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- [00:04]
Jamie
Welcome to a special edition of Lunch with Jamie. One week before California's primary, I sat down with Democrats running from everything from governor to LA mayor to City Council to Congress. Gave each one of them a shot to convince Californians why they deserve your vote. I invited every top Democratic candidate in these races, so if you don't hear from one of them, that was their choice, not ours. Big thanks to my co host Matt Lippman for pulling this together with me on 72 hours notice. Now here's the for. Welcome to the Jamie's List first candidates forum. For those of you new to Jamie's List, welcome for the regulars, nice to see you. I was inspired to put this together because I love LA and California. I've been living here for over 20 years and it's the greatest place on earth, clearly has its problems, but having grown up in New York city in the 70s and 80s, this place still feels like a utopia. It just needs help and it needs it fast. The eyes of the world are going to be on this city and state over the next two years and this is one of the most critical elections I've seen as an Angeleno. With one week left, we still don't know enough about these candidates and what they're actually do. We're all caught up in memes and social media and TikTok and we need some real answers and some specific answers. So I asked my buddy Matt Littman to help me gather as many Democratic candidates as possible to give us one last chance of why we should vote for them. Thank you Matt for helping me put this together in less than 24 hours and thank you all for joining. We have a lot of ground to cover in a very short time. Every candidate gets the same opening question. We have a few rapid fire follow ups, no prep on their end, no script on ours. We'll try to keep the candidates brief and honest. We're lucky enough to have Tom Steyer to kick us off. So Tom, thank you. Welcome, welcome for welcome to the candidates forum. Great. So Tom, in 60 seconds or less, please tell us why people should vote for Tom Syer.
- [02:01]
Tom Steyer
So first of all, people describe this as a complicated race for governor. It is not complicated. There are only three people who can get into the top two at this point. One is a hard right Republican, Steve Hilton, who's been endorsed by Donald Trump, so let's not talk about him at all. Number two is a corporate Democrat, Javier Becerra, who who has taken money from Chevron and the second biggest oil driller in California from Meta from Uber, he has basically said when pressed, what would you change? He said we're doing pretty well. We're the fourth biggest economy in the world and had nothing to say. I'm running because I think California is too expensive for Californians to live here anymore. And I'm going to try and take on housing, build a million houses people can afford. I'm going to go after the electric monopolies and try and drive down their costs by 25%. Californians pay twice as much as the rest of the country for electricity. I'm for single payer health care because health care is and should be a right for Californians and if we're going to afford it, we're going to have to move to single payer. So to a large extent, I'm the change agent. I'm willing to take on the special interest. They're spending a record amount against me and that validates that really I am the person they're threatened by who actually will change things for working people.
- [03:21]
Matt Lippman
Tom, I was thinking about the fact that you've put your money where your mouth is. I had dinner the other night, Tom, with Doug Boxer, who was talking about the bank that you opened in Oakland that gives money to people and helps people with banking that might not normally have access to that. We know work you've done on climate. We know work you've done to get voters out as well around in the state and maybe the country, I think too tomorrow. Here's the question though, is you've never been in government actually, right? So how do you go from that, that private sector, that philanthropy help, to running the fourth largest economy in the world?
- [03:58]
Tom Steyer
So let me say this. There has been a lot of talk in California about what the government's going to do and that talk has been done by professional politicians. But there has not been a lot of results for Californians, which why California right now is unaffordable for the people who live here. We have a school system that is in the 30s out of 50 states and we don't deliver healthcare as a right. I started a business in one room with no partners, no employees and no windows. And I built it into a $38 billion business. You know what that's called? Getting results. As a private citizen, I've taken on three funded corporate interests at the ballot box, Oil companies, tobacco companies and multinationals. Delivered billions of dollars every time for education and health care for the people of California without charging Californians a penny. All three of those were things the legislature could have done. But Couldn't I have registered 1.2 million Californians so we could have a representative democracy? My wife and I put together a coalition of over 200 organizations so that we could get free breakfast and free lunch for every school kid in California. That happened. I've gotten results. I could keep going, but I want to say this. I have gotten results consistently as a private citizen in the public sector for 15 years. I believe as governor, I'll keep doing the same thing, taking on the corporate interests, delivering for working people, and actually, I call it shared prosperity. This is the richest state in the country, and we have the highest poverty rate. We are not delivering. This government is not delivering for working people in the state of California. And if we're going to have change, it's not going to come from inside the system. Somebody's going to have to take on the system. And that's why the corporations who think they own this state have spent a record amount against me. And that's why working people are supporting me. Honestly, we're going to need change, and we need change from someone who's always gotten results. And that is immodestly who I am.
- [06:08]
Jamie
Tom, you mentioned the business community. California continues to rank at the bottom, fifth top, bottom, 48th, 49th, 50th in place to do business. Why is that and how are you going to change that starting on day one?
- [06:24]
Tom Steyer
So I think there are two issues there, Jamie. One of them is cost. Because housing is so expensive, because healthcare is so expensive, because electricity is so expensive, because food is so expensive. You have your employees a lot of money so that they can survive. And so the first thing is it's very expensive to employ people in this state. The second thing is this. We have had a lot of conflicting rules of regulations, multiple agency, multiple points of contact, very expensive and confusing and not coordinated. And I think one of the things that's true about California, we've written a lot of laws. It's a question of how are we actually enforcing them, and how do the state, the different agencies in the state, the counties and the cities work together. And to a very large extent, that's a management task. One of the things we've said is we're going to have an office of intergovernmental affairs so that actually we coordinate these things and hopefully stop have conflicting, overlapping, expensive regulations that are doing the same job multiple times with no coordination.
- [07:35]
Matt Lippman
Tom, let me. Let's switch over. You've heard this question before. How does a billionaire relate to the average person? Right. So we've seen it work. We've seen it work in New York with Mayor Bloomberg. Right. And then we've seen it definitely not work on a federal level. Right. With. With Donald Trump. So for you, we get this question a lot. I know you've talked about it before, but how do you, given your status, relate to this affordability question that everybody's talking about?
- [08:01]
Tom Steyer
Well, first of all, let me say this. I've never inherited a penny. I made money because I started a business and it went very well. And my wife and I have said that we will give our money away to the same progressive causes that I'm talking about working on as governor while we're alive. So the question is, how can I relate? Look, I've said as the candidate, I will go see more Californians and look them in the eye than anyone else. And I think if you check, that's true as a mult multiple. And it's absolutely critical that we get out. I view that as both a great joy because for those of you who don't get a chance to do it, Californians are wonderful. This is the Rainbow Coalition. But people are incredibly hardworking, incredibly sincere and wonderful. And every time I go out and meet Californians, it's reassuring and a joy. But let me say this. The problems here about affordability are obvious. The solutions are fairly straightforward. The question is who in this race for governor will get the results that working people need? And there's only one person who's even saying he will try. I will get the results. And you can look at my record and see I've always gotten results. Whether California is too expensive, that's not an issue. The key thing for me is to make sure that I go out. When you look at someone who's doing an incredibly hard job and being paid very poorly for it, in a very skilled and important job, you understand that something needs to change because you can put it with a person. When you go out and see a teacher who is reaching into her pocket for school supplies, can't afford to live in the district where she teaches, but is completely dedicated to the kids, that informs you about where we are in education in California. And that's why we've had a bus tour. That's why we've done a series of town halls, I take questions from everybody just as I am here. Regardless of the questions are, I always say there are no hard questions. They're unprepared answers. And that is not true. Javier Becerra never takes questions. I am willing to go out and look and I Believe my, not just my life experience, but also my connection with people and my goals mean that I am all over these problems all the time. And that's all I'm thinking about.
- [10:30]
Matt Lippman
To follow up on that, you know, I'm thinking about the lack of. When you're. When you have a lot of money, you don't have to raise a lot of money. In your case, you've put in a lot of money, right? And sometimes being able to raise money means people are constantly giving you feedback. So are you able to get good feedback from people if you're not raising money? And then how does that affect your administration?
- [10:54]
Tom Steyer
Matt, that's a great question. I want to flip it on its head. When I go out to a town hall, anybody can come. When I go out and meet people in the community, I'm meeting people broadly across the spectrum. When you're raising money, by definition, do you know what those people have money. So when they're giving you feedback, you're getting disproportionate. If you're raising money from really rich people or billionaires and corporations, they're giving you feedback, and the feedback you're getting is from their bubble. And so you start to think, oh, you know, and you won't believe this, Matt, but I have had very rich people in this state say, the problem with this state is the teachers, they're so overpaid, they're driving us into bankruptcy. And it's like, are you kidding? Do you even know what you're talking about? But they say it to each other back and forth, and they start to believe it. And to the same extent, the corporations. Look, we have seen very convincingly in this state this year and more broadly in the United States that corporations are overwhelmingly focused on their bottom line. The head of the Western States Petroleum association, which is the lobbying group for oil companies in California, said it is the duty of Chevron and to extract every penny they can gouge out of Californians because of the Iran war. That is not the feedback that I want to hear. That is not the group of people. But when you're going out for money, they're investing in you, and particularly in corporations, they're investing in their bottom lines. And so I go out and talk to working people and get their feedback. When you're raising money, you by definition are raising money from rich people and big corporations. And those people have their point of view. It's a very limited one and in my mind, a very distorting one.
- [12:42]
Jamie
Tom, we have just under five minutes left. So we have a lot of Angelenos on this, a lot of people in the film business. What are you going to be able to do on day one to actually stop this runaway production from California?
- [12:57]
Tom Steyer
So let me start, Jamie, if you don't mind, at 30,000ft. Look, I'm on Team California. California. Los Angeles invented Hollywood, invented the film business, invented the entertainment business. And a bunch of people are trying to steal it from us by basically paying productions to go there. And we can't allow that to happen. I'm on Team California because this is a California expertise that exists, that is incomparable and we need to stand up for those people. So what does that mean? It means going with film credits, much more so people are not allowed to buy our business. It means checking every regulation to make sure we're not causing productions to pay money unnecessarily to meet up with regulations that are onerous. It means working with the whole community and putting people in charge of this from the community to make sure we're competing in the smartest possible way and the most effective possible way. And let me say this, the analysis of film tax credits is they bring back more money to the state than they cost. So I see those as investments in California, not cost to California. I am, you know, I may come across as very common, low key, but I promise you, I'm actually very competitive. And I absolutely want this state and the people in this state and the tens of thousands of people who work in the film and entertainment business to win. And that means I'm going to be spending all my time trying to make sure that that happens. And I'm going to put people, work with people from your community to make sure that that's what's happening.
- [14:34]
Matt Lippman
Well, there are a lot of cities in California, but let's talk about how you're going to prioritize la. You know, some people are talking about LA in some pretty negative terms right now. We're going to have on some candidates for mayor in a little bit and there's a lot of doom and gloom here. I think a lot of it the result of the Palisades fire. Still.
- [14:54]
Tom Steyer
I love la. I love la. LA is the heart of. Look, if you look at numbers, if you. LA is the heart of California. The idea of feeling bad about LA is not okay. I'm going to be all in on the rejuvenation and the vibrancy of Los Angeles California, period. And anyone who, anyone who doesn't do that shouldn't be governor of the state of California. Let me just say that my son lives in Los Angeles. That doesn't. I mean, I love him. I want him to live in a great place. But this is a critic. This is probably the most critical thing that the governor of California needs to do. So that's why I'm going to stand up so much for the film industry. That's why I'm going to try and make the downtown vibrant. I really care about the fact that Los Angeles, California and Southern California grow, are fun, have a sense of success again, and feel like, look, I am absolutely. FEMA has not paid people. This is the record amount of time for people not to get paid. It's deliberate. It's absolutely deliberate. They're doing this intentionally to try and hurt Californians. I get that. I'm going to be standing up to this administration because they're trying to hurt us every day. And it's critical. I'll do it in terms of taking on ice. I'll do it in terms of working for the film and entertainment industry. I'll do it in terms of making sure that we have a vibrant, safe city that is critical for this state. It's critical. Look, we have to do that. And if you look at my policies, that's what I'm pushing for. I want this to be the greatest state in the history of the world. And if you think you can do that without the people in Los Angeles, then you don't know what you're talking about.
- [16:29]
Jamie
Well, as an Angeleno, I appreciate that. With 30 seconds or less, what's the one thing voters still don't understand about Tom Steyer? And what's the takeaway? You want people to leave when they go in to vote?
- [16:40]
Tom Steyer
The one thing I want you to know is you can trust me. I am all in on this. The corporations are spending tens of millions of dollars, $50 million against me. The working people are lined up behind me. The one thing you can know is I am all in on this. I have not going to back down. I'm going to make this happen. And I have no other interest. But then making California a great place for working people again.
- [17:04]
Michael Tubbs
Wow, that's some dramatic news.
- [17:06]
Jamie
Sorry.
- [17:06]
Tom Steyer
They played me off the stage. Oh, my God. Where's the hook?
- [17:11]
Jamie
That was the first time he used this timer. Tom, the fact that you stayed to 15 minutes, that was. That was amazing. And your answers were great. I really appreciate it. Good luck in this last week and wish the best to you and thank you for joining us.
- [17:24]
Tom Steyer
Thank you guys for having me. And I definitely can't do it alone. So I would really appreciate your votes.
- [17:31]
Matt Lippman
Next up, we have just one sec here because I forgot to thank you and Mikayla for doing this. Thank you. This was done very, very quickly. It's amazing that you were able to set this thing up. So just a big thank you to you guys.
- [17:42]
Jamie
All right, well, thank you very much. Okay. Michael Tubbs. Michael is running for lieutenant governor. Michael, welcome to the candidates forum. Thank you for joining us. We're going to start out with a different question. You got. We have 10 minutes for you. But truthfully, most people still don't know what a lieutenant governor does. So tell us in layman's terms as quick as possible, what is this job that you're running for so much for?
- [18:11]
Michael Tubbs
Everyone gets the same question, but the lieutenant governor is the second highest elected official in California. The lieutenant governor sits on the uc, CSU, and community college boards. Not just big educational institutions, but big landowners to build the housing we need to make California more affordable for students and workers. The lieutenant governor also sits on the state Lands Commission. So we think about rebuilding after the fires and we think about protecting our coastline. The state Lands Commission is one of three people that determine that. And then lieutenant governor is the acting governor when the governor is gone or something happens to the governor.
- [18:38]
Matt Lippman
Michael, you went to that one fast.
