Ep. 278: Jeff Gonzalez Candidate for State Assembly

[00:00:06] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:27] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning into another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I'm your host, Phil, along with me as always is my trusty co-host, the best and fastest researcher in the West, Camille.

[00:00:37] And tonight we have a special guest, a man on the ground who is running for state assembly. And I'm wearing my local elections matter t-shirt because local elections matter.

[00:00:47] Look, we're in the final weeks of the election process and we love to highlight people who are running local elections, whether it's state assembly, county supervisor, city council.

[00:00:56] These are the people who are going to help turn California around. His name is Jeff Gonzalez. Jeff, welcome to the show.

[00:01:03] Thank you for having me. I appreciate you taking the time out to point out local.

[00:01:10] Yes, absolutely. It is so important. Why don't you tell us what district you are running for and a little bit about yourself?

[00:01:17] Yeah. So the district that I'm running for is California's 36th Assembly District, which encompasses the eastern portion of Riverside County, southwestern portion of Riverside County,

[00:01:27] 100% of Imperial County, and the nosebleeds of San Bernardino County all the way up into needles.

[00:01:39] So it's a huge, huge district, but I'm super excited about it.

[00:01:43] I am a Marine that retired after 21 years of service.

[00:01:47] I did four combat tours to Iraq, to Afghanistan, tour all over the world.

[00:01:54] And one of the great things is if you can hear my my vicious dog in the background.

[00:02:00] We have this too.

[00:02:02] Yeah, my brand new puppy.

[00:02:04] And whenever it's kind of like whenever you're doing something, they they tend to talk.

[00:02:10] I have a seven year old Frenchie and no matter what, whenever I start to do something, she just knows it's time to bug you or bark or do something.

[00:02:17] So totally not the point of the show, but you have to tell us now what kind of puppy you have.

[00:02:23] Okay, so I have, you know, I'm a Marine.

[00:02:25] So I have to have the most intimidating looking miniature poodle.

[00:02:31] And a multi-poo puppy.

[00:02:36] Wow.

[00:02:37] So, yes.

[00:02:38] I have a gold retriever.

[00:02:42] They're a little bit bigger.

[00:02:44] Yours is a little bit bigger than mine.

[00:02:46] Yeah.

[00:02:47] But yeah.

[00:02:49] Yeah, go ahead.

[00:02:50] In the Marine Corps, 21 years I did.

[00:02:54] So my job in the Marine Corps was counter terrorism.

[00:02:57] So I did a lot of that type of work talking to folks throughout the world, good and bad, to make sure our forces were safe and we can do operations throughout the world.

[00:03:08] And when I retired, and this is probably a, a multifaceted part one, part two, part three interview because when I retired, right before I retired, 10 of my Marines died by suicide.

[00:03:22] And I became a pastor.

[00:03:25] And because that was the only thing I knew in my life that saved me, you know, with all the death and destruction throughout the world.

[00:03:33] And then COVID hits.

[00:03:35] And after COVID, bought a little company, started a little company.

[00:03:41] And, and then we're here because it is challenging in California to be a business owner amongst a whole bunch of other things.

[00:03:50] I'm a dad.

[00:03:51] I've been married to my wife 20 years.

[00:03:53] We have a 31 year old, a 28 year old, a 23 year old and an 18 year old.

[00:03:58] I know the math doesn't math, but I'm going to tell you about that right now.

[00:04:01] Uh, it's, uh, when I married my wife, I became Insta pop.

[00:04:05] As I like to say, she had three kids.

[00:04:08] My oldest has cerebral.

[00:04:09] I call them mine by the way, because I raised them with my wife.

[00:04:13] And, uh, the only thing that we call, the only reason we use steps in my house is when we're telling people to vacuum.

[00:04:20] So, uh, that's the steps in my house, but I raised them.

[00:04:24] We raised them together.

[00:04:25] And my 31 year old is special needs.

[00:04:27] He's got cerebral palsy with spastic quadriplegia, which means he doesn't have the ability to use his legs, use his hands.

[00:04:34] He's nonverbal and he eats through his stomach and is, uh, he requires 24 hour care.

[00:04:41] So, and I have a little bit of time to then run for state assembly.

[00:04:45] So there you go.

[00:04:47] So I'm going to back up just a little bit here.

[00:04:50] First off, thank you for your service to our country.

[00:04:54] And, but I feel like you must just like torture because I, that's such a thankless job.

[00:05:01] So often, then you went into a pastor role, which is kind of another thankless job.

[00:05:06] And now you're running for yet other thankless job, if you will, service.

[00:05:13] It's like, it's like you just, you just want to make sure that everyone doesn't thank you or something.

[00:05:19] So anyway, I'm thanking you now, but.

[00:05:22] Thank you.

[00:05:22] I appreciate it.

[00:05:23] And, and congratulations on being an instant father.

[00:05:27] You really stepped up and that's amazing.

[00:05:29] So good for you.

[00:05:29] Thank you.

[00:05:30] Thank you so much.

[00:05:31] I appreciate it.

[00:05:32] You know, it's one of those things where, you know, everyone's born with their talents.

[00:05:36] And mine is to be a warrior, a warrior for my community.

[00:05:40] And it doesn't mean that we get all the kudos and we're not the heroes.

[00:05:44] We're just these behind the scenes warriors that help communities.

[00:05:48] I think maybe does taking punishment.

[00:05:52] Is that just part of being a Marine?

[00:05:54] You're just used to taking punishment.

[00:05:55] So that's where you get it from.

[00:05:57] I think so.

[00:05:59] I think, I think it is part of it.

[00:06:00] I, I, I, God just made me to be a warrior.

[00:06:04] And part of being a warrior is we gotta, we gotta take the punishment.

[00:06:08] You know, we're, we're not afraid to go out and get the arrows thrown at us.

[00:06:13] So, so sorry.

