On this episode we are joined by Josh Hoover who is running for District 7 of the California Assembly. We discuss his campaign, his thoughts on public education, and why our state legislature needs more bipartisanship.
To learn more about Josh and his campaign go to www. hooverforassembly.com
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Phil is a San Diego based attorney who specializes in criminal defense and constitutional law both under the US and California Constitution.
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What's going on over there? Thanks for tuning in to another
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episode of California underground tonight.
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We have assembly candidate for the Seventh District.
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In California legislature, Josh Hoover will be joining us
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tonight. He'll be talking about his race.
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What he is going to, what he's looking to do.
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What is KSC is about his positions.
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Everything we're going to grill them on a whole bunch of stuff,
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including his time on school board, and ask them what's going
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on in San Diego. And his opinion on that.
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As always, I'm My trusty co-host Cynthia here with me as well.
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So how is everyone doing tonight?
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Doing great? We're looking forward to
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speaking with Josh. Excellent.
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So let's just jump right into it.
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Josh, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself.
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Introduce yourself to the audience about you know, where
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you got your start. Why did you start this campaign?
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And why did you feel like now is the right time to jump in and
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run for assembly? Absolutely.
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Well, I appreciate you having me on.
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I'm really excited to be here tonight and Just a quick
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introduction of myself. I am a parent of three kids up
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here in Folsom, California running for the seventh Assembly
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District, which is a district. That is a newly drawn District,
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in Sacramento County, and I'm currently a school board member
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on the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.
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And I also serve as the chief of staff for assemblyman, Kevin
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Kylie in the legislature, you know, honestly, I was planning
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to run for school board again. This year, I've been serving on
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our school board since 2018. Dean and I think, when I signed,
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when I originally got elected, I had no clue what was coming
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down. The road for school board
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members with covid, and so that's been a huge battle over
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these last few years. But when the redistricting
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happened, this new opportunity presented itself, presented
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itself. And I decided to take the jump
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and run for this seat and it's going to be a real close one.
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And our goal is to bring some balance back to the legislature.
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And so calm. Sense.
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I was looking at your bowel to pedia and I was looking at the
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primary results and adding it up, you got 34 percent which is
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really good. You blew away all your
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Challengers wasn't even close between you and the other
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Republicans running. But if you take your numbers,
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plus all the other Republicans plus and then you add it up and
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add it to, or compare it to Ken, Cooley's, your up, 49% of the
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vote, and he's only at 51 percent of the vote.
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So this is a really tight race. Correct, it It's an extremely
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tight race and it's starting to we knew that from the beginning,
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in fact, cow matters labeled this seat, aleene's, Republican
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seat. So if this seat were open, if
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there was no incumbent running this would traditionally be a
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republican seat but because of that incumbency advantage, you
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know it's a little bit closer but we're super excited.
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It's going to be a very tight race.
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And one of the interesting aspects of those numbers is as
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you probably have talked about, you know, turnout was very low
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in this last in. This primary election but the
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most important demographic where turnout was low was among
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independent voters in a lot of districts throughout the state
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independent voters tend to skew Democratic.
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But in this District in my district it's a very fiscally
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conservative district and those independent voters skew
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Conservative Republican and so you know, we're very excited
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about the potential and we think a lot of the the victory really
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rests on the Independent voters, coming out to the polls and and,
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and voting. So So, it's always the most
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prominent question that has to be asked of any candidate,
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especially a republican candidate running in California.
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How do you reach the independence?
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Because there is such a, I believe a disconnect between
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what a national Republican is. They always try to try you to
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Trump. You actually put a video up.
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That was just watching before your opponent.
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Tried to basically paint one of the one of your competitors as a
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pro trauma. January 6 guy.
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Yeah, how do you cut through that noise and get to the
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independence and say, look, I'm a Republican and I believe in
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these things and that's why it's I'm going to make things better
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for California. Well, we really, you know, this
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is a state race, we're running to be in state government and
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really oversee state issues. And so, my main goal is that I
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just try to stay focused on the issues stay focused on the
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things that actually matter to the residents of my district up
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here. Which is really a few, very
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simple things. People want safe neighborhoods,
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they want great schools for their kids, and they want to be
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able to afford to live in California.
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They want their kids to be able to come back here and raise
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their family some day. So, they want their kids to be
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able to live in California, and in our community.
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And, and so, I think, I think that message is very simple and
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it, resonates in this community. It's a pretty suburban
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community. And whether you're on the left
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or the right or in the middle, we all know.
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Move to this community for the same things and so we're just
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trying to keep it focused on those issues.
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And also point out the fact that the status quo in California is
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going the wrong direction. Is that a something that you
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believe is a huge weakness or a blind spot for California,
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Democrats that they just continue to talk about the sort
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of social justice issues to pretend that they're
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Progressive. It seems, that's the only thing
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they try to be. Kesavan it's actually social
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justice in terms of everything else.
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I would say all their policies are very regressive in terms of
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crime and schooling and at the economy and you know, a living
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wage or being able to even afford a house.
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All those policies are very aggressive in California.
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Do you see what's going on with the California Democrat says,
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they've. They've gone too far to the left
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and now there's a there's an opportunity for Republicans to
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kind of fill in that void fill in that middle and say Hey you
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want to come back to Common Sense?
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Absolutely I think California. Democrats have certainly gone
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too far to the left and really they've lost touch with the
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majority of Californians. You know in fact increasingly
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the Democratic party is becoming a party of the elites.
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It's not a party of the working class.
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It's not a party that represents the common, you know, man, it
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really is not, you know, with inflation.
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Even with gas prices with taxation with education, all of
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these issues. They are increasingly showing
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that they do not have answers for these issues and how to
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actually provide relief to Californians.
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Particularly Californians in Middle to low income brackets.
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That are really struggling right now.
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I mean, the issues, like, you know, the gas tax is a great
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example, my opponent voted to increase the gas tax, a few
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years ago, I think it was 2017. And then When gas prices,
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skyrocketed, there was a bipartisan proposal, put forward
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to temporarily suspend that gas tax and he took a walk and chose
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not to vote on that. And I think that just shows a
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lack of connection with his district and with the people of
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California, but it's not just that, you know, there's policies
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like a B5 which significantly restricts independent
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Contracting in California, which my opponent also voted for that
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is now going to Lead to a trucker shortage supply chain
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issues and probably higher prices that are grocery stores
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because of it. And then, the third example, I
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would use is, you know, the left likes to say they care about
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climate change. I think, you know, a lot of
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people understand that conservation and climate change
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are issues that are important. But when you look at policies
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that are, that are going to solve those problems, the
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policies enacted in California, just raise prices on consumers.
