Speaker 1: It is the John Phillipshow. Johnny is on vacation, so
Speaker 1: it's Randy Wang here. John's back on Monday. Eight hundred
Speaker 1: two two two five two two two. Is the telephone
Speaker 1: number one eight hundred two two two five two two two.
Speaker 1: You can email us at Johnny Don't Like show at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. You can also email me. My email
Speaker 1: address is Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com. Search
Speaker 1: for the John Phillipshow wherever you get your podcast, and
Speaker 1: while you're at it, you can subscribe to my solo
Speaker 1: show I do at five o'clock on KABC seven ninety
Speaker 1: every single day, the Newsplitz with Randy Wang. If you're
Speaker 1: not in La, if you're in the Bay Area and
Speaker 1: you want to listen to it, you can stream it
Speaker 1: at KABC dot com. And finally, you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: my substack to see the California Report. All the stories
Speaker 1: we're talking about are right there. You can watch and
Speaker 1: share the videos at Randywangradio dot substack dot com. Our
Speaker 1: next guest is the editor of the Voice of San Francisco.
Speaker 1: The website is the Voice SF dot org, and of
Speaker 1: course you can follow her on social media. I follow
Speaker 1: her on Twitter at Susan d Reynolds. Susan dire Reynolds,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the John Phillips Show.
Speaker 2: Hello, Randy, good to be with you again.
Speaker 1: So it looks like Mayor Lurry's having a pretty good week.
Speaker 1: The poll comes out showing that he's the most popular
Speaker 1: mayor in the country, and he holds a press conference
Speaker 1: today saying that, hey, look at this, the homeless numbers
Speaker 1: are moving in the right direction. What do you make
Speaker 1: of that?
Speaker 2: Well, honestly, he has really good pr You know, he
Speaker 2: pays three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of his own
Speaker 2: money a year for what I call his baby pr team,
Speaker 2: and they follow him around and do really cool Instagram videos.
Speaker 2: I definitely think he's a breath of fresh air. You know,
Speaker 2: in La, you guys are looking at Spencer Pratt for
Speaker 2: the very same reasons people are tired of career politicians.
Speaker 2: They're they're wanting the common man that feels the same
Speaker 2: things they feel. Although you know, in his case, he's
Speaker 2: Larry is a billionaire inheriting the Levi's fortune from his
Speaker 2: mother at some point. But I do think that his
Speaker 2: everyman sort of personality kind of sways people into thinking
Speaker 2: things are better, But if you're on the streets of
Speaker 2: the city or you follow for example, JJ Smith, you
Speaker 2: see the reality. And you know, I just did a
Speaker 2: databased article about how there have been over forty nine
Speaker 2: hundred drug overdose deaths in San Francisco in the past
Speaker 2: five years, the majority happening indoors inside permanent support of
Speaker 2: housing about thirty percent. The rest are scattered in different
Speaker 2: parts and outside or hospitals. But the thirty percent is
Speaker 2: a big number, and so we need more sober housing, clearly,
Speaker 2: But then we have to address the hardcore homeless, the
Speaker 2: drug tourists that come there for the drugs. They don't
Speaker 2: want help, they don't want housing. And he's going to
Speaker 2: have to get a lot tougher before that gets resolved,
Speaker 2: and that means going after the dealers, and that's something
Speaker 2: he's very reluctant to do. He also kind of lies
Speaker 2: a lot. I mean, he says things. I did a
Speaker 2: story called Laurie's Big Lie where he talks about, you know,
Speaker 2: we no longer let people die on the street and
Speaker 2: don't hand out paraphernalia. And I did a story with
Speaker 2: JJ Smith where he went out and saw, you know,
Speaker 2: people handing out paraphernalia by a park giving massages to
Speaker 2: drug addicts. So the very same nonprofits that are allowing
Speaker 2: people to die are still getting to hand out free paraphernalia,
Speaker 2: and they're still getting you know, millions and millions and
Speaker 2: millions of dollars. That hasn't changed.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's what's so wild is he promised that
Speaker 1: he was going to cut out this nonsense. San Francisco
Speaker 1: is facing a huge budget deficit, and you would think
Speaker 1: those programs are the first ones to cut.
Speaker 2: Yes, you would think, But yet they just reapped a
Speaker 2: number of these organizations. In fact, that the top three
Speaker 2: organizations that have had the most deaths over the past
Speaker 2: five years. In our report, which is a series called
Speaker 2: Housing First, morg Second, you can see that they all
Speaker 2: got re upped in the past year multimillion dollar contracts.
Speaker 2: And the excuse is, well, Health Right three sixty is
Speaker 2: so big it's hard to replace them. But in the meantime,
Speaker 2: you know ten or Long Housing Clinic. You know, Randy
Speaker 2: Shaw has been a poverty primp for decades, you know,
Speaker 2: making millions off of the homeless and then standing there
Speaker 2: saying he wants more done about drug addicts. When the
Speaker 2: clients for the drug addicts live in his building and
Speaker 2: are allowed to do drugs. That's still the problem is
Speaker 2: that housing first is a California thing. It allows drugs
Speaker 2: to be used. San Francisco's changed that San Jose. Matt
Speaker 2: Mayhan the mayor, and Santase has done an incredible job.
