Are you a Californian who feels like your views on politics in California are not popular? Do you feel like no one will agree with you? Feels like when you meet someone who does agree you are part of a secret underground club of people who think like you? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast to hear others who share your views and solutions to save our beautiful state.
On this episode, we are joined by Assemblyman Josh Hoover to discuss everything happening in Sacramento from education, to homelessness, to the enormous backlash over SB14.
This episode was recorded on 7.18.23
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
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What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning to another
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episode of the California Underground Podcast.
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I am your host, Phil, along with me as always, as my trusty
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cohost, the best and fastest researcher in the West Camille.
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And tonight we have a special guest.
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And I think it's the first time in California underground
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history that we've had previously a guest who was a
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candidate and now is elected to office.
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So this is a big deal. Assemblyman Josh Hoover of the
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Seventh Assembly District. Welcome to the show, Josh.
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How are you doing tonight? I'm doing great.
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Thanks for having me guys. I'm really excited to be back.
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I I think my first time on must have been a good luck charm or
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something because we pulled off the race and and now we get to
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be here actually getting to do some some good work so.
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Well, if you just keep spreading that around and then we'll be
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lining up, people will be lining up to get on this show.
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Spread the word. Yeah.
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If you go on that California Underground show, you win your
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race. I don't, I don't know how that
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correlates, but. Anyway, yeah, we got a lot to
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cover tonight and and obviously we can talk about sort of your
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introduction to the assembly, how it's been going.
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But for those who are not familiar with who you are, why
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don't you give us a little bit of background of how you got
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into it and how you ended up in the assembly?
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Yeah. No, absolutely.
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I so. I was previously a school board
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member in my community, so local it was the Folsom Court of a
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Unified School District. I got elected to that in 2018.
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Turned out to be a really interesting time to get elected
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to a school board because then COVID hit and I was fighting to
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reopen our schools. We were the first district in
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Sacramento County to get our schools reopened for inperson
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instruction, and that was probably one of the biggest
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fights I've ever experienced. And I know, you know, yeah it
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was it was a really tough time and I've got kids that are in
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the schools and so it meant a lot for me to get them back to
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in person instruction. And then in 2021 the state
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redistricted the the legislative districts.
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Kevin Kiley who was one of the previous representatives for
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part of this seat at least ran for Congress and then the the
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state redistricted. The districts and and what ended
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up happening is I ended up getting drawn into a a very
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competitive district that was actually represented by a
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longterm Democratic representative 10 years He had
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been representing the district in the supermajority and I took
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a run at it and we were the first first legislator to beat
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an incumbent in the supermajority in since 2014.
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We were the only one last cycle to do that and it was a very big
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lift. We got outspent by $3,
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but we were not outworked. We had a fantastic grassroots
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campaign. I thought we had a better
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message and we we won that seat and and I'm excited to be
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representing now the district where I grew up good.
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For you, that's amazing. Yeah.
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So I don't know if I recommend it as a life choice, but it was
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a very, very intense year, but a very, very great victory.
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Yeah, but that's that's really encouraging to hear.
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Yeah, it was exciting. Yes, I think it's always the the
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feedback I always get about supporting any Republican
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candidate in California is they're going to get outspent.
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They're going to get their teeth kicked in.
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It's it's not even worth it. But like, races like yours are
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definitely inspiring because it shows if you have a good
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message. You connect with voters.
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It doesn't matter. You can be outspent and you just
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you want it and and you beat them and it.
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There is hope to beat big money in California, which probably
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scares unions and stuff like that, but it's a good sign that
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you can win that way. You definitely can.
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I mean it's you know, I I will say it was a, it was a slog.
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I mean we, you know my opponent was probably spending a quarter
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million per week on television ads.
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Attacking me and we couldn't compete with that kind of money,
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right? But you know at the end of the
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day, our message was pretty simple.
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We want wanted to bring balance and common sense back to
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Sacramento. We were fighting for safe
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neighborhoods, great schools and a more affordable place, you
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know, for our kids to live someday.
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And that's pretty much what we stayed focused on and and
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ultimately it went out over his negative messaging.
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What could they have possibly said negative about you?
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You're such a nice guy anyway. So well they don't, it doesn't
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necessarily need to be true for them to say it so, but I mean
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they they said I was anti woman, they said I was you know tied to
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right wing extremists and you know all this crazy stuff, I
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mean they made-up all kinds of stuff so.
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When all this fails to just sling mud, I guess in their
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case. But Speaking of slinging mud,
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I've used been spending some time in the Assembly now getting
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used to being an Assemblyman. You worked in Sacramento before,
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correct? So you're kind of used to the
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scene, but now you're an Assemblyman.
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Now you're in the thick of it, voting on stuff and and being a
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part of the legislative process. What's it been like these the
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this first year getting used to being in the Assembly?
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You know it's been it's been really interesting.
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I mean they it's I've had to navigate kind of all the
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personalities in Sacramento. I would say that it's definitely
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different because you know being I guess in the decision making
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chair you kind of have to figure out how to be effective in a
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place as out of balance as Sacramento is.
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And so really tried to get to know my colleagues on both sides
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of the aisle find ways to work together.
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We've we've had some victories. We've had some losses, but I I
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would say overall it's going very well.
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I think we found ways to to be effective.
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And I also have joined what what's called the Problem
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Solvers Caucus in Sacramento in the capital, which is
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essentially 11 Democrats and 10 Republicans.
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And we actually get in the room together once a week and we talk
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about bipartisan solutions to some of our state's biggest
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challenges, which I think. Is an important, you know, thing
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that needs to happen. I think in our age of kind of
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hyper partisanship, we tend to go to our corners, which is
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sometimes justified. But I think at the end of the
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day, some of the best policy that needs to happen, you know
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does at least from my perspective as in the Super
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minority in Sacramento needs to have bipartisan support.
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And so that's been a good way for me to kind of try to be
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effective as well. And have you seen I guess?
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There is this perception because it's a supermajority Democrats
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and you think of a California Democrat, you may think of, I
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don't know, some of the Bay Area Democrats who are way out there.
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Is there is there more of a mix of maybe some moderate Democrats
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that do actually want to work with Republicans in Sacramento?
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I mean, there certainly are Democrats that will work with
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Republicans. There are also some that won't,
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right? And you kind of got to find
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that's kind of what when I say navigating those relationships,
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I mean that's kind of what I've been trying to figure out,
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right. It's like how can you know who
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who's available to work with, right.
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So I mean, but yeah, overall, I think there's a handful of
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Democrats that are absolutely willing to to at least hear you
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out. You know, one of the things that
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one of the first things I put forward.
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Was a proposal to audit homelessness spending in
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California and it wasn't received super well.
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We've spent $20 billion on homelessness since 2018 and
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we've seen the problem grow by 77% in our state.
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And so, you know, my big question was, well, if we're
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spending billions of dollars and it's getting worse than you
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know, where is all that money going and how could we use it
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more effectively and. It wasn't initially received
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super well, but I actually teamed up with a Democratic
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legislator out of San Jose and we were able to come to a
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bipartisan agreement and we passed that with bipartisan
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support out of the Audit committee and it's now going to
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be completed in October. And we're really excited to see,
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you know, what information that gives us to help inform our
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policy moving forward. So I do think there's ways that
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you can be effective for sure. And you were explaining this
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audit process before we hopped on it.
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Doesn't have to go to Newsom to sign off, right?
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Yeah, that's so I, I, I sit on the Joint Legislative Audit
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Committee and it's probably one of my favorite committees
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because first of all it's a really important tool when it
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comes to just oversight and accountability for the for the
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state. But in particular for the the
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state agencies and programs that are run by the executive branch,
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you know by Governor Newsom, right.
