Episode 247 - Unimpressive Senate Candidates

[00:00:00] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat,

[00:00:04] believe in common sense, or just the same person, this is the political podcast for you.

[00:00:09] It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:12] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning into another episode of the California Underground

[00:00:15] Podcast. I'm your host, Phil. And as always with me is my trustee, co-host, the best and fastest

[00:00:19] researcher in the West, Camille. How are you doing tonight, Camille?

[00:00:22] I'm good. Thank you. How are you?

[00:01:21] Oh my God, Camille, I love your show. I love what you do.

[00:01:22] Bye-bye.

[00:01:23] You lie.

[00:01:24] Can I tell the story from the last convention?

[00:01:28] This is a really funny story to me.

[00:01:29] Sure.

[00:01:32] I know your version of it is very different from reality, but sure.

[00:01:36] Well, this is what I'm just telling you my truth.

[00:01:38] This is my truth that I saw.

[00:01:40] We were at the last convention.

[00:01:41] We had just met up.

[00:01:42] We were about to go see Trump speak.

[00:01:45] And I was like, okay, I'm going to run upstairs and drop my stuff off and come back down.

[00:02:45] Maybe I maybe people I don't know I'm a nice guy. I don't think I put off a

[00:02:48] What do you call? I don't think I put off a

[00:02:52] demeanor that is unapproachable so

[00:02:57] But yeah, anyway, we'll be there on Saturday at the libertarian convention

[00:03:00] Covering we're not gonna be doing a live podcast But we'll be doing some recording taking some shots and stuff like that and maybe putting it together for a video

[00:03:05] And then we'll discuss it later

[00:04:05] kind of rare when you see a Senate, a brand new Senate race. Alex Padilla was the last one.

[00:04:12] He was appointed by Gavin Newsom after Barbara Boxer stepped down. And once you're the incumbent,

[00:04:20] it basically guarantees that you're going to be Senator for life anyway, which interestingly enough, there was a? It's two hours. It was going to be awful. Um, but thankfully it's only an hour debate. The other hour, I don't know. I guess it's just commentary or something like that. But once it ended at an hour, I was like, whew, thank gosh. I was like, there was no way I'd be able to sit through two hours of it. Um, but yeah, I think the, the name of this episode is, um, is very apropos, uh,

[00:05:45] in the sense of what I think, and that's what it seems like. It seems like it was just a really bad SNL skit. And they're like, that's yeah.

[00:07:01] Like I was like, does this get funny?

[00:07:03] That's what I need here.

[00:07:07] I am trying to figure out why Instagram is not working again. Um, he had no evidence. He lied to the American people saying he had evidence that it was in his hands and he couldn't wait to show the American people, um, never showed the evidence. And yeah, he just got away with lying to people for over a year, I guess, with this Russian collusion. Um, so Adam, uh, as Trump calls him, Adam pencil neck shift was running is running.

[00:08:22] Uh, we have, uh, Barbara Lee, who's a Congresswoman.

[00:09:21] polling better than early. Well, I think there's a reason for that.

[00:09:24] And that's what I want to bring up first before we get into the debate.

[00:09:29] The two top poll getters right now in the two position based on polls, and this is kind

[00:09:34] of real clear politics, is Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey.

[00:09:39] Now you may think like, wow, a Republican is actually going to make it to the general

[00:09:42] election.

[00:09:43] And this is actually pretty common recently for Democrats to elevate Republican candidates, Because called my husband in recognition and obviously he's been very active down there. So the unions have put in a ton of money trying to smear called them out right now to trying to bring up Andrew Hayes hoping that then I don't even know the name of the Democrat candidate. But then, you know, if we can get Andrew Hayes, the Democrat candidate to the general, then the Democrat hopefully beats Andrew Hayes.

[00:12:02] that I'm, why would it be surprised if you're like? I actually, I, you know, this is a,

[00:12:05] that has nothing to do with politics.