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We have to find a better way. To address those issues without
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making things, more expensive for everyday Californians.
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So, speaking about the Democrat Party, you shed some light about
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how you're different from the incumbent can Cooley.
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Who exactly is he? Because he's not, I guess, I'm
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curious. Like is he like part?
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Which like which fraction of the Democrat Party?
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Is he because he's not like making headlines like Alex Lee.
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He's not like the speaker and think Brendan like the
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definitely we'd love to know more about like your opponent.
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Well yeah so just a little bit about him.
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I mean he I think he is a lot more like Anthony Rendon than he
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sounds so You know, my opponent has been in the legislature for
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10 years. He speaks like a moderate
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Democrat. In fact in some of the
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interactions we've had during the campaign he has said a lot
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of things that would appeal to more conservative voters.
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He sounds like a moderate. The problem is when you look at
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his voting record and what he is really fought for in the
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legislature it is it does not reflect a moderate Democrat at
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all. In fact, in fact, it reflects a
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much more Progressive Democrat And and the reason for that is
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because he has risen to a level of authority in the legislative
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leadership where he really has to tow the party line.
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It's not even I'm not even sure if he believes some of the
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things that he votes for. But he's expected to vote a
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certain way in order to keep his position of leadership and he
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basically does what he needs to do to keep that.
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And so whether that's, you know, on the gas tax or a be 5.
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Or whether I mean, I just analyzed his couch.
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A voting record for business. You know, businesses, generally
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moderate Democrats tend to be more business-friendly.
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So I analyzed his voting record with Cal chamber.
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He's voted for ten job killers in the ten years.
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He's been in the legislature, those are bills that aren't just
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bad for business. They're terrible for business.
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Those are the bills that always die, even in California
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legislature, and he's voted for many of those bills, and that's
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not what moderate Democrats tend to do.
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And then his, Legacy project is also redoing the state capitol
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so he is funneled over a billion dollars of taxpayer resources
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into demolishing and rebuilding part of the state capitol
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building. That is what he's spending all
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this time on not on the issues that I think really matter to
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Californians. It's funny because he Paints in
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that ad that you have on your website that he's a moderate
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Democrat. Brad is a fiscally responsible
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moderate Democrat, which is not as you're saying, it doesn't
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sound like a coast along with his record, but I think it also
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is an admission on his part, the district itself.
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In terms of what the voters want in that District, they want
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someone more moderate. They want someone more middle of
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the road, so, it is important. To highlight a lot of those
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failures. How do you plan on highlighting
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those failures? Are you planning to run ads to
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highlight those failures? Or are you going to do you guys
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have a debate coming up or any debate scheduled?
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Yeah, I'd love to debate. In fact, I think there's a few
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groups in the area that are looking at potentially setting
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some debates up, but that would, and I'm open to debating, but
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that would require Ken to agree to those, right?
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So time will tell if he actually agrees to debate, generally
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incumbents don't. But You know, I'm hopeful that
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we can get some sort of forum or debate put on the books but, you
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know, other than that, I mean we're opening a headquarters
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right now. We've got ads already running on
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social media. We have a giant volunteer
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operation. We're putting together.
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One of the great things about being in this region is this is
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this is going to be one of the biggest assembly races in the
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entire State. It's also going to be one of the
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biggest in our region and we're going to get a lot of support
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from local from surrounding. Counties and in the Republican
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Volunteers in those counties to because this is really where the
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action is going to be. And so we have an army kind of
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descending on the district to walk precincts and make phone
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calls and send text messages and and you know I'm sure we'll be
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sending a lot of mail and other things as well.
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But that's that's our goal. It's not to attack him.
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Personally, our goal is to point out his voting record and the
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record that he brings to the position and how out of touch
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that record is with the the new Act.
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Well, Democrats never like to debate.
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That's always the funny thing is they always want to debate and
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think they're on the right side, but then trying to get any of
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them in California to actually debate is always another thing.
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You're talking about walking, precincts text messages to talk
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a little bit about how and I'm sure you've gained a lot of
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experience working with Kevin Kylie.
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Always been very successful as a politician here in California.
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One of the most prominent, if not what most one.
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Most well known for you know on one side is probably infamous on
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one side. He's famous talk about how much
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you probably learned from him in terms of like you have to walk
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districts. You have to do mailers, you have
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to do text messages, you have to do phone Banks, it's not all.
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Let me just post on Instagram and see if I can win a race,
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just through social media. Now, Kevin's really proved that.
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You know what? One of the reasons Kevin is so
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successful, you know, a lot of people really I like him, some
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people don't but you know, a lot of people really gravitate to
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his message and I think he's a fantastic communicator.
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And that is a huge part of his success but a lot.
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But what people don't see that is, I think really the main
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reason for his success is how hard that he works.
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And the reality is that to win elections in California, really
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at any level of government, whether it's local, state or
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federal, you have to put in the work and too often, you know,
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candidates just aren't willing to do that.
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And so, If there's a lesson that, you know, I would like to
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take from Kevin's the time with Kevin it's that you have to put
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in the work and actually walk the precincts and knock the
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doors and and and raise the money and actually do the things
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that candidates need to do to win because it's not just given
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to you especially in California and that includes you know local
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races like School boards, those aren't you know giveaways
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either. Those are.
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Those are in fact, I'm kind of advising some local school board
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candidates up here because I really wanted my Ortiz in the
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assembly is going to be recruiting and supporting
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candidates in our local community at the local level to
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run and actually helping them. Give them the tools.
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They need to actually be successful in campaigns.
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And and what I tell them all the time is you have to complete set
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time aside to fundraise and you have to set time aside to walk
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precincts and get your message out there and actually meet
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people So, I know that you walked precincts with one of our
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great friends of the show, a Tamika Hamilton.
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And I know she places a really big emphasis on educating people
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that aren't even into politics and changing hearts and Minds.
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So speaking of, you know, your personal goal of if you get
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elected also, you know, be involved in local politics and
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the community. What would you say are like some
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big misconceptions people have about running for office?
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Misconceptions. Well, that's a good question.
