want this bond.

[00:09:31] So I mean, we killed that bond and people are not trustable of don't trust government, right? They think government sucks, which most of the time it does. And so when I look at all of this, I go, that's just one way to the school board

[00:09:45] member can impact local elections. But then you know what I did with that? With that knowledge, those four colleagues had voted for that bond. I used it to flip seats in my district. I used it to beat them at the ballot box and replace them with people

[00:09:59] who were taxpayer minded and focused, right? That matters. So you really have to, when you're electing people at your local level, you need to know if they're going to vote for taxes or not.

[00:10:08] You got to know if they're going to vote for any of this, because what they'll tell you is all it's for the kids, oh, it's for this, oh, it's for the teachers, oh, it's for this. And those are great buzzwords to use.

[00:10:16] But when you look under the hood and you say, hey, 30 percent is going to consultant costs, that's nonsense. And of course people in the district, in administration at least, have not forgiven me since I defeated that. I mean, they are they still hate me because I defeated that.

[00:10:32] So and obviously so right there probably to get 30 some of that 30 percent. Yeah, it's especially I always tell people when they see the word bond anywhere on their ballot. For me, it's an automatic no. I always say no on bond because it just means more debt.

[00:10:47] Talk about you. So your work alone is impressive on the school board to defeat that. But going from four one to five oh, I think is more impressive because you took what you had learned and said, OK, we're going to flip

[00:11:03] more local seats, which is so crucial right now here in California. Can you talk a little bit about what you did and what was your strategy to start kind of picking off those seats one by one? Yep. So what I would do, covid was super helpful on this

[00:11:18] because the parents of my community wanted our schools to reopen and they wanted them open now. We wanted them open early and lakeside we opened early. So what I did is I started a coalition. So I created what was called school board members for local control.

[00:11:32] And I called all of the board members that I possibly could that I knew it had numbers for in San Diego County. And I said, hey, I want you to join this coalition because we're going to be able to push back on Newsome together.

[00:11:45] We don't win without a coalition. Coalition building is critical to beating Goliath. You've got to have people with you. You cannot win on your own. You know, screaming on Fox News is not going to win you anything. You have to be able to build coalitions to do that.

[00:12:00] So when I got, when I built that coalition, what I would do is I would say, OK, we're all going to open early. We're all going to push together and I would agendize votes so that to reopen and I would place them on the agenda.

[00:12:13] I'd call a special meeting. I'd learn the rules of my policies as a board member, which I'd learned over the past few years and just add votes to the agenda. Now, the board president at the time in my district was so angry

[00:12:24] when I would do that because I would just add the vote to the agenda. Well, you can't do that. You have to go through me. I said, who says there's no one who says that I'm a board member. I have equal access to it.

[00:12:32] I added it to the agenda. Any member of the public can add an item to a school board school board agenda. So when they tried to circumvent me and they wouldn't let me at it, I called in supporter and said, will you go to the district

[00:12:44] and say under ed code, I want to add this and then it's added. Why is that important? Well, when they would vote down reopening schools, they put themselves on record again and again and again with packed rooms of parents seeing that they weren't willing to reopen schools.

[00:12:59] And one of these members lost by 400 votes. I guarantee you it was those 400 members of the public in the room who saw them vote repeatedly against it that got them not elected again.

[00:13:11] Right? And so when you look at this and plus all the work that we did on the ground, but I think that the core point is finding these issues where they put themselves up on record voting for it that I can use in our community

[00:13:25] and they don't represent that these people didn't represent Lakeside. I mean, they didn't represent the community. They were supposedly elected to serve. They did not represent it. They they flaunted it and said, no, we're going to do what we think is best.

[00:13:37] No, the people clearly wanted us to reopen and all the science told us we could and all the science told us that it's actually safer for kids to be in school than it was for them to be at home.

[00:13:48] And we knew all of those things were true and we saw that in the data and they just wouldn't acknowledge it. So we put them I put them up on record, on taxes, on COVID, on masking, a mass choice for families, all the rest.

[00:14:00] I was able to do that and we won. And it was fantastic because we went from I mean, we flipped the whole board and it was and it was it took me a while to chip away. It took me two election cycles to do it.

[00:14:10] But but we did it. And then I helped others do it, right? In other areas of the community and other areas of these counties. And so that to me, I'm just very grateful that that we were able to keep our seats and then go on offense.

[00:14:21] I had a good question now. I forgot it. I'm sorry. I talked. No, it's it's it's it's fine. I was I was no the fact that the that one member lost by 400 votes. I don't think people really understanding California.

[00:14:37] And I think there's so much apathy of voters who are like, it'll never change. We're such a deep blue state. Like why does it matter? We're always getting wiped out. And it's like if you look at a lot of races up and down the ticket,

[00:14:50] up and down the state, a lot of local races are this close. They are literally 400, 500 votes. Like they're less than 1000 votes and people are pretending like, oh, everyone's just getting wiped out because it's it's all a deep blue state.

[00:15:05] Not so when it comes to like local elections and school boards. And you know, like your seat that you're running for, all of these seats can be decided. What was it? Greg Willis out in like Palm Palm Springs. I was like a couple hundred votes.

