WEBVTT
00:00:01.987 --> 00:00:06.328
Welcome to another episode of Inside Golden State Politics.
00:00:06.788 --> 00:00:16.248
I'm Bill Boyarsky, former city editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and with me is our producer director, Nancy Boyarsky
00:00:17.493 --> 00:00:34.243
And I'm Sheri Bebitch Jeffe, political analyst and self-styled media maven, coming to you from the realization that I'm tired, I mean really tired, of watching our country spinning apart.
00:00:34.793 --> 00:00:46.493
The political divisions put it, at us are way wider than the 350-yard gash that nearly destroyed the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.
00:00:47.003 --> 00:01:04.834
My guess is that Trump's, quote, vandals, end quote, more responsible for our fraying democracy than any is blame for the near destruction the Reflecting Pool.
00:01:05.634 --> 00:01:12.504
This glass half empty gal will be watching how the general election campaigns play out.
00:01:13.254 --> 00:01:20.534
Will the faint buzz of kumbaya floating through this week's primaries begin to change things?
00:01:21.373 --> 00:01:24.194
hope so, but I'm not naive.
00:01:24.953 --> 00:01:31.963
The late House Speaker Tip O'Neill was right, quote, politics is local," end quote.
00:01:32.543 --> 00:01:42.123
Voters' choices will reflect the needs and concerns and desires of voters in each individual race.
00:01:42.614 --> 00:01:47.114
I think that's an important takeaway from the recent primaries.
00:01:47.823 --> 00:01:48.774
Over to you, Bill
00:01:49.495 --> 00:01:57.406
Well, one thing, Sheri, is if the president offers me a ride on Air Force One I will refuse to take it.
00:01:57.426 --> 00:02:06.115
And if he asked me"Why don't you sit back here with everybody else," my aides, the press especially, I would refuse that too.
00:02:06.615 --> 00:02:10.846
It's hard to criticize anyone taking steps to protect the president
00:02:10.889 --> 00:02:11.430
what it was.
00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:15.960
You're talking about his in and out of Air Force One.
00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:17.310
This has happened.
00:02:17.330 --> 00:02:29.159
Other presidents have done simil- similar things because there's been a threat or because Secret Service want them flying in the plane at that particular time.
00:02:29.449 --> 00:02:58.478
The difference is Trump totally, and his staff, or those of his staff who knew what was happening, just refused to bring into the situation press and the other members, including members of Trump's cabinet, who were in what is now being called the decoy plane, real old Air Force plane.
00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:00.080
listen, here's the thing.
00:03:00.949 --> 00:03:22.233
What the difference was between how the Trump administration handled it and how others, including Obama and Clinton handled it, was that at least a few members of the media were brought in and briefed on what was about to happen and why.
00:03:22.932 --> 00:03:31.775
There is tape of Donald Trump saying if I go, you go." Not even facing the reality
00:03:31.896 --> 00:03:46.176
That's really very true, and I thought it shows what sacrifice he asks of his loyal staff when he even put his immigration hatchet man, Stephen Miller, on
00:03:46.227 --> 00:03:47.287
the decoy plane?
00:03:47.612 --> 00:03:50.443
The decoy or death plane
00:03:52.001 --> 00:03:56.001
I wonder if Stephen Miller knew what was going on.
00:03:56.200 --> 00:04:01.480
It would be a delight to watch him if he had no idea was happening.
00:04:01.721 --> 00:04:03.100
That's somewhat of a message.
00:04:03.311 --> 00:04:12.640
There were, I gather, two lower level staff people who went on the catering truck the president.
00:04:13.040 --> 00:04:14.860
I don't know where they fit them in.
00:04:14.991 --> 00:04:44.670
The whole thing is, shall we say, a bit bizarre, and it is not anything that he needed to have happen on a day when a- another has been released, which indicates his approval rating is down to about 33, and is not getting any air on any of the issues which were so important to him.
00:04:45.781 --> 00:04:58.521
Right now it seems to me that the media and I guess also Americans are treating him like a caricature, like a laughing stock, if you will.
00:04:58.891 --> 00:04:59.021
Is...
00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:08.781
I've never seen a president being treated way Donald Trump is being today.
00:05:09.081 --> 00:05:13.300
I'm not saying I'm crying about it, but I'm just absolutely gobsmacked.