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And and the great thing about it is when you introduce a bill in
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the legislature, you have to pass it through both houses and
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then get it signed by the governor.
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But with an audit, it just goes to one committee hearing.
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You have that committee hearing. And if you can convince your
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colleagues on that committee that this is important and they
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pass it, the state auditor gets right to work and it just
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happens. And it doesn't need approval by
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the governor, which is a really important feature of the
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committee because. Oftentimes we're auditing his
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programs and his agencies, right.
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So I think it's a really, really useful tool that is probably
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underutilized in California. I wanna audit.
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Like sign me up to help audit. Not even kidding.
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Right, right. I'll do it for free.
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I mean, there's so many great things we did, the homelessness
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one, but we've also done. We passed an audit to audit the
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middle income tax credit program.
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That was a total disaster. The EDD, you know, we've passed
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audits on just, you know, other big issues like that our roads.
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We actually passed an audit on on where Rd. funding is going,
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which I think is really good. So it's a really useful tool I
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think. I'd never.
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Heard of this committee? Before.
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So that's interesting to hear, yeah.
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Yeah, it's a powerful tool and and I always wonder where, you
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know, where is all that gas tax go when you drive over
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dilapidated roads over and over and over again And their whole
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promise was we raised the taxes, we'll fix all the roads.
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But I mean I I haven't seen roads be any marginally better
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since the gas tax has been since past.
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So yeah, that's a very powerful tool.
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And I think what's the the committee makeup like?
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I mean is there hope for more stuff to get audited or?
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Yeah, I mean it you know it doesn't it's it's still pretty
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heavily democratic. But I would say overall most of
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the audits that I see, I would say 90% of them get approved.
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I mean the ones that probably don't get approved are are
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Republican audit requests, but but you know there's still ways
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to work work with them to an extent and and try to get some
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of the stuff done. And I think you know it also
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shows that you know the. The needle on homelessness is
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moving. I mean, I really think that
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Democrats and Republicans, I mean Republicans have been kind
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of screaming this from the rooftops for a while.
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But I think Democrats, especially at the local level,
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are starting to wake up to, you know, how big of a problem this
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actually is. And and the reason for that is
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because they're hearing it every single day from their community.
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I mean, when I I've done a number of public, like,
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community meetings since I've been elected.
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And the top two issues are probably homelessness and roads
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and that, you know, I think that's probably the case in a
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lot of communities in California.
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Before we I want to continue on this line of talking about
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homelessness. But just as a suggestion, throw
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it in the suggestion box. I'd love to see an audit of the
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bullet train and what happened with that.
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Yeah, you and me both. I actually think that's been
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attempted and it was. I don't, I don't think that one,
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although there have been a couple audits on that topic, I
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think, but nothing near what we need to see.
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But I totally agree with you, it's a mess.
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I just want to see, is it as bad as True Detective made it out to
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be? I don't know if anyone else is a
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True Detective fan that's true. Detective.
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Yes, that. Whole season.
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Yeah, that is actually really funny.
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If people don't know if there's a whole season basically about.
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In California and the bullet train and where all the money
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went. But yeah, homelessness.
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And I agree with you, I think Democrats are facing this
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everywhere and I think it's it's basically the polling and the
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public backlash has really kind of goaded Democrats into action.
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I think that's why they're you're starting to see a lot of
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Democrats take more hardline stances, encampments, issues
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like that, this care court, which Newsom is trying to roll
00:13:48
out. Shows like maybe a more hardline
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approach to homelessness, and it's interesting that it really
00:13:55
had to come to their doorstep with Democrats before they
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finally had to do something. Meanwhile, we've been screaming
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about homelessness for 1020 years now, but now, because it's
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not politically advantageous, Democrats are finally picking up
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the the mantle for it. No, I I totally agree.
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I think it's. Definitely on the top of
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everyone's minds, I actually introduced a bill this year that
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was not successful, but it would have prohibited homeless
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encampments within 500 feet of schools and parks.
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And that was rejected by the Public Safety committee, which
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is kind of a trend in in in the capital.
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But you know, that's a policy that has been embraced by red
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and blue cities across the state.
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So, you know, it wasn't some crazy idea I actually took it
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from. Cities like Sacramento and and
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San Diego that had already done it.
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So you know I think it's, I think the needle is definitely
00:14:53
moving on that topic. Aren't there laws about sales of
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alcohol within a certain distance of schools?
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And I right. But we don't know.
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Not to say that all homeless people are Alcoholics, but we
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don't know what's going on in their camps.
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Drugs, alcohol so close to the campuses.
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So that's. That's odd that they.
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No, it's really frustrating. I mean, I've personally found
00:15:18
needles in the park where my kids play, right?
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And I think, you know, that is becoming more and more of a
00:15:24
trend and it's something that it's a public health and safety
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crisis in my opinion, right? I mean, it's important to get
00:15:32
people the help that they need, but it's also important that
00:15:35
we're protecting the most vulnerable people in our
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community. And all we were basically saying
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is kids deserve a an open path to walk to school safely and to
00:15:44
go to the park and play safely. I mean, I don't think that's
00:15:47
really a lot to ask. So yeah, it's it's pretty
00:15:51
frustrating. And yeah, I mean we there's a
00:15:54
lot of other things we don't allow near schools.
00:15:56
But previously, you know when I was on the school board, we had.
00:16:00
Homeless individuals that would, you know, come onto our campuses
00:16:03
and talk to kids and we had, you know, security issues like that.
00:16:07
And so this is, I feel like a pretty reasonable request.
00:16:12
Right. I remember as kids, you know, I
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grew up in California. I don't know if this was in
00:16:16
other states, but they would say like, oh, be careful in the ball
00:16:19
pit like a McDonald's because people say that people throw
00:16:22
their needles in there. Do you know what I'm talking
00:16:24
about? Like if you heard that and now
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we're laughing, but now it's not funny.
00:16:28
Like it's actually. They're parks, yeah.
00:16:31
And the parks are public, Yeah. We're paying for those parks to
00:16:34
be kept clean and secure and then they're not.
00:16:38
Yeah. And that's very sad.
00:16:40
It is really sad actually. Yeah, I know.
00:16:43
Razor blades in the Halloween candy and stuff like that.
00:16:47
All right. Yeah.
00:16:47
I remember they always say razor blades in the apples, which I'm
00:16:50
like, I don't know how they got it into an apple.
00:16:52
They made it look so perfect. So I guess gauging the
00:16:56
temperature in Sacramento on homelessness, especially with
00:16:59
Democrats on a scale of like 1, they're not taking it super
00:17:02
serious to 10, You know, DEFCON three, we got to fix this right
00:17:07
now. Where do you think Democrats are
00:17:09
right now in Sacramento on trying to do anything or fix
00:17:13
homelessness? I think they're still trying to
00:17:16
figure it out. I will say up until this point,
00:17:18
they haven't done much. You know up until like last year
00:17:24
our main measure of you know, homelessness response was how
00:17:28
many dollars we've spent as a state.
00:17:31
So you know, Newsom would would continually say oh we've spent
00:17:34
this many billion this year and I've committed this many billion
00:17:37
next year. And with with 0 like framing of
00:17:42
where that that money was going, what kind of effect that money
00:17:46
was having, Was it actually getting people out of the cycle
00:17:48
of homelessness, was it providing.
00:17:50
Mental health, was it providing substance abuse treatment?