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You know, I first of all it's not glamorous and it's not fun,
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it's not really fun or easy, you know, and I always try to
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prepare when I'm, you know, when someone comes to me and says,
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hey, I'm interested in running for office, I really try to dig
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out of them. Like, are you willing to really
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run for office? Or do you just like the idea of
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being in office? But are you actually willing to
00:16:07
put in the work? So, for example, you know, when
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I ran for school board in 2018, there were three seats, I think
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one incumbent, and four candidates for those three seats
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at that time. It was at large.
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We've since gone to these district-based elections, which
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is a whole nother topic, that's really changed some of the
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calculus. But you know, I my dad and I
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literally walk nine thousand doors in that race.
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Just, just me and him, you know, it's harder to get volunteers.
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Here's that the lope for local races because they're just not
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as high profile and people aren't as paying as close of
00:16:42
attention to them. And so, it's actually more work.
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I feel like to run for local office because it's kind of all
00:16:47
on you, you know, running for the State Assembly.
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I have a team of like, 10 people, you know?
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And so I'm able to really share the load what it takes to run
00:16:56
for office. But running for local office is,
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it's really falls on the candidate and whoever you can
00:17:03
talk into maybe helping you a little bit.
00:17:05
And so I think you have to be willing to put in the work and
00:17:10
really, you know, knock doors. You might not raise a ton of
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money to be able to send a bunch of mail.
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So you really need to put in the work to also connect with the
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major Community leaders, and the major Community groups that
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really sway these elections locally as well.
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So you brought up and you want to help with cancer running for
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school board? You are you currently on school
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board? Are you were on school board
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times? I'll be serving finishing out my
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term. So I'll be on my school board
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here until November So obviously there's always been in the past
00:17:50
two years has been a lot of controversy with school boards
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and school boards facing down. A lot of angry parents.
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Walk us through your time on School Board in 2020, what that
00:18:03
was like especially in the face of the pandemic and a state that
00:18:08
did not want to reopen schools at basically, you know, the the
00:18:11
request of the teachers unions. Absolutely.
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Yeah. I mean, it was probably one of
00:18:17
the most difficult things I've ever done in terms of, you know,
00:18:20
just in the leadership role of any kind because it was very
00:18:24
emotional, and it was very, you know, you had Parents on one
00:18:29
side, literally begging for us to open schools and on the other
00:18:34
side, you had teachers unions that were, I mean, pretty much
00:18:39
begging to keep them closed and really they held a lot of the
00:18:43
power because they didn't, you know, the interesting thing
00:18:46
about school Boards is you do have the union interest but you
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also have you have District staff and and whoever works on
00:18:55
your staff in your school district.
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Whether it's the superintendent or you know, her team or his
00:19:01
team, those those are really the most influential people in the
00:19:07
process. So you have teachers unions,
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kind of influencing staff and then the staff will put forward
00:19:14
recommendations and One of the things that I find the most
00:19:19
fascinating about school district politics is that when
00:19:25
you become an elected School Board member, they don't know if
00:19:28
I have it exactly say this appropriately but they really do
00:19:32
try to indoctrinate you on what a school board member is
00:19:36
supposed to be. And what I mean by that is they
00:19:39
try to they want school board members who are going to listen
00:19:44
to the staff and who are going to Implement recommendations
00:19:47
from the superintendent. And they want school board
00:19:50
members that aren't really going to push the boundaries on that
00:19:53
relationship very much. The problem is that in my mind,
00:19:56
that's not why we elected school board members.
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The superintendent Is Not Elected and it's not
00:20:01
accountable. The superintendent is not as
00:20:06
directly accountable to the voters.
00:20:09
Specifically, that's why we have a school board, is that the
00:20:12
voters, pick the five, or seven Representatives that they want.
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Their kids in the schools. And it's really our job to be
00:20:19
independent and thoughtful and to take staff recommendations
00:20:23
and ask the right questions and figure out if that's the right
00:20:26
way that our school district should go, but the job of a
00:20:29
school district is to set policy and set Direction.
00:20:34
But when you become an elected School Board member, they send
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you off to conferences where you are taught, that school board
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members, don't really rock the boat and they just kind of go
00:20:45
along and with With staff recommendations and that's what
00:20:48
we saw. A lot of it in the pandemic.
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To be honest with you, we had teachers unions but also Health
00:20:55
at the county level, we had health officials telling
00:20:58
superintendents what they need to do and what they should do.
00:21:02
And you know, it was kind of the parents in the students that
00:21:05
were really left unrepresented because in a lot of communities,
00:21:09
you the board just kind of went along with that.
00:21:12
Now in my district, we had the we were actually The first
00:21:17
district in Sacramento County to bring kids back to in-person
00:21:20
instruction. And to this day, I'm still very,
00:21:22
very proud of that because that was, I have three kids in the
00:21:27
school's, right? So I mean I was I was at home
00:21:30
watching them, seeing them really struggle with distance
00:21:33
learning and so, to get them back before anyone else, in the
00:21:36
county was a huge win, but at the end of the day, we were
00:21:40
still far behind some of the, the counties in the region and
00:21:44
it was it was truly a battle. Just to just to get that done.
00:21:48
So, Do you think? But even before covid, there was
00:21:56
a strain, or was this relationship?
00:21:59
Has this been going on for a while?
00:22:02
We're a school board, sort of ignore the voters and listen to
00:22:08
the staffers and the superintendent's and covid just
00:22:11
kind of put a spotlight on it and highlight them how this
00:22:15
relationship is absolutely. It's been going on for a long
00:22:19
time and, you know, for Long time, you know, so often the
00:22:25
education establishment as I like to call, it doesn't have
00:22:28
the best interests of parents and kids in mind, in fact, most
00:22:33
of the time, you know, obviously the teachers unions are
00:22:36
advocating for their members and that's kind of to be expected.
00:22:39
But most of the time District staff is really more worried
00:22:43
about the bottom line and about enrollment and what brings in
00:22:46
money. Then they are worried about
00:22:48
outcomes and what you know is actually going on with the
00:22:51
actual students. And so that's that's why I think
00:22:56
we need more people to actually run for school board because
00:23:00
before covid, nobody even knew who their school board member
00:23:03
was, or who sat on their school board in a lot of cases.
