← The Josh Hammer Show
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A
What's up everybody?
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social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. Hello, I'm Jeff Vaughn. This is the Josh Hammer show and I'm happy to be filling in all this week for Josh. Thank you so much for joining us. Well, this is the day after the election. Six primaries across the country, California, Iowa, New Jersey had very key races there. I'm in Los Angeles. So we're going to talk about California politics. Of course, that does resonate with across America. There are big races going on in California on the gubernatorial side. And there's also the race for mayor here in Los Angeles where it's also a very important race for lieutenant governor as well. I have now joining us here on the Josh Hammer Show, Gloria Romero, who's lieutenant governor candidate and a joint ticket with the leading vote getter as of right now, Republican Senator Steve Hilton. Gloria, thank you so much for joining us.
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C
Thank you so much for having me on this golden morning in California, the
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A
Golden State golden morning. Well, I get by the sense of how you are talking here that you feel pretty good. And I have to say a lot of people think that there's really no traction, there's no lane for any Republican in the state of California because it has been under Democrat super majority rule for so long. And that's one of the reasons why this state is so unlivable, so unaffordable. And that's the reason why there's so much homeless and that's the reason why there's so many issues with illegal immigration. And it looks like you're starting to get a little bit of traction. These results last night are pretty good.
- [02:09]
C
Exactly. And I long maintained that California is not a blue state, it's not a red state. It is a golden state. And I think what we saw and what we continue to see and yes, we have to wait for until all the votes come in, the ballots are cured. The process that can take a while. But just take a look at the trends right now. I can't remember the last time that we had the number one candidate for governor in California, a Republican. And now the number one candidate as of 6:30 Pacific Time this morning for lieutenant governor, also a Republican. You know, I was a walkaway Democrat. I was the majority leader of the California State Senate. But I saw what that party was doing, and I, as they say, I didn't leave the party. The party left me. But I am indicative of the change that is happening in California. It is real. And so even though we want to, you know, be cautious about the past, we have to be. I am really enthused, optimistic that California will not be defined by the blue yoke that has held us back. It really is a state that is up for change. And these results are showing it not only in the state of California, but in Los Angeles proper, where Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass burned down the city. So it's really an exciting morning.
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A
Yeah, it really is. I should mention that you are running for lieutenant governor. This is a joint ticket where you're getting support from Steve Hilton. However, your position as Lieutenant governor is separate in and of itself. So there could be a situation where you can have a Republican lieutenant governor and a Democratic governor in this state of California. So I just want to kind of get that disclosure out there. But you and Steve Hilton are running on a joint ticket. I know. Yesterday, in the days leading up to the election, Steve Hilton was urging Republicans to coalesce behind him, asking for Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to basically concede the race to Steve Hilton to gain more votes. Now, the sheriff did not do that. I believe his quote was, why don't you support me? But it doesn't look like that that hurt. Are you surprised at that? Because I was a little concerned about, you know, maybe having the vote split. Are you? Were you concerned? And how are you feeling about that now?
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C
Certainly. I mean, as somebody who has long studied also trends and polling data and looking at this, it's always best when you can have a united ticket. It was clear from the polling and these were verified, I mean, really accurate polling, that Chad Bianco, again, to us, a good candidate, but he did not have the numbers that would have carried him over. If anything, it would have been a spoiler. Same thing in my race as well. If you take a look at it. There's been much less attention to the lieutenant Governor race. In a sense. I had a couple of Chad Bianco types in my race. My hope now is, though, that whatever happened, it's clear the voters have spoken, continue to speak. The polling continues to reflect the voice. And my hope now, and my plea is and is to consolidate the vote. Let's make this a united ticket. And then we reach out to the nonpartisan voters. As a former Democrat as well too, I want us to also reach out across the party aisles and to invite the disaffected Democrats, those Democrats who are ready to maybe not leave the party completely, but ready to vote different this year. We can build the coalition, the big beautiful tent that includes just basically common sense Californians who want to see a change in this golden state.