[00:06:16] Oh, go ahead.

[00:06:16] If you want, if you've got a question, go ahead.

[00:06:18] Oh, I'm in Orange County.

[00:06:21] I've lived in California my entire life.

[00:06:23] Um, even just a couple of weeks ago, I just did a road trip with a few of my girls.

[00:06:27] Well, all of my girls, I would say a few of my kids.

[00:06:30] Um, we went to Napa and like hit a bunch of the tourist things on the way there and back.

[00:06:37] I have almost my entire life every year vacationed in Big Bear.

[00:06:42] Um, I have one of my sisters lives in Riverside County.

[00:06:46] Imperial County is something I feel like I don't think I've ever been there and I don't know much about.

[00:06:52] And I know that's not the point of this podcast, but because it's a part of your district.

[00:06:56] Tell me about Imperial County, please.

[00:06:59] Imperial County is the most, uh, outside of San Diego.

[00:07:03] It's the most Southern county in California.

[00:07:07] Okay.

[00:07:08] I tell people say what's out there.

[00:07:10] It seems like.

[00:07:10] That's my question.

[00:07:12] Right.

[00:07:12] But the reality is, is Imperial County feeds the nation.

[00:07:17] It is an agricultural hub.

[00:07:21] We have dates out of Coachella Valley, which, you know, it's a date capital.

[00:07:25] We have, uh, carrots that 90% of the carrots during winter come from Imperial County.

[00:07:33] Onions, alfalfa, alfalfa helps feed beef, uh, cows, you know, all those different things.

[00:07:38] So, uh, so, uh, Imperial County is this sleepy area, hometown America where it produces some of the greatest things that we get to consume, uh, as, as people that live in, in this country.

[00:07:54] So, uh, don't discount Imperial County.

[00:07:57] Well, I'm not, but I just feel so foolish for like.

[00:08:00] No, I'm busy.

[00:08:02] Okay.

[00:08:04] I think I'm going to have to, I'll come pick up some alfalfa for my chickens.

[00:08:07] There you go.

[00:08:08] And Imperial County also has, uh, well, a portion of Imperial and a portion of Riverside County has what's known as the Salton Sea, which has been coined that area of lithium valley.

[00:08:19] Yes.

[00:08:20] And they're trying to extract lithium out of, out of that region.

[00:08:22] So there's, there's a lot going on in Imperial County, the surrounding areas.

[00:08:25] Yeah.

[00:08:26] Okay.

[00:08:27] I'm familiar with the Salton Sea.

[00:08:28] And I thought that was Imperial, but I wasn't sure.

[00:08:30] Okay.

[00:08:30] Sorry.

[00:08:30] We can move on from that now.

[00:08:31] I just really needed to know.

[00:08:33] No problem.

[00:08:35] Yeah.

[00:08:35] I think it was a good segue.

[00:08:36] And, uh, when I was reading over your website and some of your issues, one of the things you highlighted, you didn't list a whole ton of issues, which I think is good laser focused on certain issues that are important to Californians.

[00:08:48] You hit on agriculture.

[00:08:50] And that is something that as a person running for state assembly is so important that somebody is going to Sacramento and thinking of the farmers.

[00:09:00] Um, we've had Brian Dolly, Megan Dolly on the show.

[00:09:03] They know they're up there in Northern California.

[00:09:05] They know what it's like for farmers.

[00:09:07] Um, they need the representation and they're being like beaten down here in California.

[00:09:13] So tell us a little bit about your plans for agriculture and to help farmers here in California.

[00:09:19] Sure.

[00:09:20] Let me kind of just set the stage here for a second.

[00:09:23] Um, imagine if in California agriculture was no more people think, oh, okay, we would just get it from somewhere else.

[00:09:35] But the reality is that here in California, the farmers feed the world.

[00:09:41] Mm hmm.

[00:09:42] Now, if we don't take care of that, then we're in big trouble.

[00:09:46] See, as a Marine, one of the things that I think of or the things that I've been trained to think about are food, shelter, fire, water, like survival, right?

[00:09:57] The survival mentality.

[00:09:59] If I go to a foreign country, if I'm deployed somewhere else, what are the things that are going to sustain me and sustain the team that I'm with so that we can then do our job, whatever X job might be.

[00:10:11] Mm hmm.

[00:10:12] But here in California, unfortunately, we don't treat our, our, our farmers and agriculture folks.

[00:10:19] Well, we should be taking care of those four essentials such as food, housing, fire, water, those types of things.

[00:10:31] Because if something happens to that, we're in a deep, deep trouble.

[00:10:37] So I think of it in terms, if you will, as a Marine in a survival and war type scenario.

[00:10:43] But I also think of it as a business, a business owner.

[00:10:46] If you look at what happened to the restaurant industry or the hospitality industry during COVID, a lot of them took some great big hits.

[00:10:56] There wasn't a business continuity plan in government.

[00:11:00] We call it a continuity of operations plan, which means is God forbid something happened, whatever that might be, earthquake, fire, flood, disaster.

[00:11:09] How do we continue to do what we're doing so that we're taking care of our community?

[00:11:13] So as a business owner, I think, what are we doing to continue what we're doing, i.e. feeding the world and doing it at such a level?

[00:11:23] So that way our agriculture folks don't leave, our farmers don't leave, but it's here.

[00:11:29] I need to have it here, not far away.

[00:11:32] So that way we can sustain our community and we can have continuity of operations.

[00:11:37] So my focus specifically with farmers, and I tell this across every single industry throughout the district and throughout California as they chat with me.

[00:11:47] I said, number one, I think very tactical and strategic.

[00:11:51] So that means if you're an expert at X, I need you on the team.

[00:11:56] I'm by no stretch of the imagination an expert on a million things.