00:23:06
And so what happens is the school board's get filled with a
00:23:10
lot of, you know, just sometimes community members, a lot of
00:23:15
times former teachers a lot of times former, you know,
00:23:18
education staff, who really kind of will just kind of go Wrong
00:23:23
with whatever staff were going to say and they've really acted
00:23:26
as a rubber stamp, right? That's kind of the status quo of
00:23:30
a lot of school boards throughout the state.
00:23:32
But what happened during covid is parents woke up and said,
00:23:36
wait a second, these people aren't, you know, protecting my
00:23:40
interests and the interests of my kids and and it really came
00:23:44
to the Forefront that, you know, people whose on your school
00:23:46
board actually matters. And so what we're seeing now is
00:23:50
a lot more people stepping up to run for school board which I
00:23:52
think is Only one of the best things that came out of covid is
00:23:56
that you have people actually engaging in in local politics in
00:24:00
that way because I think more parents need to run for school
00:24:03
board. The other big problem that we
00:24:05
have on school boards is that people without kids in the
00:24:08
district they don't have skin in the game.
00:24:10
And so what one of the things that we saw during covid-19 To
00:24:23
reopen schools multiple times on a three-to-two vote and the two.
00:24:27
Yes, votes were the two people with kids in the school district
00:24:30
and the three no votes. Were people that had no clue how
00:24:33
this was affecting kids. And so, you know, I really am
00:24:37
glad to see more parents stepping up to run but just, you
00:24:41
know, highlight how much higher profile this isn't, it used to
00:24:45
be, you know, when I've been walking precincts for my
00:24:47
assembly race, particularly in the area, I represent on the
00:24:50
school board. I can't tell you how many people
00:24:53
We are like Josh, thank you for everything you did.
00:24:56
I watched all of your meetings throughout covid.
00:24:58
I mean, it's incredible. Like people would literally turn
00:25:01
on their school board meetings, every other Thursday, while
00:25:04
they're making dinner and watch their school board meetings
00:25:06
because it was that important to them.
00:25:09
That's never happened. In the, I feel like at least as
00:25:13
long as I've been around when it comes to Local School Board
00:25:16
politics, nobody watches those meetings most of the time.
00:25:19
So I definitely would say that people are more engaged in.
00:25:22
They used to be Speaking of school boards duties covid has
00:25:29
obviously I think it's been a blessing in disguise as far as
00:25:31
getting people activated in local politics but I do think
00:25:35
it's important to emphasize that there are other things as school
00:25:38
board trustee does aside from covid.
00:25:41
And you know, I know it feels like we are still in the state
00:25:44
of emergency but I you know, out some point like covid.
00:25:49
I'm hopeful it's going to be over.
00:25:50
So what exactly does a school board trustee do like what
00:25:54
Things that you all talked about in your Thursday meetings aside
00:25:58
from, you know, unmasking children, it's a great point.
00:26:02
And, to be honest with you, it's it's starting to get back to
00:26:05
normal. But I mean, as we've seen even,
00:26:08
you know, in San Diego, you know, we have the mask issue
00:26:10
coming back up, right? So, unfortunately, we're not
00:26:13
quite there yet and I can't wait for the day when we can stop
00:26:17
talking about covid in my district up here, thankfully, we
00:26:22
have not even discussed bringing back the A mask mandate there is
00:26:25
zero plans to do that and I think most of the board feels
00:26:30
the same way although I can't speak for all of them but you
00:26:35
know, a lot of that to kind of gets pushed by your County as
00:26:38
well. So it kind of depends on the
00:26:39
county that you live in, but in terms of what school board
00:26:44
members do, I mean, I think the job is actually at least the job
00:26:50
as I see it is is very basic from the standpoint of You Are
00:26:54
Really there to be the representative for the community
00:26:57
because there's no one else in the school district structure
00:27:00
that really has, you know, the interests of the community in
00:27:04
mind, as I mentioned earlier, you know, staff tends to worry
00:27:07
about budget. And and and the bottom line and
00:27:10
enrollment, you know, unions want, you know, higher pay, you
00:27:13
no more members, those sorts of things.
00:27:15
And so really, there's very few interests that are there to
00:27:20
protect the community and I think that's what a effective.
00:27:24
Cool board member is supposed to do, there's supposed to be an
00:27:27
accountability mechanism, really in a check on the staff, in the
00:27:31
district. But you know, a big part of the
00:27:34
role of the school board is also to vote on a budget and to craft
00:27:38
a, you know, have a fiscally responsible budget and to really
00:27:43
make sure that they are good stewards of the taxpayer dollars
00:27:47
that they're getting. And, and the other thing that
00:27:50
I've tried to do as a school board member is really focused
00:27:52
on on outcomes. For kids as well.
00:27:55
And and you know my community is very interesting because we have
00:28:00
two cities in our school district.
00:28:01
It's a unified school district but it's actually two separate
00:28:04
cities. One city is more affluent.
00:28:07
The other city has a larger number of socio-economic issues.
00:28:13
And so you see you have a giant Gap achievement Gap in between
00:28:18
the students in both of those communities.
00:28:20
And so, one thing that I, when I ran was that, I wanted to try to
00:28:24
close that, Achievement gap between our two communities.
00:28:27
And so we actually just, I guess a month ago now, maybe a couple
00:28:31
weeks approved, the first Charter School in this school
00:28:34
district in over a decade in in Rancho Cordova.
00:28:39
And that is a huge step in the right direction.
00:28:43
In my opinion, towards really providing just a new option for
00:28:47
families, you know, nobody's required to go there, but it's
00:28:51
going to provide options for families where they didn't have
00:28:54
those options. Before and I'm a big believer in
00:28:55
that. So this may be a pretty loaded
00:29:02
question. Do you think the public
00:29:05
education system as constructed in California has failed
00:29:10
students in terms of how California is running it?
00:29:15
I think absolutely. The education establishment is
00:29:19
failing students. That's not to say it's beyond
00:29:21
repair, but as it stands now I do think in a lot of communities
00:29:28
they have failed. Now that's not to say there
00:29:29
aren't public schools that are good quality in this state but
00:29:34
the sad thing is, you know, and we talked a lot about school
00:29:36
choice, you know, it's like always a topic of conversation
00:29:41
and everyone has different opinions on it but the reality
00:29:44
is, is that Anyone with means have school choice because they
00:29:48
can either move and afford a home in a community with a
00:29:51
fantastic public school or they can afford to send their child
00:29:54
to a private school. But so many of the students in
00:29:58
this state, particularly the ones that don't have those
00:30:01
advantages. They're trapped in their
00:30:04
neighborhood school and in way too many cases, those
00:30:07
neighborhoods schools are failing them and so I really
00:30:12
think we need a reckoning in California.