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A
Yeah, and you're a really good example of so many people that I have talked to here in Los Angeles. Neighbors, friends, family members who call themselves lost liberals. They're liberal, they're Democrat. But even these policies as of late in the state of California are too much for them and they are now looking towards the GOP as an answer to that. Much like yourself being a Democrat and the party you say left you. I have friends and family and I have people here in my subdivision that have decided to leave the state based solely on politics. Those politics being extreme liberal policies and politics. So talk a little bit about how you think that's going to factor in because I think in order to get a Republican in the lieutenant governor's seat like you and Steve as the governor, how do you appeal to those people that are, you know, died in the wool Democrats, but maybe want to change?
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C
A perfect example is for example, Steve Hilton and I participated with key people in the film production a few weeks ago. Now this is a blue town. Very much these people, screenwriters, writers, directors, I mean again to the industry, truck drivers, caterers, a lot of people that goes into one of the number one industries in California and that is Hollywood films, production jobs. We have seen runaway production, we've seen the loss of, you know, the shutting down of major studios as well. And so these are good middle class jobs that have been lost. So one way that we're looking at it and the appeal that we are making to these otherwise blue liberal Democrats is to say if we don't want to see a complete destruction of the film industry in California, then vote Democrat if you want to keep seeing the decline. So ways of reducing taxes, getting rid of the regulations, that's a key way as well. On my end, especially as lieutenant governor, I would be really the chief voice of on higher education policy in the state of California, meritocracy. I mean, we have seen the failure of our schools under years, decades of one party rule in California that has hitched itself to the teachers union and producing a public education system, including our University of California system, now that is receiving too many incoming freshmen who can't do basic college level math. So meritocracy. All of these issues are ways that are common sense. Homelessness, nobody wants to. It's not compassionate, it's not kind, it's not sound, it's not safe. These are common sense part the ideology but ways in which we can come together. And I believe that will be the message of Hilton Romero as we go forward.
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A
Well, that education aspect of your campaign is very critical because you know they got rid of SAT at ACT tests here in the state of California saying that it was racist. And now you've got college professors saying we need the sats because we are seeing students come into college that we have to teach them basic math at the college level. So that's something that I think will resonate with a lot of people and families. I'm raising my family here in California. There are a lot of families here in California and I think education is a big deal to them. Let's talk a little bit about. We know that Katie Porter has as a result of last night's election, she's out. Matt Mahan is out. Tom Stier says he's going to wait. Now we haven't mentioned him yet. We haven't mentioned Javier Becerra. But we, we do have to mention you're going to have to go up against somebody talking about on the governor's side. Tell me is there how would you counter Javier Becerra? Because his history in this state I think is one that will appeal to Democrats. And how do you fight and challenge those people that just vote Democrat down, down the line no matter what? I mean that's a big powerful machine here in the state of California.
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C
You know, I have known Javier Becerra for a long time. Again to at a personal level, I find him to be a very decent, good individual. He was my congressman for the longest time. But I think too looking at it once again the way we counter it is he represents the Joe Biden administration who is happy with that high inflation again to taking a look at just botched the whole handling of COVID the thousands of children who were lost at the border. We can't find them in terms of open migration. What Kamala Harris and the Biden administration did in not handling a legal lawful immigration process but basically just destroying a border. Nobody wants to buy that. Overall there's some personal scandals that surround him as well. But but there's ways that we can clearly form this is what we stand for. This is what Javier Becerra stands for. Tie him to that Biden administration failed. They threw him out. Their own party basically committed a political coup in front of all of our eyes and yanked the guy out. Well, Javier Becerra in those days known as Secretary Bakaria to Joe Biden again, he was part of that. He was part of that candidacy. He was part of that campaign. So I think there's ways we frame that that was the past. We have an opportunity to go to the future, I think, be positive, talk about the good days ahead and really lay out our agenda for the economy, for lowering crime, good schools, great schools and just common sense policies. Not letting boys and girls bathrooms any longer, not putting tampons in the boys bathrooms any longer.