[00:15:21] Like it's insane how close that was. And I think people really need to to know that, like, you got to show up. Like you got to show up and get out there and vote because it does make a difference.

[00:15:31] Is have you seen that in your your time in politics? That how close it is and tell people like these are close races. You got to show up. Yeah, one of my one of my closest friends, most ardent supporters is on a city council

[00:15:44] and he won his election by five votes. Oh, wow. And I mean, we had to we had to we pulled out all the stops to help and ensure that that, you know, we went to we did the ballot checking.

[00:15:56] We did all the stuff that we needed to do to be helpful and make sure that he won by five votes. Right. But but I mean five votes. So I always tell people if you say and look, I understand

[00:16:07] I totally get why people are angry and frustrated about the system. I get it. I mean, I do. Probably better than most people. I mean, I see it. I understand why people would be pissed off. I mean, I get pissed off all the time.

[00:16:20] But I think that the thing for me is, is that don't let that impact you going out and doing your civic duty and voting and working to make change in your neighborhood. That is don't tell the person who one by five votes

[00:16:36] or one by 81 votes that your vote doesn't count. They don't want to hear it because they know that your vote for them could have counted. Right. And it would have been better. But just because you feel we're getting wiped out, which, by the way,

[00:16:48] in California at a national level, I understand why people don't want to vote for the president in this state. I get it. We're spoken for. I understand you got to do it anyway. Why? Because California helped deliver Trump last time, popular vote wise.

[00:17:02] Right. I mean, it was it was so important that when we voted, we raised that popular vote number for Trump. We did the most volunteering for Trump from California. I mean, I always tell people it's so important to look at those things

[00:17:14] is that California does have a lot of influence. So I don't want people to be discouraged to not vote. They need to know that your water board member who can raise your fees and rates and all the rest,

[00:17:25] somebody you don't really like could get elected by five votes or somebody who you really like could get elected by five votes. So your vote does matter. And I don't and I get it. People are mad and upset, but you got to get out.

[00:17:39] You got to be a part of the process because if you don't and you take a seat and you sit back, then you're not a part of the process. Absolutely. I do want to kind of go back and get your views from a school board perspective on AB 1955.

[00:17:57] And it's something we've been talking about a lot in the sense of how big California is. It's 58 counties. There's a ton of localities up and down the state that I don't even know exists. And, you know, we joke.

[00:18:11] We had a guy on who's running way up in like the border of Oregon. I'd never heard of the town. I didn't know where it was. Camille and I didn't know, but sounds beautiful. That's how big the state is.

[00:18:24] So it's we talk about how Sacramento is kind of attacking this idea of local control where voters say, look, this is the school board we voted in. These are the members we voted in based on the policies we believe they will enact.

[00:18:39] And Sacramento comes in and goes, no, no, no, we believe because we're run by, you know, far life Democrats who all come from the Bay Area. We think you should adhere to our point of view. How frustrating is that as a school board member

[00:18:53] from that local level to feel like your local power is just being sapped by Sacramento? It's exceedingly frustrating. And it's a problem I've dealt with since I've gotten on the board here in Lakeside. And so what I had to make a decision very early on is,

[00:19:11] you know, am I just going to sit back and accept what Sacramento says? Or am I going to be somebody who says, no, we're going to push back on stuff. And I made the decision we're going to push back.

[00:19:18] So when COVID came, we fought for local control, right? And we said, listen, we cannot do this. We need to have local control. We're going to use local health metrics. We're going to do all these things that because we're local, we know Lakeside. I was elected in Lakeside.

[00:19:32] I was not elected in Sacramento. And I was in the Bay Area did not elect me. Right? I mean, my community elected me. I know Lakeside better than anybody else does, right? Because I was elected here.

[00:19:44] And that's part of my argument is, listen, we deserve to have local control. And by the way, if the state wants to run everything, get rid of the locally elected boards then, get rid of us. If you'd- Ideas? I mean, right? I mean, I know.

[00:19:58] But what I'm saying is that like, do you want to run this stuff? Because they think they're going to compel us to do it. I'm okay with, you know, I want us to fight. I want us to push back.

[00:20:07] So when it comes to bills like AB 1955 or COVID stuff, sometimes we don't have a choice because they'll say, oh, you've got to push this down. My argument is you have a choice to sue them and you can go to court and you can take them to court.

[00:20:20] And so that's what I'm working on trying to get my district on board to sue the state and join the lawsuit against 1955. We're already in federal court. We joined the Mirabelle versus Olson case from Escondido Union, which these two teachers had said, listen, we don't want to-

[00:20:39] We're not going to keep the gender of our kids secret from parents because it violates our First Amendment freedom of religion and it violates our rights. And they- The judge locally in the federal court said, yes, that's- Yes, that's a complete violation of your rights.

[00:20:53] And so my district joined on and said, we're going to push on this too. It's a violation of our rights as well and we're not going to walk into this problem either. And so we joined that and so we're suing them in federal court over that very issue,

[00:21:06] the 1955 issue where it's saying, school districts can't compel teachers to tell parents about the gender identity of students. And so the state law, by the way, is just stupid. It's redundant and it's not even- It's so much grandstanding that I just can't even fathom.