00:17:54
Nothing like that. It was just how many dollars are
00:17:56
we spending? And I think that was absolutely
00:17:58
the wrong approach. This year, he's gotten a little
00:18:02
more serious about it, potentially because he's running
00:18:04
for president. I don't know why.
00:18:06
I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
00:18:08
But you know, in San Francisco specifically, I mean he, we've
00:18:11
seen him send in the CHP, we've sent seen him send in like.
00:18:15
You know, do these different like responses to the crime and
00:18:20
the homelessness that's going on in San, in San Francisco.
00:18:23
So I think that's been really interesting to watch.
00:18:27
I think he knows this is probably an electoral liability
00:18:30
for him. But at the end of the day, I
00:18:33
mean I still don't think that we're serious.
00:18:35
And the reason I don't think we're serious is because our
00:18:38
state is still committed to what they call, you know, or what is
00:18:42
called the housing first approach to homelessness.
00:18:45
Which is essentially, you know, you get people into housing 1st
00:18:48
and you deal with their other issues later and those issues
00:18:51
are generally dealt with on a voluntary basis.
00:18:54
So people are not required to get clean, they're not required
00:18:57
to go into treatment. And So what you know what we're
00:19:01
seeing is these problems continue to grow I think because
00:19:05
of that approach of the 20 billion or so dollars that we've
00:19:10
spent in the last five to six years.
00:19:13
Not a single dollar of that is eligible to go to programs that
00:19:16
require sobriety. So there's actually a ton of
00:19:19
programs in my community run by, you know, different nonprofits.
00:19:25
St. John's Program for Real Change.
00:19:27
There's something called Powerhouse Ministries Program
00:19:30
for homelessness in in my the City of Folsom.
00:19:34
And all of them have actual requirements.
00:19:36
They say we're going to give you housing, but you have to come to
00:19:40
us clean. And you have to or you have to
00:19:42
get clean. And that's kind of one of the
00:19:44
requirements that are put on the assistance that they get.
00:19:48
That's not the approach our state's taking as a whole.
00:19:51
And all that money we're spending is going to programs
00:19:53
that don't have those same requirements.
00:19:55
And so until we change that, I feel like we're not taking the
00:19:58
problem seriously. Yeah, cuz it's must be tough for
00:20:03
Democrats to cuz they're kind of stuck in the a rock and a hard
00:20:08
place where. They have the civil liberty
00:20:10
groups on one side, which they have been so aligned with for so
00:20:14
many years. But then they have the voters
00:20:16
who are getting frustrated because they see it every day
00:20:20
and that it just gets worse. So they have to kind of figure
00:20:23
out how do we do enough action to appease the voters so that
00:20:28
they think we're doing something but also not anger the civil
00:20:33
rights group that supports us. So they're kind of at this rock
00:20:37
and hard place like you're saying.
00:20:39
They can't get too tough because it'll be the civil rights people
00:20:43
come out and say, oh, you know, you can't do that, and the
00:20:45
advocacy groups will come out and say you can't do that.
00:20:49
But not doing enough is not going to appease the voters.
00:20:52
So they're really in a tough position, I think.
00:20:54
Yeah, I mean, I don't see it. I mean, I think for them they
00:20:57
are in a tough position because of who they have to keep happy.
00:21:00
But I think at the end of the day, you know, I mean, look,
00:21:04
civil rights are important. I mean we have to make sure
00:21:05
we're preserving people's. Rights as well.
00:21:09
But at the end of the day, there are we can go farther in terms
00:21:11
of asking people to get treatment and get clean.
00:21:16
And so, yeah, I think there's a lot of work to be done on that
00:21:20
topic. It'll be interesting to see if
00:21:25
it shifts over the next couple years.
00:21:29
Speaking of money and audits, has there been any audits on
00:21:34
where all the money for education?
00:21:37
Is going and we're, you know, failing as a state in in the
00:21:41
education department. And then I know you're on some
00:21:43
education committees and like you said, you were on the school
00:21:46
board before. So this must be near and dear to
00:21:48
your heart. Yep.
00:21:51
Has anyone presented an audit on that or?
00:21:54
Yeah, that's a great question. So I haven't seen any audits on
00:21:57
that, but I can tell you, you know, to your point, I mean, I
00:22:00
think I talked about this in just about every education
00:22:04
committee hearing. Being on the Assembly education
00:22:06
Committee that you know we spend, we we've increased our
00:22:11
funding of education in California something like 50 to
00:22:15
$60 billion over the last decade per year that's that's just like
00:22:20
a per year number and we continue to lag behind almost
00:22:25
every other state in most of the major categories.
00:22:28
We're 50th and literacy in the nation in California which I
00:22:32
think is just completely unacceptable.
00:22:35
We have 8th graders after COVID that are reading at a fifth
00:22:39
grade level on average. We have tremendous amounts of
00:22:44
learning loss because we had the longest school closures of any
00:22:48
state in the country. So we were actually behind
00:22:51
before COVID and we bit and then we added the longest school
00:22:54
closures in the country. So we're now even more behind
00:22:58
And I think what what's one of the most interesting statistics
00:23:02
is that. The disparity in our state
00:23:06
between the the ethnic disparity, so our our Latino and
00:23:11
our black children are actually farther behind than other
00:23:16
students than in other states when you compare that same group
00:23:19
across states. I mean it's we're really failing
00:23:22
on on every single level and yet our focus is on pretty much
00:23:28
everything else but the basics and actually getting back to the
00:23:31
basics in education. You know we're having these
00:23:35
these wars over curriculum and you know we have people pushing
00:23:40
really radical agendas in different you know the the
00:23:44
recent math framework and and different frameworks.
00:23:48
You know we had we recently passed an ethnic studies
00:23:51
graduation requirement despite the fact that you know kids
00:23:55
can't even read in California. I.
00:23:57
So I just think we're completely off base.
00:23:59
When it comes to focusing on where we need to focus in
00:24:03
education and helping our kids. Is there?
00:24:06
Is there any solution? Is there any?
00:24:09
I don't even know how to phrase my question.
00:24:11
Is there any hope for this like anytime soon?
00:24:16
I mean, look, I'm an optimist, so I'm always gonna say there's
00:24:19
hope, but I don't love the direction that we're going.
00:24:24
I don't see, you know? I don't see a lot of the action
00:24:30
that needs to be taken to fix this and I don't see a big
00:24:32
willingness. You know, one of the reasons is
00:24:34
because the state's largest political contributor to
00:24:37
political campaigns is the California Teachers Association.
00:24:41
A lot of people don't realize that they actually give more
00:24:44
political donations than any other organization in the state,
00:24:48
which is pretty. I think it's pretty mind
00:24:51
boggling when you think about it.
00:24:53
And the thing with the CTA is that they.
00:24:56
Fight to defend the status quo in Sacramento, it's that simple.
00:25:00
They don't want to see competition.
00:25:02
They don't want to see a lot of changes in California.
00:25:07
You know, I really am a believer in school choice.
00:25:10
I think family should have options on where did they send
00:25:14
their kids to school. But over the last decade, we've
00:25:16
seen the legislation that's been passed has been legislation that
00:25:20
has closed off those options that has made it.
00:25:23
Harder for things like a charter school to get approved or, you
00:25:26
know, harder for families to actually exercise options in
00:25:29
education. And that's, you know, we're
00:25:32
really going the opposite direction.
00:25:34
And a lot of that is being pushed by special interests that
00:25:37
have an interest in maintaining the status quo in California.
00:25:42
It is very unfortunate. I I know there's different types
00:25:45
of charters like homeschool and for a few years I was with a
00:25:49
homeschool charter, it was. Technically considered that my
00:25:52
kids were enrolled in public school, but they kept pushing
00:25:57
and pushing where it was like I was allowed to buy.