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A
I mean common sense real quick because we're going to have to wrap up. Gloria, I would like to ask you how you're going to counter all the Democrats tying. Now obviously Steve Hilton was endorsed by Trump. So there's no denying that. But I see people, candidates in California, Democrats that are running for local offices have nothing to do with the national aspect of it, that are leading with we have to fight Trump. How do you shed that whole thing or do you embrace it? How do you counteract this machine that's going to be in place to just label you and Hilton as just MAGA Republicans?
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C
Well, you know what? I would use the famous old line from President Reagan. There they go again. It's just simply orange man bad for everything that happens. Orange man bad. I think we counter with the facts, we counter with the truth. As Spencer Pratt says, he ran a look around you campaign. We can look around and see what is happening right in front of our eyes. So I think we take it on again too. Eyes wide open. We go forward. Eyes. I am proud of who I am. I'm proud of the walk away. I am not alone. I know there are so many other people out there who might want to keep their party label, but they're ready for common sense change policies. We keep to the facts. We don't engage in the guttural oh my God, you know, it's maga. It's this, it's the not. Don't even engage. Stick to the facts. People have eyes. They look around, they see, they feel it, they, they're renting U Hauls to escape California no more. We can do it. So I'd say bring it on, let's go. We're ready.
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Gloria, thank you so much and best of luck to you in November. Stay with us. This is the Josh Hammer Show.
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Welcome to the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in all this week for Josh Hammer. I'm here in Los Angeles. We're going to focus on California politics and the race for governor, also the race for LA mayor. We're also going to talk about at Texas race down in Texas, the Lone Star State between Talarico and Paxton. We'll have a little bit more on that. But first let's get right to the issue here in Los Angeles. This is a national story. A lot of people have been looking to see if the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, who oversaw the destruction of the LA fires, is she going to be reelected? Will she make it through to the November primary? She needed to get 50% of the vote plus one. It looks like from the numbers that we see, this occurred from overnight as election day was yesterday, that Karen Bass will advance to November and she is leading right now at about 30%. However, one of the candidates, TV rally star Spencer Pratt, you've probably heard his name recently, he appears to be in second place and headed for that runoff against Karen Bass. Roxanne Hogue joins me now. She is with the LA gop. And Roxanne, how are you feeling after all this? I'm sure that you have been into the numbers all night long. Where are we at today?
- [15:34]
E
I am cautiously optimistic. And when people ask why I'm not celebrating yet, it's because we don't even know how many ballots were cast in the election.
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A
Yeah. You know what's really interesting about California for this national audience? It really is one of the most liberal policies when it comes to returning your ballot. First of all, everybody gets a mail in ballot regardless of if you ask for it or not. And I can tell you, Roxanne, I've gotten two ballots under the same name to my address. So I have two people voting in my household, myself and my wife, but we get three ballots for some reason. So everybody in California gets a mail in ballot. You can send in that mail in ballot. It can be received by the Secretary of state's office up to seven days after the election. It's supposed to be postmarked before the election, or at least on the election day, but can be then counted up to seven days afterwards. And Roxanne, that's got to be very frustrating for people because we live in a society where we get our results pretty quickly. Other states have shown that, but here in California, we just don't do that.
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E
I mean, it's 2026. I feel if we were using an abacus, we would have results quicker. I'm from the island of Jamaica. We're capable of doing it. I really. People think it's because of the mail imbalance. By the way, it's taken 30 days for years. We actually had a congresswoman, Young Kim, in her first race for Congress who thought she won, went to dc, took the freshman class picture and two weeks later, oh no, so bad. So sorry, wasn't you. This happens with regularity. So when I say I'm cautiously optimistic, it's not just the counting, it's the 30 days of voting up to there. We have a real problem in Los Angeles. I know that it's the largest county in the and it is bigger than 40 states, but states can do this, so it needs to be figured out.