Speaker 2: I love that the Chronicle and the New York Times
Speaker 2: are spewing, you know, oh, what a great mayor. You
Speaker 2: know Danielurias. Well that's because the Chronicle did the poll
Speaker 2: and they endorsed him and they love him. But the
Speaker 2: fact is that Matt Mahan and Santase, and by the way,
Speaker 2: I live both in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco,
Speaker 2: so I see both. Matt Mahon has housed one third
Speaker 2: of the homeless, but not just throwing them into these SROs.
Speaker 2: He puts them in places that have job training and skills,
Speaker 2: you know, learning skills, you counseling for their past traumas
Speaker 2: they have to get, you know, into drug treatment. And
Speaker 2: he has about an eighty nine percent success rate. He's
Speaker 2: the best mayor in all of California, and yet he
Speaker 2: gets almost no credit, whereas Lurie, you know, has a
Speaker 2: big PR team that he pays for, and you know,
Speaker 2: he gets splashed across the New York Times, the Chronicle.
Speaker 2: Oh he's so popular. But you know, I can tell
Speaker 2: you that I've gotten some of those, you know, polls,
Speaker 2: and they're very skewed toward Daniel Lurie. And I just
Speaker 2: think that a lot of this is a bunch of ball,
Speaker 2: to be honest.
Speaker 1: Well, and the situation with the SROs, which has been
Speaker 1: a disaster before Lurie, but it really hasn't changed. And
Speaker 1: a lot of this is state law, but it really
Speaker 1: has gotten to a point where it's not even like,
Speaker 1: you know, a crazy thing to say that if you
Speaker 1: go into one of those SROs you're coming out in
Speaker 1: a body bag.
Speaker 2: It's well, you know, and I know you know who
Speaker 2: JJ Smith is. But if you watch him when he's
Speaker 2: standing by the medical examiner van and they bring out
Speaker 2: a body and they open up the van at seven
Speaker 2: in the morning, there's room for four people, and there's
Speaker 2: usually already three bodies in the van. So it's a
Speaker 2: still a crisis. People are still dying at the rate
Speaker 2: of two persons per day in San Francisco. You know,
Speaker 2: you know, I was, you know when I was there
Speaker 2: last week walking around. Did neighborhood look better? For sure,
Speaker 2: North Beach, you know, the Marina, But when you go
Speaker 2: to the tenor loin, the mission is a disaster, just
Speaker 2: worse than I've ever seen it because they've kind of
Speaker 2: all been pushed that way. The other thing I'm doing
Speaker 2: an article on, and it's also very you know, la relevant,
Speaker 2: is the sheer amount of animal abuse and torture and
Speaker 2: breeding that goes on in these SROs and very similar
Speaker 2: to skid Row or Joey Tucco's doing an amazing job,
Speaker 2: and Spencer Pratt has shined a huge light the amount
Speaker 2: of abuse and suffering that these officials just ignore. And
Speaker 2: in San Francisco we just tried to pass the Spaean
Speaker 2: neoter law. But what happens is they all get scared
Speaker 2: of the giant SPCA here, which is a you know,
Speaker 2: multimillion dollar nonprofit that just does marketing and says very
Speaker 2: few dogs. And then you know, the homeless coalitions all
Speaker 2: chime in, Oh, it's so prejudiced against the homeless having pets,
Speaker 2: and you have all this you know, dumb stuff for
Speaker 2: these people that even the AKC weighed in. I mean, wait,
Speaker 2: aren't you supposed to be about purebread dogs. I mean,
Speaker 2: I rescued a pure bread Staffaire bull terrier last year.
Speaker 2: She's twelve, and like yesterday, she had to have sixteen
Speaker 2: teeth removed because it's part of her breed. And here,
Speaker 2: here they're breeding all these horrible things into these purebread dogs,
Speaker 2: and they want the homeless to breed their dogs. I
Speaker 2: don't understand. So there's a lot of things in San
Speaker 2: Francisco going on that are very similar to LA and
Speaker 2: I don't see the officials doing anything where those kind
Speaker 2: of things are concerned. I mean, we had a drug
Speaker 2: addic strangle his pitbull in front of the SRO where
Speaker 2: he was living. I mean, in what civilized city does
Speaker 2: that happen.
Speaker 1: It's just wild, and you know, obviously it's it's almost
Speaker 1: it's definitely worse here in Los Angeles. But it seems
Speaker 1: that no matter whether you're talking about San Francisco, La Compton,
Speaker 1: what have you, elected officials will not even admit that
Speaker 1: there is a problem with the animal abuse that's happening,
Speaker 1: like you said, in government subsidized housing in the SROs.
Speaker 1: And for as much as we're trying to control our
Speaker 1: pet populations. The fact that we're not even requiring the
Speaker 1: animals that are in these SROs to be spade and neutered.
Speaker 1: We know what's going to happen. We know they're being bred.
Speaker 1: It's a business model for these people. It's it's just
Speaker 1: completely unconscionable.
Speaker 2: And you see it. You know, honestly, skid rose is
Speaker 2: obviously a human disaster too. But when people say, oh,
Speaker 2: they're just these poor people that need their pets, now,
Speaker 2: these are these a currency for them, They're a commodity.
Speaker 2: And the level of I mean, there is someone in
Speaker 2: San Francisco named kun al Modi who is the kind
Speaker 2: of the homeless star for Lori. He is trying very hard.