00:25:59
I'm Christian and I was allowed to buy faith-based curriculum if
00:26:02
I spent my own dollars and that was fine.
00:26:04
I was willing to do that with a lot of the stuff, but I could
00:26:06
use funds for putting my kids to make art and music and whatnot.
00:26:10
But then with the teacher that I would meet with, the
00:26:13
requirements that they kept pushing were obviously public
00:26:16
school requirements and I understand they needed to have
00:26:19
certain requirements to get the funding.
00:26:20
But it it came down to where I had to choose if I was going to
00:26:24
teach my kids faith-based or go with public school funding.
00:26:28
And I had to leave based on that because it was like I had to
00:26:32
present with each kid. The work that they had done that
00:26:35
week and the teacher could decide if it was enough and so
00:26:38
it was like if I wanted to do faith-based science I would have
00:26:42
to double up because they could say you know, no they didn't do
00:26:45
enough, it wasn't acceptable. We had to do all the government
00:26:47
testing. I don't believe in all that
00:26:50
testing. I personally did well in school
00:26:53
but was never a good test taker. Yeah, you know, and so for me it
00:26:57
was just like, I don't, I didn't want to push tests.
00:27:00
I don't want to do all these tests.
00:27:01
My kids actually did quite well. And I think that was not because
00:27:04
of me but just because the one-on-one time, you know,
00:27:08
compared with 3040 students in a classroom, it was just me and my
00:27:12
four children versus me and trying to get 30 other kids on
00:27:15
the same page. So they tested well, but I
00:27:17
still, I didn't want them to be required.
00:27:18
Like that's not I wasn't teaching them to be able to test
00:27:21
well. That was never, that was one of
00:27:23
the reasons why I homeschool. So unfortunately I had to leave
00:27:25
that and and I know even the people that started it, they
00:27:30
were very frustrated too, because eventually you have a
00:27:32
lot of freedom, but the government just ties your hands
00:27:35
and you have to do what they say.
00:27:36
They even get the funding and then that's when the charter
00:27:39
school fails or loses students, loses funding.
00:27:44
Yeah, it's tough. I mean the charter school, the
00:27:47
charter Schools Act was passed in the early 90s to really
00:27:50
provide more flexibility, right, and more options.
00:27:52
And since that time over the years they've slowly tried to
00:27:57
claw back that those, you know the the flexibility within the
00:28:01
charter schools Act and and apply more and more state
00:28:04
mandates to charters as well as traditional public.
00:28:07
And so it's you know we've certainly seen over the last
00:28:11
probably. 10 to 20 years like a real reduction in that
00:28:16
flexibility and and you know we do have some still have some
00:28:21
really great charter schools but at the end of the day the
00:28:25
state's trying as hard as they can to to make them, you know,
00:28:29
align exactly with traditional public schools and they're
00:28:31
definitely losing their their flexibility.
00:28:34
So it's it's very frustrating. It's really undermining the
00:28:37
whole goal of the charter schools Act in my opinion but.
00:28:40
Right. And I'm surprised it actually is
00:28:42
so easy still to homeschool in California.
00:28:45
But we don't get any kickbacks if we independently homeschool.
00:28:49
It's. All honest, we're still paying
00:28:51
our property taxes and buying our curriculum.
00:28:54
Yeah, I was actually independently homeschooled in
00:28:57
middle and high school. So definitely familiar with that
00:29:01
world and there have been a couple efforts in California to.
00:29:04
Rein that in. But they failed miserably.
00:29:07
So I'm hoping that that'll continue to be the case because
00:29:09
I mean, I mean you have to be able to you have to be able to
00:29:13
do that. And you know, and that's just I
00:29:18
I just think it's if if the state tries to go after
00:29:21
homeschooling again it it's purely a money issue.
00:29:25
It's purely them wanting to make sure that kids are in school so
00:29:29
that they can, you know, get money for those students.
00:29:33
And it's, yeah, it's I'm I'm hoping that none of my
00:29:37
colleagues touched that issue. So being on school board
00:29:43
previously this past week Gavin Newsom had picked another beef
00:29:49
with another another group, the Temecula School Board, over the
00:29:54
issue that they had voted on that they did not want certain
00:29:58
books to be read or be available.
00:30:00
If you can correct me if I'm wrong about this.
00:30:03
But the more important lesson that I take from that, which is
00:30:06
scary to me, and you were talking about how the state
00:30:09
really wants sort of almost complete control over students.
00:30:14
I think it's kind of scary that you have the state stepping in
00:30:18
and trying to circumvent or override a local school board's
00:30:21
decision, which is to use their own language.
00:30:26
I believe that's a threat to our democracy when you won't, when
00:30:30
they won't allow A. Local elected officials to make
00:30:33
decisions for them. I just want to step in really
00:30:35
quick. Sorry, I'll let you answer.
00:30:37
But they discussed it. It's actually being voted on or
00:30:40
was voted on tonight. So Navin opened his mouth and
00:30:44
talked about that. But there was no official
00:30:45
decision, which that could be the official decision, but
00:30:48
that's tonight, so. That that's really interesting.
00:30:51
So I hadn't heard that part. Yeah, I mean look the the state
00:30:56
legislature and you know is. Continuously going after local
00:31:00
control trying to undermine local control and and I'm
00:31:05
regularly making the argument in the legislature that you know do
00:31:08
we really need I mean honestly half the bills that we see in
00:31:11
the education committee don't need to be bills they could
00:31:15
easily be decided by local school boards But state
00:31:19
legislators when I I kind of like to to joke that when you
00:31:23
give. 120 people, fulltime jobs to make laws.
00:31:27
They're going to find laws to make right?
00:31:29
Like, I mean, that's just the reality of it.
00:31:31
And that's how they act. And so they're like, yeah, this
00:31:34
is a great idea. Let's make it apply to the
00:31:36
entire state and every school district, regardless of the
00:31:39
diversity of our state, whether it's ideologically, whether it's
00:31:43
rural versus urban, it doesn't matter.
00:31:45
We're going to apply this across the board.
00:31:47
They're constantly trying to do that in a number of different
00:31:49
ways. You know this.
00:31:52
This is one of those issues that has really taken hold in in the
00:31:57
media especially and you know I, I this is one of those issues
00:32:03
that really frustrates me because we what most parents are
00:32:12
are asking for and begging for and and going to their school
00:32:15
boards and talking about is that they want age appropriate
00:32:19
materials for their children. It's really, it's really that
00:32:22
simple. And yet that is being painted by
00:32:26
the left and by the media as you know, Republican support banning
00:32:30
books in schools across the state or whatever.
00:32:33
And you know it it it's just it's, I think it's very
00:32:36
disingenuous the arguments that are being made on the other side
00:32:39
and it's really critical that we ensure.
00:32:43
That school boards maintain control over these important
00:32:46
issues. We actually had a bill this
00:32:47
year, AB1078I actually think it's still moving in the
00:32:50
legislature. That has been somewhat watered
00:32:55
down, but it essentially would have required State Board of
00:32:58
Education approval for any curriculum change at the local
00:33:02
level of any kind. And it's it's it's authored by a
00:33:06
new Assembly member named Corey Jackson.
00:33:09
And I think it has been watered down a little bit, but it is
00:33:14
absolutely insane what they're trying to do in Sacramento when
00:33:16
it comes to to stripping away local control, particularly when
00:33:20
it comes to curriculum. What baffles me, and I say this
00:33:24
a lot, is that, you know, we send our kids to school.