00:30:15
On on education, there are a lot of special interests that are
00:30:19
currently controlling the current kind of education
00:30:23
establishment and until that changes.
00:30:26
I mean, one good example, is that the CTA is the largest
00:30:29
campaign donor in the state. I mean it's really amazing if
00:30:33
you think about it but that kind of campaign.
00:30:36
Cash gets you significant influence over policy and the
00:30:41
reality is that we are our policies.
00:30:45
Reflective of the people that that really, you know, yield
00:30:50
wield that influence. So it's I think we need, we
00:30:55
definitely need to shake things up and a lot of that can happen
00:30:57
at the local level. So, yeah.
00:31:04
And just the other day, we saw news come out that the numbers
00:31:10
from San Francisco and their public schools, and the amount
00:31:13
of those who were was a constantly absent and those were
00:31:18
not ready for even college or High School, the one glaring
00:31:23
thing you take away from it is that those in minority
00:31:26
communities are not being helped by public schooling and that's
00:31:32
always the argument. Yeah, it seems again.
00:31:34
School choice is well, if you implement school choice, you're
00:31:38
going to be hurting minority communities.
00:31:40
But when you look at the numbers of San Francisco Public Schools,
00:31:45
you see but public schools are already hurting minority
00:31:49
communities and a lot has to do with the fact that they were on
00:31:53
zoom and there was this, I guess notion that everybody had access
00:31:58
to Internet and technology which they don't.
00:32:01
So It's clear that we see the evidence right in front of us at
00:32:06
Public Schools, even San Francisco which you would assume
00:32:08
has money is failing. A lot of the inner and minority
00:32:13
communities. Yeah, it's interesting.
00:32:15
I the idea that, you know, it's a funding issue.
00:32:18
I don't know if you you probably saw a but Newsome recently got
00:32:22
an award for, you know, education in California.
00:32:26
I think transformative improvements to education and,
00:32:30
you know, it was honestly, one of the worst things I've ever
00:32:33
seen. Because not only even before
00:32:36
covid, California was near the bottom in almost every major
00:32:40
academic metric test scores. We were near the bottom before
00:32:44
covid and then we impose the longest School shutdowns in the
00:32:48
country. I mean we got our kids back last
00:32:50
as a state compared to every other state in the country.
00:32:54
In fact, LAUSD specifically they have a calculator online where
00:33:00
you can calculate the level of learning loss based on On the
00:33:03
length of the school, shut down. And it's like something like, 22
00:33:07
weeks of learning that the kids in LAUSD lost because of school
00:33:12
shutdowns, when you really think about that number, it's truly
00:33:15
astounding. And then, you know, our governor
00:33:18
gets an award for really the basis for that award was really
00:33:25
just spending a lot of money and that is so often what the
00:33:29
leadership in California tries to do.
00:33:31
They think that spending dollars?
00:33:33
Others is in itself a metric of success.
00:33:36
But the reality is that it is not policy is really what
00:33:40
matters and obviously funding matters.
00:33:42
But if the funding isn't paired with the right policies, it's
00:33:45
just going to be thrown down the drain and that's what we're
00:33:48
seeing in. In California, we have, we're
00:33:51
spending some of the most money in the country but we're getting
00:33:55
some of the worst results. And what, what I like to tell
00:33:57
people is you need to look at where kids are coming out and
00:34:01
what their outcomes are not, what the The inputs are for
00:34:04
funding, right? Because so often that funding is
00:34:07
going to the wrong places. And so that's it, that's a huge
00:34:12
problem that I think we need to address as a state but it you
00:34:15
know, again going back to the local theme.
00:34:17
I mean it also matters who is in your local community because
00:34:21
these are the ones that are approving charter schools and
00:34:24
improving options for families. You know, is interesting, there
00:34:27
was actually a bill a few years ago to clampdown on charter
00:34:31
schools and make it harder to To to basically open a charter
00:34:36
school in California, I was there that day when that bill
00:34:39
was heard for the first time in the assembly, over 500 people
00:34:44
showed up to a pose that bill most of them parents and
00:34:47
students. And the vast majority were
00:34:50
African-Americans and Latinos. I mean this idea that somehow
00:34:56
Charter Schools harm communities, communities is
00:35:01
absolutely nonsensical it In many communities, those are the
00:35:05
schools that are providing a lifeline and we that's not to
00:35:09
say we need to get rid of traditional Public Schools, but
00:35:12
we really need to ask ourselves what is best for the kids in our
00:35:16
communities. And one of the things that a lot
00:35:18
of the studies have found is that when you open a charter
00:35:22
school, it actually improves the traditional neighborhood schools
00:35:25
as well because they are then all of a sudden needing to
00:35:29
compete for enrollment and actually improve their outcomes
00:35:32
as well. And Really does lift All Ships.
00:35:35
And so I think the charter schools Act and the charter
00:35:39
school movement is really a way that you know, it's not going to
00:35:42
solve all our problems but it is a way that we're going to be
00:35:44
able to bring some some balance back to academic outcomes in
00:35:48
California. So, a couple questions for you.
00:35:54
The first one is like for the caucus.
00:35:56
If you get elected you there's caucuses, there's committees.
00:36:00
Do, you know if you get assigned to those or you get to pick,
00:36:04
where does that considered? And then my second question is
00:36:07
aside from the education committee which other committees
00:36:10
and caucuses in the State Assembly interest you?
00:36:13
Yeah, that's a good question. So you kind of get to pick but
00:36:16
not really. So you get to put in requests
00:36:18
with the, you know, with your so.
00:36:20
For example, I'm Republican, I can put in requests with the
00:36:23
Republican leader and the Republican leader can take those
00:36:27
requests to the speaker of the assembly, but ultimately, the
00:36:30
speaker of the Assembly of, like, unilaterally approves or
00:36:33
denies all of those requests. And so, it really is kind of up
00:36:37
to up to him, or her on, you know, who gets on what
00:36:42
committees. But, you know, in terms of,
00:36:44
obviously, I'm very interested in be on the education
00:36:47
committee. I'm also very interested in
00:36:50
working on public safety. Issues homelessness issues.