Speaker 2: He was the one that brought the spey and neuter
Speaker 2: along with Matt Dorsey a supervisor. But the level of
Speaker 2: idiocy amongst officials. I had a supervisor named Alan Wong
Speaker 2: who was appointed by Lourie after his disaster with the
Speaker 2: pet cemetery lady that you had the pet store. When
Speaker 2: she had to step down, he appointed this guy, Alan Wong,
Speaker 2: and he tells me that he just thought that spaying
Speaker 2: and neutering a dog was mean to the dogs, that
Speaker 2: the dogs shouldn't have to suffer. And I've said, are
Speaker 2: you kids, really? I think you're a supervisor. Do your homework.
Speaker 2: I just feel there's a big push toward non politicians
Speaker 2: because people are sick and tired of politicians that get
Speaker 2: appointed to these positions, are elected and they really don't
Speaker 2: know anything. So why are you there? If you can't
Speaker 2: make thing better, don't be there.
Speaker 1: We're speaking with Susan Dyer Reynolds. You can follow her
Speaker 1: on social media at Susan d Reynolds and of course
Speaker 1: the website is the voicesf dot org.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I was up in San Francisco last week and I
Speaker 1: had a wonderful time. I was actually very pleasantly surprised
Speaker 1: of how clean Union Square is looking now and not
Speaker 1: a car breaking to be seen. North Beach was gorgeous,
Speaker 1: of course, the west Side, Golden Gate Park, Cole Valley.
Speaker 1: We had a ton of fun, and it sure seems
Speaker 1: that the good neighborhoods they're looking a lot better right now.
Speaker 1: But when you look at all the videos from JJ
Speaker 1: and all the other people that are down in the Tenderloin,
Speaker 1: the Tenderloin is as bad as ever. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if this new Reset Center is really going to
Speaker 1: change anything.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll find out. One of our writers, woman named
Speaker 2: Amber Richmond, who started writing for us, a young woman
Speaker 2: who was an addict and has been clean since December,
Speaker 2: writing about her stories in the Boys. She is working there,
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm hoping that it'll be a success,
Speaker 2: but on such a small scale.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is that you know, I interview
Speaker 2: I've been interviewing the homeless in San Francisco for decades,
Speaker 2: and the thing I hear from them all the time
Speaker 2: is they just want to do drugs. They don't want help,
Speaker 2: they don't want to get clean. Every time JJ offers,
Speaker 2: you know, someone's substance treatment, you see the videos, what
Speaker 2: do they say, No, I like doing drugs. I'm not
Speaker 2: ready now, I'm not ready. I don't want to go
Speaker 2: to treatment. So even when they're offered it to them,
Speaker 2: they don't take it. So I just don't see how
Speaker 2: effective it's going to be. In Sama's they cuss you,
Speaker 2: they check your warrants, they put you in jail, and
Speaker 2: then you either accept help or they put you on
Speaker 2: a bus and you go go home to wherever you're from.
Speaker 2: San Francisco says, they do that, but you know there
Speaker 2: are people still getting seven almost seven hundred dollars a
Speaker 2: month that just step off the bus. And you know,
Speaker 2: JJ just interviewed a woman who crossed the bridge from
Speaker 2: Oakland and got into housing within four months, and she says,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, and I love drugs and doing drugs. I'm
Speaker 2: here for the drugs. Those people, You're never going to
Speaker 2: be able to help them with something like a reset center.
Speaker 2: The only thing that's going to help those people is
Speaker 2: throwing them in gin jail. You know, I asked Matt
Speaker 2: Mahon when I toured one of the facilities in Santase,
Speaker 2: which was clean and sparkling outside and in why I
Speaker 2: didn't see the drug addicts outside like I do in
Speaker 2: San Francisco. And he said, because I won't allow it.
Speaker 2: I want enforcement, And without enforcement, you can't achieve what
Speaker 2: he's achieved. In Santase.
Speaker 5: You will not see.
Speaker 2: People doing drugs or selling drugs in public, and if
Speaker 2: you do, they will be arrested, they will get stay
Speaker 2: away orders. And you know the problem with San Francisco
Speaker 2: is the whole sanctuary city myth that you know it's
Speaker 2: there to protect these working immigrants when in reality, they
Speaker 2: don't have the butt, but we won't accept it for
Speaker 2: drug dealers, you know, and criminals and murderers and rapists,
Speaker 2: like they just won't say it, and it's like it's
Speaker 2: politically incorrect to say it. And I don't understand that,
Speaker 2: because no one should want someone slinging sentinel in their neighborhood.
Speaker 2: And until until Laurie toughens up on that, I don't
Speaker 2: see it changing well.
Speaker 1: And I remember it was just a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago when Matt Dorsey tried to change San Francisco's sanctuary
Speaker 1: city law to make an exception for the illegal alien
Speaker 1: Honduran drug dealers that are out there every single day
Speaker 1: dealing in public in the tenderloin in Soma in the mission,
Speaker 1: and he got shot down and called a racist for it.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's right, And nobody stood up for him in
Speaker 2: that in that scenario, and he's continued to try to
Speaker 2: get that passed and push things like sober housing and
Speaker 2: dealing and dealing with the dealers no pun intended. But
Speaker 2: I haven't heard LORII ever say, and I've written multiple
Speaker 2: times about this, I've never heard him say, and we
Speaker 2: will put the dealers in jail and we will deport them.