[00:12:06] Helpful tip for anybody who lives

[00:12:08] in sort of a major city area,

[00:12:10] if you want to save some money on streaming,

[00:12:12] just buy yourself a $25 set of rabbit ear antennas

[00:12:17] off Amazon, you get a ton of channels just being in a city.

[00:12:22] So that's how we get all our local stuff,

[00:12:25] NBC, ABC, all those networks and stuff like that.

[00:12:27] And NBC commercials, got it. streaming services. So the strategy here, again, is if Adam Schiff can get into the general with Steve Garvey, hello, Senator Adam Schiff. That's the whole name of the game right now. Katie Porter called out, ironically tried to call out Adam Schiff for this tactic,

[00:13:41] but she's doing the same exact thing with Eric Early.

[00:13:43] So she's trying to boost Eric Early.

[00:13:45] So it's her and Eric Early on the ballot.

[00:14:42] So, and we're going to bounce around. We're not going to cover the whole thing because not everything has to do with California.

[00:14:45] There's stuff like the more in Ukraine that they talk about.

[00:14:49] And, you know, we're just not really interested in talking about that.

[00:14:51] That's not really the point of this podcast.

[00:14:53] So, all right, let's get started.

[00:14:58] The Senate debate, the final one before the primary, decision 2024.

[00:16:04] It was supposed to tick down last month, but it went up. We noticed in the last debate, you spent,

[00:16:07] at least the Democrats here,

[00:16:08] spent a lot of time talking about the minimum wage.

[00:16:11] You wanted to double the federal minimum wage.

[00:16:13] You wanted to increase the minimum wage here in California.

[00:16:16] There was Congresswoman Lee

[00:16:17] talked about a $50 an hour minimum wage.

[00:16:20] The minimum wage is going up in California in April

[00:16:23] for fast food workers of major chains to $20 an hour. down the cost of goods, br of housing, bringing down We want to strengthen our a way to make sure that pe access to quality childc women can participate in will raise the economy. B to bring down energy cost with a windfall profits t

[00:17:41] companies, we can bring d

[00:17:43] housing by building a lot

[00:17:45] First off, the cost of en

[00:18:45] So again, he's pointing the blame at the wrong people in terms of how do you get energy costs down and building more housing.

[00:18:48] He makes it sound like it's so easy.

[00:18:49] We just got to build more housing.

[00:18:50] We build them.

[00:18:51] Just why don't we build them?

[00:18:52] I don't know.

[00:18:53] Why don't we talk about the zoning laws and the fact that houses are too complicated and

[00:18:57] that they have to be built by union contractors and the regulations to build the housing and

[00:19:02] what kind of materials you have to use and they have to have solar panels and blah, blah,

[00:19:06] blah. That's just like literally not even a topic anymore. I think that the reason, and this is partly a theory I've heard. One reason they want to keep pushing that you have to put your kids in daycare and women should just go back in the workforce is that increases the amount

[00:20:21] of employees who they can make taxes off of.

[00:20:25] Well, right.

[00:21:24] for them to continually push your children into childcare, publicly funded childcare, basically from like cradle till 18 until you're a voter. They want to have your children

[00:21:29] and influence them through the public education system. And they don't like the idea of like

[00:21:33] homeschooling or school choice because again, competition is something that they don't like.

[00:21:39] Anyway, so I think Camille had to drop off real quick. She'll be back. So we'll just keep watching.

[00:22:44] what they contribute at their companies and at their jobs. But we also need Washington to get in the game.

[00:22:47] Decade after decade, they haven't been there.

[00:22:50] You can't raise a wage an hour or two

[00:22:52] and close the tremendous gap that people face

[00:22:55] in trying to afford childcare or college.

[00:22:58] My colleague, Representative Schiff says, for example,

[00:23:01] that he wants to bring down the cost of childcare,

[00:23:03] but he isn't on either of the two major... that really has nothing to do, they don't want you to think about all the mistakes that they've made. They don't want to admit that they made all these mistakes and that they've made it unaffordable. And Camille's back. Hey, Camille. Sorry. Hopefully I stay here. Yeah, we were just, we just, sorry, we just moved on.