- [18:41]
Jane Kim
Wow.
- [18:41]
Brian Goldsmith
He said fast.
- [18:44]
Matt Lippman
Wow.
- [18:45]
Jamie
Michael, tell us in 60 seconds or less why you're the right guy for this job.
- [18:50]
Michael Tubbs
Yeah. Well, California is at a crossroads. And California needs people with the courage and the track record of actually getting things done to solve these intractable issues. My entire career has been defined by. By the fact that I don't run away from problems. I run towards hard problems. After graduating Stanford with my master's and bachelor's degree, I could have went anywhere. But I went back to Stockton, California, a community that just declared bankruptcy, a community where my cousin was murdered, to do the hard work of proving that government could work. Four years later, I was elected mayor the same day Donald Trump was elected. With three Republicans and three Democrats on my city council. And we got stuff done. We reduced homicides by 40%. We had the first basic income program in this country's history, went from bankruptcy, the second most fiscally healthy city. We had a 20 year crime low in 2020. And none of that was easy. None of that was slogans. None of that was consultant speak. It was all the hard, gritty worker governance. And for California to be a golden state for all to make progress on the issues we talk a lot about. You don't need politicians. You need leaders. And leaders with a track record of doing hard things, of getting into fights, of pushing the envelope, of doing things differently, all in service of making sure that the government works for everyone. And that's why I'm running for Lieutenant governor, and that's why you all should support me.
- [20:01]
Matt Lippman
So, you know, Michael, you answered this sort of just with your answer there, but I think when I saw you at Jamie's birthday party, by the way, several months ago, you we talked about the fact that I had worked for the Spanish briefly, and they were in Stockton, California. And at that time, Stockton was not doing well at all. It was really known, I think, to some people around the country as the unemployment capital, basically, of California in the United States. So how did you turn it around, by the way? You mentioned not having consultants speak. I'm a consultant. I love consultant speak, just FYI. But how did you turn it around?
- [20:35]
Michael Tubbs
Yeah, well, definitely a team effort, but part of it was building a coalition. So I mentioned three Republicans and three Democrats on my city council. But to reduce the homicides, to bring in jobs, it took the business community in the chamber, more conservative folks. It took the grassroots activists, it took police activists in the police union to all come together and recognize that to get different results, we would have to do things differently. And part of doing things differently was understanding that we all weren't going to be happy, we all weren't going to get our way 100% of the times. We're going to move forward. So a big part of my job was holding that coalition, doing the policy changes, hiring the right staff and the city departments to execute on the strategy and then to do hard things to end golf course subsidies so we have more money to invest in infrastructure to go to the voters for a tax increase, but then having accountability mechanisms baked in place so that folks knew where the money was going towards, and also being very aggressive about selling the city, about painting a different narrative of saying no, Stockton, California is open for business. And because of that, we're able to reduce the unemployment rate from 17% when I started to 5% at 2020 when my term ended up.
- [21:40]
Jamie
Michael, you did a lot of great things as mayor. I'm personally not sure totally exactly how they translate into your role as Lieutenant governor as far as the actual things that you can get done, but obviously I know UBI was something really important to you, and you've been a champion of that nationwide. How does that play into you as Lieutenant governor? I know it's something you're still focused on working on with obviously with AI and job losses coming. Something like UBI has been talked about a lot more. So I'd love for you to hear about that.
- [22:10]
Michael Tubbs
Yeah, well, I think actually the best example is when Governor Newsom was Lieutenant Governor, he was able to get marijuana legalization passed through the ballot initiative process. And I view the role of Lieutenant Governor being able to do the same thing as we think about whether it's universal basic income or universal basic capital. I'm personally in favor of figuring out how can we own our data, our own data, and be able to use that to generate revenue for everyone. But all those things will have to go through the ballot initiative and the legislative process as lieutenant governor, because I have to go statewide and talk to 40 million people just like the governor candidates do. It provides an opportunity to build those coalitions and to have supporters like you all to put things on the ballot if it won't go through the legislative process. But in addition, a lot of things I did in Stockton also pertain to housing. We were the first city in the state to partner with the Governor's office to build housing on state land, affordable housing and workforce housing. And that directly translates to the role of Lieutenant Governor in terms of building the housing at the UC CSU community college lands and on state land. So. So I definitely think their experiences are. Are transferable, for sure.
- [23:12]
Matt Lippman
Michael, you were in Stockton, you moved down to Los Angeles. Now you're running for statewide office. How has running for statewide office informed your view of things since you moved to L. A from Stockton? Obviously a much bigger city. City.
- [23:26]
Michael Tubbs
Yeah. Well, I think that the challenges are the same. The scale is just different. The same challenges we faced in Stockton. I call Stockton for many of the problems facing the state, whether it's Los Angeles or San Francisco or Oakland or Coachella or San Diego. All communities are dealing with the housing crisis and figuring out how to build housing. All communities are figuring out how to make sure young people exit college with a real career and opportunity. All communities are figuring out what do we do about the issue of homelessness and public safety and how do we do more than just talk about what it means to be a good Democrat, but show that being a good Democrat means delivering good governance. So I think my experience from Stockton in LA actually gives me the statewide sort of view and perspective. Like, I know what it's like to live in the Central Valley in communities. I feel like government, state government, doesn't care about them. I've lived in LA for the last five years. Raising my children in la, so know the pressures of people here. I went to school in the Bay Area, so know how folks are feeling there. And I think that statewide perspective is why we have so much support, why the SF Chronicle endorsed us, and why we're going to be successful on June 2nd.
- [24:32]
Matt Lippman
Yeah, sorry. You want to go, Jamie?
- [24:33]
Jamie
No, you go, Michael.
- [24:34]
Matt Lippman
I worked with somebody who called me for an entire year, Jamie, so calling me Michael is just fine. The Michael, the. In terms of though, being in LA statewide office, what do you see an LG doing that perhaps hasn't been done that's to the benefit of this city?
- [24:52]
Brian Goldsmith
Yeah.
- [24:52]
Michael Tubbs
Well, there's no one in this LG race that lives in Los Angeles. There's no one in this LG race that sleeps in Los Angeles that has kids walking the LA street. So you have someone and a statewide office from Los Angeles, which generally doesn't happen. Most of our statewide electives actually come from the Bay Area. Number two, I've spent a lot of time, particularly on Eaton Fire Relief. I raised over $1 million with former mayor Brown for folks affected by the Eaton fire. So you'll have someone in a statewide office that doesn't be educated about the challenges of rebuilding after the fires affected this community, but has already been doing the work to make sure that survivors of the fires get the permits and the resources they need to rebuild their lives. And then lastly, because I'm here, I could continue to be educated, push prodded in coalition with folks who want the state to do more to invest in the film industry in particular, being in Los Angeles, I think as Lieutenant Governor, there's a bunch of space to make sure, as Tom mentioned previously, that the film credits that we're doing are the floor and not the ceiling. But we build upon that and continue to find ways in an iterative fashion to make sure that the film industry and entertainment industry can remain home in la. But I do think it takes someone being from LA and sleeping in LA that gives a little bit more urgency and a little more focus and attention to that issue.
- [26:07]
Jamie
Michael, as a follow up to that, obviously you have a couple of candidates you're running against. It's a tight race. Are there other things that really separate you specifically from those other candidates that you want to highlight?
- [26:19]
Michael Tubbs
Yeah, I would say I'm the only one, not just in the Lieutenant Governor's race, but also in the governor's race that had to lead a city during the entirety of Trump's first term. No one else could speak to leading a City during COVID 19 like I can. No one can speak to leading a city due to Black Lives Matter protest and holding tension between police reform and the police union and the police department responsible for managing. Like I can. No one could talk about fighting against ICE and Jeff Sessions and making sure immigrant communities are safe from a practical governance perspective like I can. I think that experience is important because in California, we talk a lot about fighting against Donald Trump. And yes, Donald Trump is bad, but we have to fight against Donald Trump and also fight for a California that actually works. And I have a track record, again, of delivering in very hard circumstances. No one in this race has been in a bankrupt city and had to figure out how to raise revenue, how to balance budgets, and no one else had to govern with three Republicans and three Democrats to get all that done. So I think my experiences in a very difficult place are great preparation, in addition to the fact that many of the issues we're fighting for that matter for Californians aren't just things I worked on as mayor. They're not just things I studied while I was at Stanford. But there's things I lived first and experienced first. I think the fact that it's lived experience and governing experience married together provides a powerful opportunity to continue to deliver on a government that works for everyone who lives in California.
- [27:46]
Matt Lippman
Michael, in many states, the governor, the lieutenant governor run together as a ticket.
- [27:51]
Michael Tubbs
Yeah, yeah. But in California, it's separate. So just like Tom and Javier are making their case to 40 million people. So you see these bags under my eye? I've been up and down the state doing my best to make the case to 40 million people as well.
- [28:04]
Matt Lippman
I think you're making a great case. So we just want to thank you for doing this with us today, Michael. Appreciate you. And all the stuff you did in Stockton is pretty incredible. So thank you.
- [28:14]
Michael Tubbs
Thank you, guys.
- [28:14]
Jamie
Thank you, Michael. And you beat the playoff music, which is coming right now.
- [28:19]
Michael Tubbs
Take that, Tom.
- [28:22]
Jamie
Okay, great. All right, Michael, thanks a lot. Talk to you soon. Okay, that's great. Well, these people are staying on time. This is unbelievable. All right, we're gonna go right to Josh Friday, who's gonna be joining us, who is also running for lieutenant governor. So, Josh, are you here?
- [28:44]
Josh Fryday
Yes. Good afternoon. Hello, everyone.
- [28:46]
Jamie
Josh. Great. Nice to meet you. All right, so thank you very much for joining. Really appreciate it. First, quickly, Lieutenant governor is a role that is still a little confusing to people. Can you tell us as quickly as possible what Lieutenant governor does?
- [29:04]
Josh Fryday
Well, the Lieutenant Governor has formal powers, including being the only person sitting on all Three boards of higher education. Lieutenant Governor also is the only person who sits on the Ocean Protection Council, the State Lands Commission, and the Coastal Commission. So really important environmental role. And the Lieutenant Governor, I think, as a. Is a unique role, as a second most powerful position in the state to really bring people together to actually solve problems and to. And to lead and take on hard fights, which is what I plan to do. So there's the informal powers or the formal powers of the boards that you sit on, and then there's the informal powers where you get to champion certain issues, which is where I plan on building off of the work I've led for the last seven years in the Governor's cabinet, building a service corps and job pathways for young people that's now bigger than the entire Peace Corps here in California, and hoping to scale that to create universal service here in California and also hoping to help solve the housing crisis, which is the worst in the country, and use it to do that by focusing on building with real urgency on university and school lands, which we have tens of thousands of acres around the state where we could be building now. So those are the kinds of things that you can focus on as Lieutenant Governor.
- [30:14]
Matt Lippman
I have a bunch of questions. Jamie, I have a bunch of questions. Can I ask a couple of questions?
- [30:18]
Jamie
Go for it.
- [30:19]
Matt Lippman
So first I want to ask why, like, the one thing that you would want to do, Josh. And by the way, it's good to see you again.
- [30:25]
Josh Fryday
You too.
- [30:26]
Matt Lippman
Josh and I met at Nate Nails, where all good people meet. Josh, you also started, like, the Climate Corps, something in California. Tell us about that. Because it turned out to be a big success. And I think that's not the only thing. Corps you started or ran, right?
- [30:42]
Josh Fryday
That's right. Yeah. So when I came back from the Navy, I'm a military veteran. When I came back from the Navy, I started to look at how really how polarized our society had become and disconnected and a whole generation of young people who are just desperately looking for meaning and purpose. And so when I became mayor of my hometown, I created this program where if you graduated from one of our college, one of our high schools, got into our local college and committed to two summers of service, then we gave you a full ride. So we called it a local GI Bill. You serve your community, we help you go to college. Well, it was so successful, it caught the eye of the then Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom, who was running for governor, and asked me what it would look like to scale that. So since then, he created this cabinet position for Service and community engagement asked me to come there. And we expanded that program that I piloted in my hometown to now something called College Corps, which we have on eight campuses throughout la. And we have thousands of young people getting debt free pathways if they serve their community while they're in school. We also created the first Climate Corps in the country that was just referenced, that's now spread to 12 other states, became the model for the American Climate Core created by Joe Biden. And I'm really running for this position of Lieutenant Governor because of that role you play in higher education. To answer your specific questions of one thing I'd want to do is create universal service. Listen, we're at a time right now where we are so polarized, so divided, so disconnected and with AI coming, we have to think about how do we engage people differently and how do we actually empower people to solve problems in their own communities. So I want to create universal service. I've created the model for it by again, by creating the Service Corps bigger than the Peace Corps now in California. And I think California has a real chance to scale that and become something really unique that hopefully becomes a model for the rest of the country.
- [32:22]
Matt Lippman
Josh. What? Give us the one reason, one reason people should vote for you because we
- [32:28]
Josh Fryday
need to elect Democrats with guts. And my entire career I've run towards the fight. I ran towards the fight after 911 by joining the military, taking part and being part of the war on terror. I ran to the fight towards the fight and climate change. When I came home and ran Next Gen climate, we fought the Keystone pipeline when people told us we couldn't win and we won. I fought polarization and division by creating the service corps that we just talked about. And Californians need someone who's gonna fight not just to protect us right now against the Trump administration, but to also deliver and making California more affordable. It's what I've done my entire life and it's what I plan to do as your Lieutenant Governor.
- [33:06]
Jamie
Josh, why Lieutenant Governor? What was the reason? What was the impetus to run and why? Was that the right job for you?
- [33:12]
Josh Fryday
Yeah, it's what we've been talking about. We're in this incredibly unique moment, Jamie, where we need leaders who can both fight like hell and protect us, which is again, what I've done my entire career and who can actually deliver and make California more affordable for, for families like mine. I'm not a politician. I was a military veteran. I now serve with the state. My wife is a second grade public school teacher and I just see how families are getting crushed throughout our state. And so we need leaders who can both fight and deliver. It's a unique experience and qualities that I have, and this is a position where I can deliver on scaling, universal, scaling the service programs that I've built because of the role you play in higher education and really building service into our education system to try to engage a whole new generation. Right now there's over 500,000 disconnected youth in California. So these are young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in college and they're not working. They're totally untethered. So we have, and we all know what path they're on in that case.