Speaker 2: And and everybody knows the drug the drug users, they'll
Speaker 2: just say it out right, Oh, I get my drugs
Speaker 2: from the hondos. They call themselves hondos. Everybody knows that
Speaker 2: the Hondurans run the tender Win. And you know, there's
Speaker 2: been an increase in murders in San Francisco, which Laurie
Speaker 2: doesn't like to talk about, but homicides are up. And
Speaker 2: I heard from both an emergency room nurse and doctor
Speaker 2: that they're seeing a lot of more of what they
Speaker 2: call them this homie drop offs, where they basically pull
Speaker 2: up in a car, shove the person out and drive off.
Speaker 2: A lot more stabbing shootings in the emergency room. And
Speaker 2: it's game related and drug territory related. So this is
Speaker 2: just not something that you can gloss over and say
Speaker 2: homelessness is down and look at us, we're clean and shiny.
Speaker 2: Parts of San Francisco look a lot better. I think
Speaker 2: Danie Lurie is popular because he is a cheerleader and
Speaker 2: he does great you know Instagram. I call him the
Speaker 2: instamare Matt and Mayhem and Santase is more nose to
Speaker 2: the grindstone, get it. Done. He's not flashy. He grew up,
Speaker 2: you know, middle class in Watsonville, California, different ILKs than Danie.
Speaker 2: Lurie was born with the golden swoon in his mouth.
Speaker 1: You know, I got to ask you, I want to
Speaker 1: pick your brain on this because you cover both mayors,
Speaker 1: and you know, Matt Mahon has been going up and
Speaker 1: down the state thamas is as he's trying to run
Speaker 1: for governor, and he has put out a very common
Speaker 1: sense message. Here's what I've done in San Jose. I
Speaker 1: want to bring the state wide. Why do you think
Speaker 1: that's not resonating with primary voters.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that he got into late,
Speaker 2: you know, he got in pretty late in the race
Speaker 2: when people had made some choices. I think another is
Speaker 2: that he's not known, as you said, he's not known
Speaker 2: in southern California, and he doesn't have a big brand yet,
Speaker 2: and he doesn't have a big PR team like Daniel
Speaker 2: Lurie does to push his name to the national media.
Speaker 2: Many times, Daniel Lurie wants to be in the New
Speaker 2: York Times. He's there just like that. So you know,
Speaker 2: you have to have a sadly a PR team for that,
Speaker 2: and I don't think he's picked the right campaign advisors.
Speaker 2: I think they've made some mistakes making him sound a
Speaker 2: little bit more liberal than he actually is. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying that he's a conservative by any means, but he's
Speaker 2: not this you know, bleeding heart left wing you know,
Speaker 2: sanctuary for drug dealers. That some of his you know,
Speaker 2: the things he said, have come off that way. I
Speaker 2: think he did get rid of someone that was given
Speaker 2: over to him by Billala Mamood, who is a really
Speaker 2: far left in my opinion, supervisor in San Francisco that
Speaker 2: beat the impressed in the socialist But other than that,
Speaker 2: he's not much better. And I just don't think he's
Speaker 2: selling the message hasn't been sold the way the way
Speaker 2: he sells himself, just when he's in Santase, the way
Speaker 2: he sells himself is how he should be selling himself
Speaker 2: to everyone, and he's not come across that way. I've
Speaker 2: even been angry with him in a couple of the
Speaker 2: things he's put out where he just comes across like
Speaker 2: the run of the mill, you know, liberal dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the campaign definitely has had its issues, and I
Speaker 1: think you pointed them out exactly what some of the
Speaker 1: problem is, you know, we have invited him to come
Speaker 1: on this show so many times, and he came on
Speaker 1: the show in the past when he was promoting Prop
Speaker 1: thirty six, and no problem, Like, you don't have to
Speaker 1: do this show, but it sure seems like, you know,
Speaker 1: doing radio that's broadcast in southern California northern California would
Speaker 1: be an interesting way to get your message out. But
Speaker 1: we get Stonewall, which I find very interesting.
Speaker 2: That is. I mean, you know, he follows me on
Speaker 2: X so maybe I'll tag him and say, you know,
Speaker 2: go on with Randy because he does need to be
Speaker 2: heard in LA if he's going to win LA. I
Speaker 2: think people forget what a big chunk of property La is,
Speaker 2: you know, everybody is. So when they're in the Bay Area,
Speaker 2: they think, you know, we're the be all and end all,
Speaker 2: but southern California is vast and he's just not very
Speaker 2: well known there. It frightens me a little too that
Speaker 2: California voters are so apathetic and they look at the Sarah,
Speaker 2: they recognize the name and they'll just click the box
Speaker 2: because they wrecked the name.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one might be biting voters in the ass.
Speaker 1: If this Dana Williamson, thing gets any more interesting. Susan
Speaker 1: Dire Reynolds, thank you so much as always for joining us.
Speaker 1: Make sure that you bookmark the Voice of San Francisco
Speaker 1: the voicesf dot org, and you can of course follow
Speaker 1: her at Susan d Reynolds. Susandire Reynolds. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much as always for joining us.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Randy talk to you next time.
Speaker 1: Johnny's on vacation, well deserved. He'll be back on Monday.
Speaker 1: When am I taking a vacation? I mean I get
Speaker 1: to work when I'm in Santa Fe. So I have
Speaker 1: actually taken a day off all year, but at some
Speaker 1: point I will, you know, got to bank those days.