[00:24:20] Yeah, that's fine.

[00:24:21] But you were talking about,

[00:24:22] I want you to finish your point.

[00:24:23] You were talking about childcare and like getting kids all these regulations and taxes and everything on top of it increase the size of government and how they've made it unaffordable. But politicians like Katie Porter are just like, oh, no, no, we need to continue adding more programs and funding more stuff. And we need to do X, Y, and Z. We need to get involved and Washington needs to get in the game. Then they're like, we need to increase wages for child care workers. Again, can we incentivize,

[00:26:42] to provide rental assistance to people for housing. Although all of these things are in his plans.

[00:26:45] That's the gap between Congressmen and candidates, Chef.

[00:26:48] Thank you, Mr. Garvey.

[00:26:51] Well, these career politicians, three years ago,

[00:26:55] they were on the watch that has created what it is today.

[00:27:01] When the president took office, he signed 90 different...

[00:27:06] Whenever he speaks in the morning, hardworking Californians are going there. They're not buying 10 gallons. They're buying $10 worth of gas. And then it goes to schools and affordability.

[00:28:20] But this was all on their watch.

[00:28:22] Thank you, Mr. Garvey.

[00:28:23] Congresswoman Lee, you're sticking by the $50.

[00:28:25] I mean, he's not wrong, even though all, we have to talk about what it takes for people to live in California.

[00:29:42] We have a huge affordability crisis.

[00:29:45] The cost of living is much too high. hasn't gone up, but California, it feels like every couple of years they keep increasing their minimum wage. They literally just increased the minimum wage for fast food workers. And that is, I'm pulling up this article from Reason Magazine. And we all know about what happened with Pizza Hut. And the article goes on and say, Pizza Hut announced it would lay

[00:31:04] off about 1200 delivery drivers in Los Angeles, congratulations, but you've now put millions of people out onto the unemployment line and now they make no wages. So to those 1200 delivery drivers for Pizza Hut, they didn't get a raise because of the minimum wage, they got a pink slip and now they have no money. So well done on that front, California.

[00:33:23] Should we give you a stimulus check or something of money that we don't have?

[00:33:24] So.

[00:33:26] They living wage.

[00:33:27] Thank you, Congresswoman.

[00:33:28] Mr. Schiff, you were mentioned by a Congresswoman Porter.

[00:33:31] You have 15 seconds to respond to that.

[00:33:33] Conan, there's nothing easier

[00:33:34] than putting your name on a bill

[00:33:35] where you see the real legislators

[00:33:37] as they write their own legislation.

[00:33:39] I've introduced numerous bills

[00:33:40] to bring down the cost of childcare,

[00:33:42] to make sure that we build childcare

[00:33:44] into new federal facilities,

[00:33:45] that we raise the be fierce advocates for our tax dollars. We are all sending our money to Washington and we should expect a return on that money. So I am proud to be one person who will do the oversight,

[00:35:00] who will push and who will ask, are we getting a return?

[00:35:04] Is this bill gonna invest in America's future long robotic answer where she's like, and the career politicians and the pork barrel spending and this and that, and then we have to get taxes and we have to be vigilant about it. It's like, okay, are you shouting at me or like, what are you doing here? But that was just a comment. And maybe it's because she doesn't have a little whiteboard, maybe because she feels

[00:36:22] like lost that.

[00:36:23] Imagine if she brought her whiteboard to the time. You're like, I want to read this book in a month. And they're like knocking on your door the second you get all my unkindled now. But then you're like, I need this, you know, tomorrow. So I'm going to get make sure I order the between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. delivery.

[00:37:40] Never sure. I'm not kidding. I hear a truck.

[00:37:43] That's probably your whiteboard.

[00:37:46] Well, returns money to the United States. pay their fair share and the wealthy are getting away with not paying. And it's just, it doesn't address anything. Like you could tax all the billionaires in America, a hundred percent. And I think it would like barely fund the government for like 10 days. Like we don't, we don't, we don't have a revenue problem.