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A
Yeah. And there's 10 million people in LA County. And I also understand, you know, it's one of those situations where a lot of people don't want to necessarily go into that conspiracy theory, but when you have a situation where it takes so long, of course you're going to try to figure out why. And it always seems like the mistakes are made in the direction against conservatives and against Republicans. We've seen that before in this race, particularly overnight, we won't know. Now it looks like Spencer Pratt is going to make it through to the November runoff and it looks like he's going to be against Karen Bass, the incumbent. I believe there are 14 candidates for LA mayor and there really were three that kind of punched through. That would be Bass and that would be Pratt. But tell me a little bit about Nithya Rahman, she's a Democratic Socialist. She was able to get a good portion of the votes.
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E
Well, she, like many, sadly of our city council members, is a Democratic Socialist. They are the dsa, they are big players here in Los Angeles. They actually field candidates, support them from smaller positions and then on up. So there's a DSA wing of the City Council. Nithya was one of those people. When you're endorsed by the DSA, by the way, you agree to co govern along with the dsa. So the Democrat party in Los Angeles has a real problem and we at the Republican Party actually aligned with the Democrats on some of our choices and recommendations only because we are all laser focused on getting rid of dsa. So Nithya is dsa but her worst offense I think is that she's just dumb. She actually said that she got into the race for mayor and thinking that it would be about bike lanes and transportation. I don't know how you look around L. A or even read the news, just the headlines and think bike lanes are going to get you through to be the mayor of the second largest city in America.
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A
Well, it got her more than 20% of the vote and she will remain a city council member. She will be one of four Democratic socialists, avowed and self proclaimed Democratic socialists all on city council. By the way, one of those Democratic socialists that you mentioned, Yuneses Hernandez, was up for reelection and she won outright in her district and got more than 50%. So she has moved on and will be reelected. So that just kind of gives a little flavor to the national audience. It's just what we have here in LA and we're happy dealing with. And you mentioned the bike lanes and those are fine and everything, but it's not a priority. It's something that needs to be done after you fix all the open drug use by homeless people, the rampant crime, the wildfire danger. And that's one thing that Spencer Pratt has been bringing up. I have to say I've been watching him and I've been very impressed with the way that he is prioritizing what needs to be done first. Infrastructure, potholes, cleaning up the streets. He's done a really good job in my opinion, of prioritizing what I think the residents would want in Los Angeles.
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E
He's been very clear. And the big story, the big takeaway. Karen Bass gave a speech last night where she acted like she had just, you know, cured cancer and done a moonshot all in once. She is the first incumbent mayor to not sail through to winning Outright in a very long time. She's a disaster and she's in real trouble. And I love where Spencer is. The argument is going to be, do you want to keep the same old same old, or do you want change? And Los Angeles is, it's at a crossroads. And I'm really glad that we're actually going to have a conversation about which direction we head in.
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A
Yeah, I'm excited for the opportunity for those two to meet. I don't even know if there'll be another debate. We do know that they had one debate between Nithya Rahman, which we mentioned, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, and Spencer Pratt, and that didn't go the way of Bass and Rahman. And Bass then decided she wasn't going to debate anymore. And it's that whole sort of playbook of like, I think we've done enough of this. I think we've, we've talked about the issues enough. I just wonder if there's going to be any more debates. I'll bet you that there won't be. And it'll be just like Biden going down to the basement. Bass will go to the basement. Becerra probably will too, on the gubernatorial side, because they don't want to be exposed for all the issues and everything that they have placed in their wake and everything that has gone wrong. I don't think that they want to, to see that. And so I, I think that that's going to be a disadvantage for Spencer Pratt, but at the same time, I think he can use that as the cudgel against them that they're not willing to come forward. One thing that I'm concerned about, Roxanne, is if Mayor Bass is reelected and there's a real good chance that she will be because this city really supports Democrats and Democratic socialists too. If she is reelected, she's going to be a lame duck and she can do anything she wants. I don't think there will be any motivation for her to improve the city because at that point in time, she's done.