[00:12:00] What I am good at is bringing smart people around me so that way we can start thinking as a team and start solving issues from a strategic planning perspective and then from a tactical, a short term perspective.

[00:12:13] So when it comes to agriculture, step one, bring Farm Bureau, bring farmers from the district, from different regions, because we can't use cookie cutter solutions when it comes to where the dollies are at versus where Jeff Gonzalez is at.

[00:12:31] We're in a desert versus they're not in the desert, right?

[00:12:34] Different water rights mean different things here versus over there.

[00:12:39] So it's about understanding the different climate regions, understanding the different needs across the board, and then start coming up with a really a strategic continuity of operations plan that we can say, how are we going to take care of our farmers from the short term to the long term for generations to come?

[00:13:00] Because, unfortunately, for many years now, we've been forcing them to leave because of the policies here in California.

[00:13:13] So that's step one.

[00:13:14] Bring the team together.

[00:13:16] Bring stakeholders together, right?

[00:13:18] Team number two, shut up and listen.

[00:13:22] Thank you.

[00:13:23] Oh, look at that.

[00:13:24] You must be on a black.

[00:13:26] You triggered the same thing that happens to me.

[00:13:28] Well, you know, the celebration.

[00:13:31] Celebration of point number two.

[00:13:32] We had it happen to us once and we kind of couldn't.

[00:13:35] It took us a minute to recover.

[00:13:36] We were laughing.

[00:13:37] I had never seen it before.

[00:13:38] It was like they rolled it out in an update and I was like, what was this?

[00:13:42] Anyway.

[00:13:42] And there we go.

[00:13:43] And he's got all the, he's got them all down.

[00:13:47] So I'll stop talking with my hands.

[00:13:49] Point number two is shut up and listen.

[00:13:52] So many times as what I've seen as legislators is we want to come up with a solution.

[00:13:59] We want to be the ones that have the answer to every problem and we want to be the ones who get the kudos and the accolades for that.

[00:14:07] I don't care about that.

[00:14:08] What I care about is that we solve the issues.

[00:14:10] It's I don't care Johnny, Janie or Jimmy who's solving it.

[00:14:15] As long as we're solving it for our community has nothing to do with right, left center.

[00:14:20] It has to do with our community.

[00:14:22] So have to be quiet, listen and then bring those stakeholders together to say, OK, now how do we solve it in the short term and the long and the long term?

[00:14:33] So that's number two and number three.

[00:14:36] And I say this to them all the time across the board.

[00:14:40] If you think that my office, once elected, will be creating the bills and then sending them down to you to say this is what we're doing, you're mistaken.

[00:14:50] What I need you to do is tell me what's happening and then help frame it in such a way so that way I can represent and communicate for you.

[00:15:00] I can't not be the problem solver, the picture that comes up with everything, but someone who is a representative, a voice of my community, not the one who's solving everything.

[00:15:12] And I think that that ends up happening so often in politics is I want to be the one that gets the credit.

[00:15:19] I want to be the one that does this.

[00:15:22] But in Rink War, we know it's never about us.

[00:15:27] It's always about the team.

[00:15:28] And that's that's what I care about most.

[00:15:31] I had posted something, I think literally today with that point of too many legislators think they have to be or they are the expert in everything and they want to solve everything.

[00:15:44] And it's always their first knee jerk reaction is, oh, I'm a legislator and I'm the smartest person in the room and I need to fix everything.

[00:15:51] And in reality, a lot of legislators are not experts.

[00:15:56] They're barely experts in what they're doing right now, but they're they're not experts in all these different areas that are so complex and so hard to figure out.

[00:16:07] I mean, I I wouldn't pretend to know everything about agriculture if I was sent to Sacramento.

[00:16:12] I'd have to ask somebody.

[00:16:13] So it sounds like you're saying your goal is to be a true funnel as a representative for ideas and solutions from the people in the constituency that you represent.

[00:16:26] Right.

[00:16:27] Absolutely.

[00:16:28] And that's just kind of that's how I've been taught.

[00:16:32] That's how all I know how to do is a servant leadership mentality, flipping the paradigm and saying in the Marine Corps, when one of the things that we do when we go to eat and we get in line at a chow hall to eat our gourmet cornucopia of culinary delights.

[00:16:53] We we let the lowest ranking eat first and then the highest ranking as that is at the end of the line.

[00:17:00] Simon Sinek has a book called Leaders Eat Last.

[00:17:02] He learned that principle from the Marine Corps.

[00:17:05] We eat last.

[00:17:06] If there's not enough food, as long as your team ate, that's the most important piece.

[00:17:11] But in the end, your team is going to take care of you.

[00:17:13] So I look at that leadership principle and those leadership traits of of years in in the in this Marine Corps that I served and this nation that I served.

[00:17:24] And I want to apply those same principles because that's that's how I know how to lead is leaders eat last.

[00:17:30] And in the private first class, the sergeant, those are the ones who get the credit because they're the backbone of what's going on.

[00:17:37] The farmers, the law enforcement, those are the ones who need the credit.

[00:17:41] I don't need the credit.

[00:17:42] I just need to help aid the way in whatever way I can to to raise them up.

[00:17:47] When talking with farmers and keeping on this agricultural point, when talking with farmers, how much of it is water related as well?

[00:17:55] And that the state doesn't do a good job saving water, protecting water, rainfall.

[00:18:01] I mean, we had a really wet season and how many millions of gallons just rushed out to the ocean.

[00:18:06] And how much of that is just do farmers tell you it's a water issue as well?

[00:18:11] We're just not getting enough water.

[00:18:12] We don't have storage for water.

[00:18:14] We need more reservoirs.

[00:18:16] How much of that is is a top priority for them?

[00:18:21] It's it is a top priority for them.

[00:18:23] Water is a top priority, but it's also a complex issue.

[00:18:28] Right.

[00:18:28] It's kind of like saying, hey, you have a piece of property and I want you to live there.