[00:21:28] I mean, it's just ridiculous. 70% of Californians don't support a policy like that and it's just the loudest people do. And the arguments for the bill are, well, these kids are going to get hurt at home. And I tell them, have you ever heard of something called mandated reporting?

[00:21:45] Have you ever heard that a school district staff or board member or anyone, if you think a kid is getting attacked at home, you should have already reported that. Like, I mean, this is stuff that- It's just red herrings to get away from the fact

[00:21:59] that they want our school districts to trans our kids, in many cases, right? They want this opportunity to do so. And everybody goes, oh no, they don't want that to happen. And I go, well, let's just talk about it then. Why is the age of consent

[00:22:13] for mental health services in schools 12 years old? I mean, I'm sorry, but it is. But it is. And so the 12 year old kid could go, so let's talk about a scenario. I always get people a scenario in this and they go, that's not possible.

[00:22:26] I said, well, tell me how it's not possible. So a 12 year old kid goes to a school counselor and under the law, they say, I'm Jimmy, but they're actually Jane and I'm Jimmy. Well, the law says that that 12 year old can consent to outpatient services.

[00:22:42] So the counselor in theory could say, okay, Jimmy, I know a fantastic therapist or any kind of outpatient service and you should go speak to them. And I won't tell your parents and they can refer them. That's a scenario, the way the law.

[00:23:00] The therapist is going to affirm them. Yeah, right? I mean, that's a scenario. That's a scenario. I have four kids. My youngest is 12, she'll be 13 next month. And as a parent, I get that every child is different. They all mature at different levels.

[00:23:17] And I would say, and I don't think she's watching and I think she's around, I would say my 12 year old was actually a very young 12 year old, which I love. She's my youngest, she's my baby. But I feel like my older daughter who's now 16,

[00:23:32] I think she was a completely different 12 year old than my current 12 year old is as a 12 year old. And not to say that my 16 year old knew at 12 like that she would know if she wanted to be a boy. But I just can't fathom my current 12 year old

[00:23:47] being mature enough to make a single one of these decisions like being mature enough, having enough knowledge to make any, getting a COVID vaccine without my consent, getting any vaccine without my consent, getting struggling with those and going to a teacher, I-Home School.

[00:24:04] So it's not relevant to me, but that's one of the reasons why I-Home School. I mean, not to say that I saw all this, but I saw all this. So I've always homeschooled, but yeah, I just every kid matures at a different age.

[00:24:19] And so I don't see how we can even start to be like lower the consent, lower the consent because every 12 year old is different. Yeah. And it just doesn't make any sense to me. Agreed. And listen, this is why I give that scenario

[00:24:33] because when I bring this up, by the way, when I brought this up when we passed our parents' bill of rights in Lakeside and this had this, we had this discussion. When I brought that question up, some of my district staff was see that,

[00:24:45] frothing at the mouth, how angry they were with me just asking that hypothetical question. But guess what? They didn't have an answer to it because it's in the law. The law is at the age of consent. They say it's 12 years old for this kind of consent, right?

[00:25:00] What precludes, our district staff or anybody's staff, if you don't put measures in place to beat it down and block it and get and suspend those policies until it's aligned with board policy. And that's what we did in my district.

[00:25:13] We suspended regulations that are not based in law until they're in alignment with board policy. Well, they're not in alignment with board policy. So guess what? We're not doing it. And so to me, it's a matter of all of the,

[00:25:29] we cease enforcement of any of those kinds of policy because it's not in agreement. And when you do that, you protect yourself from the legal arguments on the other side that say, well, you're violating our rights as parents. And I don't want our district to get

[00:25:45] in that kind of trouble. And I know we're talking about school board currently, but you are running for assembly. So to get to a whole slippery soap lane, this constant lowering the age of consent for all these things. And now I won't be surprised if it,

[00:26:00] in the next couple of years soon, if suddenly we're trying to lower the age of consent to 12 year olds sleeping with 18 year olds and older, which I know they kind of tried something like that. And they, whatever, there was like a six year gap or something weird.

[00:26:15] So now then it's the 12 year olds word against the 18, 20 year olds word of whether it was consensual. And it's just, kids need to be kids and parents need to be able to protect kids. And while I don't want government interference, they need to quit passing bills

[00:26:31] that is separating parents from kids. And now people are sending their kids to schools, you know, which that's fine, but schools are about eight-ish hours a day, six, eight hours a day. Your kids are there almost four hours a week, like a full-time job.

[00:26:46] The parents aren't there protecting the kids. And now the government's not protecting the kids because they're just gonna be like, no, we're not telling the parents anything. We're just gonna allow everything to happen. And so I had brought up even about this bill,

[00:26:59] like, okay, they're not gonna out the one who wants to be trans, but what about my daughter having to now share a bathroom with this male, a biological male who wants to identify as female, sharing the gym, the sports, all that.

[00:27:13] Do they even consider any of these things? Now, my child is possibly at risk. Or even if this biological male isn't going to physically do anything to her, she's still being forced to change and share a bathroom with a biological male. Again, I homeschool, but...

[00:27:30] Well, by the way, I always tell people, if you can homeschool, homeschool, right? I mean, that's the way to go because, you know, then you're kind of, you're away from just this nonsense that we see in public schools all the time. Right?