00:33:27
They're there to go. They're supposed to go to learn,
00:33:29
reading, writing, math, social studies.
00:33:32
You know, there's what's supposed to be happening in
00:33:34
school. School's not supposed to replace
00:33:37
parents. It's not supposed to replace
00:33:40
families. It's a place to go and learn
00:33:41
specific things. And then if a school district
00:33:45
decides this book is not age appropriate, we're not going to
00:33:48
include this in our curriculum. Everyone cries book banning and
00:33:52
it's like go run it from the library and read it to your
00:33:54
kids. If you care so much, you know,
00:33:57
So what if they're they're only supposed to be in school part
00:33:59
time. The school is not your kids
00:34:02
parents, you are. You want them to learn something
00:34:05
outside of that. Then go pick it up and read it
00:34:09
on Monday night like you know. Well, and this is at the same
00:34:13
time when you know the left is pushing trigger warnings on just
00:34:18
about everything across the board that has ever been created
00:34:23
for college students. Because you know college
00:34:26
students need to to be warned about the content, or that you
00:34:30
know content may be. Too much for them to handle
00:34:34
prior to watching movies or reading certain books.
00:34:37
And yet they're claiming that Republicans are banning books.
00:34:40
It's kind of ironic to me, personally.
00:34:43
It is, yeah. That's a lot.
00:34:46
Yeah, but. It's not a reason I home school.
00:34:49
No, it's very frustrating and I definitely am fighting to try to
00:34:52
maintain that local control, but.
00:34:55
We'll we'll see. I I honestly don't know what's
00:34:57
going to happen with this thing with Temecula and the governor.
00:35:00
I will say that the California School Boards Association came
00:35:03
out and I don't have it in front of me right now, but they
00:35:06
basically came out and this is not a right leaning, leaning
00:35:10
organization. They came out and said the
00:35:12
governor really doesn't have the authority to to do this.
00:35:15
What he's trying to do, I mean this is an organization that you
00:35:19
know. You know, they're they're a very
00:35:23
large education organization in California that doesn't really,
00:35:30
I'll be honest, doesn't speak out on a lot of these issues.
00:35:32
And they came out and they said the governor doesn't have the
00:35:34
authority to do this. So I think that says a lot about
00:35:38
what the governor's trying to do.
00:35:40
Yeah, absolutely. Well, if it's it's anything like
00:35:45
most of Gavin Newsom's political stunts he he comes out with a
00:35:48
bang, fizzles away and he's on to the next controversy in about
00:35:52
a week. So we'll probably in a week
00:35:53
we'll forget about this and he'll be on to picking a fight
00:35:56
with the Santos or Trump or something like that by next
00:35:59
week, so. Yeah, that's a pretty good
00:36:01
description of his of his term so far, so yeah.
00:36:04
Yeah, I mean his, I tweeted last week.
00:36:08
I think about how his watchdog. Went into effect recently with
00:36:14
the the price gouging and all that stuff and I I haven't seen
00:36:19
prices come down in California. In fact, the only reason prices
00:36:23
has gone up is because of the gas tax that went into effect on
00:36:27
July 1st. So again, another political
00:36:30
stunt that didn't really do anything, didn't really show or
00:36:34
solve the problem, but it looks good for the national media when
00:36:37
it comes to Gavin Newsom. Yeah, yeah, it allowed them to
00:36:40
go after the oil companies. But even when you talk to
00:36:43
Democrats, I mean, I've, I've talked to Democrats offline
00:36:46
about that whole push. And all of them agreed.
00:36:49
It did absolutely nothing other than give the governor a
00:36:53
megaphone to talk about the evil oil companies and to talk about
00:36:56
price gouging, when in reality it was just a distraction from
00:37:01
the fact that we have the highest gas taxes in the entire
00:37:04
nation. They went up again, like you
00:37:06
mentioned, in July. And and we are forty 46th in Rd.
00:37:11
quality in the country. So we have the 4th worst roads
00:37:15
in the country and yet we pay the highest gas taxes.
00:37:19
You know, I that honestly I think is what upsets people the
00:37:22
most. I mean obviously they don't like
00:37:24
the high gas taxes, but it's the fact that they pay the most and
00:37:27
get the least in return. I think that is what upsets
00:37:30
people even more than the high gas taxes.
00:37:36
Yeah, I think it's in a way. I don't want to get too far off
00:37:42
track because you're our guest, but this will be my last comment
00:37:46
about Gavin Newsom. In a way it's almost a silver
00:37:50
lining because he's trying to run for president.
00:37:52
So he's mediated a lot of his stances and he's come out more
00:37:57
moderate in a lot of things. But also it gives us fodder
00:38:02
every week because he has a new political stunt that he has to.
00:38:05
Pull off to remain relevant in the news actually in coming out
00:38:11
moderate and one controversy he did come out in a moderate
00:38:14
position on the issue of SB14 which raised national news.
00:38:19
And I know you're not on that particular committee, but it
00:38:24
would, I think it would have been interesting to get a
00:38:26
perspective what it was like in Sacramento when this was
00:38:30
happening because there's just so much.
00:38:32
Media Spotlight on Sacramento about SB14 to cause them to kind
00:38:36
of do this 180. Yeah, yeah.
00:38:39
So for those that weren't aware of SB14, I mean it it has really
00:38:44
been the story for the last week or so in Sacramento.
00:38:49
It was a bill authored by a Republican from Bakersfield,
00:38:52
Shannon, Senator Shannon Grove. She got it through the state
00:38:56
Senate 40 to 0 on consent. I mean, it was full bipartisan
00:39:00
support. This bill, I, I, you know it, it
00:39:04
had been a bill she had tried a couple times throughout the
00:39:07
years. She finally got it to a place
00:39:09
where both parties were, were okay with it in the Senate.
00:39:12
She gets it over to the assembly.
00:39:14
So basically what the bill does in its current form is it makes
00:39:18
human trafficking of a minor, not general human trafficking
00:39:22
but human trafficking of a child a serious felony in California.
00:39:28
What does that mean? Well.
00:39:31
You know, it's it's currently a a felony in California, but it
00:39:34
does not fall under the state's 3 strikes law.
00:39:38
Meaning that when you know that, you know, we have this law that
00:39:42
we've had since the 90s, three strikes and you're out and you
00:39:45
can qualify for a much more stringent prison sentence upon
00:39:51
your third strike. And so by making it a serious,
00:39:56
serious felony. This bill would basically say
00:40:00
that if you know, for repeat offenders, and that's an
00:40:04
important distinction for repeat offenders of human trafficking
00:40:08
of a minor, you can go to prison for a very, very long time.
00:40:12
And I think that is something that if you polled it, you would
00:40:16
probably get broad support for in this state.
00:40:19
Well, it wasn't good enough for the Assembly Public Safety
00:40:22
Committee. It got to the committee and was
00:40:25
was defeated in in the Assembly. I believe.
00:40:30
I'd have to go back and look and maybe you know, but I believe
00:40:33
that the Democrats abstained on the bill and basically just
00:40:36
killed it without a vote. The two Republicans supported it
00:40:40
on the committee and and it and it really became a huge story
00:40:45
and it led to something that I have never seen.
00:40:48
I've been in in and around California politics for the last
00:40:52
12 years. I have never seen this happen,
00:40:55
which is the Assembly Public Safety Committee changed its
00:40:58
mind on something And so the day after.
00:41:03
So that was that bill died on a Tuesday.
00:41:07
Shannon Grove almost immediately, I think it was the
00:41:10
next day got a call from Governor Newsom and I actually
00:41:13
ran into Shannon in in the Capitol and I said, you know,
00:41:17
what did the governor say to you?