[00:18:35] And you have fertile ground that you can live on this property.

[00:18:40] And I'm going to make sure that you have a hose to water.

[00:18:47] And you're like, this is great.

[00:18:49] You show up and you're thinking, OK, but where's the house?

[00:18:53] Where's the roof?

[00:18:55] Where do I sleep?

[00:18:56] There's nothing there.

[00:18:57] So this issue of agriculture is complex when it comes to what's what's happening to them.

[00:19:03] And it's regulations, fines and fees.

[00:19:07] It's forcing the generations of farmers to go from diesel, big diesel vehicles that are out there to, hey, you got to switch to EV.

[00:19:19] Wait, I don't have the money to switch.

[00:19:21] We're barely making the money to do that.

[00:19:23] It's water.

[00:19:25] It's ground.

[00:19:25] It's pesticides, no pesticides.

[00:19:29] New rule on top of new rule.

[00:19:30] It is so complex that they're not only are they are they building this fortress around this ground that you can't even touch it.

[00:19:39] You can't do anything with it because they just make it so hard to take care of our agricultural community.

[00:19:46] And that's guys like Brian Dolly, Megan Dolly and several others.

[00:19:50] James Gallagher.

[00:19:52] We're looking out for the farmer and there needs to be more of us out there saying we need to take care of our core four.

[00:19:58] And one of those core four is food.

[00:20:02] And if we're not doing that.

[00:20:04] Eventually, eventually it'll hurt.

[00:20:07] I always laugh when my mom likes to go to the grocery store and she makes a big deal of it.

[00:20:12] She lives in New Jersey.

[00:20:13] She makes a big deal about, oh, my gosh, I got this avocado.

[00:20:16] It's from California.

[00:20:17] Oh, my gosh, I got this piece of produce.

[00:20:19] It came all the way from California.

[00:20:21] I'm like, well, we do produce a lot of it.

[00:20:26] Obviously, with that, it's hard for farmers to run their business here in California.

[00:20:33] It's hard for any business to run their business here in California.

[00:20:38] You had talked about on your site a little bit about making it easier for small businesses to stay here, to thrive.

[00:20:45] What is your plan regarding making it better for small businesses which have been rushing towards the exit recently here in California?

[00:20:54] I'm going to tell you a little secret for you and for your viewers and listeners.

[00:20:58] But you can't share this with anybody else other than the rest of the world.

[00:21:04] I'm not looking to do the sexy, big types of things, right?

[00:21:11] What I'm looking to do is what I call a very simple death by a thousand paper cuts.

[00:21:17] They're killing us with death by a thousand paper cuts by fee, regulation, rules, so on and so forth, right?

[00:21:23] Well, what I intend to do for businesses, because I get to see the bottom line where I spent every single thing on my business.

[00:21:34] I'm going to see where I can cut on fees and regulations that don't create such a stir, but it puts money back into the pocket of the business.

[00:21:45] Right?

[00:21:46] So the example I give is I talked to a business and they said, you know, we do X.

[00:21:53] And out of that, we have these 13 fees that we have to pay to the state.

[00:21:58] And I said, yeah, that's a lot of fees.

[00:22:01] And I went down this list and I saw one of these fees and I said, what if we take 10 cents off of this fee?

[00:22:10] What would that equal to you?

[00:22:13] They're like 10 cents.

[00:22:15] I said, yeah, 10 cents multiplied by every day's work, multiplied by the week, multiplied by 52 weeks out of the year.

[00:22:23] They said, man, that would be a lot of money.

[00:22:26] Hmm.

[00:22:27] I said, that's what I'm looking for.

[00:22:31] If I can find a way, I get it.

[00:22:33] We're not going to, in today's environment, I'm not going to be able to remove the castle made of brick.

[00:22:42] But I can remove one brick out of that wall.

[00:22:46] Or Italian stone.

[00:22:48] Or Italian stone, if you will.

[00:22:50] Yes.

[00:22:50] So that's my goal is to look for ways that don't raise so much animosity, this Republican-Democrat wall,

[00:23:02] but to find ways to put money back into the pocket of business owners.

[00:23:08] That's the plan.

[00:23:10] So that means it requires an audit.

[00:23:12] It requires an understanding.

[00:23:13] It requires the nuanced, unsexy, being-counting way of saying,

[00:23:19] oh, okay, we can take 10 cents here, 5 cents there, a dollar over here, but in the end, it comes out to be a lot of money for the business owner.

[00:23:30] And then we can thrive, if you will, in today's environment.

[00:23:35] Yeah, we were referencing the story coming out of Sacramento.

[00:23:40] We talked about it last week on the show, about how California basically admitted it's cheaper to send stone that they bought in Italy back to Italy to get it refurbished and then sent back for the capital annex.

[00:23:54] Because in their minds, it was too expensive under regulations and fees here in California to actually just have it done here in California with California stone.

[00:24:04] They could have had California stone, but they said it's too expensive.

[00:24:09] Yeah, I mean, I think that's one way to go.

[00:24:12] And I applaud any legislator who's being creative and trying to think because it's no secret.

[00:24:20] Like the Democrats have a super majority right now.

[00:24:23] The goal is obviously next step is get rid of the super majority, break that up.

[00:24:28] But in the meantime, you have to be smart.

[00:24:31] You kind of have to play a little bit of chess and think, all right, I'm not going to get the big crazy bill through that's going to reduce business taxes by 20%.

[00:24:41] But I can at least bring this like something you're saying, like an example of, oh, I'm going to reduce it by 10 cents.

[00:24:48] And then if Democrats, for some reason, and I applaud all the younger Republicans up in Sacramento right now who are doing this, if for some reason they don't pass your bill or it doesn't get out of committee, you can then have a press conference and say, look, we just want it to reduce the fee by 10 cents.