[00:27:45] And so one of the things I tell everybody, particularly when it comes to the bathroom stuff is that, and some of these other just weird things that they pass regarding bathrooms and everything, is I always tell people, you know, you're required to be noticed

[00:27:58] if your rights as parents on all of those things. And you're told the path that you're supposed to, that's supposed to happen. And when these issues ever come up, I always tell a parent, listen, you have a right to have your kid change where they need to change.

[00:28:13] Right? You do. And if that means they're all going to the nurse's office and there's a line of 35 kids that don't want to change with so-and-so, that's how we make change. You don't make change without people knowing what their rights are.

[00:28:25] And so that's why I've always been so pro telling everybody, listen, you as a parent have a lot of rights to determine what happens to your kids at school. And at school districts don't want to tell you that, right? They don't want to tell you.

[00:28:35] They want to hide it in this massive big packet and they don't want you to find it all because they want to be able to control everything. No, parents have a lot of, a lot of rights and a lot of influence. And I want parents to know that

[00:28:47] because nothing gives a school board member courage than a packed full room full of parents that are with them supporting them. Nothing does. I mean, it is, it's a huge important thing for all of school board members to see that, and not just school board members

[00:29:05] but any kind of elected official, right? And the state will continue to pass these bills. They refuse to look at the real problems that we have, right? They want to talk about age of consent as opposed to the massive, massive problems we have with homelessness, affordability,

[00:29:20] people fleeing this state and businesses leaving. Yeah, all of this stuff, they don't want to talk about any of that. They want to talk about these issues because they want to blame conservatives and others for all these problems. And it's a nice red herring

[00:29:33] to distract them from their failure. Because I mean, I don't think there's any Democrat that can say who's been elected in Sacramento that, oh yeah, Newsom's got a great record. I don't think we talk about that crime, homelessness. I don't think anybody can say that that's, you know,

[00:29:48] sex predators getting dumped in my neighborhoods, right? I mean, I don't think that's a good record. Well, I think that's a perfect segue into your candidacy and you had stated, you have experience in Sacramento and you said, you know, going to Sacramento,

[00:30:05] knowing how it works, knowing how the sausage is made. You worked for Jolie Anderson and Brian Jones real quick. What are some tools and stuff you learned about Sacramento working for those two individuals? Yep. Well, both of them are distinctly different individuals.

[00:30:23] And so I've learned kind of some way different things from both, but kind of to just, you know, encompass everything I've kind of learned is it's the coalition building. When you get to Sacramento and when I get there, it's not a matter of me just, look,

[00:30:40] I'm gonna scream all day long, but you know what I have found is that there will be one issue. Maybe it's foster care, maybe it's rural healthcare access, maybe it's infrastructure, you know, damn infrastructure or something that's kind of non-political that's just kind of quality of life stuff

[00:31:00] that you can work with people and build a coalition of a lot of people to make things happen. That is how you do it. Now, you can also do it to oppose things and I wanna give you an example.

[00:31:12] There was a few years ago, the legislature was voting, I think it was on the budget or on a bill that basically was going to strip GI benefits from some veterans in the state because there was a funding issue or whatever.

[00:31:30] And what ends up happening is you have to know how to kind of wedge that issue, I'm sorry. The Democrats were gonna vote to strip GIs of their benefits. I mean, this is insane from the state for college and tuition. I think it was tuition benefits.

[00:31:47] And so what ended up happening, what I learned is to oppose them, guess what you do? You just amend bill after bill after bill to make them vote, same kind of thing I did on a school board, right? Make them vote against veterans repeatedly,

[00:32:00] repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly on the floor. When they do that, they will finally come to you and go, oh my gosh, what do you want? What do you want? I want my bill about sex predators out of committee or whatever, right? Because you gotta leverage them on the issues

[00:32:15] by building that coalition of veterans groups that would be there to speak, the press there to show their voting against GIs, right? You put the heat on and you turn it up and you build that coalition. But you cannot do that alone.

[00:32:26] You've got to be able to build coalitions to get things accomplished because we're in the super minority as Republicans, super minority. And part of my job is to not just be a lightning rod and fight against all the crazy wacko stuff

[00:32:43] that Sacramento wants to push down on us. The other part of my job is to say, I've got something done for you. And you have to be able to do both. You have to do both. And so I've learned from both of them how to do both.

[00:32:58] And both of them have done it in different ways. But you gotta have something tangible because I will tell you right now, when you return to your district and they say to you, well, what have you accomplished or what have you done?

[00:33:11] And they will say that, they will ask you that. If all you say is, well, I fought really hard and voted no, they'll go, ah, good for you and pat you on the back. You fought and voted no. But if I say, hey, I didn't just vote no.

[00:33:26] I built a coalition and I restored GI benefits. That's just using an example, right? But those are the things that you have to be able to do. Not everybody can do that. And not everybody wants to do that. And it doesn't start with you saying to people,

[00:33:42] oh, you know what, you suck instantly. You don't know that person sucks. You have no idea. There's Republicans who attack Republicans all the time. And it's like, I'm sorry, but they may be doing something for their district and they may come to you on another issue

[00:33:53] they're gonna fight on. You don't know. And so you have to be able to build a coalition. So that's the one thing that I tell everybody is you've got to build a coalition. That's been my success and my track record is building coalitions to get things accomplished.