00:41:18
And she she said, well. I was sitting in a meeting.
00:41:22
I got the call it said Gavin Newsom on my phone.
00:41:24
So I was like I better take this.
00:41:26
So she answered it and the governor said that he was very
00:41:30
upset by the failure of that bill and that he wanted to help
00:41:33
make it right And him and the speaker, the new speaker of the
00:41:38
Assembly Robert Rivas engaged on the issue.
00:41:42
And another thing that I've I'm not used to seeing in Sacramento
00:41:46
is that 2 pretty powerful Democrats engaged and.
00:41:50
Basically told the Public Safety Committee, you have to hear this
00:41:53
bill again and you need to vote differently.
00:41:56
And so two days later, I was actually in the committee
00:41:59
hearing with my daughter. She happened to be at the
00:42:02
Capitol with me. It was kind of a I just had
00:42:04
taken her to work that day to show her kind of what was going
00:42:09
on. And it turned out to be one of
00:42:11
the craziest days of the year. And so she, her, and I went to
00:42:15
the committee hearing and sat there and the.
00:42:20
The chair of the committee, Red, Reggie Jones Sawyer, sat down to
00:42:25
start the hearing. He said there will be no
00:42:27
testimony, there will be no basically no commentary of any
00:42:31
kind on the bill. They were going to do a vote
00:42:33
only and they went around and they voted it out.
00:42:36
There was still 2 Democrats that abstained, but it had enough
00:42:40
votes to get out of the committee.
00:42:42
And then when we come back to legislative session in August,
00:42:46
we're going to get a chance to vote on that as a full Assembly.
00:42:49
After it gets through the Appropriations Committee.
00:42:51
So, you know, I mean, honestly, it was one of the craziest
00:42:54
things I've seen. And I I would say it was one of
00:42:57
those rare opportunities where Republicans actually got a huge
00:43:01
win because it was Republicans that were leading on that issue,
00:43:05
including Shannon Grove and James Gallagher and and the rest
00:43:08
of our caucus. I don't even see how that's not
00:43:10
a nonpartisan issue like how any you know, but.
00:43:15
It just feels like they're playing games.
00:43:17
I want to know and I know I can look it up, but if you know off
00:43:19
the top of your head who are the two that abstained cuz they
00:43:21
still need some phone calls. People need to.
00:43:26
So the two Democrats that abstained, one of them was
00:43:31
Assembly Member Isaac Bryan from Los Angeles and the other one,
00:43:36
interestingly, was Assemblywoman Mia Banta, who is the wife of
00:43:42
our Attorney General Rob Banta. Which to me, you know, I, I
00:43:48
don't know. To me that says a lot.
00:43:51
This is, you know, as an attorney general, and obviously
00:43:53
she's not the attorney general. But you know, our attorney
00:43:57
general is literally our, our state's top law enforcement
00:44:01
officer. You know, he, I mean, his job is
00:44:06
to keep kids safe from human trafficking and a number of
00:44:09
other things, right. And so I was.
00:44:13
I was a little dismayed that it, it didn't get full support
00:44:16
right, especially after coming out of the Senate 40 to nothing,
00:44:20
which by the way is not there are a lot of very progressive
00:44:24
people in the state Senate. So this wasn't something that
00:44:27
was, you know, you know, some crazy right wing bill, right.
00:44:31
According to them, right. It was this was a a bill that
00:44:34
got support from every progressive member of the
00:44:38
Senate. So it was really, really
00:44:40
upsetting to see that. Yeah, I'm really.
00:44:43
I'm really glad with how that turned out so far, but it's
00:44:46
ridiculous that it got there. Embarrassing, sad, pathetic.
00:44:51
All of the above. I think I actually saw a picture
00:44:55
of, I believe it was Shannon Grove hugging our favorite state
00:44:59
Senator, Scott Weiner. Yep, we say that in cheek
00:45:02
obviously. So that's how that's how
00:45:05
unanimous it was. Yes, when you describe it that
00:45:09
it was their only. Making it so that if you get 3,
00:45:14
if you're a repeat offender of child human trafficking, Yeah,
00:45:19
yeah, if you're a repeat offender, it should be, it
00:45:21
should be your first offense. Should be a serious penalty.
00:45:25
Yeah. So it's not even that draconian
00:45:27
or that harsh. That's insane to me.
00:45:31
I think that's probably why it got so much public attention
00:45:34
across the country, was like, this is how wild California has
00:45:37
got. Do you think that?
00:45:41
You can be honest. We appreciate the honesty.
00:45:45
Do you think that Bill got reintroduced because of public
00:45:49
backlash or do you think it was because people thought it was
00:45:51
the right thing to do? I think it was in large part
00:45:56
because of the public backlash, yeah.
00:45:59
But yeah, I really do believe that it was.
00:46:03
I mean, it got a lot of attention and the media actually
00:46:07
covered it, I think, in the right way.
00:46:10
Well, your. Voice matters.
00:46:12
Listening your, your phone calls, your emails, they matter.
00:46:16
They got flooded. They got flooded.
00:46:19
Yeah, they got flooded with calls.
00:46:21
They got flooded with, I mean, I I mean, we've seen backlash on a
00:46:26
lot of different bills. This was probably the biggest
00:46:28
one. I mean, we had Democrats on
00:46:30
Twitter who were yelling at the public Safety committee.
00:46:33
I mean, this isn't, you know, this is, it was a pretty
00:46:37
unprecedented level of public outcry.
00:46:40
And I guess give credit where credit's due, even though it's
00:46:43
not his thing. But Gavin Newsom did make the
00:46:45
phone call and say, hey, you guys are going to go in and vote
00:46:48
differently. You're going to vote.
00:46:50
Yeah, and you know, Gavin Newsom may have done that.
00:46:53
I mean, you know, I I want to believe that Gavin actually
00:46:56
thought this was ridiculous. And you know, he he's a father,
00:47:00
right? He has young kids.
00:47:02
I would. I I fully believe that he thinks
00:47:05
this is the right policy. But I think the bigger, I would
00:47:10
say the bigger credit because you, you could say that, you
00:47:12
know, this could have cost him some political points at the
00:47:15
national level had this, you know, continued to go the way it
00:47:18
was. I think the bigger credit
00:47:20
actually goes to our new speaker, Robert Rivas, who I
00:47:23
think still has a long ways to go in, in showing exactly how
00:47:26
he's going to lead the assembly. But he actually stepped out that
00:47:30
the day after that and said that he wanted to make this right.
00:47:34
And he's not running for president, right?
00:47:36
So. I mean, I really felt that he
00:47:40
engaged immediately and pretty swiftly on this and that was
00:47:46
that was good to see because we need, you know, he got sworn
00:47:51
into I think as speaker 13 days prior or something like that.
00:47:57
He's. Brand new.
00:47:58
I mean, he's brand new. And so everyone's kind of
00:48:00
waiting to see how is this guy going to lead the assembly.
00:48:04
He made some comments in his, in his swearing in speech that, you
00:48:08
know, he said, look, doing the right thing sometimes requires
00:48:11
working with people you don't always agree with.
00:48:13
And I appreciated that. But it's kind of one of those
00:48:16
things you want to wait to actually see it, right?
00:48:19
Like I'm not going to take someone with their word.
00:48:20
I want to see what you do. And you know, to his credit, you
00:48:25
know, he engaged on it, which I thought was really good.
00:48:27
I hope he keeps that up. Yeah, yeah.
00:48:30
Talk about a. Warm welcome to your new job as
00:48:34
speaker. That's like the first thing
00:48:36
right off the bat is this big controversy.