Speaker 1: But he'll be back on Monday. The phone number is
Speaker 1: eight hundred two two two five two two two. You
Speaker 1: can email our show at Johnny Don't Like Show at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. If you want my personal email address,
Speaker 1: it's Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com. Randywang Radio
Speaker 1: dot Substack dot com is where I have the California Report,
Speaker 1: my daily rundown of all stories that we get into
Speaker 1: every single day, and every single day, at five o'clock,
Speaker 1: I go through the entire California Report all the stories
Speaker 1: that I found interesting that you should know about. So
Speaker 1: check it out. It's called The Newsplitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 1: and it airs at five o'clock on KABC. If you're
Speaker 1: in the Bay and you want to give it a listen,
Speaker 1: stream it at KABC dot com or search for the
Speaker 1: KABC Newsplitz wherever you get your podcasts. As we're in
Speaker 1: voting season, there are a lot of people in the
Speaker 1: Democrat primary that are still freaking out about the very
Speaker 1: small but still possibility that it could be two Republicans
Speaker 1: going into the runoff in June. Now that seems less
Speaker 1: likely every single day, as Javier Bessera is going up
Speaker 1: in the polls and Chad Bianco is going down in
Speaker 1: the polls. But it's still a possibility, and that's why
Speaker 1: there are some strategists that want to make sure that
Speaker 1: this never ever ever has happens again, which is why
Speaker 1: they are now looking at collecting signatures for a ballot
Speaker 1: measure in twenty twenty eight that would repeal California's top
Speaker 1: two jungle primary system. For more on this, we go
Speaker 1: to KCRA three and the wonderful Ashley's of All You
Speaker 1: know we would love to get Ashley on the show sometime,
Speaker 1: but I think she's usually either at the capitol or
Speaker 1: filing her reports when we're on the air. But we
Speaker 1: love her as an effort on We really do love
Speaker 1: highlighting our local voices, whether it's in broadcast journalism or
Speaker 1: independent journalism. That's one of the things that we really
Speaker 1: love to do here because there are some great people
Speaker 1: covering this great state.
Speaker 6: There's an effort underway to ditch California's open primary election system.
Speaker 7: And it's because of this year's governor's race. California is
Speaker 7: one of a few states that allows the top two
Speaker 7: vote getters at a primary election to move on to
Speaker 7: the general in November, regardless of their party alation. In case,
Speaker 7: every three political director Ashley's of All joins us right
Speaker 7: now with this new effort and what today leaders are
Speaker 7: saying about this top two system.
Speaker 8: Wilson, this issue, as you mentioned, has been front and
Speaker 8: center because of the governor's race this year. The field
Speaker 8: is crowded with six Democrats and two leading Republicans. Some
Speaker 8: Democrats have been worrying that mathematically California voters in November
Speaker 8: could end up picking between the two Republicans and Democrats
Speaker 8: would be locked out of that general race.
Speaker 1: The chances it would be a fascinating thing if that
Speaker 1: actually happened. I don't think it's likely. I know that
Speaker 1: John is. You know, that's the whole reason he has
Speaker 1: put forth Bianco and his voter guide. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you want to look at John's voter guide, you
Speaker 1: can go to KABC dot com slash John's ballot or
Speaker 1: KSFO dot com slash John's ballot. It's as easy as that.
Speaker 1: It's all right there. But I don't think that's going
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 8: The chances of that are very slim, but that's not
Speaker 8: stopping the effort from moving forward. On Friday, Democratic political
Speaker 8: consultant Steve Maviglio filed a proposed ballot initiative to get
Speaker 8: rid of the top two system. It would simply repeal
Speaker 8: what California voters passed in twenty eleven and return California
Speaker 8: to a primary system based on political parties.
Speaker 1: So what you would have is you'd go back to
Speaker 1: the way that it was, where you'd have a whole
Speaker 1: lot of money spent in the primary of everyone going
Speaker 1: after each other, and then you know it's going to
Speaker 1: be a Republican and a Democrat and you don't have
Speaker 1: to even campaign.
Speaker 8: Experts in both political parties say this open primary experiment
Speaker 8: has failed. Before the initiative was filed, I asked California's
Speaker 8: attorney General and Secretary of State if getting rid of
Speaker 8: the top two system was something they were talking about
Speaker 8: or considering.
Speaker 5: Here's what each had to say. Very much, so, yeah,
Speaker 5: very much. So, oh yeah, yeah. People say jungle primary.
Speaker 5: I never heard that day.
Speaker 1: It's the first time Shirley Webers said yes to any interview.
Speaker 5: Very much so, yeah, very much.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, yeah, people say jungle primary.
Speaker 5: I never heard that until this election.
Speaker 9: And I say that because we've never had seventy semid
Speaker 9: people running for governor.
Speaker 1: We have sixty one. By the way, she should know
Speaker 1: that because she is the Secretary of State. But okay,
Speaker 1: sixty one seventy, it doesn't matter. We have sixty one
Speaker 1: candidates on that ballot. It's insane. And apparently all you
Speaker 1: need to run for governor is four thousand dollars. You
Speaker 1: either can get a bunch of signatures or four thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: So there are some gadflies out there that decided to
Speaker 1: give California four thousand bucks, just so they could say
Speaker 1: their name is on the ballot, including one guy, and
Speaker 1: this is true, who changed his name to Barack Obama.