[00:34:05] I can't do everything by myself because we're so outnumbered. And so you have to be able to band together and win. And you can, and it's, and I've seen lots of local victories. I've seen victories in Sacramento on a lot of these issues.

[00:34:18] I'll just give you an example of the human trafficking bill this last year. That was a huge success. Republicans beat the crap out of it, did a whole coalition building thing. Boom, passed. We shamed them. We shamed them into submission on that bill. And that's a huge victory.

[00:34:34] So to me, nobody talks about that a lot. That's a huge victory. And they say, well, they could have done it differently. I'm going, they built a coalition and they won a battle. And they can now go to their district

[00:34:44] and say, not only did I speak out for you but I defeated something. Just voting no and not defeating anything or just voting no and say, oh, I've got this initiative that we're going to do. That doesn't do anything. You got to have tangible results.

[00:34:58] Otherwise people will go, again, it's, you know, when a man promises the world tomorrow asking what they did yesterday, you got to have deliverables. And that to me is so important. Cause if I go back to my district with nothing, they're gonna say, you suck.

[00:35:14] You gotta have deliverables. I agree. I'm going to ask you kind of a quick on the spot question, but I'm going to explain how I got there first because everything you just said, maybe think of this question, but I actually was having what you just said.

[00:35:26] I had that conversation with Phil kind of recently about my own assemblyman who I was saying, like yeah, he votes the way we want him to vote, but he's not fighting. And I can think of some of our assembly members who are absolutely fighting and I'm like,

[00:35:40] we need more of them. Name in a current assembly member who, whose policies and maybe tactics, if you will, you respect and admire and kind of, not to say that you want to be them cause everyone needs to be themselves,

[00:35:52] but like who would you say that you're like watching right now who you really appreciate how they're working in the assembly? Well, I'm going to praise James Gallagher. He's the leader. And you know what James is smart. He's an operator.

[00:36:06] And he's somebody who's helping lead our message forward on things like that human trafficking stuff, on things like the, you know, any of the crazy things that Newsom's coming out with, he speaks out against. The other thing is, is I would also tell you

[00:36:19] a person I liked was Kevin Kiley when he was in the Senate. I mean, the assembly, I liked his tenacity. And he and James worked together on a lot of things. In fact, as I recall. And so, but James is currently there.

[00:36:29] And so I think for, and he's the leader. And so I think he's got a lead of caucus that's diverse. He has to show California Republicans that we're fighting for stuff. And I see him doing that. I see him speak on the floor.

[00:36:43] I see him speak to the press. I see him organize in his district. I see him represent his district. And one of the things I like about him is he'll quote things about his district. He'll say, hey, in this area, that ain't gonna fly, right? In my district.

[00:36:58] And by the way, you've gotta do that. You have to speak for your district. That's why you're elected. You're not elected in Sacramento. You're elected in your district. So I like the way that he approaches things because he's able to move the needle.

[00:37:09] And again, he was one of the people who was a part of beating that human trafficking bill without the assembly's help, without his leadership helping move that forward and take those opportunities. We would never have made that happen. So I wanna praise him for his work

[00:37:23] because I think he's leading the ship forward for us. Yeah, I was gonna say, I've noticed recently there seems to be a younger crop of Republicans in Sacramento who are getting creative with their tactics, which you have to do.

[00:37:42] You have to get creative and smart with your tactics. And being a little bit bolder. I feel like James Gallagher has his style, which he's doing very well. You have James Gallagher, Bill O'Saley who's doing very well. Kate Sanchez is another one. Do I like Kate as well?

[00:37:57] So there's a lot of younger Republicans who are starting to figure out. And I think the party up there is starting to figure out social media, how to make very attractive quick hitting clips. And I think there is something to what you're saying,

[00:38:09] which is you kinda gotta put the big glaring spotlight on Democrats in Sacramento. And it's kinda like, you know, I hate to use this term because I don't think all Democrats in Sacramento or there's probably some really nice ones. But like when you turn on the light

[00:38:24] and a whole bunch of cockroaches scurry, like that's almost like what it's like where you gotta blow the spotlight on them, especially with that human trafficking bill which poses Susan Eggman, a progressive Democrat from the Bay Area. She got pushed so far

[00:38:40] that she gets up on the floor and goes, this is disgusting. I've been a progressive Democrat my whole life. I can't do this. Like you guys are getting crazy. If you're getting her to flip on it, then you're doing a good job and you're building that coalition.

[00:38:53] So yeah, I think it's, that's how they gotta do it. It's just, you guys gotta be smart and you gotta figure it out. And then slowly hopefully flip some more seats so you can enact some real change. But does that coalition building does that help with,

[00:39:11] and maybe this gets into your plans when you get into Sacramento, that coalition building, does that help with sort of not the hot button social issues but the everyday Californian issues? Affordability, maybe gas tax, stuff like that that like Californians feel every day

[00:39:31] and go, you know, California is too expensive. I can't afford it or X, Y and Z. Is that sort of your plan or any idea what you're playing when you get to Sacramento? Well, absolutely. And by the way, one of the key part of building coalitions

[00:39:46] also equals relationships, right? I mean, you have to be able to, you can't build a coalition without a relationship. I mean, you have to do those things. And so, you know, a common everyday issue that I hear about is the border, right?