- [22:42]
E
There hasn't been any motivation for anyone to improve life in, in LA or in California for a very long time. Correction. They've improved life for their NGO buddies, for people who get hundred million dollar checks from the government and as we saw yesterday, you know, purchase Mercedes G Wagons and live the life of Riley while the rest of us are struggling to afford to live here and no one can even walk to the park. It took me getting local news involved to get our park back from exploding meth vans and unhomeless zombies. And I kid you not, I think she's not going to be able to dodge debates though, because one thing that Spencer Pratt has done and he is, should be very proud of, and he mentioned it last night when he came out to the media, is that LA is sort of the land of meh. Politically, nobody really gets too worked up about anything. They don't even know who their mayor is. They're not engaged. When we look at the final turnout numbers next week for this election, I think the rest of the country will be shocked. It's not that so many people are voting for affirmatively for terrible conditions and it's that so many people don't. And so the one thing Spencer has done is shine a light on that and if we can get more of the people who complain to actually cast a ballot, she will be in real trouble.
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A
Well, Roxanne, thank you very much. And you should be proud of the turnout that you got as a Republican in la, because that's pretty tough in and of itself. So thank you very much for your time. I really do appreciate it and best of luck in the next election.
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E
Thank you.
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A
This is the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in all this week for Josh and happy to do so. Thank you so much for being here. Well, let's go down to the Lone Star State and talk about that Senate race between Paxton and Talarico. I got a great guest on tap for you here, Joey Vasquez. He is the associate editor of MRC Business. That's a media research center. He has extensively covered Texas and Lone Star State. So let's get into it there. And Joey, I gotta ask you first and foremost, how can you be against barbecue? How can you be a vegan and run for any office in Texas?
- [25:02]
F
I mean, the irony writes. The irony speaks for itself. I mean, like, you know, when you think of Texas Tough and when you think of Texas bbq, I can guarantee you people don't think that as being synonymous with James Talarico.
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Yeah.
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In any sense of the word.
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Yeah.
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And my understanding, even in the running is shocking.
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A
Yeah. My understanding is now we don't have a picture of it, but you can, you can see that they're trying to frame him. And you know, it's typical sort of liberal thinking. It's like, let's just put him into the, these situations and these poses and we'll take pictures of them and that'll be enough. They put a cowboy hat on him and they put him behind a. Not even a pickup truck, like a, like a small suv, like a crossover suv, which is disingenuous at best. We all know if you spend any time in Texas, the number one vehicle in Texas is a pickup truck. The second thing is they're putting them out to barbecue joints all over the place. And he's eating brisket and ribs and he's going with a pulled pork. But this is all because of what he said. We have a clip here on what he called his campaign. Let's run it. And then, Joey, I'll get your reaction on the other side.
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G
We have, I think, heard more and more issues of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the right thing to do and the moral thing to do, but also it's, as all of you know, necessary to fight climate change. It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I, I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non meat campaign. So we have. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses. Some of you may know big nonnas, they were little nonnas and then they opened up brick and mortar, some of their big nonnas. But we just got our pizza from there today. And so the point is that I think all of us, not just policymakers, but everyone has to take personal responsibility in this effort.
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A
So Joe had personal responsibility in this effort. He said it's a non meat campaign. And he says now he's not vegan and he's going to barbecue joints.