Speaker 1: I believe he appears on the ballot as like Barack Obama.
Speaker 5: Kent in a primary.
Speaker 9: And my girlfriend called me the other night and go,
Speaker 9: she'd been on Vaca ship.
Speaker 5: What the heck is this? I said, what is it?
Speaker 5: She said, it's like seventy people, sixty seventy people.
Speaker 9: I knew what it was, and from day one I
Speaker 9: voted against it, and I wasn't in the office at all,
Speaker 9: but I did not like the open primary.
Speaker 5: I didn't think it would solve any problems.
Speaker 9: They had a list of problems it would solve, and
Speaker 9: none of those have been seen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we really hasn't gotten us better candidates. Notably, it
Speaker 1: got us the race between Kamala Harrison Loretta Sanchez in
Speaker 1: the Senate race. It got us Feinstein versus kd L
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen. It is hot as hell, but it
Speaker 1: really hasn't made things any better.
Speaker 5: And none of those have been solved.
Speaker 3: So now we have some data, some evidence. There was
Speaker 3: a lot of hope.
Speaker 1: Hey, you recognize that voice that's Bobby Bob Bonta.
Speaker 3: So now we have some data, some evidence. There was
Speaker 3: a lot of hope among some there were some intentions.
Speaker 3: I think some design outcomes from it. Now, with fourteen
Speaker 3: years of experience, a voter experience, we can see if
Speaker 3: those goals have been met or if not.
Speaker 1: Now, if you go back to the primary system, is
Speaker 1: it back to a closed primary system, because that would
Speaker 1: mean that for certain offices, you'd have a whole lot
Speaker 1: of people that are no party preferencers that I guess
Speaker 1: would be locked out of those. Is that what they're
Speaker 1: looking to do?
Speaker 3: And then the people will decide. I'm not part of
Speaker 3: any particular effort to change the rules. My job is
Speaker 3: to enforce and implement the existing rules.
Speaker 8: Now, we also checked in to see if Governor Gavin
Speaker 8: Newsom or the state lawmakers who oversee elections had any.
Speaker 5: Thoughts on the top two system. We have not yet
Speaker 5: heard back.
Speaker 8: Okay, so taking issative voters is the only way to
Speaker 8: change Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean at this point,
Speaker 8: because voters approve the change to open up the primary
Speaker 8: system back in twenty eleven, they must also vote to
Speaker 8: undo it. This ballot initiative is currently waiting to get
Speaker 8: its title and summary before it can start collecting signatures.
Speaker 8: But no, it will not be on your ballot in
Speaker 8: twenty twenty six. That'll be in twenty twenty eight. So
Speaker 8: if this gets enough signatures, so.
Speaker 1: This one you won't have to worry about this election.
Speaker 1: This election, you just have to worry about a bazillion tales,
Speaker 1: tax hikes, bond measures, and I'm sure a kidney biller too. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in the governor's race, Javier Bakaria is on quite appalling surge.
Speaker 8: The Sectory of Health and Educations over I nominated Javier Bakaria.
Speaker 1: And that means that the knives are out for him,
Speaker 1: which is why he's getting asked question after question after
Speaker 1: question about that Dana Williamson scandal and the whole thing
Speaker 1: with HHS. Let's see what he had to say at
Speaker 1: his latest town hall. Here is ABC ten in Sacramento.
Speaker 6: They and Democratic candidate for governor, Hobby or Basera, stopped
Speaker 6: in his hometown of Sacramento tonight. He held an event
Speaker 6: at Sachs State and ABC ten scars Pole sung what
Speaker 6: was there? He joins us now live in the student
Speaker 6: with the latest garsh Paul.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Chris Passera returned home, pitching voters on his vision
Speaker 4: for California while defending himself from growing criticism on the
Speaker 4: campaign trail at Sacramento State's the Nest.
Speaker 1: Oh who did that?
Speaker 10: Former California Attorney General and former Hilton Human Services Secretary
Speaker 10: Javier Bisera for his Fighting for California Dream tour back home.
Speaker 11: We cannot lose if you go out and vote.
Speaker 10: Boy is he inspiring family supporters and his mother filling
Speaker 10: the crowd.
Speaker 1: I got at least one vote in this place.
Speaker 10: I know that the hometown stop comes as polls show
Speaker 10: Republican Steve Hilton and Bessara tied at eighteen percent, with
Speaker 10: Republican Chad Bianco at fourteen percent, Democrat Tom Steyer at
Speaker 10: twelve percent, and Democrat Katie Porter at eight percent.
Speaker 1: Oh, poor Katie. I guess that ad that referenced this
Speaker 1: out has not resonated. She's like going back and forth
Speaker 1: where it's either her or Mayheon in that fifth place
Speaker 1: spot now.
Speaker 10: And Democrat Katie Porter at eight percent.
Speaker 11: They're coming after me because they're afraid of you.
Speaker 1: That's not why you could argue that they're coming after
Speaker 1: you because there is a real fear that you might
Speaker 1: fall apart before November.
Speaker 10: The attacks have already started. The Sacmento B reports, but
Speaker 10: Sarah is accused in an anonymous Fair Political Practices Commission
Speaker 10: complaint of violating campaign finance laws by using Endorment Attorney
Speaker 10: General campaign account to pay former advisor Dana Williamson's firm
Speaker 10: after leaving office. As the fraud case continues, but Sarah
Speaker 10: has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
Speaker 11: Tis the season for negative campaigning.