[00:39:58] And how the border is just a disaster and people are really ticked off about the fentanyl crisis all of these things that come from what happens in the border. I probably hear it more in my district because my district goes along the border.

[00:40:11] So, I probably hear a lot more about the border but I wanna give you an example about coalition building and how that would work. Look, we can introduce a bill every day when this happened this year, by the way, about we gotta get rid of the sanctuary state

[00:40:22] and we gotta do all this stuff. Well, those bills didn't, that bill didn't even get a hearing. We've gotta do it because we gotta put them on record on it, you have to do it. That's a mechanism you have to do it.

[00:40:31] I'm not saying you don't do it, you've gotta do that. But then you have to say, okay, what's next? So for me, what I see next is similar to what's happening with Prop 47. Law enforcement, state groups, local groups should qualify an initiative

[00:40:46] that say we wanna end the sanctuary state because we wanna be able to give mutual aid to the border patrol. And they can't do that right now. That's not even possible. They can't even cooperate with the feds on anything. They can't talk to them.

[00:40:57] They can't do any crime related enforcement that has to do with that. Individual chiefs are kinda figuring out a way to maneuver around it, but there are some key things that they can't do. And so for me, you gotta get law enforcement folks

[00:41:10] to say we wanna end the sanctuary state. Just like they said, we wanna end Prop 47. And they got that initiative qualified and you put it up for a vote and you hit these folks at the ballot box with the initiative that may start

[00:41:22] with a legislative bill that allows for legislators to gather support in their district so they can then communicate with these organizations that say, oh, hey, by the way, these are people in our districts who support this initiative. You should go and talk to them

[00:41:39] and you crowd source and you build that kind of momentum. Otherwise, if you don't do that, you're just gonna get a vote. You're gonna get voted down. You may not even get a hearing on the bill and you won't gain momentum with it.

[00:41:50] So you wanna use every part of the toolkit, media, initiative, bill, petition, every single thing, whatever possible, your bully pulpit press conferences, whatever you have to do to then be able to say, okay, we're gonna push this forward in certain cases like the sanctuary state

[00:42:06] that we need the voters to say, we wanna get rid of this. We need to have law enforcement provide mutual aid. And so that's just one example. As it comes to the gas tax, a gas tax is the biggest problem that everybody wants to talk about.

[00:42:20] And what I tell everybody is, let's talk about that. We can talk about that. But what we should be talking about is the mileage tax and all these mileage proposals that they wanna try to put forward because the gas tax is a nice red herring

[00:42:32] for the Democrats to feed to us and say, oh yeah, let them focus on that. While they're over here planning to track us in our cars and how much miles we drive, we need to get out in front against all that stuff

[00:42:46] and we need to be ahead of the game on that. And so we can propose a lot of things on the gas tax but what we saw when that was introduced is that that failed, right? Now what I would love to see is an audit

[00:43:00] of the gas tax money. Because I'm gonna tell you right now, I've never seen where that money goes because in my district, I don't know about your communities but roads ain't getting built in my communities and my district needs roads because I represent rural East County, San Diego.

[00:43:16] We will always need roads. There won't be no trolley going from my community to the desert. That's not gonna happen. So they're gonna be driving on the freeway and on roads and we're always gonna need it but if the gas tax funds all of it, where to go?

[00:43:30] I'd like to see it. And I'll tell you where it went. It goes into Caltrans coffers and I can say that because my mom worked with Caltrans for 35 years. So I can tell you, there's a lot of big bureaucracy out there and that's where the money goes

[00:43:42] and if people think otherwise, fine. Prove it in an audit. I mean, I don't know where it goes either because I live in the city of San Diego and I know there's several roads. Anybody who's listening and knows Ingram, just until recently Ingram Avenue in San Diego

[00:44:01] was like you needed a Jeep Wrangler to get over because it felt like it was off-roading. Like literally like your car was like, so people know like how bad, they just recently paved it. I don't know how many years it took Todd Gloria

[00:44:13] to get around to fixing the roads, his new sexy roads initiative or whatever he calls it. So I'd love to see that audit too. I'd love to see it sort of like what Josh Hoover did with the homeless audit. I think that would be eye-popping

[00:44:29] for a lot of Californians to be like, where did this money go? Where is it? And how come we don't see an improvement in the roads or what we're paying for? So obviously coalition building is really important when you get to Sacramento because you're in such a minority.

[00:44:47] It requires you to reach across the aisle, work with people that maybe you don't get along with. And you had brought up Republicans attacking other Republicans, which leads us to the question of your opponent who is also a Republican in this district, Carl Tamayo.

[00:45:06] Anybody who's watched this show knows we've done plenty of episodes on Carl Tamayo. Any comment on him as an opponent or what differentiates you from your opponent? Well, yeah, I mean, I think we are very different in many ways, but I think the key distinction

[00:45:25] between the two of us is, you know, I have have a record of success. I've beat tax increases. I've done things that on a school board, I've been elected to a school board that has been moving the needle. I want to build coalitions.