00:05:15.369 --> 00:05:15.678
Yeah,
00:05:15.810 --> 00:05:23.600
lost the it's no longer that high, prominent, important office
00:05:24.367 --> 00:05:37.382
One thing about the week's primary elections that I was very pleased with was the resounding vote for Thanksgiving despite the efforts of of state Rep.
00:05:38.204 --> 00:05:38.653
Hong
00:05:39.122 --> 00:05:46.601
Francesca Hong to downplay my favorite holiday, or at least it's one of my favorite holidays.
00:05:46.601 --> 00:05:50.331
It's some days, some years, this really is my favorite holiday.
00:05:51.132 --> 00:05:55.291
But I def- her efforts to downplay that, she lost.
00:05:55.302 --> 00:06:09.471
And the person who won David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, who was a state rep and who also was a long time, elected official was a, won the election.
00:06:09.482 --> 00:06:11.672
And that was quite a surprise.
00:06:11.732 --> 00:06:18.901
It was a surprise to everybody, including our dear friends, the pollsters, who
00:06:19.098 --> 00:06:19.978
Well, yeah.
00:06:19.987 --> 00:06:22.997
I was about to ask you what the hell happened?
00:06:23.098 --> 00:06:32.148
The pollsters had Francesca Hong pretty well ahead up until the last week or two of the election.
00:06:32.548 --> 00:06:36.548
I'm thinking of a couple of things, but I know what you're gonna say.
00:06:37.247 --> 00:06:40.038
You just think all polls are BS anyway, right?
00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:46.209
I think that they do tend to have a heavy BS factor in them.
00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:50.519
And I'm getting to think that of of prediction markets also.
00:06:50.569 --> 00:06:53.839
I look at those with a little bit of skepticism especially when
00:06:53.923 --> 00:06:54.314
all should
00:06:55.509 --> 00:07:03.959
people bring up the possibilities that, arsonists could be setting fires and then betting on the pro- probability of a fire occurring.
00:07:04.629 --> 00:07:08.220
So let's wait till the election results come in.
00:07:08.649 --> 00:07:10.579
What about the old-fashioned way?
00:07:11.901 --> 00:07:12.752
Which is what?
00:07:12.951 --> 00:07:14.322
Use your fingers to count?
00:07:15.264 --> 00:07:17.024
What is the old-fashioned way?
00:07:17.286 --> 00:07:21.146
The old-fashioned way was to ca- was to wait until the votes came in.
00:07:21.947 --> 00:07:25.757
And all the old experts said,"Wait till the votes come in.
00:07:25.776 --> 00:07:42.326
Wait till the votes come in." And because of our insane desire for speed and quick results we're now in a situation where we're governed by polls and we're governed by the prediction markets.
00:07:43.387 --> 00:07:47.867
Do those two factors have any impact on the results of an election?
00:07:48.449 --> 00:07:55.699
Well, there are some indications that people look at them and use them in making their decision.
00:07:56.038 --> 00:08:00.059
A couple of interviews that I've read seem to indicate...
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:19.579
in one case it was an interview with a woman who really wanted to vote for Hong, like many Democrats I gather in Wisconsin, she was a little shy about Hong's ability to be elected the general election.
00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:29.108
And she said"I wanted to vote my heart," she voted for Crowley she perceived him as more electable.
00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:42.918
There's a new buzzphrase, phrase talking about that's making the rounds all of a sudden and all over, and it's called quality, which is, I think, a euphemism for electability.
00:08:46.058 --> 00:08:55.519
And that was one of the reasons, one of the reasons that in the end Hong couldn't make up that very very narrow margin.
00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:13.499
That margin was so thin that I have to believe that what may have cost Hong the election was her remarks about defunding the police and canceling Thanksgiving.
00:09:14.201 --> 00:09:18.804
The perception was that didn't to dumb too
00:09:19.349 --> 00:09:23.629
electability is another word for being a lousy candidate.
00:09:23.698 --> 00:09:24.649
Now, for instance,
00:09:25.246 --> 00:09:26.297
An unallowed again
00:09:26.869 --> 00:09:34.339
Electability doesn't have anything to do with what a former candidate in Maine had a Nazi symbol on his chest.
00:09:34.649 --> 00:09:36.188
That doesn't really have anything...
00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:39.139
It has more to do with common sense.