00:36:53
Really diving into those issues because I think those are areas
00:36:57
where California has a long ways to go as well.
00:37:00
But I think the other committee I'd really love to sit on his
00:37:03
housing, especially as a younger person.
00:37:06
With a young family, housing is becoming a big problem in
00:37:11
California. It's becoming so difficult to
00:37:14
achieve. You know, the American dream of
00:37:16
homeownership in California, particularly if you're below,
00:37:20
you know 35. 30. And so how can we solve those
00:37:26
problems? I'm very interested in working
00:37:28
on those issues and finding a way to make California more
00:37:31
affordable for free under families.
00:37:38
I was, you know, going back to the Newsome award.
00:37:43
I think it kind of nailed it on the head.
00:37:45
I was joking. I thought that you did get.
00:37:48
He got an award for the most teachers union, Kickbacks, but
00:37:51
it sounds like it's true. You did give enough teachers
00:37:53
unions. Kickbacks actually got a lot of
00:37:57
money, Babbitt someone up. Yeah, I'm sure it's just a
00:38:00
vicious cycle of you. Give me campaign, cash, I passed
00:38:05
and signed laws that give you more Cash.
00:38:08
Yeah, yeah. And yeah I mean we could talk
00:38:13
about public school in traditional schooling but I did
00:38:17
want to bring this this up because you still are running
00:38:19
for assembly. This is not about all about
00:38:22
school board. I got in a Twitter spat with
00:38:25
someone, you know, with 1000 pronouns and a Ukrainian flag in
00:38:29
their bio about how it's a good idea to have these open air
00:38:37
drug. Q's areas and stuff like that,
00:38:40
and I just asked them. The simple question.
00:38:43
If someone was an alcoholic, you wouldn't give them a bottle of
00:38:46
Jack Daniels, right? So, why do why do progressives
00:38:50
in California? Believe, it's compassionate to
00:38:54
basically hand the substance to someone and enable them to put
00:39:00
this to continue to act in a way that is quite literally killing
00:39:05
them. And I fail to see the
00:39:06
compassion, And how that's Progressive.
00:39:10
It's not Progressive or compassionate, you know?
00:39:14
And I again this is kind of going back to what I said at the
00:39:19
beginning where we, you know, we need candidates on the left and
00:39:22
the right to bring Common Sense back to the legislature, you
00:39:27
know? And sometimes I think we're
00:39:29
seeing some of that with the rejection of, you know, chesa
00:39:32
Boudin and the school board in San Francisco.
00:39:35
And we're seeing voters, really kind of like Express that
00:39:41
they're not, you know, they may be left-leaning, but they're not
00:39:45
supportive of these extreme policies but we really need.
00:39:49
We need that to continue to travel throughout the state.
00:39:53
You know. I actually don't know how many
00:39:55
people actually think that's a good idea.
00:39:58
There are some very loud Progressive voices that are
00:40:00
pushing for policies like that, but I think you have a lot of
00:40:03
Democrats that really don't like the direction their parties
00:40:07
going on. On those issues, they're seeing
00:40:09
the polling. And they're seeing that, you
00:40:12
know, crime and homelessness going up in communities.
00:40:14
Isn't really great for election prospects, it's not really
00:40:19
popular with voters and you know, sadly we're having to kind
00:40:24
of experiment with these things before the Democrats, actually
00:40:26
realize this. But I am really hopeful that
00:40:29
over the next decade the Democratic party starts to wake
00:40:33
up and go. Wait a second, we can't Embrace
00:40:36
these crazy policies. You know, one of the things that
00:40:40
and I think they're also be more opportunities when I'm in the
00:40:43
legislature. I hope for bipartisan, you know,
00:40:47
alliances on some of these issues.
00:40:50
It's really interesting, you know, the left really embraced
00:40:52
Prop 47, which was the The Proposition passed in
00:40:57
California. It was actually labeled the safe
00:40:59
neighborhoods and schools act or something like that.
00:41:02
But in reality, it reduced penalties for shoplifting and it
00:41:07
reeks. Classified a bunch of crimes and
00:41:09
really has led to a lot of the surge in retail theft that we're
00:41:13
seeing across the state. But one thing that it did that
00:41:16
is never discussed and I maybe not never, but is rarely
00:41:19
discussed, is it completely? Not eliminated but it it
00:41:27
completely took away the ability for us to use the drug court
00:41:31
system to help get people into substance abuse treatment.
00:41:34
So, before Prop 47 used to be able when One would get arrested
00:41:39
and they were, you know, on drugs or they were clearly an
00:41:43
addict, you could offer them two options.
00:41:45
You could say, you know, they're here some jail time, or you can
00:41:49
go to substance abuse treatment. And, and for many of them, they
00:41:53
chose substance abuse treatment for obvious reasons.
00:41:56
What happened with Prop 47, is it got rid of that jail time in
00:42:01
Stick, right? So, the carrot is still there,
00:42:04
but the stick is no longer there.
00:42:05
So there's no incentive for anybody to actually go and seek
00:42:09
drug treatment. And so, what are we seeing?
00:42:12
We're seeing an increase in substance abuse and an increase
00:42:15
in drug addicts on our streets. It's a huge problem and then San
00:42:18
Francisco's trying to go farther and actually allow it to happen
00:42:23
in their streets. I mean, we you have little kids
00:42:25
trying to walk to school and you know you have these areas where
00:42:29
people are legally quote-unquote, you know, get it
00:42:34
using drugs, it's it really does Boggle the mind but I Think, I
00:42:39
don't think it's something that voters are going to put up with
00:42:41
for very long. So it and that you may you bring
00:42:48
up an interesting point that Democrats hopefully someday in
00:42:51
California start to wake up and do you think there are more?
00:42:57
I guess I mean your opponent pretends he's moderate.
00:43:00
Yeah. But do you think there are more
00:43:04
moderate than there are sort of allowed far-left Bay Area?
00:43:09
Progressives like the Alex leaves and the Scott wieners who
00:43:12
put out these Bills that you just go at the you look at and
00:43:16
you just go like what do you think it?
00:43:18
Like what you can tell this bill is completely geared towards
00:43:22
your constituency and you know San Francisco in the inner city
00:43:27
of San Francisco has nothing to do with the rest of the state.
00:43:31
Do you think there's more Ken coolies than there are Scott
00:43:34
wieners and if so why do the Scott wieners and Alex leaves
00:43:38
seem to run the party in California?