- [34:12]
Jamie
Right.
- [34:13]
Josh Fryday
And so we have this really, we have this challenge where we have to think about how do we engage people differently and try to solve some of the biggest problems that we have. And I think service is a really incredibly powerful way to do it. It's been an important part of my life and now I want to scale it. And Lieutenant Governor is a unique position to be able to do that.
- [34:31]
Matt Lippman
Josh first, our friend Heidi points out in the chat that Gavin Newsom endorsed you and we should mention that course. So that is good.
- [34:37]
Josh Fryday
I'm very proud to have the governor's endorsement. Senator boxers Pete Buttigieg, who I served in the Navy with, Betty Yee and many others. So thank you for mentioning that. Heidi.
- [34:48]
Matt Lippman
We have a question in the chat that I'm going to ask you, and it is a complicated one. If you're elected as Lieutenant governor, how will you help and stand by the next mayor to revive Los Angeles to resolve homelessness? Safety and business is flourishing and really make it ready for LA28. Josh, easy one. Softball.
- [35:03]
Josh Fryday
Josh yeah. Well, I do think this is a unique role that Lieutenant Governor can have, which is thinking about how do you really partner with people to help because this is an all the homelessness is an all hands on deck moment. I got asked by a reporter once who's at fault for where we are with homelessness. And the honest answer we all are. We're all accountable for this. And so we have to this is an all hands on deck moment where we all have to take responsibility for this. So what does that mean? I think it's why there's a reason why most mayors that have my programs in their city across the state of California, liberal cities, conservative cities, call my service program the most important homelessness and crime prevention program they have, because we're investing in young people on the front end and we're not Paying for it on the back end. So one is by working with the mayor to scale the youth service corps that we currently have in the city of LA and our college corps programs and our other service programs, one so that we're doing the prevention on the front end. But then also, and this is. I say this all the time because I believe this, we can no longer be the party of good intentions. That's what we've become when the only thing that should matter to us are outcomes. And if we're not reducing homelessness, then we got to do something different. And we have to change the way we're approaching things, and we have to have the courage and the guts to be able to do that. So what do I mean by that? The CARE Court's a perfect example. Care Court is the right policy. I believe we need it in place. The challenge is how it is.
- [36:30]
Matt Lippman
Josh, explain what the CARE Court is so people know.
- [36:32]
Josh Fryday
Yeah, the CARE Court is basically the ability to take folks who aren't able or aren't in a mental position to take care of themselves and have the courts take over, essentially, conservatorship for them. So the ability to. To actually have the courts step in and say and mandate that people need to go get help or they need to go get shelter or they need to be placed somewhere off the streets. Whereas before, a family had no recourse outside of calling the police, which wasn't working to actually try to take over control. We needed that. The problem has been execution where we haven't been able to actually focus on the people who most desperately need it, who don't have families that can step in. And so to me, and that's a place where I've talked to mayors about how do we create strike teams to actually go in, identify the homelessness who are most at need, who have the most intense mental health issues, and actually get them into care Court right now where they're not being served. So it's an example where we've set something up with the right intention, but we haven't executed it to where we need to go. So it's working on the prevention side with scaling the service and youth jobs programs, and then it's making sure that we're actually executing on the policies we have in place to help us solve these issues. And then the third and most important is we just have to build housing at the speed of need, which is extremely urgent right now, and we got to get out of our own way. Louisiana is the perfect example where I've talked to Developers, many who said, I just won't do business in LA anymore because the permitting process and the time takes too much. So we have to change that, get out of our own way and build the housing that we need to deal with this housing crisis.
- [38:05]
Jamie
Josh, you got 40 seconds left. A lot of Angelenos, a lot of Hollywood people on here. What can you do? And this is from Brad Goldberg as a question. Will you commit to support large state tax incentives to bring LA California back production so we can be competitive when it comes to the rest of the United States and Canada?
- [38:23]
Josh Fryday
Yeah, it's crucial. Listen, I worked with Colleen Bell, who is the head of the Film Commission, to push this through and hugely supportive of this last film Commission. But it just scratches the surface. The Lieutenant Governor was put in charge of the Economic Development Commission for California in 1971 by the legislature. And many of you might not be that familiar with the work of the Economic Development Commission because they haven't met in 15 years. So, Jamie and Brad, the first thing I'll do is relaunch a reimagined Economic Development Commission to make sure we're focused on protecting jobs and the entertainment industry in la.
- [38:53]
Matt Lippman
Josh, will you commit to using that music every time you finish it?
- [38:56]
Josh Fryday
Every single time.
- [38:59]
Jamie
Say that one more time. So you just, you will commit to. You will commit to bringing production back here?
- [39:05]
Josh Fryday
It's part of my. Well, it's not just commit, but we actually have to have a plan. So it's why I want to relaunch and reimagine what the Economic Development Commission could be with our iconic economies like the film and entertainment industry, which is so central to our identity as Californians, making it central to how we rethink where we go with our economy moving forward.
- [39:26]
Jamie
Great. Thank you so much. And good luck to you the rest of the week and good luck with your election.
- [39:32]
Josh Fryday
Thank you all. Appreciate it so much.
- [39:33]
Esther Kim
Thanks.
- [39:35]
Jamie
Okay, great. Okay, rolling right along now we have Ben Allen, who is running for insurance commissioner. Ben, are you with us?
- [39:47]
Matt Lippman
Want me to pretend to be Ben Allen?
- [39:49]
Jamie
Sure. Matt, tell us what insurance commissioner does.
- [39:51]
Matt Lippman
Matt, My insurance is too high.
- [39:56]
Jamie
Okay, let's see. Ben, do we have you? Okay, it looks like we got you. I know you're in the middle of a busy day, so thank you. Thanks for making time. All right, Ben, so welcome. Thanks for joining. First question, what does an insurance commissioner do?
- [40:09]
Ben Allen
So this is a position that oversees largely the home and auto insurance system. It also oversees a title, Workman's comp, pet insurance, certain long term care. It's got a very tiny bit of work to do on the, on the health insurance side though, it's, that's largely under the governor but it both deals with enforcement following up on complaints, both on the pro consumer side and also on fraud. And then of course most importantly it oversees the rate review process associated with the insurance companies bringing their rates forward for approval. And of course you're supposed to interrogate the applications, supposed to drive a proper balance between the solvency and the success of the market while also making sure that consumers are properly protected. It's arguably also the most important and most substantive consumer advocacy consumer protection agency in the country.
- [41:11]
Matt Lippman
Ben, let me just jump right in with just giving us the one thing that you'd want to do, the biggest thing you'd want to do as insurance commissioner.
- [41:20]
Ben Allen
Yeah, I want to see a much I guess what I would say is I, I, my focus is going to be on consumer protection while we also shift toward a, a system that's going to reduce risk. You know, in the end of the day the, the system's only going to get shored up. We're going to be able to move people off of the fair plan into the regular market if and only if we're really able to to reduce risk in a way that will also lead to reductions in costs on the insurance side. But it's going to take an insurance commissioner who's willing to push this stuff hard, who knows the mechanisms of government but who's also aggressively pro consumer and who's got a really strong track record of standing up for consumers. I represent big portions of the fire zone. I got to see all of the madness of that process up close, got to see how the department fell through a lot, how the industry fell through a lot of and I've now got a whole set of bills that I'm working on to penalize unnecessary delays, to increase the payouts in the wake of total loss, to you know, to give people more time before they're non renewed, to make sure there's more enforcement powers to have a stronger system in place for the review of smoke damage claims that's really science based and not nickel and dime by the industry. So for me it's about having a really strong pro consumer advocate in the job, but who also understands the mechanisms of government, understands the mechanisms of the legislature and he's also really committed to striking a very fine but crucial balance in allowing for a successful insurance system that centers consumers at the heart of it.
- [42:58]
Jamie
Ben, obviously a lot of Angeles on here a lot of people affected by the fires, what's really going on, especially when it comes to insurance. And what do you plan to do kind of day one to help those people?
- [43:12]
Ben Allen
Yeah. So first of all, obviously, if I were to get elected, I'd be the very first person who actually had a major disaster in his or her district elected to this position. And it was really, you know, I wouldn't, I don't think I'd be running for this position if it weren't for the experience of representing the Palisades. I just got, I got to see all the dysfunction of the system up close. So with, you know, I would, first of all, I'd want to dramatically beef up the support structure. One of the frustrating things through the course of the fire was that when people would call the department of insurance, they wouldn't get calls back. There's only 34 people handling these calls statewide. That's less than 1 per 1 million Californians. And while I was really proud of the fact that my office was able to step in and help people over and over and over again, and we got hundreds and hundreds of people the payouts that they deserved, it was frustrating. I was proud of that. But I was also thinking, why do you need to call your state senator just to get help, to get paid out for something you've been paying into for a long, long time. And so I want to have a very strong, responsive, customer friendly kind of operation in place to, to help, to help fire survivors because. And that's something that's near and dear to my heart, Ben.
- [44:21]
Matt Lippman
I don't know enough about, but I appreciate your thoughtfulness and the fact that you, you, you're very, seem very well prepared for this, but I just, you know, for many of us, you saw before that people were involved in the California fair plan, right?
- [44:35]
Jamie
Yeah.
- [44:36]
Matt Lippman
Is that under your purview?
- [44:38]
Ben Allen
Yes, it would be. The fair plan, as you may know, is a totally oversubscribed, under capitalized, understaffed system. It was never, ever, ever created for this level of operationality. It was started actually as a civil rights initiative post Watts, 1965, because the insurance industry was pulling out en masse from inner city California and a lot of black homeowners were not able to get and their keep their mortgages because they weren't able to get insurance. Over time, it's now become entirely focused on very high fire risk zones. And it's become very easy for the insurance industry to shove people off onto the fair plan and put more and more, more of the risk over there. While focusing on the lower risk areas. So it's a screwed up system. There's a whole set of. One of the. You asked about what I would do from the beginning. One of the many things I would want to do is there's some uncompetitive behavior that's currently allowed in the state of California that's not allowed in other places which allow the agents to get compensated by only keeping people either in a particular company with a certain set of products or onto the fair plan as opposed to really working with their customers to explore all the options that are available to them. So we're already allowing and greenlighting certain uncompetitive behavior that's bolstering reliance on the Fair Plan. And I'd want to change that immediately. I also think, of course we've got to do more to lower our, you know, we've got to hold new construction to the very highest fire safety standards because anyone who's building new construction in the very high fire zone that is not being built at the highest fire standards is basically freeloading off of the rest of us by putting those properties out there onto the market, making money, and then all that ends up getting onto the fair plan, which we then have to bail out and is basically a subsidy that they're asking from the public for. So that's another problem. One of the many things I'm working on right now is a financing system, a state backed low interest loan program that would provide people with resources for hardening so that they can do the work they need to do to make their homes retrofit and less susceptible to fire risk. But, but at the same time, you know, we need someone in the insurance commissioner's office who's going to ensure that the industry rewards that kind of hardening behavior, that risk reduction behavior with real affordable available insurance on the back end.
- [46:59]
Jamie
Ben, Just a couple less than that. That's a great answer. Thank you. From Donna Rosenstein. Long term care insurance is critical, but most carriers are pulled out of California and many worry that those running with policies will be denied in the future. Anyway. How do you think about the long term care insurance problem in California?
- [47:14]
Ben Allen
And then it's a massive issue. I've actually met with them. You know, one of the many things I'd want to modernize at the department is just more openness to open up the market and to allow for some of these products to make their way in. I think the department spend so bureaucratic and slow and just unwilling to be open to tried and to products that are actually working well in other states. And I think you're seeing that in a massive way with long term care. And so I've actually done a bit of a deep dive into that issue. And from my perspective, it's about making sure that the department is allowing for more of these long term care products into our state that have a strong, tried and true track record in other states.
- [47:58]
Matt Lippman
I do worry, Ben, that, that the insurance companies really don't want to insure people in California. But that's not even my last question. My last question is one what the takeaway is that you want to give to people as they go into the voting booth. What do you want them to be thinking about?
- [48:12]
Ben Allen
Ben Allen yeah, so I've got a long track record in the legislature fighting for consumers for environmental protections. I know a lot of folks on here are involved with Hollywood. I was the lead Senate author on the TV and film tax credit against expansion and extension. I'm on the film commission. We know we have massive headwinds there, but it's something I've spent a lot of time working on. So I've been someone who spent my entire time in the legislature just trying to make the system work better for people. And it's not always been easy. But it's why I have the support of really respected organizations like the California the Consumer Federation. They looked at all the candidates, they said this is the guy who's actually got the chops, who's got the long track record of standing up for consumers, who also knows how to get things done in Sacramento. It's not just a bunch of promises. It's real work that's happening right now. I'm supported by Adam Schiff, by Alex Padilla, by California environmental voters and Sierra Club and Jane Fonda because of my commitment on climate issues. I'm supported by Dave Jones, who's been probably the most important pro consumer person in the position in the past, but also the California Professional Firefighters because of all the work we've done together on firefighter fire risk prevention. I was the lead author of Proposition 4, which is the bond that we just passed last go round that's finally putting serious resources out there to help with wildfire resiliency and healthier forests. I shudder sometimes to think if we could only have gotten that money out earlier, maybe that would have made a difference. But also building out our water infrastructure and our firefighting infrastructure. So I'm coming into this race as the guy who's actually got real experience on the ground taking on really tough media Issues. I just got endorsed by the community, the San Jose Mercury News. I'll put the editorial in the chat for folks to take a look at but I think it does a good job of mentioning how my record is distinguished from the others. We got some really smart, capable people in the race but there's nobody who combines a strong set of progressive liberal values but also real grounded work in getting difficult things.
- [50:09]
Jamie
Ben, thank you very much. Really appreciate that. Good luck to you you at the rest of your election and wish you the best.
- [50:15]
Ben Allen
Thank you. Let me just get this. I'll put the mercury. Okay. Put it in the mercury thing in here.
- [50:20]
Matt Lippman
Yeah.
- [50:20]
Jamie
There you go.
- [50:21]
Ben Allen
Thank you.
- [50:21]
Jamie
Thank you, Ben. Next up we have Jane Kim who's also running for insurance commissioner. So Jane, welcome you to the candidates forum.
- [50:33]
Matt Lippman
We got kicked onto that California fair plan once before for having two insurance claims and it is a bare bones insurance claim plan and so many people are using it after the because of the fire.