00:09:39.739 --> 00:09:43.129
That's part of what makes someone perceived as electable.
00:09:44.168 --> 00:09:44.609
That is
00:09:44.691 --> 00:09:45.591
Whether they are,
00:09:45.749 --> 00:09:46.938
I think it hurt Hong
00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.301
whether they have any brains or they're just plain old stupid
00:09:53.147 --> 00:09:55.206
Well, the point?
00:09:55.638 --> 00:10:06.087
the point is that the reason elections are so interesting and exciting to people like us is you really don't know what's gonna happen until it happens.
00:10:06.477 --> 00:10:36.898
And the exciting part is following the changes and the twists and the turns and if if you have the opportunity to go out with the candidates, walking the neighborhoods, getting a sense of talking to people who run the campaigns, talking to people in markets, doing all of the old traditional boring things, and from that you get an idea of who's ahead and who's gonna win and all, that
00:10:37.231 --> 00:10:37.542
Maybe.
00:10:37.705 --> 00:10:38.205
Maybe.
00:10:38.745 --> 00:10:43.876
On where you do your walking to some extent, doesn't it like prediction markets
00:10:44.917 --> 00:10:47.096
It depends on where you do your walking.
00:10:47.096 --> 00:10:54.147
Your research tells the neighborhoods that are crucial to this particular election.
00:10:54.157 --> 00:11:07.236
When I used to do that kind of work before the old legs gave out and walked up those and down those valley hills I didn't just get out of my car and start walking.
00:11:07.287 --> 00:11:09.037
I knew where I was gonna go.
00:11:09.096 --> 00:11:13.106
I talked to people who ran the campaigns on both sides.
00:11:13.506 --> 00:11:16.086
I talked to people who were involved in politics.
00:11:16.427 --> 00:11:30.397
I got an idea of where the likely target neighborhoods would be, the neighborhoods that they were gonna concentrate for their campaigning, and and those were the neighborhoods that I would go on.
00:11:30.486 --> 00:11:32.476
It's not really going out there blind.
00:11:32.476 --> 00:11:38.636
It's using common sense, and it's also using your knowledge of the area.
00:11:39.167 --> 00:11:43.366
For instance, it's extremely important that a journalist...
00:11:43.417 --> 00:11:51.767
following these campaigns knows the area, has been there before knows the c-candidates and the characters involved.
00:11:52.317 --> 00:11:58.616
All of those things go into a mix of where you go to find out what's going on
00:11:59.773 --> 00:12:07.923
Yeah I hear you saying, and tell me if I'm wrong, that, are better at predicting winners than pollsters are
00:12:08.658 --> 00:12:13.058
No, they're not because jour- a journalist doesn't go in for predictions.
00:12:13.099 --> 00:12:16.448
I never predicted who would win.
00:12:16.619 --> 00:12:18.839
That was one thing I stayed away from.
00:12:20.226 --> 00:12:21.336
But did you predict it was stronger?
00:12:21.908 --> 00:12:26.558
I think any good reporter would stay away from predicting who would win.
00:12:26.589 --> 00:12:28.249
That's not really relevant.
00:12:28.259 --> 00:12:30.269
You don't think of who's gonna win.
00:12:30.548 --> 00:12:40.259
You think about who's doing what, where are they going, what are they saying, what kind of literature are they handing out, what are they saying on television?
00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:51.589
The, all those things are what you think of, but you don't don't predict the winner of a campaign unless you're, really foolish
00:12:51.945 --> 00:12:53.524
If your editor insists, huh?
00:12:53.924 --> 00:12:57.134
No, my editor would never insist on that either.
00:12:57.585 --> 00:12:58.615
I don't think so
00:13:00.086 --> 00:13:20.636
But let me go back just a real quick minute to the question about the polls, all of whom in both Michigan Wisconsin had the Democratic Socialist candidates running away with the election until the election, when they didn't run away from it.
00:13:21.716 --> 00:13:30.417
Part of the problem is the structure and the mechanism the debate, of the polling instrument it- itself.
00:13:30.716 --> 00:13:37.197
Apparently, this was particularly true in and also in Michigan.
00:13:37.596 --> 00:13:56.677
The pollsters themselves, when, you know, that you weigh the sample, and they believed that there would be a far larger turnout of young voters, and that those voters would go to the younger Democratic Socialists, and it didn't happen.