[00:45:41] I don't wanna just scream on Fox News and then not present a solution. And so, you know, I also would like to qualify initiatives that I propose. You know, I would recently read an article that he didn't turn out any signatures on any of the last five initiatives

[00:45:55] that he massively fundraised for. And so I find that fascinating and I would think his supporters would wanna know that. So, but you know, I think all of that comes down to, I'm not doing this because, you know, I just want to be in the assembly.

[00:46:14] I'm doing it because I wanna make where I'm from better. I didn't have to move to the district. I didn't have to do any of those things. He didn't move. Oh, I know he didn't move. But I'm just telling you, you know,

[00:46:24] I didn't have to say I did that. I didn't have to come out with this, oh, I need to save the state and kind of what not. I didn't have to say that. I just had to say, listen, I wanna make things better and I wanna fix California

[00:46:36] and I wanna do that by building coalitions. My opponent has never built a coalition that's not benefited him in his entire career. I've not seen it and I've worked around him for many years. So, I mean, and so that's where I think it's, where different is.

[00:46:55] I wanna build coalitions to get things done and improve our brand. And one of the things that I've learned is you really have to find areas to deliver for your constituents. I don't wanna be another placeholder that sits there and gets nothing done. I don't wanna do that.

[00:47:16] And why go to Sacramento to do that? There are a lot of other things that people can do than go and run to be in the state assembly. And I'm doing it because I'm from this district and I wanna see things get better

[00:47:28] because I'm tired of my friends leaving. I'm done with it, I'm over it. And I don't wanna visit them in Phoenix or Tennessee anymore. I like both of those places but not as much as where I'm from. And so, you know, I think the key thing though

[00:47:39] is that that's really the difference between the two of us is that I wanna see things get accomplished. I don't wanna just scream loudly about it. I wanna see it get done. Now, am I gonna scream? Yeah, I've done that. I have a record of doing that.

[00:47:52] Hence why I say when a man promises to the world tomorrow as can what he did yesterday. I have a record of screaming about problems. I mean, I've done that. So, I'll do that again and I'll continue to do that.

[00:48:01] That's just part of the toolkit part of my nature. But it's also about, hey, if somebody says to me, there's a problem that overlaps my district like sex predators getting dumped in the back country of my community. And that's happening in their district too. And they're a Democrat.

[00:48:17] Heck, yeah, I'm gonna partner with them. My opponent would say that it's evil to partner with them. I'm going, if it helps my constituents on an issue that impacts my constituents like sex predators, come on, that's common sense. That's called common sense. Yeah.

[00:48:32] So you're saying you have a better electoral success rate than one in five, I believe his record is? Oh, that's true. Yes, I'm definitely saying that. I'm also saying that the initiatives that I put forward are not just to benefit myself, they're actually to help my community.

[00:48:47] So we got about 10 minutes left. Let's talk about the future. You get to Sacramento. What are your top three priorities? Now again, I know that it's a lot of, based on working with your coalition and what's going on, but what are the top three priorities

[00:49:07] that are top of mind for you when you get to Sacramento? Well, first thing is I mentioned to you this sanctuary state initiative thing. That is one of the top things I wanna try to conquer is I wanna find a way to get that gone.

[00:49:22] And so that's one key thing. And as I described to you, it's about introducing a bill, it's about putting people on record. We talked about the gas tax, I wanna audit. I wanna get an audit going, I wanna use that.

[00:49:33] I wanna try to get an audit to get that data so that we can then use it as a way to bludgeon the Democrats and put that spotlight, as you will, on where it's going, more government waste that really ticks off people in the middle.

[00:49:46] But I also, the sex predators thing is a huge issue in my district. Fire insurance is another thing I'll talk about in a minute, but the sex predator thing really gets me angry. And I'll tell you why. In my district, in school, my school district,

[00:49:59] there was a six serious sex offenders placed in one home near a school bus stop. Wow. Crazy town. So I went to the house and I drove by it, and it's true, looked at Megan's map, it's scary. So I held a press conference there.

[00:50:19] And I looked at all, and then they were gone after we held the press conference because the state contract was like, no. But in the meantime, they had sent me a cease and desist letter that I was violating the rights of the sex offender.

[00:50:29] And sex offenders are going, what are you talking about? This is insane. So I went and I looked up the law. The law allows for there to be six sex offenders, serious sex offenders living in a house near a school bus stop. That's crazy. That's just crazy.

[00:50:41] So drawing attention to that is important. But then there's also the sex predator placement program for violent predators who repeatedly rape children, right? All of these things, and they're mentally ill. They're defunding. That's not present. How? That's not present. That's not their permanent housing situation. Present. No.

[00:50:59] Oh my gosh. The programs all screwed up. It's called the Conrep program. And if you read it, blood will shoot out of your eyes, I promise. And it is the scariest, most crazy thing. These are evil people. These are just demented people who rape children and they're sick.

[00:51:15] They're mentally ill. They're defined in code as mentally ill. So they live in the Department of State Hospitals. Well then the Department of State Hospitals has this program called the Conrep program that then places them in the county where they committed their first crime. I'm going.