- [50:44]
Jamie
Jane. Okay, not to cut you off, Matt, but we got, we got, we got more important people here than you Matt, right now. Jane, welcome. Thank you very much for joining us.
- [50:51]
Jane Kim
No one is more important than me.
- [50:53]
Esther Kim
Hi Matt.
- [50:54]
Mayor Karen Bass
Hi Jamie.
- [50:55]
Jamie
Hi. So really short time, thank you for joining us. Quickly, what is the job of insurance commissioner?
- [51:02]
Jane Kim
The insurance commissioner was an office created in 1988 by the voters of California to be the consumer watchdog between everyday Californ trillion dollar industry. The insurance commissioner's Office oversees a 3.3 trillion dollar industry which by the way, counter to the narrative that we read about in the press, is doing quite well. In 2024 it made $170 billion. That's net, not just revenue. And they make their money by investing our premiums in the stock and bond market. They're more institutional investors and banks than they are insurers. This office licenses who gets to do business in the state of California, the most populous state in the country where one out of every eight Americans live. It ensures that rates are neither inadequate or excessive. And three, it ensures that the insurance industry is playing fairly and by the rules that we have created here in the state of California.
- [51:51]
Matt Lippman
And just in 60 seconds or less, what is the reason you think that people should vote for you? Give us one, one reason. 60 seconds or less.
- [52:01]
Jane Kim
Well, I'm the only candidate that PG&E Semper and Con Edison is spending against right now. I'm your least favorite corporations least favorite candidate because they know that I will hold them accountable and that I'll hold the insurance industry account. The only candidate that is refusing money from the insurance industry, fossil fuel utilities and corporate PACs because I believe that this office should be an independent watchdog for millions of Californians. I also believe that the current system is broken. The rates are too high, they're canceling our coverage, and even if we have insurance, they fight our claims every step of the way. Claims adjusters, and many of you have experienced this already in Los Angeles, estimate that anywhere from 1.7 to $3 billion are stolen from Californians every year on claims that they're contractually obligated to pay by denying. Delaying valid claims. I'm proposing two things. One, I want to freeze your coverage and your rates when you file a claim. You shouldn't be penalized for using the business that you've been paying decades into. And second, I want them to pay you interest every day. They deny, delay or underpay a valid claim. I'm also the only candidate that has been endorsed by the California Teachers association, the Nurses United Domestic Workers, National Union of Healthcare Workers, Senator Bernie Sanders, but also Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kunalakis and Controller Malia Cohen. I've been endorsed by over 140 state and local elected officials from San Diego to Northern California. And I really believe in creating a very different type of infrastructure that is going to transform this industry to actually work for consumers.
- [53:38]
Jamie
So obviously a lot of Angelinos here, there's a lot of issues related to insurance here, especially related to the fires. Can you speak directly to what you do as insurance commissioner to help us in Los Angeles?
- [53:52]
Jane Kim
So I mentioned this is a very profitable industry. In 2024, it made $170 billion net, not just revenue, like net profits. In April 15, Travelers Insurance, one of the biggest insurance companies in the country, announced that they had $2.2 billion in excess capital just in the first quarter of 2026. And what did they do with that excess capital? They didn't invest in prevention and fireproofing and flood proofing. They didn't give discounts or refunds to their premium policyholders. They gave it all to their already wealthy shareholders. And what I'm proposing is for us to consider a different type of insurance system. One, I want us to look at what a public, nonprofit, single payer home disaster for all insurance program would look like in the state of California. I have been examining insurance frameworks in the 49 other states and in countries around the world. And when you look at countries like France and Spain and New Zealand and Japan, they all run some type of either public or public private partnership between insurance, I.e. nonprofit insurance prices, risk, but they don't actually address it. And the way they reduce their risk is by canceling coverage on what they consider to be their riskiest or safest, sorry, sickest homes. In a public system where you cannot cancel coverage, the only way to drive down risk is to, I'm sorry, the only way to actually reduce your risk is to actually address it. So in this single payer public program, they invest a portion of the premiums and the returns from it and actually fireproofing, floodproofing, because even if you individually do the home hardening work, it doesn't actually take care of the entire neighborhood and there's no guarantee that your neighbors will do it. And in a country where the average American has $8,000 in their savings account, they simply can't afford to do most of the important home hardening work that we need to do. I also want to expand our already existing low cost nonprofit auto insurance program as well. I think that there's actually a lot of fun and creative ideas that we can look at that can make this a better product for consumers and protect people in the time they need it.
- [56:01]
Matt Lippman
Jane, let me ask you this question. It comes from Noah Greenberg in the chat. Okay, you ready for this? This is a long question. While we want lower insurance prices, insurance rates that accurately reflect risk play an important role as a market signal, discouraging building in high risk areas. How do you balance these two imperatives related, Jane, Insurance companies appear to be making decisions on statewide or at least zone based basis. Is it possible, particularly with AI, to assess risk on a structure by structure basis?
- [56:34]
Jane Kim
So let me address the first question. They're both pretty big questions. So there's a lot of aspects to reducing risk and to addressing what I consider the systematic failure of the current insurance industry. So one is insurance industry itself and how it plays by the rules and making sure that it plays fairly. And that's actually providing the business that we've all been paying for. Two is addressing the risk portion. So how do we reduce our overall risk from climate catastrophe which is driving these insane wildfires and hurricanes? So one is overall climate movement. We have to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel long term. We cannot be using at the same rate that we are today, five, ten years from now, because that is part of what is driving risk. And so much of what we're talking about here today is how can we as taxpayers and homeowners actually pay for something that is actually caused by a for profit trillion dollar business, which is fossil Fuel. So one, we have to address that and we have to make polluters pay. Two, we do have to look at zoning and also reducing the cost of repair and rebuilding. And this is something that is particularly an issue in the United States in the way that it isn't in many other countries. And so that is a big portion of it. And one of the things that we are considering when we think about a single payer nonprofit system is that we would cover current homeowners, many of whom moved into their zip codes decades before it became fire zones. Right. And if you think about it, wildfire zones actually have grown by 116% since 2011. So it's, it's, I don't want to blame folks that moved into areas that were considered safe 10 years ago, but we would restrict coverage moving forward so we wouldn't want to incentivize developers to continue to build in these distressed areas. I think the biggest issue though is the fact that you may live in a safe zone today, but you may not in five or ten years because that's, that's the expansion that we're seeing across the state of California. So we have to also look at other ways to make sure that we are covering people's most valuable assets.
- [58:46]
Jamie
Jane, thank you so much. Thanks for your time. Good luck on your election and wish you all the best.
- [58:52]
Tom Steyer
Thank you.
- [58:53]
Jamie
Okay, thank you Jamie.
- [58:55]
Jane Kim
Thank you, Matthew.
- [58:56]
Jamie
Next up we have Esther Kim Barrett. Esther is someone who most you can't vote for but she is in one of the most important races in the entire country and I thought it was critical to bring her on so you could learn a little bit about her fight. So Esther, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. And please tell everybody just quickly about your race and what you the Herculean effort you're trying to accomplish right now.
- [59:21]
Esther Kim
Thank you for having me. I am running as the front running Democrat in the last Republican held seat now in Southern California. It covers parts of south Orange county and half of South Riverside. It was combined because of Prop 50 and it took two sitting mag incumbents, Young Kim and Ken Calvert and forced them into a single seat and now they're running against each other. Now the seat became more red in the process but because they're running against each other the opportunity has opened up for a strong Democrat me. We are in a three way tie right now. That's crazy because these two incumbents, Young Kim and Ken Calvert have been in Congress for a combined 50 years. Okay, so I am up there number three. I googled how to run for Congress. I've known Jamie for 15, 20 years. This is not my day job usually. And I am just, as the Republicans call me, an unhinged wine mom.
- [60:27]
Jamie
Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, Esther, I want to thank you for what you. You've committed to running for this. It is a critical and important feat, obviously, with Donald Trump in office. This is a Democratic candidate forum, so everybody on here is supporting Democratic candidates. I'd like to think so. Matt, were you about to have a question?
- [60:48]
Matt Lippman
Well, I would say I have a lot of questions. Esther. Hi, Boris. In 60 seconds or less, can you give us. That's the one big reason you think somebody should vote for you.
- [60:58]
Esther Kim
I'm the only Dem that can put this seat in the race. Honestly. Do you need more than that?
- [61:03]
Jamie
No, that's good.
- [61:04]
Matt Lippman
That's even. That's 60 seconds or less. That was less.
- [61:06]
Esther Kim
Yeah.
- [61:07]
Matt Lippman
Thank you. Well, let me just follow up. Is the district now, is it R plus or D plus? What is it?
- [61:14]
Esther Kim
Oh, D plus. That'd be magic. It's. It's somewhere between R plus 6 and R plus 8.
- [61:20]
Matt Lippman
Wow. Okay.
- [61:21]
Esther Kim
Yeah. But we are flipping our plus 15s and R plus 21s across the country, so. And because this is the last seat left, I'm hoping I'll get all of y' all to join me on this amazing journey to put this seat.
- [61:36]
Ben Allen
Yeah.
- [61:36]
Jamie
And I think this is unusual just because you're only running against Republicans, so we're not. It's not a question of who to support in your race, but I do think it's critical that people get involved and try and help and support Esther in this last week. So, Esther, what can people do in the next less than one week to do to actually make a real impact?
- [61:56]
Esther Kim
So, actually, I, Michael Tubbs and I were getting together and knocking on doors together on Saturday in Corona in real life with my ice cream truck. That'll be there. Jane Kim and I, who is also a friend, is. Is hosting a phone bank on Monday to call people into the district to talk about Jane and Esther. So just go to my website. There's so many opportunities to volunteer either in over here in the district or online from your pajamas. And so every. Every effort counts. Every phone call counts. I will let you. I will tell you. I am up again. Two MAGA incumbents that get F grades with N. Citizens United. They are being funded by the CEO of Palantir, the Koch brothers, the aerospace industries crypto. You name it, it's their insurance. And so it's literally a people versus them kind of fight. I have had 65,000 donations come in across the country. So I know I'm not doing it alone, but it's going to take a major effort.
- [63:07]
Jamie
Esther, I want to thank you, and I also want to thank you. When Prop 50 passed, I know it was a big question if you even stay in the race. Most Democrats didn't. But I know that all that matters to you is trying to help flip the House. And electing you is going to be one of those ways that we do it. So I want to thank you. Good luck this week. I know it's going to be a nonstop 24.7campaign, so we wish you the best. Thanks a lot.
- [63:34]
Jane Kim
Thank you.
- [63:35]
Jamie
We are now on to our mayor, our first mayoral candidate, Adam Miller. Are you here, Adam?
- [63:43]
Adam Miller
I'm right here.
- [63:44]
Jamie
Great. Hi, Adam, Welcome. Thank you very much for joining. Very, very well. In 60 seconds or less, Adam, this is your last chance to make your case to voters. What's the single reason someone should vote for you?
- [63:55]
Adam Miller
Look, we all know the city's broken. So on June 2, the only question is, who can fix it? And the reality is, we're not going to fix this city with ideology. We're not going to fix this city with anger. We're only going to fix this city with results. And I'm the only one that's got a track record of results. I've been an executive for 35 years. I've created thousands of jobs. I've educated millions of people. I've kept thousands of Angelenos housed. I've responded to disasters in dozens of cities. I provided economic opportunity for thousands of young Angelenos, and that's the kind of results we need to turn this city around.
- [64:36]
Matt Lippman
So, Adam, I should mention the folks here that I worked with, Adam for three years, so I know firsthand about all the good work he's doing on homelessness. Adam, so folks know you were going down to Lassa. You were going to help modernize Lassa. They didn't want to be modernized. Right. And that prompted you to start Better Angels, your homelessness organization that's doing a great job. So maybe you could tell us the biggest issue, I think, for a lot of people in LA is this homelessness crisis. How do we solve it?
- [65:05]
Adam Miller
Well, number one, we got to allocate more dollars to prevention. Number two, we have to get rid of programs that aren't working, and we have to consolidate all the service provision because it's too expensive and ineffective. We have to clear all the encampments so enforcing 4118 and putting people into specialized shelters and then have the services at the shelters to stabilize people and keep them off the street. That's the only way we're going to solve the problem. And this isn't about posting signs that you have three weeks to clear out. This is about actually having a holistic solution to permanently solve the problem.
- [65:44]
Jamie
Adam, there are obviously a lot of people from LA here. The film business is one of the most important businesses in Los Angeles. There's unfortunately very little that the mayor can really do as a producer. The tax incentive is really the most important thing. People complain Mayor Bass hasn't done enough, but she has instituted a film czar. She has cut permitting fees. She has cut time for permits. I mean, she's done those things that took longer than people wanted. But what would you do differently that was going to help turn the tide on production?
- [66:19]
Adam Miller
Look, we've lost, as you know, 40 plus percent of our film business since 2019. And we have to be urgent about getting it back. Otherwise Hollywood's never going to come back. People who have the talent are going to leave for where the jobs are. So we have to make it cheaper and easier to film here. And that means we got to work with the state for uncapped incentives both below the line and above the line. We have to have a full time film czar that comes from the industry that actually understands the needs of the industry. We have to do centralization of the offices. We have to cut permitting times, eliminate fees for filming on city property, and we have to do more for small and medium businesses. So film LA works fine for the big productions, but we have to do more for the small medium productions to keep them here. That's the bread and butter of the city. And that's where a lot of the jobs come come from.
- [67:24]
Matt Lippman
Adam, on the, on the LAPD issue, what is it for you? What are you imagining what the LAPD could look like? Budgets are tight. What does a reimagined LAPD look like under Adam Miller?
- [67:39]
Adam Miller
So, number one, we have to double the patrols. We have less than half the patrols of most other major cities to do that. We can't afford to double the number of cops. We got to bring the number of officers up to at least 10,000. But we have to make patrols a priority. We have to increase car patrols and foot patrols in the more urbanized areas like downtown K Town, the Ramparts. We need a dedicated team working with homelessness. Right now, the homeless population is using up up to 50% of our emergency services, about 40% of police time and 60% of the fire department's time is used up by homeless related incidents. That impacts the other 99% of the population tremendously. And we have to modernize the police force. We operate the police force like it's 1980. We operate the fire department like it's 1960. And we have to modernize both of those groups to be more effective, to make the city safer.