[00:25:08] And Democrats wouldn't even do that for small businesses.

[00:25:12] I think it's a win-win.

[00:25:16] Absolutely.

[00:25:17] Absolutely.

[00:25:18] Because you are absolutely right when it comes to packaging, communication.

[00:25:23] If we're saying, I want people to get 10,000 back a year, that's, you can't communicate that in such an effective way that it means they don't want to lose ground, right?

[00:25:38] But if we can take 10 cents here, a nickel here, and, you know, something else over there, it equals 10,000.

[00:25:48] As a business owner, I don't care how I get my 10,000 as long as I get my 10,000.

[00:25:52] That's what matters to me.

[00:25:55] That's what matters to me.

[00:25:55] Because we're just inundated with these regulations and roadblocks across the board.

[00:26:02] In terms of talking about how expensive it is to live here, California is tough to live here.

[00:26:10] And I understand.

[00:26:11] There's a lot of places in California that are great to live.

[00:26:14] I live in San Diego.

[00:26:15] It's expensive to live here in San Diego because why not?

[00:26:18] Everybody wants to live in San Diego.

[00:26:19] It's the greatest city if I'm being biased.

[00:26:23] We may not have Disneyland, but, you know, we have SeaWorld and the zoo, so that's pretty cool.

[00:26:29] But it's expensive to live here.

[00:26:30] And it does feel like everything is more expensive because the government has just layered upon regulations and fees and more costs.

[00:26:41] And utilities are so expensive.

[00:26:44] And gas is so expensive.

[00:26:45] And then, like, you add that all up and it gets more and more expensive to live here.

[00:26:52] Any ideas on cost of living here in California and what you can do about it?

[00:26:56] When I talk to both working class and folks who are making quite a bit of money, they all pay the same amount for milk.

[00:27:07] Right?

[00:27:08] It costs a lot.

[00:27:09] And my son, who was just went off to college, actually in San Diego, and he said, Dad, before I leave off to college, I want to make dinner for you guys.

[00:27:23] And we're like, all right, let's do this.

[00:27:25] We've been making dinner for you since you were born.

[00:27:29] So he went to the store.

[00:27:31] He was going to make some type of ground meat dish.

[00:27:35] He went to the store.

[00:27:36] He calls back and he says, is it always this price?

[00:27:42] Like, I said, well, what are you getting?

[00:27:44] He said, well, I'm getting some ground turkey.

[00:27:46] And it's 18 bucks for two pounds.

[00:27:49] I said, yeah, I mean, pretty much.

[00:27:53] That's how much it costs.

[00:27:55] He goes, how do you afford this?

[00:27:57] I said, ah, welcome to adulting in California.

[00:28:00] It's challenging.

[00:28:02] It's very challenging to do that.

[00:28:04] One of the ways in that, unfortunately, it's this trickle effect that takes place in business in California.

[00:28:14] So the economic trickle effect is I want someone to be paid $20 an hour because they deserve a living wage.

[00:28:26] Great.

[00:28:27] That means if three people were working, now only two people can work.

[00:28:32] So you just lost the job.

[00:28:35] But hey, great.

[00:28:37] These two people got $20 an hour.

[00:28:39] That's not a good solution.

[00:28:42] And then that same burger that costs $7 is now $13.

[00:28:47] And now you go to McDonald's and you're paying $20 for a meal.

[00:28:54] That's insane.

[00:28:56] The trickle effect of one thing happens across the whole.

[00:29:02] They're dropping fees everywhere we go.

[00:29:05] They're dropping fees everywhere we go.

[00:29:06] And that trickle effect becomes a ripple effect and the ripple of the economy.

[00:29:11] So how do we do that?

[00:29:13] How do we take this trickle and ripple and either slow it down or stop it completely?

[00:29:22] Right now, here's the reality.

[00:29:26] There's no way to stop it.

[00:29:28] And the reason there's no way to stop it is because there's a supermajority.

[00:29:32] This supermajority doesn't think about the working class.

[00:29:37] They say they think about the working class.

[00:29:39] But if they did, they would understand basic economics.

[00:29:43] And they would understand that when you raise this wage, you fire one person.

[00:29:50] And then it means it's going to ripple across the entire industry.

[00:29:55] If they understood business, they would understand those types of things as well.

[00:30:00] So how do we stop it?

[00:30:02] The way we stop it is we got to break the supermajority.

[00:30:07] That's the reality.

[00:30:08] To get anything done.

[00:30:09] And by the way, I talk to Democrats.

[00:30:12] I'm in Sacramento at least once a month.

[00:30:15] For the last year I've been in Sacramento.

[00:30:17] And once a month.

[00:30:20] And when I talk to these moderate Democrats, they want to stop it.

[00:30:25] But unfortunately, the bigger Democrat establishment system, if you don't follow along, you're not part of the team.

[00:30:34] And they kick you out.

[00:30:35] They make it very challenging for you.

[00:30:37] You can't be an independent thinker as a Democrat in Sacramento.

[00:30:43] So what we need to do is we need to break the supermajority so that we can have a conversation and we can have discourse, dialogue.

[00:30:53] We can negotiate the deal so that it's beneficial to all concerned versus who cares about everybody else.

[00:31:01] We just want to create fees and raise and lose money everywhere we go.

[00:31:07] And just for clarification, your seat, is it a Democrat or Republican-held seat?

[00:31:13] This seat is a Democrat seat.

[00:31:15] It is a D plus 15.

[00:31:18] Okay.

[00:31:19] It is a stronghold.

[00:31:21] But let me tell you about this stronghold.

[00:31:23] The last time Bonnie Garcia held this office years ago.

[00:31:28] That's the last time a Republican held this office.

[00:31:30] The Democrat who's currently in place, his name is Eduardo Garcia.

[00:31:34] The opponent that I have is Joey Acuna.