[00:39:01] We have a spending problem and Democrats just don't want to admit that we need

[00:39:05] to cut and start looking at maybe Katie Porter, maybe that's what she's trying to problems. And let me tell you when these Trump era tax cuts expire, the billionaires must be part of paying their fair share. So we need to go back to the tax code and make sure that billionaires do pay their fair share. What it was said earlier that the Pentagon. It's well, it's sort of like the definition of a living wage.

[00:40:22] It's not really based in reality. It's based in whatever they want.

[00:40:25] So you're like the same as like's get back to cutting interest rates. The Fed just the last week, even though they... Thank you. You missed.

[00:42:43] I've been in the Latino community for many years now. There's so lot of people,

[00:42:44] a lot of people I've talked to on the street

[00:42:47] who believe, they really believe

[00:42:49] from the bottom of their hearts

[00:42:51] that they're being used by your party,

[00:42:55] the Democratic party, every time there's an election.

[00:42:58] You have promised an immigration reform

[00:43:01] time after time over and over again,

[00:43:03] but even when you had control running to shake up the Senate. I'm not going to offer you the status quo because the status quo has been unacceptable and not enough for millions of Americans. I'm tired of hearing about comprehensive immigration reform. I want to do it. I'm tired of talking about pathways to citizenship. I want to give people those opportunities.

[00:44:21] The chaos, the struggles we're seeing in our immigration system benefit big corporations who take advantage of undocumented labor or presented this question, I think it's kind of like disingenuous because they continually do this in the media where they lump Latino voters and the illegal immigration issue together. And that's just not true at all.

[00:45:41] I've made it very clear, my wife grew up in Mexico.

[00:45:47] I don't think she. Well, like, some of the. Journalist that we, we personally know who are, you know, have been covering a lot of that. They are Latinos. And they're still like, hey, this needs, these get under control.

[00:47:01] Yeah, it's it's not a monolith. Well, maybe that voter doesn't just vote based on their ethnicity or their race. Maybe they vote because they're like, Hey, I want lower taxes and I want to shrink the size of the government. And I don't want to expand the size of the guy. Like they vote on different issues that at the end of the day affect their lives more than just their, their, their, their race or their ethnicity.

[00:48:23] So, um, a lot of politicians do that.

[00:49:25] Nothing ever gets done. So why are we continuing to just blindly follow one party or the other? So, any other thoughts on that? No, not for now. Okay.

[00:49:34] I was born in El Paso, Texas in an immigrant community in a border town. Secondly,

[00:49:40] I understand the importance of comprehensive immigration reform because border security will haven't protected our far way we should. The farm should have been passed b now it hasn't been. And s that latino voters underst who may not believe that the dignity and the humai our record speaks for its

[00:51:01] us on our record. Thank y

[00:51:03] up. Thank you. Mr shift.

[00:52:02] working people I've ever met. He is deserving of a pathway to citizenship because of my record of advocacy and leadership,

[00:52:07] the Chirla Action Fund, when the premier.

[00:52:09] Now, this is just something I was told by someone I know.

[00:52:17] There used to be a program in California Senate for truly comprehensive reform. Thank you. Your time's up. Mr. Garvey, the reason bipartisan immigration bill, a historic one, was killed by Republicans

[00:53:43] two weeks ago, apparently because Donald Trump wants way, the right way to California, because this was your dream. And you're experiencing that dream, but you're not experiencing that dream

[00:55:02] through inflation, through other challenges, but you That's the thing. His points aren't wrong. They're just presented really poorly. We're just all napping while he makes them. Yeah. Okay. I'm wondering what actions you will commit to to meaningfully address the issue. A question. All right, Mr. Darby, you have 30 seconds to respond to that. I think.

[00:56:23] You want to see the question? I believe that three years ago, there was a rush to judgment by the administration. I believe that gas and oil lines were turned off, which caused a tremendous strain on our economy. I think if it would have been more thought out, this would have had less stress. But I think the most important thing for us to do is always be aware that, in this country,

[00:57:46]