- [68:46]
Matt Lippman
Jamie, you want me to ask that question that you just sent?
- [68:48]
Jamie
Yeah, you go.
- [68:50]
Matt Lippman
So this one, I think it came from somebody. But Adam, there are many types of unhoused people in la, from families to cars to chronic street homelessness. But among the most visit visible, those on skid row or wandering our streets. Drug addiction affects somewhere between 20 and 80% of that population. I know you know these statistics, Adam, I don't have to tell you, depending on which study you trust, what is your plan to address that both effectively and ethically?
- [69:14]
Adam Miller
So, Matt, you know, I know this better than probably any other candidate because I've been working on it for the last three years nonstop. And the reality is it's a complex problem. There are a lot of different reasons people become unhoused, and then there's a lot of different reasons that people stay on the street. One of the biggest issues we have in LA is that about 60% of people initially become unhoused because of a financial shock. But if left on the street for 3, 6, 12 months, they develop drug addiction and mental illness or both, and they become high acuity cases that are hard to deal with. We have to allocate more resources to preventing people from becoming homeless and then getting them immediately off the street better. Angels has kept 4,500 Angeles housed who had already received eviction notices, who already were extremely vulnerable. So we know how to do this. I know how to solve this problem.
- [70:14]
Matt Lippman
Adam, just also talk about the Step Fund.
- [70:17]
Adam Miller
Yeah. So the Step Fund is how we've kept 4,500 people housed who would were already vulnerable, had already had a financial shock and already received an eviction notice. And we did it for 98% less than it costs a city once a person's living on the street. So we got to have more prevention. It's way cheaper and way more effective. But we also have to allocate resources to people that were recently unhoused, not only the people that have been living on the street for 10 years to clean up and make the problem smaller. And then the people that remain have to go to drug Treatment programs, they have to go to mental health programs and they need support. So we need the shelters to be specialized and provide support at the shelter.
- [71:10]
Jamie
You know, we hear all the time that LA is broken and it's not working. But, but at the same time, you could debate it, but homelessness is down. Use number whatever you want to use it. Especially compared to nationwide numbers. Crime is down again, the percentage is questionable. And even just recently someone mentioned to me there was a film LA Quarter one study where I think the number is that film production in Los Angeles, this shocked me was up 45% in quarter quarter one which is from film LA, which again take it for what you want. But that is the barometer we're using. So I guess, you know, is LA as broken as people say, you know and you know, how do you kind of, you know, what's your counter to those, those arguments or those numbers? Yeah.
- [72:00]
Adam Miller
So Jamie, I ran a public company for 10 years and numbers are easily manipulated. I think people, people can see what's going on. But let's assume the numbers are correct. Let's assume those absolute numbers are correct. The reality is that if you take something like crime, there is less violent crime in terms of absolute numbers. But crime has spread throughout the city. So whereas in the past there was a highly localized area that had a lot of crime now, now there's crime everywhere. You talk to people in the Valley, there are break ins incessantly in the Valley now. Home invasions, break ins, robberies and car theft. It's happening constantly and people feel less safe. The homeless problem has gone from a localized area of the city, skid row, to now be pervasive everywhere. That affects small businesses. It's in front of schools, parks, churches, it's in front of commercial operations. It's very hard to do business now in this city and that has a direct impact on opportunity and on the attractiveness of the city. And talk to anybody in the entertainment business and they're going to tell you that filming is way down. I don't care what the stats say for the last quarter, people don't feel it. And the result is people are moving. I'm sure you've had friends that moved. I have friends that moved. I have kids who are away for college. I want them to move back home. We got to make this city more affordable, easier to live in and we got to improve the quality of life for everybody.
- [73:44]
Matt Lippman
Adam, what's the takeaway you want when people are going into the voting booth? Right before you ran for mayor, not many People are familiar with you. Now they know it. Now they know who you are. What's the one takeaway that you want people to have when they go into the voting booth and they're looking to vote for mayor?
- [73:59]
Adam Miller
Do you want to express your anger or do you want to actually fix the city? If you want to actually fix the city, I'm your best choice.
- [74:07]
Matt Lippman
Very good.
- [74:09]
Jamie
Love that. Adam, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time. Thank you for running. It's not an easy task. It's probably can only imagine it's even harder than you expected. So good luck to you in this last week and thanks for joining.
- [74:26]
Adam Miller
All right, thank you.
- [74:27]
Jamie
Okay, great.
- [74:28]
Adam Miller
If you want to vote Miller, get the word out.
- [74:30]
Jamie
Okay, Next up, we have Jake Levine, who is running for Congress against Brad Sherman. Jake, are you here?
- [74:40]
Jake Levine
I'm here. Can you see me?
- [74:41]
Jamie
Got you. Thanks, Jake. Thank you very much. Okay, Jake, so in 60 seconds or less, what's the one reason people should vote for you?
- [74:49]
Jake Levine
Look, I decided to get into this race after losing my childhood home in the fires last year. I was serving at the time at the National Security Council leading the Climate and Energy Directorate. I immediately got involved in recovery by launching a nonprofit called the Department of Angels, which is helping people get home. And what I saw firsthand was that we have a 30 year incumbent in the form of Brad Sherman, who is not capable of stewarding resources, of identifying needs, of organizing and delivering on a vision to get things done in government. I've served in the Obama White House. I've been a clean energy entrepreneur that helped take a company from infancy to IPO to save people billions of dollars on their electric bills. I know how to run a process and get things done. And as we just heard from Adam Miller, we need people who know how to get things done in the city and in Congress. We have major challenges. And that's my pitch.
- [75:49]
Matt Lippman
Jake, I'm going to tell you my Brad Sherman story. Well, first of all, congratulations. You have the best hair of any of our candidates
- [75:58]
Jake Levine
at the moment.
- [75:59]
Matt Lippman
Last year, I spoke at the House Issues Conference in Virginia on messaging. I spoke for about 20 minutes, did a panel for about 45 minutes and Q and a hour and a half afterward, I walk off the stage, I see Brad Sherman by the bar. Brad Sherman says to me, what are you doing here? I said, I just gave that. You know, I was just on stage for an hour and a half. He says, I wish I saw it. He was sitting in the third row while I spoke the entire time. And somehow that did not register. I think Brad Sherman might be too old for this job. And the other important point here, Jake, is that if we didn't have you on today, which we would anyway, Nancy Stevens would murder us. And we don't want that to happen. So when you take on an incumbent like Brad Sherman, who. Who almost killed his opponent 12 years ago, as you may recall.
- [76:44]
Jake Levine
Yeah.
- [76:46]
Matt Lippman
That you're taking on somebody who raises a ton of money, and how do you defeat somebody like that who is sort of ruthless about his opposition?
- [76:58]
Jake Levine
You have to. Well, first of all, he is ruthless. We have. This is the first competitive campaign that he has had in a generation since Howard Berman. We have outraised Brad Sherman every single quarter. And by the way, we've done that without taking a dime of corporate PAC money. Brad's campaigns have been financed by big insurance companies denying claims to people like my mom in the Palisades, by private equity and banks buying up all the housing by defense contractors that are perpetuating these forever wars. He has millions of dollars from these companies. Over 30 years, we have outraised him without taking any of that money. And we've done it because people are excited to see a new generation stepping up. Everybody feels it, not only in la, but across this country. And that's what this election is about. It's about whether you want to vote for change for someone who has a track record of getting things done, but who has new ideas and has energy. You know, when we. I'm very confident, Matt, that when we flip the house, we will flip the house, is what I'm confident in. But that when. When we do that, we need to send the best players onto the field. We need energy. We need people who are dynamic, who have good ideas and who can convene their colleagues and build coalitions to get big things done. And I will say just this weekend, as a sign of both the ruthlessness. Ruthlessness of Brad, and also the success of our campaign, Brad decided to go negative on us. If he were not scared that he is in danger of losing his seat, he would not take that tactic. And it is baseless lies. It is the same old playbook that people are so sick of. We want young people who can come into office and get things done and provide a more positive, hopeful vision for the future.
- [78:48]
Jamie
Thanks, Jake. So you got one week till election. What's happening? What's the election looking like? How are you going to bring this home?
- [79:01]
Jake Levine
Well, we've got sort of three primary channels that we're now communicating with people en masse. One is door knocking. We've knocked 65,000 doors on our way to 80,000. There is just like a movement of young people. And by the way, for anybody that wants to participate, you can go to my mobilize site mobile. You can just Google mobilize. Jake Levine. We have canvases coming up with John Lovett and with Jane Fonda and they're really fun. We've had 20, 30, 40 people at a time not knocking doors. We have a digital ad that is up out on socials and on digital media. People are seeing that. It's fun. It's about how much the world has changed, frankly, since Brad has been in office and that as he continues to be there decade after decade, people see costs rising, they see an authoritarian government invading their cities and they don't see a fighter in the shape of Brad Sherman. And then we've got a mail program going. We need 45,000 votes to make it into the general election. That's because there's one Republican in my race, that Republican Larry Thompson will automatically get 25% of the vote. So in order to advance to the top two, which is our path, we have to defeat him. And then once we make it into the general, we feel really good about the contrast on a head to head against Brad Sherman.
- [80:29]
Matt Lippman
Jake, that would be an interesting head to head. I have many other negative Brad Sherman stories, by the way, that you could put in your ads. But the sort of let's say you're in Congress in January, we're in the majority. What are the couple of committee assignments that you think would best serve the community?
- [80:45]
Jake Levine
Well, I spent my career working on climate and clean energy. I have a lot of ideas for how we can deploy the limitless capacity of clean energy to bring our electric bills down. That kind of work happens on the Energy and Commerce Committee where I think we have an opportunity to pass bipartisan legislation to do that to create more economic competitiveness around the country in this really important space. That's also a committee that deals with health care. That's where we passed. When I served in the Obama administration, we worked with Henry Waxman, who has endorsed my campaign campaign to pass the Affordable Care act out of his committee when he was chairman of Energy and Commerce. And we have a ton of work that we need to do on health care. Not only expanding Medicare so that it includes long term care for seniors and vision and dental as well, but also bringing the fight to Congress for Medicare for all. So that's a committee I'm super interested in. And then I'm really interested in oversight. We have had an, an administration that has run roughshod over our Constitution, over our laws. We need to start providing accountability now. We can't wait to have a Democratic president to do that. And we need an Oversight Committee and a Judiciary Committee to begin referring prosecutions to the Department of Justice, start building a record, put companies in the private sector that have been complicit in this, whether it's a World Liberty Financial in the crypto space or a big energy company that's acquiesced to the ridiculous contract violations of tearing down wind farms and investing in new oil and gas in Louisiana. We need to, we need to notify all of them. You need to start retaining your records and, and that work will happen. On oversight. There are a lot of committees that I'd love to, you know, be honored to be a part of, but those two keep, keep coming up top of mind.
- [82:31]
Matt Lippman
You know, Jake, Robert Garcia here in Southern California would be the head of oversight site.
- [82:35]
Jake Levine
Yeah.
- [82:35]
Matt Lippman
Circumstance and job. Robert Garcia, Jamie Raskin at Judiciary. They're going to be very aggressive next year and I think it's going to be a lot different than what people had seen from Democrats previously. So it be very interesting to have you on that committee which would be doing some very aggressive work. Take taking away age for a second. What's the area where you see that you differentiate yourself from Congressman Sherman? By the way, when I talk about Congressman Chairman, I'm talking about mob boss, right? Like, that's what he seems like to me. But what's the area where you differentiate yourself aside from age?
- [83:10]
Jake Levine
He look, it's really about effectiveness. It's about having an attitude of, of whether we can get something done or whether we're not even going to try. He and I just had a spirited debate about whether to underground the lines, the power lines in our Palisades rebuild, which is so essential for fire resilience moving forward. And what Brad Sherman said was if we underground the lines there, then we have to underground them in Sherman Oaks and Encino, which is outrageous because we do have to underground them in Sherman Oaks and Encino, where we have a massive fire risk off of the Sepulveda Basin. And not only do we have the opportunity that we never wanted to get it right in the Palisades now, but we have regular maintenance on things like power lines in the Valley that we need to, to pay attention to. He, he has been there 30 years and he's gotten four bills done and two of them are to rename Post offices. In my work in the private sector, I helped build a company. I launched the California Climate Action Corps. During the pandemic with Newsom, we put 20,000 young people to work. I grew a climate finance practice at the Development Finance Corporation into the multi billion dollars per year. I really like getting big things done for working people and that is the major difference. There are some policy differences that come up here and there, but really it's about effectiveness.
- [84:27]
Jamie
Jake, thank you so much for joining. Really appreciate it. Good luck this last week. Everybody get out there. Do you can do to help Jake.
- [84:36]
Matt Lippman
And I just also say that I think Jake would be great. Brad Sherman is remarkably ineffective for somebody who's been in Congress for so long. So I don't know if we're to supposed, supposed to say this, but
- [84:49]
Jake Levine
I'll take it.
- [84:51]
Jamie
Thanks, guys. Okay, now we're, we're moving on to Zach Sokolov, who is running for city controller. Zach, welcome to the candidates forum. Thank you for joining us. How are, how are you? Thanks. Okay, Zach, what's the city controller do?
- [85:08]
Zach Sokolov
The city controller is the fiscal watchdog for the, the city of la, the chief auditor here in Los Angeles. And the principal responsibility is to determine whether your tax dollars are being spent as intended, whether they're delivering the policy outcomes that they're intended, and ultimately, and you've heard, I think, a recurring theme from a lot of the candidates, focusing on results, proposing solutions, and working collaboratively to deliver results for Angelenos. We have a budget deficit, Jamie, that fluctuates between hundreds of millions and a billion dollars. We've got a homelessness crisis that is both leaving human beings on the street and costing nearly a billion dollars every year. We've spent over $3 billion in the last four years. And I think we have little to no progress to show for that. We've got streets and sidewalks and streetlights which are underfunded and take months or years to repair. And we have a city government that is not functioning well for the people of la. And I think the controller has a huge role to play in ensuring that our finances are cared for and that these services are being delivered effectively and efficiently.
- [86:13]
Matt Lippman
Zach, 60 seconds. Give us the one big thing that you want to do as city controller.