00:13:57.136 --> 00:14:03.356
And that, that kind of tweeted a problem for the pollsters.
00:14:03.807 --> 00:14:18.576
Interestingly, and I don't know if anybody even talked about this and what it might mean, but both Michigan and Wisconsin have open primaries, not at all in terms of the vote ours, if you will.
00:14:19.017 --> 00:14:25.116
Voters don't even register a political party, so I don't know how you get your sample.
00:14:26.067 --> 00:14:27.927
you hold your finger up to the wind.
00:14:28.236 --> 00:14:32.057
But that's certainly gonna skew something at some point.
00:14:32.506 --> 00:14:33.557
So much...
00:14:33.907 --> 00:14:51.047
I've always said and will always say that polls are simply snapshots in time, by time this second, the next minute, the next day, the next month, and things can change and change dramatically, and they did
00:14:52.219 --> 00:14:54.928
I think that's very true and very evident.
00:14:54.958 --> 00:15:09.399
And somebody who's in the political business or business of m-managing campaigns or just being a fan knows that the polls could change in a minute or five minutes, or more likely in a couple of days.
00:15:09.489 --> 00:15:09.899
Yeah.
00:15:09.948 --> 00:15:10.729
Yeah, that's right.
00:15:10.749 --> 00:15:12.558
That it's a moment in time.
00:15:12.568 --> 00:15:14.759
It's a snapshot in time.
00:15:14.869 --> 00:15:16.239
And that's all it is.
00:15:16.889 --> 00:15:18.719
And I think they're of value.
00:15:19.649 --> 00:15:22.269
Any information you get is of value.
00:15:22.948 --> 00:15:26.048
And so polling information is part of the mix.
00:15:26.178 --> 00:15:27.048
Even if it's wrong
00:15:27.304 --> 00:15:33.205
You study the polls, and you go deeply into the polls, who they talk to and all of that.
00:15:33.379 --> 00:15:35.440
The past record of certain polls.
00:15:35.850 --> 00:15:37.980
And from that you draw a conclusion.
00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.519
It's the same with the betting markets.
00:15:40.629 --> 00:15:42.940
That's very valuable information.
00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:55.190
Everybody knows, p- a s- there's a storm of people rushing to the betting booth to put their money on a certain candidate in a moment of hysteria.
00:15:55.789 --> 00:16:00.799
Now they may be driven by all kinds of things like at the races.
00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:04.659
They may be driven by having three or four beers too many.
00:16:04.809 --> 00:16:05.559
Who knows?
00:16:06.046 --> 00:16:06.265
Yeah,
00:16:06.316 --> 00:16:07.346
it's not reliable.
00:16:07.446 --> 00:16:10.145
It's part of the information mix, but not
00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:11.100
Without question.
00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.960
And you have to look at it that way.
00:16:14.019 --> 00:16:40.230
But I also think that part of the reason these campaigns were s- were so focused upon by media and picked apart, if you will, was because made better viewing, it made better reading, and it all hung on is, are Democratic socialists taking over American politics?
00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:40.990
No.
00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:45.789
As I, I said in the beginning, every race has to look at every race.
00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:50.980
Sure, you can find trends, you can find themes.
00:16:50.980 --> 00:17:05.619
It's clear to me that the Democratic Party is debating about the establishment, the old guys spending too much time in charge and they gotta leave.
00:17:05.849 --> 00:17:09.539
Change, a big one, a big issue.
00:17:10.059 --> 00:17:19.609
And, the demand of young voters in particular of moving into leadership positions, think we saw that.
00:17:20.390 --> 00:17:28.900
wasn't real- it was, of course, something to do with labels and ideological labels.
00:17:31.069 --> 00:17:47.730
the only common thing I saw in that dynamic was that there was a whole lot of yelling for change, whether it's progressive or establishment, old or new in the political arena.
00:17:48.089 --> 00:18:02.903
One thing I did see was that very interestingly, it was not a good time to be an older Democratic incumbent running for re-election.
00:18:03.752 --> 00:18:04.542
They got booted.
00:18:04.553 --> 00:18:16.682
Did you know that there are House incumbents defeated in their primary this year, and that's a high, that's a high number, and seven of them were Democrats.
00:18:17.593 --> 00:18:24.202
Now, that to me deserves to be put into the equation of what have we learned?