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F
Hold on one minute. I need to look for my headache, man. There was too much brain hurt in that video. I mean, but it's, I mean, it's like, what kind of flex do you think that is, especially in the state of Texas, A non meat campaign? What are you, Bill Gates? I mean, you know, what are you trying to do, like get Texans to enjoy synthetic meat? Is that the shtick now? Is that the flex? I mean, look, if anyone is emblematic of the principle that you cannot tell Americans that they can't do certain things that they normally do in their lives, it's the people of Texas. You don't mess with Texas for a reason. Right? And guess what? If you're telling people that, oh, we need to focus on climate change, so guess what, don't eat your steak, don't eat your ribs while I eat my ribs, while I eat my brisket, like you were just pointing out that Talarico was doing. I mean, for goodness sakes. I mean, telling me that your campaign is a non meat campaign. Why you're eating meat yourself is like Godzilla coming out and saying that he's vegan. I mean, I don't. I mean, it's ridiculous. I mean, it's insanity. That's why it doesn't. You know, I thought, I didn't know it would be possible for the left to dig out a candidate possibly worse than Beto o', Rourke. But this is who Talarico is. I mean, so not only is he like a fake vegan, but also his Christianity is up for debate as well, given how woke he is.
- [28:18]
A
And you know, what's really interesting in the state of Texas is there is a deep bench of former politicians. Ann Richards comes to mind. Blue dog Democrat, very moderate. That would be somebody that I think would be appealing to Texans and would be somebody that would be on the Democratic side. They can't seem to find anybody in Texas that could be like an Ann Richards or somebody that's a little more moderate. They call Talarico a moderate. Again, it's very performative because they're throwing them out on the pickup trucks with the cowboy hats and giving them barbecue and he's forced to eat it because this is all performative and it's going to make it fine. I guess I'm asking Joy, is, is this something that they're trying to fix or do they just know that this is who he is and they're just going to back him regardless? Is the Democratic Party like, this is who we are, or are they thinking, oh, we got to make sure that he's a Texan after all?
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F
Well, it's. They're trying to rebrand the meaning of, you know, of Texan. So that's why they're dressing him up. They're playing dress up with this guy like he's a Ken doll. Like they're trying to pretty much turning him into the second coming of Tim Walls to make him look like the most relatable guy ever. But I mean, the whole thing is performative, just as you said. I mean, it's just. It's just propaganda. This guy is about. This guy is about as Texan as a German shepherd. I mean, it's ridiculous that, you know, and the thing is, the media continue to prop him up. Like, this guy makes a lick of sense even, you know, like, my dad is a pastor, right? My father is a minister of the gospel. He's been doing ministry for years. And when we were looking at some of the things that this guy was saying, specifically on the Christian front, we were looking at how the media was covering him. And the New York Times, I think, came out and said that, oh, he has unusually complex theological arguments. That's a very euphemistic way to say that you're actually don't like. You actually don't know a thing about Christian doctrine. But, you know, of course this is, you know, but the left doesn't care. They think, they see him as a vehicle to promote their agenda in the state of Texas, where Republicans have had a stronghold for a while, writ large. I mean, so now you have someone like Talarico who's coming in, who's as woke as they can get, but they're trying to rebrand him as being a relatable Texan. It's just, it's mind boggling to me. But this is what the left does. You know, if genuineness was, you know, was a profession, the left will be failing at it. That's how ridiculous this whole thing is.
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A
Well, it's interesting. A Democrat hasn't won a Senate seat there in 30 years. The media, as you mentioned, continues to say it's a very tight race. I haven't taken a look at the polls, but you got to think otherwise. Let's go to this, this Ken Paxton, who is the Republican challenger in this ticket against Talarico. What Talarico said and what he has done has made really good campaign ads. This is the latest Paxton ad against Talarico. Take a look.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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G
There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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G
The American flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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G
They're going to call me a radical leftist.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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Something that you love. That's not family or friends.
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G
I love. I'm just saying this because it's on my mind. The trans children.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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G
Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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G
It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption. I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non meat consumption campaign.
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H
This is Texas. This is not.