- [86:20]
Zach Sokolov
Look, I would say the homelessness crisis is, is the issue that we talk the most about. We take a, you know, largely different approach than the current sort of housing first approach. We think housing is critical, but it is only the first step, not the last step. I think that so many of the homeless Individuals on the street suffer from some form of drug addiction or mental health crisis, and we need to fund treatment centers and we need to fund pathways to recovery so those individuals can live a healthy, self directed life. Matt, I was at the downtown Women's center last week, and this is one of the shining lights of the homelessness infrastructure, but there are far too few of them, and there are a lot of organizations that don't perform that continue to get funded, and a lot of organizations that do perform that have to jump through administrative hoops. And so a homelessness issue is top of mind for almost everybody that we talk to. And that's definitely one of the first places we would start if we're elected.
- [87:10]
Matt Lippman
You know, Zach, I feel like I have some story involving almost every candidate who's been coming on our Zoom today. You and I haven't met, but I used to live next door to Paul Krikorian. Paul Krikorian, your opponent, the current city comptroller, used to protest in Paul's driveway, and he used to call Paul. Paul's wife fat and his kids fat and try to start fist fights with people in the neighborhood. And that was just before he got elected. So when people tell me that they're supporting his opponents, I do not. I think he's a really bad guy. And I've noticed that other people in the city have a very hard time working with him. So.
- [87:44]
Zach Sokolov
Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, it's, it's, it's. It's unfortunate, Matt, that we have a city controller who has taken accountability to mean antagonism. I just have a very different, different approach. I think that you need to hold our leaders accountable. You need to bring oversight into the city finances, but that does not mean that you have to belittle or blame others. I think that collaborating across the city is critical. And unfortunately, I think in today's world, Matt, character matters in politics. I have an opponent who's been accused by several very credible outlets of sexual harassment, creating a toxic workplace. He pressured his subordinates to live in his apartment building so he could earn a referral fee. I mean, the list kind of goes on. And so we try to bring both a fiscal accountability but also a new way of doing things that focuses on results and solving problems for Angelenos.
- [88:34]
Jamie
Zach just. And just to make it clear, we did invite Zach's opponent onto the Zoom, but he declined. Affordability is obviously a topic you keep talking about. You know, you're coming from. You know, a lot of your campaign was self funded. You know, I'VE heard a little bit of that pushback of sort of, you know, the sense of like, are you in touch with the affordability in Los Angeles? And how do you, how do you kind of push back on that comment?
- [88:59]
Zach Sokolov
Yeah, I mean, look, we're, we're fortunate to have hundreds of donors from across the city and across the country, Jamie, who are supporting us. They're voting with their feet for change. They don't like how businesses being being done in Los Angeles. And so I mean, look, we're on the street every day talking to Angelenos from San Pedro to Sylmar, from Boyle Heights to Woodland Hills. We go out and talk to the unhoused folks on our streets and ask them how has the system failed you? We treat them like human beings as opposed to statistics, which I think is critical in today's culture. And so in my view, in my work. I'm a former public school teacher. I taught middle and High School Algebra 1 through the teach for America program. I have spent years working in local Democratic politics. I'm a delegate to the state Democratic Party. I'm the only Democrat in the race. My opponent is a registered member of the Green Party. And we also started a mentorship and job training program to connect historically underrepresented communities to below the line production jobs so that our entertainment industry looks more like the city that we live in. I'm a former tenant representative on a rent state stabilization commission advocating for affordability here in Los Angeles. And so at every step of my career, Jamie, I have sought to uplift folks who have been dealt a bad hand to give of myself to a life of public service. And that's what I'm going to continue to do if we're fortunate enough to be elected controller.
- [90:21]
Matt Lippman
Zach is the city controller in charge of these large payouts that the city makes.
- [90:27]
Zach Sokolov
So it definitely has a role to play in both highlighting and minimizing the liability payouts. Matt, I think that this is a direct result of just the lack of leadership at the city level, the inability to take preventative, proactive steps. I mean, I think we haven't fully paved the street this whole year in Los Angeles. You know, my wife and I are animal lovers. My, we're a foster family. We fostered over 50 dogs together. You see the same problem in the animal shelters map that you see with homelessness, with our street services, with affordability and affordable housing. When you don't address the root cause of an issue and you allow it to fester, you create a bigger mess to clean up. In the long run. And so the liability payouts, I think are a direct result of the inability of the city to exhibit or exert financial leadership in a lot of critical service areas. And again, you know, you talked a little bit about, you know, the, the funding of our campaign, Jamie. I, I think candidly it does make us more independent than anybody else out there. So, you know, we come in not beholden to anybody. We want to spread the truth, we want to fight for the people of la, and we want to have hard conversations that we've been avoiding for far too long.
- [91:40]
Matt Lippman
Zach, when we're talking about those payouts, those payouts have a direct impact on our ability to not fund some of the city's priorities. Is that right?
- [91:47]
Michael Tubbs
Right, absolutely.
- [91:48]
Zach Sokolov
I mean, when you're diverting money from the general fund to payouts, that is a huge suck of resources, Matt. But unfortunately it's, it's across the board. I mean, I would say you look at some of these major housing and affordability programs that we have on the books and there has been no audit to speak of. Prop hhh, which is the Project Home Key initiative, the controller is legally required to audit those programs every year. My opponent has conducted not a single audit measure. Ula, it's been on the books now for over two years. We've collected over a billion dollars. The people of LA have no idea where that money is going. If it's actually having the intended effect of making the city more affordable, and if there are trade offs or unintended consequences, how can we quantify those? Because when you have less property tax revenue, you're diverting money away from schools. It's obviously an issue that's very personal to me as a former educator. And so I think bringing transparency is important, but it's really just the first step, Matt. We have to take that information and turn it into impact so people see a result in their lives that make it easier and more affordable to live here in Los Angeles.
- [92:54]
Matt Lippman
Is that mansion tax, Zach?
- [92:56]
Zach Sokolov
ULA is the mansion tax. That's right, Matt.
- [92:58]
Matt Lippman
Yeah.
- [92:58]
Jamie
Zach, last question. I mean, you know, there are so many massive issues in la, homelessness and public safety and you know, this goes on and on and, and, and people, the budget is sort of spiraling, but it's at the same time people want change. You can't just throw money at a problem. But how do you, as city controller plan to sort of help wrangle that up at the same time, allocate the money necessary to try things and to make change?
- [93:21]
Zach Sokolov
Look, I believe Very deeply in the kind of FDR approach of bold, persistent experimentation. Jamie, I think you need to try something, evaluate honestly whether it's working and if it's not, I don't think that there's any shame in pivoting and trying something new. And so I think a lot of what I talk about on the campaign trail is a different way of doing business in Los Angeles, one that is more collaborative, one that is more focused on problem solving, not scoring points on social media. We were raised in a house where it's not about the credit that you get, because it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who actually gets the credit. And so, from my perspective as controller, I am completely content to operate in the background. I'm completely content to uplift other people in government to help them do their job better. Ultimately, the metric of success that I care about is am I improving the lives of Angelenos through the work that we're doing? That's how I'll judge whether we've been successful. And I think that that's what the people of LA deserve in their. Controller.
- [94:16]
Jamie
Matt, thank you. Matt, Sorry, did it again. Zach, thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Good luck in this last week. It's really, it's. It's a. You know, running for office is not easy. So thank you for all the time and effort you put into it.
- [94:30]
Tom Steyer
Thanks, guys.
- [94:31]
Zach Sokolov
Appreciate it.
- [94:31]
Jamie
All right, we are now going to go over to Mayor Bass. Mayor Bass, welcome to the candidates forum. Thank you for joining us.
- [94:39]
Mayor Karen Bass
Thank you for having me on, Jamie.
- [94:41]
Jamie
All right, great. Okay, so first question in 60 seconds or less. This is one of your last chances to make your case to voters. What's the single reason someone should vote for you?
- [94:52]
Mayor Karen Bass
Absolutely. Well, let me just say, when I became mayor, LA was in tough shape. The city was unaffordable. There were massive encampments everywhere. You remember the smash and grab crimes that were happening, and homelessness basically everywhere. So in three years that I have been mayor, I am proud to say, for the first time, two years in a row, we've had a decline in street homelessness. 18% while it went up in the country. 18%. I have fast tracked 42,000 units of housing. 6,000. Of those, 42 are actively under construction now. And I've also taken on our infrastructure, which has been broken for decades because we are the only major city in the country that has not had a comprehensive infrastructure plan. And so homeless business is finally down. Crime is at a 60 year low. I have fought to increase the number of officers in Los Angeles because we have been at historic low. So I feel like in my first term I have laid a strong foundation for LA to become affordable again so that families can feel safe and parents don't have to navigate tents, going to school when kids are not able to walk on the sidewalk. So the city needs change. I have been leading on change and want an opportunity to continue to do that.
- [96:16]
Matt Lippman
Mayor hi, Mayor Jamie referred to a big increase in film production this year in the first quarter. This year, Jamie, you had a stat, like 40% or something. Yeah.
- [96:29]
Jamie
Yes, 41. I think it's up 41% in the first quarter.
- [96:33]
Matt Lippman
Okay, homelessness down, crime down. What is the disconnect? Because some of these statistics are good, but I don't think that people feel great. Right. What's going on in Los Angeles? What is the disconnect here? What, what, what are we doing? How can we communicate to people some of the victories we're having? As we, and of course, as you know better than any of us, we were heading a series of big events here, right? The summer, the World Cup. We've got the 100th anniversary of the album, Oscars, Super Bowl, Olympics. How do we make people, or should they even feel good about what's going on in Los Angeles?
- [97:09]
Mayor Karen Bass
Yes, I think so, Especially all that we have coming on our horizon. And I think that, listen, two days after the election is the US Open for Golf for Women. We're going to have clinics for girls all around the city to promote that. Four days after that is is done, we have the World Cup. And the World cup is an opportunity for us to have community celebrations and fairs all throughout the city, which I believe is going to help uplift some of our neighborhoods, especially our neighborhoods that were hard hit by ice. I was at a press conference this morning in Koreatown because the big Korea Mexico match is going to be on the 18th and it's going to be on Wilshire Blow. And a lot of the businesses can benefit from that. So we have a lot to look forward to. But I also think that it's always about communication and my communication. What I have done, Matt, is that I haven't been a showboat. I've been a workhorse and I've been getting the job done. And Jamie knows that the communication absolutely needs to be a lot stronger.
- [98:20]
Jamie
Mayor I want to just push back a little bit because obviously the stats are what the stats are. But as Matt said, you know, people aren't feeling it. And at the same time, people Aren't seeing it in certain cases, you know, I. You know, there's encampments I drive by that are no longer there. But at the same time, you know, this is a major problem. You are the mayor. You are in charge. Obviously, it's, you know, we have city council. It's a challenging process. You've talked about how slow it is, but at the same time, your mayor higher. And people want faster change, they want bigger change. Some of it may be realistic, some of it not. But what do you say to your critics and the people you're running against? You know, the buck does stop with you. And, you know, and I think sometimes you've gone to deflect to that. You know, the. The fact that the city council has to approve these things. But you. You're the boss. You're in charge.
- [99:09]
Mayor Karen Bass
Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. And I think it speaks also to the magnitude of the problem and a system that has been dysfunctional for more than three decades. So what I chose to do was to not come in and study. I chose to come in and act while diagnosing what's wrong with the system and changing it at the same time. And we need a completely new system. But let me just tell you, in terms of my opponents, my one opponent, the counsel woman, has been in City hall twice as long as I have, chairs the Homelessness Committee, touts a massive reduction in homelessness in her district, and she should, because that's a massive reduction that we did out of the mayor's office from inside safe. And that's part of the statistics that she can tout in terms of my other opponent, you know, I'm sorry, he's an entertainer. And, you know, I don't blow him off by. By any means, because he's clearly, you know, tapped into a sentiment using and entertaining all of us with artificial intelligence.
- [100:12]
Matt Lippman
You know, Mayor, our friend Mayor Friedman has a question here. How do you react to someone like Joe Rogan saying to his millions of followers, you burn the Palisades, which obviously you do not, but you burn the Palisades as he endorses Spencer Pratt. Spencer Pratt says that a lot, too. Right. You're responsible for burning the Palisade kids. How do you react to that kind of thing?
- [100:31]
Mayor Karen Bass
Well, I mean, first of all, I am not in. And this is a bit in response to what Jamie said as well. I do not deflect the fact that I am ultimately responsible. However, I think to say that I burnt down the Palisades is irresponsible. And I also think that you have a population that has gone through a tragic loss. Loss, a profound loss. And when people are grieving, as I know very well, people can be quite angry around what they have gone through. And I just think that that's terrible to tap into it in that way.
- [101:10]
Jamie
Mayor, could we talk about ULA for a minute? There's a misconception someone had the other day. They said to me that you were responsible for the mansion tax. And I reminded them. Them that you weren't in office when the old mansion tax was enacted.
- [101:25]
Adam Miller
And.
- [101:26]
Jamie
And from my understanding, you've actually tried countless times now to sort of re. To amend it, rewrite it. So first question is, do you support the. The. To you at measure ULA and the mansion tax as currently written?
- [101:40]
Mayor Karen Bass
No. I think we have a lot of challenges with it, and there are reforms that need to happen. I would not throw it out. I will just tell you that we just finished distributing over $300 million in grants to get housing built in the city and also tens of millions of dollars in grants and contracts to prevent people from being homeless in the first place. And so there are parts of ULA that I think has caused challenges. I am involved in the reform efforts, one on the state level and two locally.
- [102:15]
Jamie
Got it. Thank you, Mayor.
- [102:17]
Matt Lippman
I'm looking at. I'm thinking about the lapd, and I know you've been fighting for more cops. By the way, you've been right with the city council. Do you have a sense that you've been there now for three and a half years or so? Do you have a sense of the next four years? And would you reimagine the lapd? Would we have more cops, more people dealing with that? How do you imagine?
- [102:37]
Esther Kim
Sure.
- [102:37]
Mayor Karen Bass
Well, let me just say that I have always taken a comprehensive approach to crime. And so I started the Office of Community Safety so that we could prevent crime in the first place and intervene when crime happens so that it doesn't magnify. And so there are a lot of projects and projects that I've worked on over the last three decades that we have now institutionalized in the city. They've been tried, tested, researched. And so I have that component going. We are a city of 3.8 million people, and we have a small police department for our size. We need both. It's both and it is not either or. Now, when crime has happened, like the spike that happened in the San Fernando Valley, I aggressive, aggressively respond to that, and we did over the last month, two months, and all of the individuals in that organized crime unit were arrested and we had a crime spike last year. But it does come down to people's perception. And so I believe in expanding the police department, but I also believe in promoting the work in communities that prevents crime from happening in the first place.