00:18:24.653 --> 00:18:25.542
What does it mean?
00:18:26.083 --> 00:18:26.742
What does it mean?
00:18:26.843 --> 00:18:32.053
What is where are we going with this demand cry for change?
00:18:32.413 --> 00:18:34.002
Where do you think it's taking us?
00:18:34.012 --> 00:18:40.202
Is it taking us to a smaller government Is it taking us to government healthcare?
00:18:40.792 --> 00:18:43.692
Is it gonna make our lives better, worse?
00:18:44.601 --> 00:18:45.790
Who the hell knows?
00:18:45.884 --> 00:18:47.375
Isn't that the big question though?
00:18:47.762 --> 00:18:53.853
That's theoretically one of the questions voters ask before they vote.
00:18:54.682 --> 00:19:02.262
But it, as you pointed out earlier, we're not gonna know what government even looks like until the votes are in.
00:19:02.542 --> 00:19:04.182
That's the bottom line
00:19:05.921 --> 00:19:17.974
The race for mayor of Los Angeles, by the way, is getting to Very tight and very close and very interesting.
00:19:18.724 --> 00:19:19.494
We have two...
00:19:19.944 --> 00:19:27.335
We have the mayor, Karen Bass, and we have Council Member Lamon.
00:19:27.684 --> 00:19:30.664
And they're fairly close in the polls.
00:19:30.765 --> 00:19:33.394
There's a, a poll out today apparently.
00:19:33.615 --> 00:19:34.545
There is a poll.
00:19:34.855 --> 00:19:50.765
I just got a, a copy of a Karen Bass campaign fundraising email, which indicated that a Politico poll has the breakdown Bass 41%, Raman 35%.
00:19:51.605 --> 00:19:56.704
It's a six-point Bass is ahead.
00:19:57.075 --> 00:20:01.815
The question is it ahead enough or is it too close?
00:20:02.625 --> 00:20:11.555
It's not yet looking like, and it doesn't mean a thing, the very close elections that we saw in Michigan and Wisconsin
00:20:12.028 --> 00:20:25.219
Bass suddenly, unexpectedly arranged for her opponent to be booted off the chairmanship of two of important committees that deal with homelessness, a major issue in this election.
00:20:25.588 --> 00:20:26.959
We know that for a fact?
00:20:27.288 --> 00:20:37.548
We know that Marquise Dawson her colleague and and member of the council said that"Yes, we are changing." She's n- she's no longer gonna hold those posts.
00:20:37.868 --> 00:20:39.499
She acted surprised, too.
00:20:40.038 --> 00:20:51.388
That was a sort of surprising thing for Mayor Bass to do,'cause she's usually very quiet and soft-spoken, and here she are, is she gives her rival the boot.
00:20:51.494 --> 00:20:54.015
pointing out that it was she who initiated it.
00:20:54.015 --> 00:21:08.164
I'm not defending her, I'm just saying that I'm not g- it looks to me, and perception in politics is reality, that there was some little fiddling going on there that had to do with the mayor's race.
00:21:08.625 --> 00:21:15.305
But I'm not gonna be as firm as you are in your interpretation of the dynamic.
00:21:15.625 --> 00:21:33.994
It's not gonna help Bass, I don't think, that the perception may well be that she's been playing the political boss and is, as Ramin put it, the the avatar of the establishment of the status quo.
00:21:35.125 --> 00:21:37.644
I just think the whole thing is very dumb.
00:21:38.265 --> 00:22:01.325
As chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee of the city council, has part of the responsibility for the uptick of homelessness this year Although, of course, she is only talking about the fact that in her district homelessness is down 49%.
00:22:02.055 --> 00:22:12.875
seems to me if you wanna her on her stance on homelessness, you connect her to what's going on citywide.
00:22:13.934 --> 00:22:23.505
already is connected with the fact that citywide homelessness has risen in the last year or so.
00:22:23.845 --> 00:22:26.275
Almost, they're not thinking ahead.
00:22:26.409 --> 00:22:28.257
That's what Trump's Guilty of
00:22:29.161 --> 00:22:30.770
I think the mayor's thinking ahead.
00:22:30.800 --> 00:22:34.939
I think the mayor probably said,"Get rid of her." I don't,
00:22:34.989 --> 00:22:35.098
let's do it
00:22:35.290 --> 00:22:37.461
I don't need her on the city council.