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A
Joey, you got to give the campaign credit, right?
- [32:09]
F
You couldn't pray for better content than what Talarico just fed the Paxton campaign. I mean, it's hilarious to me because the thing is, tall Rico is the One that's stepping on all these race. And Paxton is just regurgitating whatever he's saying. He's a. Hey, look, this is what he's saying. I mean, like, I don't need to say a thing. He's just going out there and just promoting what Talarico said and then thinking that that's somehow synonymous with Texas. The whole notion is just. Is just insanity to me. But I mean, you know, I mean, just like when I heard. When I heard Talarico said that there was about six genders, I'm like, gosh, I mean, like, not only is this guy failing, you know, Texas identity, but this guy's also failing biology, like, as well. And, you know, so it's just. It's really just amazing that, you know, not only is this guy in the running, but then also the media continue to prop up this guy like he's somehow. Well, like he somehow makes a lick of sense that he's somehow reasonable, that he's somehow rational. I mean, this guy's about as woke as they get. If, when you look at the. If you look at the word woke in the dictionary, you would see Talarico's face right next to it as part of the definition. I mean, so it's just. The whole thing is just a comedy act to me.
- [33:15]
A
It really is. And we'll have to wait and see. But I would bet my bottom dollar that there's not going to be a Democrat in the Senate from Texas. It just doesn't seem like it's a good fit, if you will. Right. Those cowboy boots might be a little too tight, so.
- [33:29]
F
Well, Scott Rasmussen said it himself, the famed pollster, he pointed this out after Paxton won his primary against Cornyn. He said that, you know, typically what happens is that there's a drop off, especially in a race that's as contentious as the Republican primary was in this particular case. I said. But at the end of the day, you know, this was his theory that, you know, the voters, the voters whose candidate lost the primary, they tend to, you know, at the end of the day, they seem to gravitate towards, you know, voting for their team. So we'll see what happens. But, I mean, I would be. I would be. I would be shocked to see that Talarico gets even close.
- [34:03]
A
Well, Joey, we'll leave it there because we're out of time. Thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it. Stay with us. This is the Josh Hammer Show. And welcome back to the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn Filling in for Josh all this week. It is a Wednesday hump day. I certainly appreciate you being here. Well, let's continue the conversation about what is happening here in Los Angeles. I am in Los Angeles. We're based here and raising my family here. And that race for mayor is very important to us. And I know it's something that the national audience has been looking at as well. So I kind of want to give you a little bit of a perspective. I think a lot of people outside of LA just don't understand to what extent the decline of Los Angeles has been and has seen. I've been here for more than 10 years, and the decline happened in less than the amount of time that I've been here. So in 2015, when I moved here, it was not like it is today. I want to show you some video of skid row in 2015 compared to what it is now. Before you take a look at that, I just want to remind you that the people in charge are Democrats, very liberal Democrats who allowed homeless people to place tents and to live on the streets. You and I could not go to a city park and put up a tent and have a picnic, but homeless people can. You and I couldn't go anywhere and shoot up drugs in the open. That would be illegal. But homeless people can. They have been given rights in Los Angeles, more so than the citizens of Los Angeles. So let's take a look at this video. This is Skid Row, a comparison of 2015 to now in 2026 roll. So obviously that is a stark difference, and that's 10 years. It actually started much sooner than that and it remains there today. And what's really interesting is, is as we go into this race for mayor and people now have a decision, I'm going to give you the latest numbers on the race for mayor and all the votes that have been counted so far. The election was last night. Polls closed at 8 o'. Clock. I just want to give you kind of a feel for the frustration that people have living here. This is again, skid row, and it's gotten so bad on skid row that the homeless people. And I should have a disclaimer with this video. Some people might find this disturbing because homeless people now are tying up dogs and taking dogs and they're injecting dogs with drugs before they inject the drugs on themselves, because we all know about fentanyl. A number of people, hundreds of thousands of people, die because of fentanyl poisoning in drugs. Homeless people, most of them being drug addicts, are Taking the drugs. And they are testing the drugs now on pets to see if it's fatal. And that's where this whole push come up came about, is that we have to help the homeless people. They were saying that we have to help the families of homeless people. That's not what's going on here. I'm sure there are families of homeless people, and I'm sure that there are homeless people that are down on their luck. But by and large, the lion's share of homeless people in Los Angeles are addicts. And their addiction has led to criminal behavior, psychotic behavior, and doing things like this. Take a look at this video. This is happening now on skid row.