- [103:59]
Jamie
Let's go back to homelessness for a minute because you know, although again, even the numbers being down, obviously it's still very visible and you know, the question about what the root of homelessness is and looking at unhoused people who are unhoused because they lost their job or people who have drug addictions and drug addictions obviously are could critical part of homelessness and, and the unhoused population. What, what do you think? What's the way to, to attack that problem and to get the people off the street who are kind of causing the most challenges to, to the people and, and the ones that are really making it feel like, you know, we're a city of that where homelessness hasn't gone down in many ways.
- [104:41]
Mayor Karen Bass
Right. Well, and let me just say that it is nice to come up with simplistic rhetoric. We're going to just sweep everybody away or force people into treatment. The bottom line is we don't have any place to force them to go and the laws don't support that. Now the good news is help is on the way. Voters a year and a half ago passed a ballot initiative to build the mental health facilities that should have been built five decades ago. And those facilities are coming online now. The largest one is at San St. Vincent's Hospital. 800 bed facility that has been empty for years and has been used for film location support. Film location. But I never rather have a hospital there at the hospital's location. And those beds are going to be coming online. It is substance abuse and mental health. So prior to now we really have not any had any place to take people. And we also didn't have the laws that support, support people being pushed into treatment like used to exist with drug court. I'm a big proponent of drug court. Drug court still exists, but the laws around it does not support drug court. So I do believe in involuntary hospitalization because there are many people who are profoundly mentally ill and they do not have the capacity to make a decision for themselves. And I think that it is inhumane for them to die or to hurt other people on the streets when we know that that will be the result.
- [106:13]
Jamie
You reference the filming and that's obviously a critical thing. You and I have talked about it a lot. You know, you're, you know, people you're running against have sort of their, their policies appear to me sort of to be exactly what you've enacted now, the pushback now, but the pushback, which I'll say is that it did take a few years for some of those things, things to happen, but in some ways it's better to get it right. And as you saw from these film LA stats, it actually is working. So I guess, you know what, what can you say directly to the film community, to them to understand you are prioritizing them and how you're going to make an even bigger impact going forward if. If there's a second term for Karen Bass?
- [106:57]
Mayor Karen Bass
Exactly right. Well, you know, the first period we were focusing on the state tax credit credits and lobbying for that. And now we're looking at film production here in LA and what is needed to make it cheaper, to make it easier. And so we have established all of those things that frankly, the entertainment industry and your supporters came together and helped provide a direct input to that. And now what we want to do is make sure that's working. And if it's not not working, then we need to add to it. What I would love to see us do, but financially we can't afford to do that right now, which is a local tax credit. And so to me, this is our foundational industry. A lot of education needs to happen, which I've spent a lot of time doing, is for people to understand it's not just about a list celebrities. And so I. The way I believe you address policy is you work with the people that are more most immediately impacted. So looking to the industry to say the concierge service we established, did that work? The reduction in cost to film, did that work? Was that enough expediting permits, has that been helpful? All of those things we need to evaluate now and together come together and take recommendations for what more the city needs to do. I will happily embrace that. I know it is a mix of local policy change and continued advocacy. I'd like for there to be a federal tax credit.
- [108:28]
Jamie
I agree. I want to. I want to thank you because you have been willing to listen and it was challenging to find the film czar who was right. And finding somebody inside the system was critical.
- [108:39]
Matt Lippman
So that.
- [108:40]
Jamie
But in addition, by hiring a consultant and someone to work with them who's from Hollywood is, I think, a major reason of why you're seeing the, the impact that you're seeing. I love the local tax credit. I know we need to get our financial house in order before we get that, but I think that is great. And to your point, that state tax credit is really the, the holy grail. I mean, that's the thing that's going to bring back production and, and there's nothing you can do about that. But actually, I'll defer to Matt because he has a question that kind of relates to, to that relate.
- [109:09]
Matt Lippman
Jamie. Is that Stephen King? Is that the local films are.
- [109:12]
Jamie
Yes.
- [109:12]
Tom Steyer
Yeah.
- [109:13]
Matt Lippman
And I've met with him as well, Mayor, and he's doing a really good job. But going back to. I hope we have a little extra time here. Mayor, you were just in Washington a couple of weeks ago, saw Donald Trump. Hopefully he's only president for the first couple of years if you're have a. For your next term. But you have to get money from this administration and in Sacramento as well. How is the relationship in these two places and is it helpful?
- [109:40]
Mayor Karen Bass
LOS Angeles well, I can just tell. Well, I can't say enough about how much it has been helpful to me, the fact that I served in Sacramento in my last term. I was speaker of the House, by the way. I got the first tax credits done when I was speaker in the middle of the Great Recession. But having served in Congress, it is just helpful. Beyond, beyond me explaining. But let me just say that in Donald Trump's administration, he has appointed a number of Cabinet secretaries who were my former colleagues, some of them wacky, but some of them I have good working relationships with. So he appointed Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator. We're not going to talk about his environmental policies, but we did the police reform legislation together. And I called him up right away when Trump assigned him to come over and be my overseer. And we've been programming it. And what I wanted the president to do, aside from giving me an $8 billion check, I also wanted him to tweet about the banking industry and the insurance industry because I wanted him to put pressure on those industries. That's the greatest impediment to rebuild building in the Palisades right now is insurance and banking and financing. There's a lot of people that have permits that have not moved forward because of that. And so it took us a couple of months. He did do both tweets and it is helping. And then hopefully we will get our $8 billion. The reason we need that money, because otherwise it's going to come out of the general fund, is we need to rebuild the infrastructure. The part the city is responsible for, the electrical, basically repairing the streets that have been torn up because of all of the construction Trucks. So I have used my federal ties as much as I am out protesting. And we're coming on the anniversary of what I call the invasion, June 6, when we were invaded by the National Guard and the Marines. I can fight him tooth and nail. And I also know how to work with the administration. Spent years doing very bipartisan work, working with people with extremely opposite views as me, like Tom Massey, who just lost his seat. There are actually people that I know how to work with. And the bottom line is this is not an ideological job. I don't care what your ideology is. That doesn't fix a pothole. And I have to be able to. To protest him, fight him and work with him at the same time. And I'm very confident in doing that.
- [112:21]
Jamie
Mayor, you had a job in Congress when you ran for mayor originally, you didn't have to run for mayor. So I guess my question is, why did you choose to run for mayor when you did, and why do you want to be mayor again?
- [112:36]
Mayor Karen Bass
Well, let me just tell you. I mean, I want to be mayor again because we have laid a. A very strong foundation to make the city more affordable, to address homelessness, to continue bringing down crime, and to position our city so that we benefit tremendously from all of these events that are coming our way. But. But Jamie, for those people that don't know me, just real quick. I'm born and raised in la, but I made a decision as a child that I wanted to spend my life fighting for justice. And everything I've done has been that. I worked in the medical field years before I ever thought about running for office. I worked in the NICU in the premature nursery. I worked in the emergency room at County General Hospital. My patients were unhoused. I walked away from my full time faculty job at USC Medical school and dealing in the emergency room to start an organization. Because we had a thousand homicides that you year. And I went to the epicenter of the Crips and the Bloods and the thousand homicides and started an organization 36 years ago that is still going strong. And I w. I walked away. I mean, I took the gamble because I most certainly didn't know I was going to win. Left Congress. I loved being in Congress, by the way, because I got to do domestic and foreign policy. So it wasn't that I was tired of Congress, but I left because of what was happening on our streets. The homelessness issue, the affordability issue, the deterioration in our infrastructure. And I felt that my city needed me. And so I ran and I'm glad I did. I miss, I miss parts of Congress, most most notably my relationships. But, but I'm here doing what I've been doing my entire life. And for me, being in, being mayor is full circle because a lot of the issues that I worked on decades ago, I'm now in a position where I can implement and make a concrete difference. And I'm very proud that I was selected to serve as mayor and hope that I'm able to continue to do that.
- [114:40]
Jamie
Last question is as people, as people go into the voter box next week, you know, I know, you know, we've talked about your successes, but they still have questions. So what's the one takeaway that you want them to have have from this? And as they're thinking about who to vote for next week, I want them
- [114:56]
Mayor Karen Bass
to think about the fact that I know our city needs tremendous change. We have moved forward in several areas. We have much more to go and now is not the time to just throw it all up in the air and start over. I'm be very concerned that my one opponent from city council will send us backwards in how homelessness is dealt with and public safety. And I don't want to see that happen. And then my other opponent, you know, who I don't think is serious, I think he is famous and wants to continue being famous. And we know how that works. We know what it happens when we have a reality TV star. I don't think that we need another one. You know, Jamie, if you don't mind, there was a question that came up in the chat. I sure would like to answer it.
- [115:42]
Jamie
Okay, sure. Okay, sure. Last one.
- [115:44]
Mayor Karen Bass
It was a question about mta. Why did I support MTA having its own police department? I love that question because that was something that I fought for and I'm proud of because MTA does not need traditional law enforcement. And I have spent decades working on police reform. We try to reform these hundred year old institutions. MTA allows us to create a new type of system. And so I believe that the crimes and I serve as as on the MTA board and next month I'll be taking over as chair again. The crimes on MTA are quality of life crimes. It's substance abuse, it's homelessness, it's mental illness. And it doesn't need a traditional police department. And we need, actually, in my opinion, 50, 50 law enforcement because we do need that. But we also need social workers to deal with the quality of life issues. Law enforcement and public safety on Metro has been totally dysfunctional. It's run by three different departments. So depending on where you are, when you get on a bus or on a train, it might be the Long beach police, it might be the sheriffs, it might be lapd. That was a crazy way to run things. So it's an opportunity, opportunity to create a new vision on public safety. On Metro, I just had to answer that question because that's been a very big issue to me, how to do policing differently. Something that, again, I have worked on for more than three decades.
- [117:16]
Matt Lippman
Mayor, when you say you've worked on it for more than three decades, just so folks know, you did this in Congress, the George Floyd Policing act, you got bipartisan support, which hardly anybody can do for anything ever in Congress. One of the reasons that some of us supported you and believe in you is because of your ability to work across the aisle, as you said, to work with people who are just willing to get things done.
- [117:39]
Mayor Karen Bass
Thank you. I did it in Congress when I was in Sacramento, I focused on anti recidivism. And when I started community coalition in 1990, it was to do exactly that. How do you deal with crime and violence that doesn't result in what we fought in 1990, which was later to be called mass incarceration? How do you deal with crime and safety without just locking everybody up? Because you know what happens when that happens? It's black and brown people who are extremely disproportionately locked up.
- [118:09]
Jamie
Mayor, thank you very much for joining us. Good luck in the rest of the election and thank you for all your hard work.
- [118:17]
Mayor Karen Bass
Thanks for including me.
- [118:18]
Jamie
Okay, bye. Okay, we're, we're almost finished here. Unfortunately, Nithya Rahman, just, her team just sent a text saying she had a personal emergency and could not join us. So. And she was very sad to not join us. So we are going on to Brian Goldsmith, who is running for state Senate. Brian, I want to thank you very much for joining us. Welcome. And we're going to start you off with the same question. We start everybody else off well, actually. Go back, tell people what is the role of the state senate and how does as a state senator, how are you actually? How does one make an impact?
- [119:01]
Brian Goldsmith
Well, Jamie and Matt, thank you so much for inviting me here. I'm honored to join this illustrious group. Next time we'll actually have to have lunch so that it lives up to its name. I was not going to run for office. Some of you on this call know me. Many of you may not. I was a journalist for a lot of my career working in places like the Atlantic, cnn, CBS News, Yahoo. And then I left to do a startup in Silicon Valley. And I also helped candidates across the country and in California that I believed in. And I was going to spend my time on those two things, helping startup businesses and helping political causes. But two things started to change my mind. One was the way that California was weaponized against Kamala Harris in the 24 cycle, that our party became the party of bad video from this state, particularly around politics, public disorder, law enforcement, homelessness, unaffordability, et cetera. And then, as if to put an exclamation point on that, we had the fires in the district where I'm running and very close to where I grew up, in the Palisades, in Malibu, that were an example of government dysfunction at all levels. And so I think the legislature and Sacramento, to answer your question, Jamie, are often overlooked in these conversations. So much focus is on the local city hall and on the circus in Washington, but on so many of the key issues that play an enormous role in our lives, from public schools to public safety to our public universities, environmental protection, healthcare, I go on and on. The state actually plays the leading or the critical role. And so I think who we send there really does matter.
- [120:57]
Matt Lippman
Brian, first, you and I go back several hours indeed. What is the Give us the priority for you coming into the state Senate. I know your name from journalism, but give us the I also think, by the way, it's great that people want to run for office. In a million years, I wouldn't do it. Like, I just think it's such a crazy time. So I think I admire the fact that you're willing to do this. What is the big priority, the big impetus for you to want to be in office? Office?
- [121:25]
Brian Goldsmith
Well, I take great pride in the fact that in this campaign I have repeated the same priorities to every group, whether they're business or labor, entertainment or environmental, whatever. Number one, we have to make it more affordable to live here, to be a family here, to be a business here, to build the infrastructure we need. Because if you care a lot about the environment, we have to develop our capacity to build the clean energy so that we're not behind Arizona and Texas in wind and solar, and we can do these things. Number two, we have to confront the quality of life challenges that many of us have, you know, experience every day and that were just discussed with the mayor, particularly homelessness and crime. I think we need a new strategy. Third, I think we need to spend less of our time on identity politics, us versus them, kind of clickbait superficial issues and a lot more time on the big challenges that we're going to confront in the future. Like how do we deal with disruptive new technologies like artificial intelligence? How do we deal with increasingly dangerous climate driven events, how do we fix our insurance system? And then finally, how do we build a politics and demonstrate that we can build a politics that confronts hate and division in our society? I mean, we're living in such a toxic time and I do think we have to not just preach, but also practice a politics of common ground, bringing people together across difference, confronting the isms, racism, antisemitism, Asian hate, but also, you know, trying to find areas where we can work together even if we hold different views, use. And I think that would be a big focus as well.
- [123:10]
Matt Lippman
Brian, pick, pick one. The biggest thing.