[00:51:31] This is insane. It's wild, but that's the law. It's crazy. So there's an audit right now that was spearheaded by Senator Jones that was unanimously passed by the way in the J-LAC committee, which is a feat. So that's another coalition I'm talking about.

[00:51:47] But there's an audit going on right now on this program. Once that audit comes out, you take that audit and it will come out. Once that audit comes out, boom, we're gonna take that, make legislation, put it together, put their feet to the fire

[00:51:59] and get them placed on prison property forever. Because that's where they should be. They should not be in neighborhoods ever. So what they end up doing though is they dump them in my district, in Campo, in Hacumba, in Lakeside, in Boulevard, in Arego Springs,

[00:52:17] in all these, Julie, in all these rural areas that have less people. I'm sorry, those are my people. You don't get to just dump them in my community. That's nonsense. So that stuff really makes me mad and I get very angry about it.

[00:52:30] And so those are things I wanna move the needle for. Last thing is fire insurance. We need to change the way that the insurance commissioner, he needs to be held accountable. That guy, whoever it may be, they're not doing their job. They're not regulating the market.

[00:52:48] They're just saying, oh, we're just not gonna do anything whatsoever. Well, the fire insurance problem was created because bureaucracy just said, nope, we're good. And guess what? The governor can't do anything because he's not under the purview of the governor.

[00:53:04] He's elected himself so he could just sit there and do nothing, which he did and that's part of the reason why we're in this problem. And then the legislature, you don't want them to do too much, let me tell you, but, because it'll create some, Cal Fair,

[00:53:17] some massive in government funded insurance plan that covers everybody. And I don't, it would be like government control healthcare kind of thing but they wanna do it in insurance. But anyway, the point I'm making is solving that will require coalitions.

[00:53:31] And the only way to solve it is to increase competitions. We gotta get these insurers back. And the only way to do that is allow them to mitigate risk. And the insurance commissioner said, no, we won't do that because he doesn't wanna talk to them because they're evil.

[00:53:43] And it's like, well, government ain't gonna help us. So. Well, I learned something new. I had never even heard about that wild sex offender law. That's mind blowing. Why would you put a sex offender who commits heinous crimes against children

[00:54:00] back in the county where they committed the crime? How does that make the victim feel safe at all? It's absolute insane. And by the way, that's what they, that's the sexually violent predator thing. It's crazy. And it's like, okay. And it's technically called County of Domicile,

[00:54:18] by the way. Well, guess where they commit their crimes near their home. So. It's nonsense. And it's just, it's just sad because people don't know about this stuff. And I want people to know. And that's why I got and screamed about it

[00:54:33] because I want everybody to know how crazy it is. Well, we've got a couple of minutes left. I had one quick, you know, rapid fire question for you before we finish up for tonight. Any propositions coming to the ballot in November that you particularly have your eye on

[00:54:51] that you think people should look into more? Yes. Do not be fooled by their ideas of rent control. Do not be fooled. They're gonna come at you and say, oh, you know, this is, it's run by all, you know,

[00:55:07] all these apartments are run by all these wealthy people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If rent control goes through, your rents are gonna skyrocket. It's gonna be less affordable. Rent control is not the solution. So I, you know, I'm telling everybody all the time,

[00:55:22] don't be hoodwinked about the rent control thing. It, when you look at the economics of it, the people pass on the cost, do not fall for it. So be very cautious about the rent control initiative that they're coming out with. And then the other one is, of course,

[00:55:39] the Prop 47 initiative that's going to repeal that, get out there, support it. Let's get that problem fixed. And this is the only way to do it. So let's get it done. Those are the two that I want everybody to pay real close.

[00:55:53] Do you have a number on that? I know it's listed, but I don't, or have everyone- I think it's Prop 36. And don't hold me to that, but I think it's 36. Sounds right. I feel like it's in the 30s for some reason.

[00:56:06] But Andrew, it was a pleasure having you on. Any final words to our listeners before we hop off for the night? Thank you for having me. And if you ever have questions or want to learn more about me, electandrewhays.com. Excellent. Short and sweet.

[00:56:22] Yeah, go check them out. You're on social media as well if people want to follow you there, right? Yep, at elect Andrew Hayes. Or I'm sorry, at Andrew Hayes CA. That's what it is, Andrew Hayes CA. Perfect. Is my handle or whatever it's called.

[00:56:37] Your username, your handle, whatever. Just search Andrew Hayes CA and you'll find them on Instagram and everywhere. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in. Moral of the story is the issues we've talked about tonight, these are all local issues. So make sure you pay attention

[00:56:53] to who you're voting for locally. I know we're all crazy about Trump and Kamala but it's people like Andrew going to Sacramento that makes a big difference in our everyday lives. So with that, I'd like to say thank you for tuning in. Make sure you like, share, subscribe,

[00:57:08] review, all of that stuff. And the best way to support this show that is 100% free is send it to someone who you think would get something out of this. If you're in Andrew's district, send it to someone in that district and make sure you share Andrew's message.

[00:57:23] And with that, we'll see you on the next one. Night everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of California Underground. If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like and review it and follow California Underground on social media

[00:57:45] for updates as to when new episodes are available.