- [37:59]
E
Look at his leg.
- [39:02]
A
This is happening in Los Angeles. And that is one of the things that Spencer Pratt is focusing on. Cleaning up the streets, getting the homeless the help they need and getting them off the streets and stopping criminal, illegal behavior like this. I don't think you understand just how much money is being spent. And this is what we have. This is what we're left with. The numbers are this. There are 44,000 homeless people in Los Angeles. 44,000. They spend a billion dollars a year, the city of Los Angeles does, to service the homeless. There is a budget item every year in Los Angeles, a billion dollars for homelessness that exceeds the budget for the fire department. It does not exceed, thankfully, the budget for LAPD. But think about that. We have, what, 4 million people in Los Angeles that the fire department serves, and they don't get as much Money as the 44,000 homeless people that are doing things like that. That's the reason why Spencer Pratt, it looks at this point in time, is going to make it through to a runoff election in November against incumbent mayor Karen Bass. Here's what Spencer Pratt, in a recent interview, had to say about what he's doing for Los Angeles. Roll tape.
- [40:21]
I
Somebody gets 50% plus one tomorrow. Race is over. How do you see this going?
- [40:29]
J
I believe I'm winning tomorrow night outright. I think there's a tsunami of votes coming from all the people that are done with politics as usual. They want an outsider. They want a disruptor.
- [40:40]
I
There's no polls that show it anywhere close to being 50% for you. What do you say to that?
- [40:44]
J
I would say to all those people that I have, they're not talking to pollsters, their moms trying to dodge the naked zombies with a stroller. There are people walking their dogs to the park, making sure their dog doesn't step on a fentanyl needle or sniff some fentanyl or walk over human poop to get a matcha. Those people don't have time to talk to a pollster.
- [41:06]
A
He's not wrong, and I don't think his prediction that he will win outright is going to come true. However, about 50% of the vote is still out there yet to be counted. California is different. It's strange. It's, it's a, it's a very, very slow state when it comes to counting ballots. It can take up to seven days and then they even cure ballots and that can take up to, I think, 28 days. So we're not going to know. But I will give you the latest numbers as of this hour. So Karen Bass, the Associated Press, has projected, has made it through to November here in the state of California. The LA mayor's race is 50 plus one. So if you get 50% plus one vote, you automatically are reelected. Mayor Bass is not going to meet that threshold. It looks like she has 37% right now with 48% of the votes counted. But the Associated Press has projected that that pushes her through to November. It just is. Who is she going to run against? And right now, I'm happy to say Spencer Pratt, which we just Featured, is at 30%. And Nithya Raman, a city councilwoman, a Democratic socialist, is at 22%. So if this holds true, it appears it's going to be Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt going on to November. And that's going to be very interesting. And we hope that we can continue to talk about that story here because it's going to be a story for a long time. What hangs in the balance is really what you saw here, the difference between skid row 10 years ago and Skid Row now, the difference of homeless people injecting dogs on Skid Row now compared to them not doing it before. So we will continue to follow that here as well. Again, 48% of the votes counted. It appears that Bass is moving on to November. It's up in the air as to who she is going to compete with, but the bet is that Spencer Pratt, the TV reality star, will push through till November. This is the Josh Hambur Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn. We'll be back tomorrow. See you then.
- [43:06]
C
Sam.