- [123:15]
Brian Goldsmith
I'm gonna pick two. I'm gonna be a politician and respond to your question and not directly answer it, but I'll pick two. One is we've got to make it easier for small businesses to survive here. So I would audit all of our rules, permits, fees and taxes for restaurants, all kinds of other businesses that are really the heartbeat of our community and figure out how to ease the load and lighten the burden. And number two, we've got to create a better structure for rebuilding the Palisades in Malibu because that's, you know, that's obviously a big responsibility of whoever holds this job into the future.
- [123:51]
Jamie
Brian, just specifically, you know, as state senator, and it comes, let's say small businesses in Los Angeles, I mean, give me tangible, a tangible response like what you can do as a state senator.
- [124:04]
Brian Goldsmith
Well, I think sometimes people are too sophisticated by half on this stuff. They think, oh, well, you're one of 40 state senators, there are 80 members of the assembly. What can you get done? And there's a lot of reason to be skeptical. But I'll give you two examples from last year where a smart, strategic legislator made an enormous difference. One, as the mayor just discussed, was on the film and TV tax credit that was made possible by the person whose seat I'm running for, Ben Allen and Rick Saber and some others who spent years building the coalition of entertainment unions, entertainment companies and others to more than double the tax credit. Now, it's inadequate, it should be uncapped, it should cover a above the line. We can go into all of that. But if, if that had failed, I cannot imagine where we would be right now in terms of production in this state. And number two was the legislation that is really a landmark bill to confront antisemitism which has become a major problem for Jewish kids in K through 12. And everybody said this was impossible because the teachers and the faculty association oppose it. But again, a couple of smart, determined legislators painstakingly built the coalition with the other ethnic caucuses that, you know, the Black Caucus, AAPI Caucus, Latinos and others who came in behind it and got that done. So I think it's possible. It just requires focus. So on small business, I want to, first of all, understand what the problem really is, because it's not just local. Everybody points to local. A lot of our taxes, fees, permitting, etc. Are at least enabled at the state level. And I want to ease that burden as much as possible. So I want to understand the scale of the challenge. And then I want to work with both community groups, the Chamber of Commerce, other interests, and build the widest possible group in support of a series of reforms.
- [126:14]
Matt Lippman
Brian, you mentioned anti Semitism, the anti Asian issue. The anti Asian issue really exploded during COVID right?
- [126:25]
Brian Goldsmith
Absolutely.
- [126:26]
Matt Lippman
Asian hate. Yeah, right. Which I. I did not know enough about until it exploded during COVID And then it was just. I mean, you saw people literally getting hit on the street because they were Asian, for example. What does a state senator do you specifically to stop that kind of thing? Because a lot of it is, you could say that we'll pass a law, but some of this is just, you know, all this hatred, it's mentality. How do you stop that?
- [126:55]
Brian Goldsmith
Well, it's also about systems and resources. So AB 715, for example, doesn't just. Just hold the school responsible for protecting Jewish kids. It holds the district liable for failing to do so. And they pay a financial and legal penalty if they don't live up to, you know, what they're supposed to do to keep their kids safe. With respect to Asian hate, we've got to make sure that law enforcement has the resources that it needs to do its job in this state. It is unacceptable, acceptable to me that LAPD, for example, is at 8,600 officers and falling, we should be at least at 10,000. And if the city can't figure out a way to find the resources for that, I think the state needs to come up with a program to help fund this. I mean, the federal government funded local police during the Clinton and Obama administrations. And the thing is, if you're a progressive, you want to actually refund the police and not defund the police. Because the thing that gets cut when the force gets this small is all the neighborhood safety programs, the community outreach, the getting to Know, the neighborhoods and everything just gets thrown at emergency response, which in and of itself is suffering.
- [128:13]
Matt Lippman
So, so let me, let me ask you, Brian, because you mentioned the. So you're referring before to the cops on the beat legislation that was passed in the early 1990s that Joe Biden wrote when he was at the Judiciary Committee. Right. And increased by 100,000 cops on the beat. So you're saying that the state, because the mayor talking about before the City Council is not keen on paying for more cops in Los Angeles. So you're saying that the state can get involved.
- [128:38]
Brian Goldsmith
I'm saying the state could help provide the financing. I am not for the, the mass incarceration elements of that legislation. I think that that was a big mistake and I've said it publicly throughout the campaign. But I am for strong community based policing. And that requires resources, that requires a higher level of sworn officers than we have now. And I do think the state could play a constructive role. And I don't buy the argument, by the way, that you often hear from the sort of status quo crowd in Sacramento that the state has no money. I actually look this up. The state, state's budget during Jerry Brown's last year, just seven years ago was $208 billion. The budget this year under Governor Newsom is 349 billion. So somehow we have no money, but the budget has gone from 208 billion to 349 billion in seven years without a commensurate increase in the quality or availability of our public services. I think we need more, more people up there asking hard questions like that.
- [129:43]
Jamie
Brian, thank you for joining us. Last thing in 30 seconds or last elections next week. Why, what's the takeaway here? Why should someone vote for you versus your opponents?
- [129:54]
Brian Goldsmith
Because if we want to change Sacramento, we need to change the people that we send there. We need people who are independent of any narrow special interest who are going to fight for this whole district, for our entertainment and for the other, you know, the major businesses and job creators that provide a lot of the tax revenue to fund the critical public services we need.
- [130:17]
Jamie
Thank you so much. Good luck this week. Thank you for running and putting yourself out there. It's not an easy job. Okay, now we're going to go to Faiza Malik, who is running for city council.
- [130:30]
Faiza Malik
Hi.
- [130:31]
Adam Miller
Welcome.
- [130:31]
Jamie
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining. So hopefully everybody on this zoom knows what city council does. So I'm not going to go in. I'm not going to make you describe a city council member, but I would like to know in 60 seconds or less why people should vote for you.
- [130:47]
Jane Kim
Sure.
- [130:47]
Faiza Malik
So I'm Faisa Malik. I'm running for LA City Council District 11. I'm a mom. I have two kids in elementary school. I am a renter in Venice. I was born, born and raised here in Southern California. I'm also the daughter of immigrants and I've spent the last 15 years as a civil rights lawyer fighting for policies that make our economy fair for everyday people, particularly focusing on our housing crisis. And in my career, I have seen wealth inequality become worse in our society. Everyone's talking about affordability now. I've spent my career fighting for affordable housing, fighting to, to keep people in their homes, and really addressing those long term solutions that we need. And that's why I'm running for this council district. This district is one of the most expensive areas of Los Angeles and I think we have to be serious about investing in the long term solutions to our housing crisis. I want to make sure our budget is investing in the long term solutions Angelenos need. And I'm running against my council member because I do not believe that she is serious about fighting for those long term solutions. I've only seen her oppose the things that I fought for in City hall. And that's why I think we need a different kind of leadership in, in this council district and one that's going to represent the fullness of this district.
- [132:02]
Matt Lippman
You know. Hi, it's Matt. Hi.
- [132:04]
Mayor Karen Bass
Hi.
- [132:05]
Matt Lippman
We heard before we were talking about the lack of police in the city of Los Angeles and the City Council. There are a lot of budget issues coming up in the city now and the difficulty in funding the police. The mayor had asked for a few hundred more. It was very difficult for her to get that. Where do you stand on the police issue in Los Angeles? Do you feel that we have enough? Not enough. Too much. What, what's your feeling about that?
- [132:30]
Faiza Malik
I want to make sure that Angelenos are getting the safety that they want and deserve from our policing budget, from our public safety budget. That is important to me. Right now we have 8,300 sworn off officers, but only on a given day, 10 to 20% of them are on patrol. I think people want police officers to be doing their jobs, to be solving violent crimes. I think right now we have to look at what we're spending our police budget on to make sure we're getting the public safety programming and support that we need. And so to me, it's really just looking at like, what are we getting from our current Sworn officers. There are 23 warrant officers, for example, in media relations right now. Is that the best use of our money? We're spending $200,000 on someone with the badge and a gun to sit in media relations. I want to make sure that we are investing in unarmed crisis response that is more effective for dealing with issues like homelessness. Our police officers have said again and again that that is not an issue that they are equipped to train, equipped to handle. And, and so we need to. I want to support those types of programming with social workers and case management. So then we free up our current police officer force to do what we want them to do and what they want to do.
- [133:49]
Jamie
Thank you. Thank you for that. Section 41.18 has been obviously a hotly discussed topic during the mayoral race. I'm curious on where you stand on it, on the city ordinance and if you could explain to people what it is.
- [134:04]
Faiza Malik
Sure. 4118 is a city municipal ordinance that bans encampments around certain areas. And there are rules in the, in the ordinance about where these no camping zones can be put up. Tracy has expanded them greatly under her tenure. What this policy has done and what it does not do is it does, does not house people. It does not provide services, it does not provide shelter. What we have seen under Tracy's tenure is actually a decrease in shelter beds, and we have closed shelter in this district. She is blocking the long term housing solutions. We need to actually move people from the streets into homes to end homelessness. She has opposed the renter protections that we need to keep people in their homes. And, and so I think what's really important is the conversation is around this no camping ordinance. But I really want people to understand, and what we've been telling voters at the door is that our affordability crisis is driving our homelessness crisis. So if we want to stop people from being on the streets, we got to stop people from becoming homeless in the first place. And a law like 4118 that regulates public space, which I think we do need regulation for our public spaces, doesn't actually address that affordability in our housing crisis. And so that's not the solution to our homelessness crisis. What's happening is we're moving homelessness around the city. And I just, I think that we have to talk about all of. We have to talk about the whole
- [135:34]
Jamie
solutions to our homelessness crisis, which obviously is insanely complex. But if you were in city council, would you have been a no vote or a yes vote on 4118.
- [135:44]
Faiza Malik
I don't think it's a solution that we should be pushing around the district. I think I want to make sure we're building shelter and housing right now and prevent people from falling into homelessness. This is, I think, I believe in like regulating our public spaces in a, in a way that's thoughtful and makes sense, but it's a blanket tool. Like this is just not solving homelessness. And it's really important for people to understand that.
- [136:08]
Jamie
So you would been a no vote. Yeah, got it. Okay.
- [136:11]
Matt Lippman
Matt, looking at the Palisades, you know, Tracy park has been the sort of face of, of the issue, the recovery for many of the people there. Now we're talking about potentially switching representatives, you know, midway quarter way through this recovery process. Do you think that helps the people there? Do you think it disrupts. What's your view on that?
- [136:32]
Faiza Malik
I think people in the Palisades that I've been talking to are, are really frustrated with city hall. They're so frustrated with the lack of accountability. City hall, state government, every single level of government. And what I see is, what is lacking is there should be accountability for our. We should be acting on our after action reports that we're saying and we need leadership in city hall right now that's going to do the coordination across different jurisdictions, with the county, with the state, so we get the resources and with the federal government, so we get the resources that we need to rebuild the Palisades and then we act on the emergency planning that we need to do the evacuation routes, the rebuilding we need to do insurance issues. All of that requires a lot of coordination. I am not seeing that long term vision coming out yet. I am not seeing that coordination from our current council member as well. The example I always point to is that we killed a good Ben Allen bill, SB549, that would have created a rebuilding authority and done some of this work because someone like Spencer Pratt put in the bill into ChatGPT and incorrectly said that it was going to create affordable housing and riled everybody up. And it basically ended up, I think killing a really good bill that was, was a good idea that we should have been moving forward. That came out of the Blue Ribbon Commission. And so I want to see more of that coordination and leadership.
- [138:02]
Jamie
Thank you for that. So just to wrap up here, the election is next week. Thank you again for. Running is such a testament to people's will and passion. They run for these offices. It's not easy. The job isn't easy. If they get it, it's even harder. And to run for it is, is, is pretty, can be pretty miserable. So thank you for that. People are voting in just exactly a week. What's the one takeaway you want people to have as they walk into the voter booth and they're making that final decision?
- [138:35]
Faiza Malik
I think people are rightfully frustrated with city government right now. And I think the role of people running for office right now in the city of Los Angeles is to restore that trust. That is the job right now is to. I think what it's going to require is leaders that are competent and honest and transparent and care about accountability. And I'm really running because I have worked in local government and I've been an advocate outside of government and I want LA city government to work for people. I want it to work for everyday people. I want to get to yes on the things that we need, on the investments we need and how housing and our streets and our parks and our programming and recovery and climate resiliency. I want to get to yes to that and I think we can do those things. And I don't believe we need to turn to fear mongering politics and the way the temperature has really increased in our politics. I think that we really need to just return to restoring trust again. And that's. I'm running to represent the fullness of the district everyday people. I'm running to make sure the west side stays a place where everybody can live, where everybody can have future. And that's, that's truly what I believe in, is I'm a parent here and I'm a daughter of immigrants and that's the LA I love and that's the LA I'm fighting for.
- [139:50]
Jamie
Thank you for that. Thank you for your time today.
- [139:53]
Faiza Malik
Thank you.
- [139:53]
Jamie
Good luck in this last week.
- [139:55]
Faiza Malik
Thank you. Thank you all.
- [139:56]
Jamie
Okay, bye bye. All right, we did it. Two and a half hours. For those of you who were on the whole time, thank you. I think Matt and I are going to need to take a nap now or something else. I hope this was helpful. I'm holding my ballot close. I'm going to still be doing some more research. I think for me this cleared up some questions. I still have some additional questions that I want answered and I'll do some more research. If you have any, reach out. If you have any great ideas or thoughts, send them. If you're on this, if you're listening to this, that means you care about Los Angeles, you love Los Angeles, you want it to be its best. You care about California. I know I do. I get excited and thankful every day that I live here, warts and all. I am so proud that we have these amazing events coming to showcase our city. I'm going to be doing some work with LA28 that I'm really excited about and I'm confident that we are going to be the best version of ourselves when those events come in those times. So thank you Matt, thank you for gaming.
- [141:13]
Matt Lippman
Thanks Mikayla. Thank you.
- [141:14]
Jamie
And a special shout out to Mikayla Sullivan, who's on here, who worked really hard over this weekend to pull this together and look forward to seeing seeing you all again soon on a Lunch with Jamie podcast conversation or somewhere in the city. Thanks a lot. Bye everyone. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Lunch with Jamie. As always, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter@jamieslist.com for my thoughts on all things food, pop culture, politics and more. And remember to join these online conversations and ask my guests questions around time. Sign up to get a paid subscriber. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Audible and be sure to leave a review. Thanks and see you next time.