[00:31:38] Right now, we have a coalition called Democrats for Gonzalez.

[00:31:43] And people say, oh, that's cool.

[00:31:45] Who's on it?

[00:31:46] Well, we have everyone from electeds that are Democrats to former electeds to former Democrat Central Committee chairman to, I mean, you name it, across the board.

[00:32:02] And people say, well, how did you do that?

[00:32:04] How did you change your values so they can jump across?

[00:32:08] I said, I never changed my values.

[00:32:10] My values have always been the same.

[00:32:12] I want the community to succeed.

[00:32:14] That's my values.

[00:32:17] And they said, but yeah, but how did you do that?

[00:32:19] They are so sick of the progressive left that they feel the only solution is to vote for a Republican.

[00:32:28] And I'm just I'm thinking, well, this is the twilight zone.

[00:32:30] How did this happen?

[00:32:32] And when they talk about education, security, health care, all the things that a conservative would talk about, there's no difference.

[00:32:42] There is no difference in, if you will, conservative values and their values.

[00:32:49] So in this district, I think there is, if you will, three types of groups.

[00:32:57] Progressive left.

[00:32:59] This is the defund the police.

[00:33:03] You know, the crazy.

[00:33:05] You have moderate slash centrist Democrats and Republicans.

[00:33:11] And then you have very right Republicans.

[00:33:15] So those are really the three groups.

[00:33:17] And because it's a conservative faith, family freedom, moderates.

[00:33:23] We are we're all talking the same thing.

[00:33:26] And it's interesting.

[00:33:27] It's interesting to be in the district.

[00:33:29] Yeah, I want to dig a little bit into that because you're not the first person to say that.

[00:33:33] We've had other people who have been involved in the legislature talk about this, that there is like this this wing of the Democratic Party here in California.

[00:33:44] And it's very clearly the Bay Area progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which for some reason, it's gotten to a point where they run the state.

[00:33:54] Like whatever Scott Wiener, Buffy Wicks, Alex Lee, whatever those guys want and go whatever they want.

[00:34:01] It just happens.

[00:34:02] And for some reason, we all kind of sit here and go, why are all these San Francisco ideas being shoved through the legislature, being imposed on people in Imperial County who could be not only geographically farther away from Bay Area, but also like ideology wise, like farther away from the Bay Area.

[00:34:22] Why do they get to run all of California?

[00:34:25] And I think there's there's murmurings of these moderate Democrats who are going, you know, I'm a Democrat, but I'm I'm not that Democrat.

[00:34:34] Like that's way too far left.

[00:34:36] And let's bring it back a little bit.

[00:34:38] Let's talk about public safety.

[00:34:39] Let's talk about making it affordable.

[00:34:41] Let's talk about maybe energy production here in the state.

[00:34:45] Um, and I guess the question is, is like, you know, you're reaching your hand out to say, I want to work with you.

[00:34:51] And a lot of Republicans are starting to do that.

[00:34:53] They're starting to say, like, let's work together.

[00:34:56] Um, and until I guess that Democratic machine is kind of weakened a little bit with the super majority, they're not really going to take that step and work with Republicans.

[00:35:06] Or is it just are they going to do you see a point where maybe a lot of these moderate Democrats go?

[00:35:11] I might lose my seat if if these people if I don't break away from this party and do something more moderate and maybe I have to work with Republicans.

[00:35:21] Are you do you think that's going to happen sooner or later that it's just gonna be a full break?

[00:35:26] I call this little town in in Imperial County that I visit quite often.

[00:35:32] It's named Calexico.

[00:35:34] I call it the canary in the coal mine.

[00:35:36] Right.

[00:35:36] They are on April 16th.

[00:35:40] Democrats and Republicans united to oust to recall to city council members that were too progressive.

[00:35:50] For the moderate Democrats and Republicans of that city, two of them at the same time, they said, not in my city.

[00:35:58] No, if you're not thinking about us and our safety and us thriving, then you don't belong.

[00:36:05] And of course, the progressives try to make it about something else.

[00:36:09] But the reality is it was about progressive policies trying to infect a beautiful, the beautiful community of Calexico.

[00:36:18] So I always tell that group, I said, you guys are the canary in the coal mine.

[00:36:23] You're standing up, not because you're a Democrat or a Republican or an independent or whatever.

[00:36:29] You're standing up for the values of your community.

[00:36:32] You're starting to regain your voice.

[00:36:35] It says we the people.

[00:36:38] It doesn't say we the government.

[00:36:40] We the people are standing up.

[00:36:43] And Calexico in this district is the canary in the coal mine that's telling all the other cities around them, you will not control our ways anymore.

[00:36:52] We the community, we the people will stand up and do that.

[00:36:57] And I've been hearing from quite a few people throughout the state of California that this is happening all over.

[00:37:04] These false points of the community taking back their city and saying, this is our expectation.

[00:37:11] This is what we want.

[00:37:12] And if you can't do it, we'll fire you.

[00:37:15] We're starting to see that in different fights up and down the state.

[00:37:19] I mean, who thought that?

[00:37:22] Well, I've always said, pay attention to who's on school board back when no one wanted to listen to me.

[00:37:28] But look at how school boards are going to war with people in Sacramento.

[00:37:33] You know, you have these local communities and these local representatives who are going, hey, we want this for our school.

[00:37:40] And we're going to elect a certain person to represent us for that school board.

[00:37:45] And now Sacramento is coming down going, no, no, no, you guys can't have local control.

[00:37:49] That's outrageous.

[00:37:50] We can't let you guys have local control and determine your own the way you want to run your community.

[00:37:55] That's absurd.

[00:37:55] We have to Sacramento has to step in and San Francisco has to step in and rule your.

[00:38:00] So it is interesting to see how parts of California are pushing back a little bit.

[00:38:07] And maybe people on the outside are shocked to hear that there are these pockets of conservatism throughout California, really, that are starting to sprout up and push back a little bit more.