00:43:41
I mean there might be but there Reality is the progressive left
00:43:45
has done a really good job of pushing their agenda even on
00:43:50
people that maybe aren't fully supportive of some of these
00:43:53
things. But they threaten these
00:43:55
candidates that, you know, don't if you know if you don't go
00:43:57
along with the progressive agenda, we're going to find
00:44:00
someone more Progressive and run against you, right?
00:44:02
And so I think, I think the Democratic party has a lot of
00:44:07
infighting right now, over those issues people that want to take
00:44:11
the party farther left and you have You know, some of these
00:44:14
people that probably don't want that to happen.
00:44:17
They know that's probably not good long-term for the party but
00:44:20
they're not quite willing to stand up to the progressive
00:44:23
left. I will say though, there are
00:44:25
some glimpses of hope. So, there were two bills
00:44:27
introduced by democrats in this, this legislative cycle on Public
00:44:31
Safety. Specifically, one would have
00:44:33
increased the penalties for fentanyl distribution and that
00:44:39
bill was voted down in Public Safety Committee.
00:44:43
There was also So, a bill introduced by a Democrat that
00:44:46
would have made possession of the stolen firearm felony.
00:44:50
Again, a very common sense bill. This was proposed by a
00:44:54
democratic author and that was also voted down in the Public
00:44:58
Safety Committee. So on the one hand, yes the
00:45:01
progressive left really does kind of control things in
00:45:04
Sacramento but there are glimpses of hope.
00:45:06
We see Democrats that are starting to put forward.
00:45:09
Legislation that say we're not going in the right direction on
00:45:13
some of these issues. Using we really need to change
00:45:15
course. So I'm hoping that as voters.
00:45:18
Continue to reject. Some of these more extreme ideas
00:45:22
that their representatives will start to reflect that as well.
00:45:29
Can you confirm or deny whether or not Alex Lee lives in his
00:45:34
mom's basement? Still?
00:45:38
I honestly have no clue. I don't know the answer to that,
00:45:41
but I did see that mailer, and I did see that attack ad and that
00:45:47
was one of the funniest things I've ever seen to be honest with
00:45:51
you. You know, on the one hand, it
00:45:52
wouldn't totally surprised me. He's very young, and on the
00:45:55
other hand, he lives in a very expensive area.
00:45:58
So no, no. I mean, we're talking about
00:46:01
these things and it is kind of funny, but I mean, if you're a
00:46:04
young under 30 in California, It's getting harder to get out
00:46:09
of your mom's basement, that's for sure.
00:46:11
So So you do work. You're technically a capital
00:46:16
staffer. So I guess like, we're curious.
00:46:19
Like, I mean, you interact with these Democrat State.
00:46:21
I like we live here in San Diego.
00:46:23
So you know, there's only so much we can do unless we're up
00:46:26
there like and we just see headlines.
00:46:29
Right? But yeah what are like some
00:46:31
interesting tidbits like are these Democrats really as like
00:46:35
mean as like the media makes them out to be like we inquiring
00:46:39
minds would like to know. Yeah, I mean I think
00:46:42
Interesting. You know, I mean, first of all,
00:46:44
there's a big difference between the members of the legislature
00:46:46
and the staff and the legislature, you know, you know,
00:46:50
staff tends to have some level of camaraderie because we're all
00:46:54
kind of in this together, in some ways.
00:46:56
But we obviously have a difference of opinion on a lot
00:46:59
of things. We also agree on a lot of
00:47:01
things. You know, what people don't talk
00:47:02
about is like, 70% of the bills that pass, you know, passed
00:47:05
without any no votes. Basically, you know, I mean,
00:47:08
really the stuff that gets attention is probably in that 20
00:47:11
to 30 percent. That is controversial, but we do
00:47:14
pass a lot of laws that you know, there is no disagreement
00:47:17
on. That being said, I think things
00:47:21
are changing you know, in a way that I'm not as excited about
00:47:25
from the standpoint of, you know, used to be where you could
00:47:28
have a difference of opinion and still be friends and still hang
00:47:32
out with people and still get drinks with people and disagree.
00:47:36
And that's still how I feel about everybody.
00:47:38
I have a lot of friends on the left that I can go get a beer
00:47:41
with and we don't Have to agree on everything that doesn't end
00:47:44
the friendship, you know, and that's kind of how it used to be
00:47:48
with a lot of the staff in the capital.
00:47:50
It's, you know, it's slowly changing.
00:47:52
I think there's still some of that, but I think politics has
00:47:56
become almost a religion at this point, which I think is probably
00:47:59
not healthy for the nation and the state where, you know, if
00:48:05
you disagree with me, on policy, or on politics or you voted for
00:48:08
this person and I voted for this person, then we just can't be
00:48:11
friends. I think that's really dangerous.
00:48:13
I think there was a poll they've done that pull every few years
00:48:18
on, you know. Would you be happy if your
00:48:20
daughter or your son married, someone with the opposite
00:48:24
political beliefs and like consistently that used to not
00:48:27
even be a concern for anybody? And now it's like this big
00:48:30
concern for a lot of people I just think that's really that
00:48:34
doesn't reflect well on our culture and I don't think it's
00:48:37
healthy for our political debate.
00:48:42
I Don't. And so I plan to be a legislator
00:48:47
who wants to work across the aisle when we can, but who also
00:48:52
you know, is willing to voice opposition when it's needed to
00:48:54
be voiced. And I think we can do both of
00:48:56
those things respectfully and still be able to be colleagues.
00:49:03
And that's so important and needed now more than ever where
00:49:10
people just don't want to talk to each other anymore.
00:49:12
They just they automatically think.
00:49:14
Oh, you're you're a liberal or a conservative.
00:49:17
I don't want to talk to you and and it's sad.
00:49:21
I, you know, I've lost connection with family members
00:49:26
over covid because of disagreements over covid.
00:49:28
They said oh well you're you know you're a trump or who
00:49:31
doesn't believe in covid-19. I'm not going to talk to you
00:49:33
anymore. When in reality if you just most
00:49:38
of the time, nine times out of ten, if you sit down with
00:49:40
someone who doesn't is on the other side of the aisle
00:49:42
politically and you just sit there and talk to him.
00:49:46
Yeah, you'll find out. I think that they're you have a
00:49:49
lot more in common than you do different.