00:22:38.550 --> 00:22:40.931
She had a lot of criticisms of Ramont.
00:22:40.931 --> 00:22:47.601
I don't need her on the city council, not attending meetings, holding up legislation,
00:22:48.128 --> 00:22:48.578
Yeah.
00:22:48.871 --> 00:22:49.520
Not taking
00:22:49.558 --> 00:22:50.568
you've been calling me.
00:22:50.780 --> 00:22:51.911
stance on that.
00:22:52.131 --> 00:22:53.310
I would say that, I'd say that there's...
00:22:53.810 --> 00:22:56.361
If I were the mayor, I'd say,"The hell with her.
00:22:56.510 --> 00:22:58.750
Out." That's-
00:22:58.866 --> 00:23:03.957
think it's stupid, I'm sorry, a whole lot of reasons at this point in time.
00:23:04.557 --> 00:23:07.817
Why in the middle of a very hot political campaign?
00:23:08.166 --> 00:23:10.356
Why didn't hap- that happen earlier?
00:23:10.386 --> 00:23:16.196
I just think, politics perception is reality, and it's what's...
00:23:16.967 --> 00:23:28.426
I think now that I'm thinking about it, it's the, the public response to Boyle Heights is taking it in the ear on Boyle Heights.
00:23:29.267 --> 00:23:37.176
was a difference between the way she approached Heights and the way she approached the Palisades fire.
00:23:37.946 --> 00:23:55.307
But because of the Boyle Heights fire, people are now hearing once again, reading once again, about a really bad time in Karen Bass's first, maybe only, mayoral term.
00:23:56.027 --> 00:23:56.606
That's it.
00:23:56.656 --> 00:23:56.797
I...
00:23:57.374 --> 00:24:12.094
You can't in a bell jar if you're running for office, but you can try not to do s- things that make you be perceived negatively, unevenly, if you will.
00:24:12.193 --> 00:24:16.034
And I think Francesca Hahn understands that now, when six...
00:24:16.743 --> 00:24:34.564
remarks that she made six years ago on social media about defunding the police and about canceling Thanksgiving wound up having, I think, a very dramatic impact on the election, on her losing that election
00:24:34.769 --> 00:24:39.390
Sherry, you used to work for a guy who was speaker of the state assembly.
00:24:39.390 --> 00:24:40.990
His name was Jesse Unruh.
00:24:41.539 --> 00:24:52.609
Now tell me how Jesse Unruh would've reacted to Roman's continued attacks on him if he were running for office.
00:24:53.130 --> 00:24:55.180
Well but Robin is the opponent.
00:24:55.180 --> 00:24:55.480
What is she gonna do?
00:24:55.498 --> 00:24:58.048
What would he, what, what would we have, what would he have done?
00:24:58.208 --> 00:24:59.508
What crummy office, what cr-
00:24:59.778 --> 00:25:00.498
Raven
00:25:00.587 --> 00:25:03.317
what crummy office would he have given her?
00:25:03.807 --> 00:25:04.877
Oh, he did that
00:25:05.089 --> 00:25:06.809
how would he have exiled her?
00:25:07.029 --> 00:25:08.940
How would he have made her life miserable?
00:25:09.001 --> 00:25:09.031
Yeah.
00:25:09.031 --> 00:25:10.031
Thor Wakefield,
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:10.349
How-
00:25:10.961 --> 00:25:28.511
hard right Republican member of the assembly, himself given an office on the sixth floor of the state capitol right next the cafeteria, and it was about the size of a postage stamp.
00:25:29.442 --> 00:25:30.071
That's what he did.
00:25:31.897 --> 00:25:36.117
And he said,"Yeah, I did it." They all knew that it was, the speaker's choice.
00:25:36.798 --> 00:25:38.877
So I don't understand what that
00:25:39.125 --> 00:25:39.145
Do
00:25:39.218 --> 00:25:39.567
to do.
00:25:39.567 --> 00:25:39.998
It's apples
00:25:40.266 --> 00:25:45.185
you think, oh, do you think Jess would've put up with what Ramon's handing out?
00:25:46.605 --> 00:25:48.115
With romance what?