00:48:39
But yeah, I even though I think public backlash is a perfectly
00:48:43
acceptable answer, and I think it's a great answer because it
00:48:47
does give people hope that you can call up these offices and
00:48:50
let people know and all of a sudden that it can change their
00:48:54
mind. And I, like you said, there's
00:48:56
been bills in the past where there's been a large grassroots
00:49:01
activism where. They're posting numbers.
00:49:03
They're saying call the offices and stuff like that, and you'll
00:49:06
see politicians switch or back off or let a bill die because of
00:49:12
people calling in. And I think that's that's
00:49:14
important for people to know is that there are people on the
00:49:17
other line. When you do call your office,
00:49:20
there are people on the other line and they hear the calls.
00:49:22
So it's not just a robot. And honestly, at the very least,
00:49:27
and this is just, I like to tell people this because.
00:49:31
At the very least, it'll make them think twice the next year
00:49:34
when they are looking at something super controversial to
00:49:37
introduce and they know in their head, if I introduce this, I
00:49:42
have to be ready for a fight. I have to be ready for committee
00:49:45
hearings that last hours and hours because people are going
00:49:49
to be that angry about it. I think it's important to remind
00:49:51
our leaders that you know, you're we're not going to let
00:49:56
you do this without, you know, some public input, right?
00:50:00
And it makes them at least think twice the next time they want to
00:50:03
introduce something really crazy.
00:50:06
Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:08
So I think it's important because people feel kind of
00:50:10
dismayed that there is such a supermajority in Sacramento.
00:50:13
They feel there's nothing I can do, but you can call up and you
00:50:18
can definitely let people know and and you can weigh in and and
00:50:22
push and get some bills changed up a little bit.
00:50:25
So that is kind of an inspiring message.
00:50:29
Yeah, it's the, you know, the human trafficking bill was a
00:50:31
good example of that. We also stopped a bill this year
00:50:34
that would have banned essentially defunded school
00:50:38
resource officers, school police officers in California.
00:50:41
This year we we stopped the police K9 ban.
00:50:45
I don't know if you guys talked about that at all on this
00:50:46
podcast. That bill got defeated this year
00:50:50
we stopped a bill that would have stripped law enforcement of
00:50:53
the ability to to use consensual, consensual searches.
00:50:57
In the field. And so you know, I mean there
00:51:00
are bills that the public still you know has an impact on.
00:51:04
And so it's it's not always doom and gloom.
00:51:08
So everyone listening out there, be ready to pick up the phone
00:51:11
and call. Call the assembly, bombard
00:51:14
Sacramento whenever you see a bill.
00:51:16
And we'll do we do our best to try and get stuff out there and
00:51:19
get information on that. We'll try to be better about
00:51:21
that too, whenever there's a. We try to do the grassroots.
00:51:25
Call to actions and stuff like that.
00:51:27
So that's that's important as well.
00:51:29
We got about a couple minutes left before the hour.
00:51:33
I I want to finish up by just kind of asking you what are your
00:51:36
goals for the rest of the year now that you're kind of settling
00:51:41
into your role in the assembly. What are some big goals that you
00:51:44
want to achieve in this next year or even also in next year
00:51:48
in your term? Yeah, you know, I think, I think
00:51:53
I mentioned, you know. My goals are are pretty
00:51:57
straightforward. I mean I think we have to tackle
00:51:59
the homelessness crisis in California.
00:52:03
I am going to continue fighting for our schools and and
00:52:08
education to make sure that families have choice and options
00:52:12
and you know honestly get the politics out of our classrooms.
00:52:17
It was interesting. There was a bill this year that
00:52:19
would have kind of it was actually a penalties bill, which
00:52:23
is I thought was kind of funny. That would have increased
00:52:26
penalties on harassment of teachers, which, you know, I
00:52:29
personally don't. I don't have a problem with that
00:52:31
bill. But you know, one of the points
00:52:36
that I made when that bill was brought before our committee
00:52:38
was, I mean, if if the goal is to turn down the temperature at
00:52:43
the local level when it comes to our schools, then get the
00:52:46
politics out of the classroom. I mean, you know, we keep.
00:52:50
You know, yelling at these angry parents, right?
00:52:54
We being like, you know, the our leaders in the state, these
00:52:57
angry parents at school board meetings.
00:52:59
Well, why are they angry? Because you're you're injecting
00:53:02
things into the classroom that should not be there.
00:53:05
And so, you know, I think that's going to be an ongoing, I would
00:53:09
say battleground over the next couple years, getting the
00:53:12
politics out of the classroom and getting back to actually our
00:53:16
teaching, teaching our kids how to read and write.
00:53:19
And and and making sure families have choice.
00:53:21
So you know that'll continue to be a big priority of mine.
00:53:25
And then the last thing you know obviously I I I've done a lot of
00:53:29
work on the the the public safety side.
00:53:32
So bills to reform Proposition 47 you know bills on
00:53:37
homelessness as I mentioned. But the last thing I think we
00:53:41
really need to tackle is our affordability crisis in
00:53:43
California. I'm really worried that our
00:53:46
state is. Quickly becoming a place where
00:53:49
my kids aren't going to be able to afford to live.
00:53:51
And I would hate my kids to have to move to a different state in
00:53:56
order to purchase a home, in order to build generational
00:53:59
wealth in order to raise a family.
00:54:01
I want them to be able to do that here in California.
00:54:04
And I think we've really lost the the message on that.
00:54:08
Our state is becoming it's becoming less and less
00:54:10
attainable to do those things and we have to figure that out
00:54:15
and and find ways to reduce. The costs in our state and in a
00:54:20
lot of cases that means government has to get out of the
00:54:22
way. So you know, I think those are
00:54:25
my, I guess broader priorities, but I'm really excited for the
00:54:30
opportunity and excited for what's to come in the in the
00:54:33
next few years. I keep nodding my head, but I'm
00:54:36
so with you on that with with my own kids.
00:54:39
You know, they're growing up and I want them like, I'm just like,
00:54:41
you guys can all just live here forever.
00:54:43
Not really. But you know, if they want to
00:54:45
move, I understand they want to move and do different things,
00:54:48
but I don't want them to have to move.
00:54:50
I don't want to stay nearby, you know, and raise their own
00:54:53
families here. My parents are like 2 miles
00:54:55
away, and I love that my kids get to see them all the time.
00:55:00
You know, they have a great relationship with my parents and
00:55:02
it's so fun. And I hope to have the same with
00:55:05
my own grandkids someday. Well, and as crazy as California
00:55:09
is politically, I mean, I love this state, right?
00:55:11
And I want I, I that's why I'm still doing this, because I I
00:55:15
believe in this state. I believe that we can get back
00:55:17
to a better place. And it's it's because I love
00:55:21
this state and I want it, you know, I wanted to return to some
00:55:24
level of sanity. Yes.
00:55:27
Yeah, I I think I've mentioned this before and this has become
00:55:30
like a running thing on the show.
00:55:33
My wife and I actually went and looked at houses earlier this
00:55:36
year around February and we just got completely dismayed at the
00:55:41
fact that we weren't looking for anything crazy.
00:55:44
But and we both have good jobs, we both work hard, we both got
00:55:49
have good credit. We got like the the loan
00:55:52
companies were tripping over themselves to preapprove us for
00:55:56
a loan and we looked at we're like, it's just not affordable.
00:56:00
It's just not affordable for us, which is sad.
00:56:02
And it's like we're sitting here looking at each other like if if
00:56:05
we can't afford houses, who's affording houses in California?
00:56:10
So the affordability thing is just, I don't know, it's insane.