00:49:52
Yeah, I would agree with that. Oh yeah.
00:49:55
II like to tell a story of how I went up to NorCal and visit with
00:50:00
my wife's good friend up there and she's You know, deep blue in
00:50:04
the Bay Area, very, very far left.
00:50:08
But when we, when it came down to it, and we're sitting there,
00:50:10
having a coffee in San Francisco, we were chatting
00:50:13
about what's going on. What's the state of the city?
00:50:17
It turned out. We had a lot more in common than
00:50:21
you would believe and she had her gripes.
00:50:23
Oh yeah. People do need to learn to talk
00:50:26
more and just get past that initial, I guess stage of
00:50:32
judging people already off the bat totally.
00:50:35
You know I've been doing a lot on social media because I think
00:50:37
social media is terrible for that you know, because you
00:50:40
really can't have a conversation or a logical discussion on
00:50:44
social media. And so what I've been kind of
00:50:46
Doing in some of our local Facebook groups is.
00:50:49
I'll tell someone, like, you know, this isn't really
00:50:51
something that can really be thoroughly discussed in a
00:50:54
Facebook comment. So, you know, let me send you my
00:50:57
phone number and we can talk about it.
00:50:59
And I've had a lot of teachers, you know, even teachers that are
00:51:03
upset or you know, about an issue call me and we'll talk and
00:51:06
we'll come to, you know, we might come to agreement but
00:51:08
we'll come to a level of understanding and I think we
00:51:11
need to get back to that place where we can.
00:51:13
We can do that where we can treat each other like humans and
00:51:16
not like You know, just avatars on social media or something.
00:51:21
I think that's really a key to kind of changing that culture.
00:51:26
I have a colleague on the school board, who's a Democrat, who I
00:51:30
get a beer with after every meeting, you know?
00:51:33
And we don't agree on everything and we do agree on school
00:51:37
choice. In fact, he joined me in
00:51:39
supporting that charter school, which I think is fantastic.
00:51:42
But there's been issues that we've pretty strongly disagreed
00:51:44
on. But after every meeting we go,
00:51:46
Have a beer together and we talked about things and and we
00:51:49
get to know each other as humans and I think we just need more of
00:51:52
that in our political culture. So we're coming up on close to
00:52:00
the hour. I don't want to, I want to
00:52:02
respect your time. As a candidate know your time is
00:52:04
very valuable. Your newly sworn-in assemblyman.
00:52:12
What are the top, three goals. Yeah.
00:52:16
Assemblyman Hoover or assembly person.
00:52:18
If you want to go buy some bleep person assembly person, whoever
00:52:22
wants to wants to accomplish in his first term.
00:52:25
Yeah. That now that's the loaded
00:52:27
question right there. I mean, it's hard to limit it to
00:52:30
three things but, you know, I think I still believe that
00:52:36
Public Safety is King in this in communities.
00:52:40
That's that's one of the things that I'm running on is to really
00:52:43
be an advocate for common-sense public safety policy.
00:52:46
And so I would love to introduce some bills or even, you know,
00:52:51
find some Democrats that would be willing to put Bill's forward
00:52:54
in a bipartisan way to kind of scale back some of the the crazy
00:53:00
laws that we have in California, you know?
00:53:03
I I certainly want to work on education, what that looks like
00:53:07
right now. I don't have the bill out in
00:53:09
front of me written, but we have to find a way to to increase
00:53:16
options for families in California.
00:53:18
And, you know, I think I mentioned housing and
00:53:21
homelessness the problem in Sacramento.
00:53:24
Right now on the homelessness issue, is that it is far too
00:53:29
often portrayed as it's just a housing issue.
00:53:32
Like if we could only find housing, Or build housing for
00:53:35
the homeless and the problem would go away but it completely
00:53:39
denies the reality that the the true root cause of the problem
00:53:42
in. So many cases is mental.
00:53:45
Health issues is substance, abuse issues as you talked about
00:53:48
earlier and so I really want to tackle those things.
00:53:52
I think in a lot of ways, as a republican legislator, you can
00:53:55
do that by providing accountability.
00:53:58
So I would love to see us audit homelessness, homelessness
00:54:01
spending in California. I will be pushing hard Hard for
00:54:04
an audit of the billions of dollars that we are spending and
00:54:07
homeless on homelessness. We have spent something like 17
00:54:12
billion dollars in the last few years on homelessness and we
00:54:15
have more homeless today than we had five years ago.
00:54:18
So we need to seriously, we need to get serious about auditing
00:54:21
where those taxpayer dollars are actually going.
00:54:24
And so that's that's something else that I plan to introduce as
00:54:27
well. Great II.
00:54:33
This was a great conversation. Thank you for coming on.
00:54:37
Where can people find out more about you?
00:54:41
And if they want to donate and support you where can they go
00:54:44
and learn more? Absolutely.
00:54:47
Well I appreciate that. So best place to go is
00:54:50
www.healthreform.gov sembly.com. So Hoover for assembly.com is
00:54:56
where you can go and learn more. You can also get connected there
00:55:00
with me on social media on Facebook and Instagram and
00:55:04
Twitter. So that's probably the best
00:55:07
place to go. And if you ask nicely maybe on
00:55:12
Facebook Josh will hand out his phone number to you right now.
00:55:15
Can I can't promise that away with them on stuff you know but
00:55:18
II definitely will he's not giving out the digitized not
00:55:22
tonight but I'll send it in a private message.
00:55:24
How about that? There you go.
00:55:27
Yeah, if you ask nicely, maybe Josh will give you them digits.
00:55:31
Great. Well, thank you for again.
00:55:33
Thank you for coming on best of luck to you.
00:55:36
Thank your campaign, hope to see you sworn in and hop on a lot of
00:55:40
these issues, it's definitely needed.
00:55:42
It's going to be a tight race. We're going to keep an eye on
00:55:44
it, so thank you event again for coming on.
00:55:46
I appreciate it. I hope to be back sometime
00:55:51
Great. And as I always end every show,
00:55:53
if you got something out of this and you liked it and you know,
00:55:56
someone who might like this as well, text one friend or family
00:55:59
member, who would be interested if you're watching on YouTube or
00:56:02
listening on audio, make sure you like subscribe and review
00:56:05
that helps with the algorithm. And, you know, that's it will
00:56:09
see you on the next one. Good night everybody.