Speaker 1: This is the guy forty million people and this is
Speaker 1: the one that's going to lead us into the future.
Speaker 1: Oh boy.
Speaker 10: Fellow Democrat Katie Porter took am Abassera.
Speaker 1: Might be pulling up Zillo during the break Santa Fe.
Speaker 1: I'm on my way.
Speaker 10: Fellow Democrat Katie Porter took Amabassera during an appearance on
Speaker 10: CNN Monday, raising questions if Bisera will be dragged into
Speaker 10: the investigation.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Katie Porter is full on the offensive.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 12: Two of the three people who were initially implicated are
Speaker 12: negotiating plea deals, and in those plea deals they could
Speaker 12: name Secretary Bessera. I don't know if they will, but
Speaker 12: that is a risk, and so I don't want to
Speaker 12: see what happened with Eric Swalwell, happened with Javier Bisera Well.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a totally different kind of scandal. This
Speaker 1: is a election scandal where they paid someone out of
Speaker 1: a campaign account. It's a little more complicated than accused rapists.
Speaker 1: But Katie Porter is trying to tie those together. Please,
Speaker 1: And it is true a lot of the big unions
Speaker 1: that supported wall Well, they jumped ship and went over
Speaker 1: to Bisarah.
Speaker 12: This race is too close, it's too chaotic, and there's
Speaker 12: no reason to take a risk.
Speaker 11: US Attorney's office, the FBI investigated, She's risk free right.
Speaker 11: US Attorney's office. The FBI investigated this. I cooperated with him,
Speaker 11: and I will say one way or the other, everyone
Speaker 11: is accountable. I'm moving forward. As I said, everyone will
Speaker 11: be accountable for their actions.
Speaker 1: We're moving He's using that word more than Gavin Newsome.
Speaker 11: Accountability, accountability, accountability, that everyone will be accountable for their actions.
Speaker 11: We're moving forward. We feel very comfortable and confident about
Speaker 11: this elections.
Speaker 10: I want you at Sacramento State. But Sarah's focused on affordability, homelessness,
Speaker 10: and public safety while urging supporters to stay energized.
Speaker 4: Well we fight, oh boy, and mail and balace should
Speaker 4: be arriving in your mailboxes. And with primary election sept
Speaker 4: for June second, Chris Now.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the other front run in the race is Steve Hilton,
Speaker 1: and he put out his plan to cut your energy prices.
Speaker 1: Let's see what he had to say. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to ABC ten.
Speaker 13: Wellocking. Steve Hilton held a news conference announcing what he
Speaker 13: calls a bloat report when it comes to California's energy regulators.
Speaker 13: His proposals promised to cut energy costs, but he is
Speaker 13: not the only one with a plan, and there are
Speaker 13: some big differences. Every flick of the light switch, phone charge,
Speaker 13: and load of laundry costs money.
Speaker 14: Today, we're focusing on something that affects every single person
Speaker 14: in California.
Speaker 1: The way laundry is well worth it. Don't start encouraging
Speaker 1: people to only wash every other week.
Speaker 14: Today, we're focusing on something that affects every single person
Speaker 14: in California.
Speaker 13: At a recent news conference held outside the California Environmental
Speaker 13: Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento, Republican candidate for California governor
Speaker 13: Steve Hilton announced his plan to lower energy costs by
Speaker 13: reforming the state's energy regulators, which.
Speaker 14: He calls a massive, sprawling, bloated bureaucracy.
Speaker 1: We've accurate.
Speaker 14: We've got all these different agencies. We've got COBB, the
Speaker 14: California Air Resources Board, We've got the Public Utility Commission CPUC,
Speaker 14: We've got the Energy Commission, We've got KAISER.
Speaker 1: And those two right there, like, how are those not
Speaker 1: the same agency.
Speaker 14: We've got the Public Utility Commission CPUC, We've got the
Speaker 14: Energy Commission, We've got KAISO.
Speaker 1: And every single one of these bureaucracies which are appointed
Speaker 1: by the governor. Those are all filled with all kinds
Speaker 1: of employees in so many different checks. And no, and
Speaker 1: this is where all the regulations come from. We've got
Speaker 1: and this is one of the things where if Steve
Speaker 1: Helton does get in there and he still has a
Speaker 1: legislature that won't work with him, you can make a
Speaker 1: lot of changes to these appointed offices. That is true.
Speaker 14: We've got all these different regulators.
Speaker 13: He says, overlapping functions and redundant staffing are driving up costs.
Speaker 14: We are going to massively simplify this whole system.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I would argue we don't even
Speaker 1: need the CPUC because the CPUC is made up of
Speaker 1: a bunch of former executives from PG and E who've
Speaker 1: been doing nothing but rubber stamping rate increases for PG
Speaker 1: and E.
Speaker 14: Instead of these four different agentsies all basically doing the
Speaker 14: same thing, we're going to combine three of them into
Speaker 14: a very simple, clear, streamlined energy division.
Speaker 13: He says. He also wants to return KARB to what
Speaker 13: he described as its original mission of air quality management,
Speaker 13: stripping its climate policy authority. All of these changes, he says.