[00:38:20] But speaking of school boards, I want to transition to Camille's favorite topic.

[00:38:26] And I think that's a lot of schools in general here in California.

[00:38:30] Camille, I don't know if you have a question about schools or anything you want to ask Jeff before I launch into anything.

[00:38:39] You go ahead and launch.

[00:38:41] I homeschool.

[00:38:42] My kids always have.

[00:38:44] So as much as I care about school boards and they are the wild elections.

[00:38:51] Oh, my gosh.

[00:38:52] School boards gone crazy.

[00:38:54] It's like there.

[00:38:56] No offense to you.

[00:38:57] I think they're the real fighters.

[00:39:00] No, I mean, it is.

[00:39:01] I have so many friends running for school board and I just keep hearing I'm district to district, like no matter where.

[00:39:07] It's insane.

[00:39:08] It's absolute insanity.

[00:39:10] And there is a part of me.

[00:39:12] And I this is I'm probably going to say this all wrong, but there is a part of me that's kind of stepped back because I'm like, you know what?

[00:39:19] I decided to homeschool my kids because I knew what mess this was.

[00:39:23] And I don't say that in any sort of superior way, but I've just kind of gone like.

[00:39:27] This is not my circus, but at the same time, these kids.

[00:39:33] They are my circus.

[00:39:34] These kids are our future leaders.

[00:39:37] They are our future.

[00:39:38] You know, our future lawyers, our future doctors, our future politicians, they're our future and they matter and how they're raised and what they do matter.

[00:39:48] But school board teachers, principals are not exactly responsible for the outcome of children.

[00:39:54] It starts at home.

[00:39:54] So that's my caveat into this conversation.

[00:39:58] School boards.

[00:39:58] I tell school board members that they are the front lines of our community.

[00:40:05] They are.

[00:40:07] They are the front line of our community.

[00:40:09] They are the ones who are out there every day helping to shape how teachers are doing things out there.

[00:40:19] And if we have school board members that are going crazy progressive and forcing their agenda, then we've got a problem.

[00:40:30] But here's most important that we have to look at the data.

[00:40:34] The data says that in California, we're doing so good when it comes to education, public school education.

[00:40:42] So if we're not doing good in public education and we're trying to force an agenda versus being brilliant in the basics, then we've got a problem.

[00:40:54] Yeah.

[00:40:55] So we need to be good.

[00:40:56] We need to be brilliant in the basics.

[00:40:59] And a friend of mine who played professionally, whenever he would go, a professional sport, whenever he would go to a championship game or something along those lines, I'd say, so how would you practice right before the big game?

[00:41:14] And he said, what do you mean?

[00:41:16] I said, what's different about the practice?

[00:41:18] He said, nothing.

[00:41:20] We actually don't focus on the trick plays.

[00:41:24] We focus on the basics.

[00:41:26] Shoot, move, communicate.

[00:41:29] Pass the ball, move your body, work as a team.

[00:41:33] That's it.

[00:41:34] We need to get back to being brilliant in the basics when it comes to education with science, technology, math, all those pieces, art, all those pieces, before we're even thinking about any other agenda.

[00:41:48] We need to get back to the basics of teaching our kids the very basics.

[00:41:53] And we're not doing that right now.

[00:41:55] And unfortunately, we're failing our children.

[00:41:58] And, you know, I've met some great teachers.

[00:42:00] And it's not the teachers, right?

[00:42:04] It's this agenda that keeps on being pushed down to them.

[00:42:08] Yeah.

[00:42:08] And it's forcing this system.

[00:42:11] And we're going to pay for it.

[00:42:12] Now, we're going to pay for it in generations to come if we don't fix it today.

[00:42:16] Absolutely.

[00:42:17] Would you support, I mean, it may be a pie in the sky idea.

[00:42:19] Would you support a school choice proposition if it were ever put on the ballot?

[00:42:23] This is, you know, the teachers who are listening to me in this podcast now, they're split.

[00:42:32] Right?

[00:42:33] I have a split.

[00:42:34] But some say public school is the only way to go.

[00:42:36] And some say, you know, choose whichever way.

[00:42:40] Here's what I know.

[00:42:43] At seventh grade, we took my son out of, my youngest son, out of public school because he was learning some things, some ideologies that weren't from our house.

[00:42:53] And I said, who taught you that?

[00:42:56] Oh, our teacher was teaching us this.

[00:42:58] I said, in what class?

[00:42:59] Oh, in math.

[00:43:00] Like, this has nothing to do with math.

[00:43:02] Why are you learning this in math?

[00:43:04] Well, you know, most of the teachers just kind of, yeah, they teach you this, but they teach you these other types of things.

[00:43:10] So I said, no.

[00:43:10] I pulled him out, reset him, COVID, and then after COVID, we went back to going to public school.

[00:43:18] But now he was armed a couple years later with information at a little bit more mature age.

[00:43:26] Yeah.

[00:43:26] So for me, I'm a buffet guy.

[00:43:29] I fought for freedom.

[00:43:31] Right?

[00:43:31] So what that means is if your child cannot learn in a public school setting, then you have to figure out a way that's best for your child.

[00:43:43] If it's public, if it's homeschool, if it's online, if it's one-on-one, whatever that is, we have to do whatever it takes to make sure that our next generation is taught in the way that's best for them.

[00:43:58] Now, some might not agree with that, but I've seen it save the lives, like literally the life of some kids that were going through some really challenging times in their life.

[00:44:09] And because it became a one-on-one mentorship opportunity, they're now out of school and doing amazing.

[00:44:17] So honestly, if it's going to save the life of a kid and they're going to be homeschooled, great.

[00:44:22] Let's do it.

[00:44:24] If they're more of public school, great.

[00:44:26] Let's do it.