00:56:13
You look around and go, how do people live here anymore so.
00:56:17
Yeah, it is. It is crazy.
00:56:20
My wife and my three kids and my two giant dogs we squeeze into
00:56:24
our 1200 square foot house and we would love to get a bigger
00:56:27
house, but it's just not on the table for us and.
00:56:30
You know I I just think it's it's unfortunate because I think
00:56:33
there's it didn't used to be that way and I think it's a lot
00:56:37
of policy decisions that have made it that way so.
00:56:41
Yeah, I've been a stay at home mom for almost 18 years and now
00:56:43
I'm like, sorry kids. I know we used to just go
00:56:46
grocery shopping and my groceries.
00:56:48
Now it's like stick to the list because it's just it's crazy how
00:56:54
I was trying to explain to them. I'm like everything.
00:56:57
Cost more This, this drive to the grocery store is costing us
00:57:01
more. I'm like, and our paycheck, my
00:57:03
husband's paycheck hasn't gone up.
00:57:04
So sorry, you know. Very frustrating.
00:57:09
I mean, I I grew up on the East Coast and my vision of
00:57:12
California and probably most people's vision of California
00:57:16
was California was the land of was the land of opportunity.
00:57:20
It was that whole go West, young man.
00:57:23
You know it was the Gold rush. It was this idea of like you
00:57:25
went to California. It was a thriving economy you
00:57:28
could earn that you can get the American dream out here.
00:57:32
It was just full of opportunity and everybody want to go to
00:57:35
California now that's definitely not the the view and that's
00:57:39
that's the sad thing is we've we've gone from that shining
00:57:44
kind of city on the hill to, yeah, complete collapse at this
00:57:48
point. Did you see the story?
00:57:50
We're projected to lose like 5 congressional seats by 2030.
00:57:54
I mean that's, I mean that says it all in my opinion.
00:57:57
I mean, people are fleeing the state and you know, the governor
00:58:01
or the legislature can deny that all they want, but the numbers
00:58:05
don't really lie, right? Yeah.
00:58:07
And a dwindling tax base only hurts their longterm goals of
00:58:11
spend, spend, spend. So I mean, we, we could talk
00:58:15
about that. We talked about a little bit
00:58:17
with the budget and stuff like that.
00:58:18
And the governor's trying to move, you know?
00:58:21
That's true. He's trying to move to the East
00:58:22
Coast. I think maybe there might be a
00:58:24
vacancy, 1600 Pennsylvania Way, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
00:58:33
But yeah, I don't even think California is ready for a
00:58:35
recession if that were to happen with revenues and the way it is
00:58:39
with our budget. So I think California would be
00:58:41
in big trouble if there was a recession.
00:58:43
And I don't know how they, I mean, you're in the Assembly,
00:58:48
so. You guys would be kind of
00:58:49
digging your hands in there and getting dirty to figure out what
00:58:52
you have to cut and what has to be cut back to.
00:58:55
Yeah, next year I will just say, I'll preview this is gonna be a
00:58:58
lot worse than this year. So I that's at least that's the
00:59:01
what the projection show. I mean our budget is, is
00:59:03
probably going to be in a worse position next year than it is
00:59:05
right now and we're already facing a pretty big deficit
00:59:08
about $30 billion as it is. So not good.
00:59:14
Well, yeah. To end on a cheery note, let's.
00:59:17
Ending let's let's end on a cheery note.
00:59:21
Let's end on a cheery note. Josh thank you for coming on.
00:59:24
Where can people find more about you and follow you?
00:59:28
Because I think and and this is my opinion, I think you're part
00:59:31
of a a new wave of young Republicans who are coming into
00:59:35
the assembly with new ideas, fresh ideas, which is amazing to
00:59:40
see. And I think we need that.
00:59:41
I think we need that in Sacramento to kind of shake
00:59:43
things up. So where can people go and find,
00:59:46
find you, follow you, learn more about you?
00:59:48
Yeah, so I've got my Twitter up here on the screen at Joshua
00:59:52
under score Hoover and you can pretty find me at that on
00:59:56
Instagram and Facebook as well. So, you know, definitely on
01:00:00
social media also, you know have.
01:00:05
I'm doing this weekly kind of podcast thing not to pitch a
01:00:08
different podcast cuz you got to listen to California Underground
01:00:11
1st and then you can listen to my podcast but it's it's just
01:00:15
like I'm giving weekly updates on what's going on in
01:00:17
Sacramento. So it's like at point of order
01:00:20
pod but you know I think overall you know I agree with you I
01:00:25
think we need new voices in California and we need you know
01:00:30
I think we need a new generation that's.
01:00:33
Willing to kind of shake it up and so excited to be a part of
01:00:35
that movement. Awesome.
01:00:38
Well, thanks for coming on. As always, the doors open.
01:00:40
Whenever you have something you want to come on and talk about,
01:00:44
feel free to reach out and let us know.
01:00:47
So yeah. I appreciate it.
01:00:48
Yeah. And yeah, happy to come on
01:00:51
anytime if you guys want to chat about stuff going on and.
01:00:55
Yeah, look forward to it. Thanks for having me.
01:00:57
And make sure you spread that rumor that if you go on the
01:01:00
California Underground podcast, you're likely going to win your
01:01:02
race. So there's that correlation.
01:01:04
Oh no, that is really good actually.
01:01:05
Yeah, so. We'll be our my e-mail box will
01:01:10
be full after that. People coming, Hey, can I come
01:01:12
on? Even Democrats will be.
01:01:14
Of guest requests. The winners circle right here.
01:01:17
Yeah, Democrats will be. Hey, hey, can I come out?
01:01:19
Sure, I. Think you what?
01:01:21
You know what? I am going to say that there's
01:01:23
no way to disprove this, right? That's.
01:01:25
True. Yeah.
01:01:26
There's that's true. It's disprove a negative that we
01:01:28
did not help your campaign. All right, Josh, thanks for
01:01:32
coming on. Again, make sure to follow him
01:01:35
on. Twitter Check out his podcast as
01:01:37
well. I'm gonna go subscribe to it and
01:01:40
make sure I check in every week. Cuz I wanna we're.
01:01:43
Gonna start a new episode every week where we could cheek your
01:01:45
episode or we'll. Just we'll do a secret Episode
01:01:49
I. Know this week we're.
01:01:50
Checking on your episode we. Don't even have to do any
01:01:53
research, We're just gonna use your podcast.
01:01:56
Well, fun fact, Governor Newsom is actually my constituent too,
01:02:00
so you know. Wow.
01:02:01
You're that you're listening is. Actually.
01:02:04
That's really. That's one of the just.
01:02:05
Opened with that. I know I actually forgot, but
01:02:08
that's one of the fun things I like to.
01:02:09
Mention, so he has to complain to his representative.
01:02:13
That's. Yeah, he still hasn't called me.
01:02:16
In fact, I don't even. I've never even got a chance to
01:02:18
sat down. You should meet up with him for
01:02:19
coffee and Donuts. I should.
01:02:22
I wonder if it irks him that his representative in Sacramento is
01:02:25
a Republican that he has to call and reach out to.
01:02:27
But. One can hope.
01:02:30
One can hope just the little things, but yeah, make sure you
01:02:34
follow Josh, listen to his podcast And As for this podcast?
01:02:39
If you're a fan of this podcast, make sure to like, share,
01:02:41
subscribe, review all of that stuff, share it with friends,
01:02:45
Best and Freeway to support the show.
01:02:48
Send it to somebody who would be interested, spread the word
01:02:51
about it. And with that, have a good
01:02:54
night, everybody later.