Speaker 14: Will cut electric bills in California by twenty five percent.
Speaker 1: Moving toward his camp I mean maybe, I mean, I
Speaker 1: would love to see this, but Steve Hilton, just wait
Speaker 1: till you are battling PG.
Speaker 13: And E moving toward his campaign goal of cutting electric
Speaker 13: bills in half. To be clear, the move would cut jobs.
Speaker 13: Hilton's proposal is part of something he launched earlier this
Speaker 13: year called cal DOGE. It's modeled after the Federal Department
Speaker 13: of Government Efficiency that Elon Musk led at the start
Speaker 13: of President Trump's second term. Numbers show DOZE shrunk the
Speaker 13: federal workforce by about ten percent. ABC ten reached out
Speaker 13: to the California Democratic Party for a response to Hilton's proposal,
Speaker 13: but they did not make anyone available, and the governor's
Speaker 13: office told ABC ten it does not comment on the
Speaker 13: gubernatorial race.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Gavin's not getting involved now.
Speaker 13: So we turned to the bipartisan Little Hoover Commission. That's
Speaker 13: an independent state oversight agency that held four hearings in
Speaker 13: twenty twenty five studying the high cost of electricity in
Speaker 13: California and issuing this report with recommendations. Both the Commission
Speaker 13: and Hilton say regulatory reform is needed, but the commissions
Speaker 13: approach focuses on making the existing agencies work better.
Speaker 1: Mandating timeline well, again, that's going to Maine that you
Speaker 1: have to appoint people that are not lobbyists for those companies.
Speaker 1: You should not be able to work at the CPUC
Speaker 1: if you have a vested interest in PG and E
Speaker 1: stock price going up.
Speaker 13: Mandating timelines for rate cases, integrating proceedings, and auditing staffing.
Speaker 13: The report did not address agency consolidation one way or
Speaker 13: the other. The Commission's recommendations also include more assistance for
Speaker 13: the lowest income Californians struggling to pay their energy bills,
Speaker 13: and more scrutiny on utilities and their profit margins and spending.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you know that our public utility monopolies get
Speaker 1: a guaranteed rate of return whenever they do infrastructure investment,
Speaker 1: And that's part of the way they've been able to
Speaker 1: get these rubber stamped rate increases PG and he got
Speaker 1: six rate increases over the course of a year. The
Speaker 1: Commission says, As much as I think he's completely insane,
Speaker 1: the one thing I like about Tom Steyer's campaign. The
Speaker 1: only thing is that he won't be successful. But I
Speaker 1: like that he wants to break up these companies because
Speaker 1: I think PG and E and OKEL Edison and SDG
Speaker 1: and E are disasters and that business model doesn't make
Speaker 1: any sense. The Commission says, there are plenty of municipal
Speaker 1: owned utilities that work very well. Not LEDWP, of course,
Speaker 1: who do we put in charge of LEDWP someone who
Speaker 1: used to work at PG and E. But you know,
Speaker 1: whether you had smut Burbank water Power. There are plenty
Speaker 1: of municipally owned power companies that well. They don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about profits because they're owned by us.
Speaker 13: The Commission says, achieving significant electricity cost reductions may be possible,
Speaker 13: though challenging, suggesting a different approach is to flatten the
Speaker 13: curve of accelerating costs.
Speaker 1: No, we need to lower the price. I mean, good
Speaker 1: luck trying, but we need to now.
Speaker 5: Hilton said.
Speaker 13: The so called Bloat report on California electricity prices could
Speaker 13: be found on kel Doje's website, but when I visited
Speaker 13: the site today I couldn't find it. I reached out
Speaker 13: to Hilton's campaign and kel Doge I have not heard
Speaker 13: back about obtaining a copy of that report, Alex.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Those are the latest updates you
Speaker 1: need to know about in the California governor's race. It's
Speaker 1: Randy Wang here on the John Phillips Show. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: about to pack up, go sit on the freeway for
Speaker 1: an hour, have a little lunch, and then get ready
Speaker 1: for my next show. I do a local show on
Speaker 1: seven ninety KABC every single day at five o'clock. But
Speaker 1: if you're in the Bay you should definitely give it
Speaker 1: a listen because I cover everything that we didn't get
Speaker 1: a chance to cover today. Look, every morning I go
Speaker 1: through all of the southern California news stations, the Bay
Speaker 1: Area station Sacramento, San Diego in the Central Valley. I
Speaker 1: isolate the ones that I think I should listen to,
Speaker 1: and then I get those down to the list of
Speaker 1: the things that I think are important for this audience,
Speaker 1: and I post them all on my substack Randywangradio dot
Speaker 1: substack dot com, and we're gonna go through all of
Speaker 1: them today at five o'clock. So, for instance, some of
Speaker 1: the stories I didn't get to do today that we'll
Speaker 1: be talking about tonight. Oakland's housing market is showing the
Speaker 1: steepest drops in the entire country, and Matt Haney wants
Speaker 1: to push a bill that will cap concert ticket resale fees.
Speaker 1: We'll get into all of that tonight on the news
Speaker 1: Splits with Randy Wang on KABC. If you want to
Speaker 1: give it a listen seven ninety am in Southern California
Speaker 1: or stream it at KABC dot com. I'll see you
Speaker 1: tomorrow regardless, noon to three for another edition of The
Speaker 1: John Phillips Show.