[00:44:27] Private school, let's do it.

[00:44:28] But I believe the choice is with the parent, and the parent could be able to say, you know, my kid learns this way best.

[00:44:36] And when we remove that choice from the parents, and when we remove the parent off of this, we're doing a disservice to the child.

[00:44:45] I wholeheartedly agree.

[00:44:46] I think just let the families decide whatever they want to do, you know?

[00:44:50] And this is not a Republican-Democrat thing.

[00:44:52] This is how can you love your kid best?

[00:44:56] You want your children to thrive in a proper environment.

[00:45:00] That's right.

[00:45:01] And everyone will thrive in a different environment.

[00:45:04] Absolutely.

[00:45:05] So we've got a couple more minutes left.

[00:45:07] Real quick, I wanted to get your thoughts on, you had mentioned public safety.

[00:45:12] Prop 36 is coming up on the ballot.

[00:45:15] It is overwhelmingly support.

[00:45:18] PPIC, I think, put out a poll.

[00:45:20] It's like 67% of Californians support it.

[00:45:24] Some people behind the scenes, for some reason, are pushing not to have it.

[00:45:29] Thoughts on public safety in Prop 36 or whatever you want to comment.

[00:45:33] The example I'll give is of my opponent.

[00:45:36] He took out, Joey Acuna took out, he's on the school board, took out the school resource officer from the district.

[00:45:46] And the reason he did that is because he feels that it's a pipeline from school to prison by putting police officers in schools.

[00:45:57] And I thought, well, that's the dumbest thing that I've heard.

[00:46:01] By having a law enforcement officer inside of a school, you're saying that it increases the school to prison pipeline?

[00:46:10] No.

[00:46:11] There's no data that supports it.

[00:46:13] As a matter of fact, the data that supports this, the school to prison pipeline is when kids have a low literacy rate or know they're illiterate or they can't do well in math, so on and so forth.

[00:46:26] Then we're talking about from a criminal justice perspective, we're looking at a prison side.

[00:46:30] But to say that a police officer in there to protect students is a school to prison pipeline is absurd.

[00:46:39] The point I'm trying to make is that, unfortunately, the illogical thinking folks do not support Proposition 36.

[00:46:49] They think, well, why would we want to send more people to prison?

[00:46:53] That would just be racist.

[00:46:55] No.

[00:46:56] Don't do the crying.

[00:46:58] That's how you stay out of prison.

[00:46:59] I'm sorry.

[00:47:00] That's what my dad taught me.

[00:47:01] Right?

[00:47:01] That's what my mom taught me.

[00:47:03] If you don't do bad, then you won't get in jail.

[00:47:08] You won't get punished.

[00:47:09] So for me, Proposition 36 is a fix, a small fix, but fix nonetheless, to the previous failed proposition.

[00:47:22] And what it will do is now hold people accountable.

[00:47:25] And there are some mental health measures.

[00:47:27] There are some drug addiction health measures, which I like those pieces.

[00:47:34] But the reality is it's broken and we need to fix it.

[00:47:37] Crime is running rampant and we need to support our law enforcement arm of California so that they can do their job and keep us safe.

[00:47:47] And right now, they are.

[00:47:48] Their hands are tied behind their back and they can't do it.

[00:47:51] Well, we're coming up on the end of the show, top of the hour.

[00:47:55] I just want to thank you.

[00:47:56] We were talking about how people who are running in local elections like state assembly, they're often thankless jobs until you get elected.

[00:48:07] And then everybody wants your cell phone number.

[00:48:10] So, you know, being on the ground, being a father, doing this hard work, I commend you and applaud you for being out there on the front lines.

[00:48:19] I'm using a military term there to be out there on the front lines working to change things here in California.

[00:48:25] So thank you for that.

[00:48:27] And before we sign off, where can people learn more about you, follow you, just stay up to date and learn more about your run?

[00:48:36] Absolutely.

[00:48:37] Here are a couple of things that I'll close with.

[00:48:39] Number one, I would hope that most of the people that are watching this or listening to this are already voters.

[00:48:46] So I want you to activate listeners and those who are watching.

[00:48:53] I want you to activate and bring 10 people to the voting booth.

[00:48:57] I want each and every single one of you to get more voters out there because we need to activate more voters.

[00:49:03] That's the first thing.

[00:49:04] The second thing, if you want to follow along with what I'm doing and how I'm activating folks, you can find me at Gonzales, G-O-N-Z-A-L-E-Z, the number four, assembly.com.

[00:49:15] Or you can follow me on socials on X, which was Twitter, on X, on Facebook, on Instagram at Gonzales4Assembly.

[00:49:24] And I'd love for you to follow me so we can share this message of activation and turning California around.

[00:49:32] Because I can't do it alone.

[00:49:34] It takes a team.

[00:49:36] Thank you.

[00:49:38] Well, thank you, Jeff, for joining us.

[00:49:41] And great point.

[00:49:43] Everybody get out there.

[00:49:44] You know, a lot of these, we've said this before, a lot of these local elections, they are decided, a lot of them are decided very close.

[00:49:52] So, when people say their vote doesn't matter, local elections, these votes do matter.

[00:49:58] They do add up.

[00:49:59] And some of them are won by hundreds of votes or less than a thousand votes.

[00:50:02] So, make sure you activate and get out there.

[00:50:06] And as we end every show, I like to make sure that you like, share, subscribe, review, all that stuff.

[00:50:11] It helps with the algorithm so that people can find us.

[00:50:14] Share this show with somebody who is in Jeff's district.

[00:50:19] And that way they can get out and vote.

[00:50:21] So, with that, we'll see you on the next one.

[00:50:25] Have a good night, everybody.

[00:50:36] Thank you for listening to another episode of California Underground.

[00:50:39] If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like, and review it.

[00:50:43] And follow California Underground on social media for updates as to when new episodes are available.