00:25:49.172 --> 00:25:50.592
Her criticism of the mayor
00:25:51.626 --> 00:25:52.366
how have you not
00:25:52.625 --> 00:25:54.345
Oh, she, oh, you're not-- She's not cr-
00:25:54.356 --> 00:25:55.067
an election?
00:25:55.164 --> 00:25:57.105
she's not criticizing the mayor?
00:25:57.394 --> 00:25:59.795
Oh, she's praising the mayor?
00:25:59.984 --> 00:26:07.015
No, she's criticizing the mayor, and I'm just asking you what your old boss, if he w- if he would've tolerated that.
00:26:07.144 --> 00:26:08.565
he was running against
00:26:09.144 --> 00:26:13.994
I would've said, I would've said,"No, put her out on her ass." That's what he would've done
00:26:15.711 --> 00:26:16.040
He did.
00:26:17.141 --> 00:26:18.711
telling you that's what he did.
00:26:18.990 --> 00:26:31.820
And I'm telling you that s- at least a bit matter of timing and a bit of handling or not handling it.
00:26:32.641 --> 00:26:50.921
I don't, And he may well have decided if he was in the middle of a, a nasty race to either have someone in the Democratic caucus play that game just simply use it and throw it back at opponent.
00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:08.181
Sorry, I may be totally wrong, but I don't see what Bass is gaining, if indeed she's the motivation, the demand, behind a re- removing Rahman from her chairmanship
00:27:09.048 --> 00:27:19.169
We got believe it or not, Hilton running for governor of California and Becerra running for governor of California.
00:27:19.169 --> 00:27:26.679
We got them on the same stage a few days ago in Sacramento, and we looked for differences between them.
00:27:26.679 --> 00:27:42.499
Now I was looking at the transcript of their meeting up in Sacramento at a political forum and I could see Becerra opposes denying medical care to poor immigrants.
00:27:43.489 --> 00:27:45.328
He absolutely denies that.
00:27:45.328 --> 00:27:52.788
Hilton wants to eliminate medical care for poor immigrants.
00:27:53.269 --> 00:27:54.429
Is there a difference?
00:27:54.499 --> 00:27:58.888
Are we seeing a difference come out as the campaign goes on between the two?
00:27:59.653 --> 00:28:02.553
I gotta say, I haven't seen anything about the campaign.
00:28:02.563 --> 00:28:04.502
You found the transcript, I didn't.
00:28:04.992 --> 00:28:06.682
But of course we are.
00:28:07.002 --> 00:28:10.403
Becerra's not been endorsed by President Trump.
00:28:12.042 --> 00:28:24.353
Steve Hilton takes a much harder line on policy, on crime, on other MAGA-type conservative Republican-type issues than Becerra does.
00:28:24.563 --> 00:28:28.542
He takes a harder line on immigration Becerra does.
00:28:28.623 --> 00:28:36.442
Remember, one is a Democrat and one is a Trump-endorsed Republican.
00:28:37.313 --> 00:28:40.202
That's the big difference, and that's a...
00:28:40.532 --> 00:28:46.682
That's really something that's hard for Steve Hilton in California.
00:28:47.702 --> 00:28:53.532
It's it, that endorsement is, at best, a double-edged s- sword.
00:28:53.833 --> 00:29:06.022
It may bring Republicans out, all four of them, but it may also bring Democrats out, and independents who don't appear to like Donald Trump either.
00:29:07.222 --> 00:29:13.942
That's the difference, and in California it is an ideological difference, but it is more than that.
00:29:14.353 --> 00:29:25.212
And this is a state where it could well be that Trump's thumb on the scale, it could be damaging from Hilton.
00:29:25.462 --> 00:29:32.353
And don't forget, the numbers are such that Hilton has a heavy load to carry, if at all, anyway
00:29:34.351 --> 00:29:37.090
Sherry, this is this has been a tough one
00:29:38.201 --> 00:29:38.601
Yeah.
00:29:38.840 --> 00:29:46.300
I just wanna make one other point since we are, we're both, we were talking about both the primary elections and the mayor's race.
00:29:46.340 --> 00:30:16.201
If you look at what's going on, if you look at the dynamics of both races, I see the LA mayor's race as basically a microcosm the debate within the Democratic Party in particular, nationwide, in states, in localities, in congressional districts, and in the campaign for LA mayor, youth age, establishment versus newbie.
00:30:16.701 --> 00:30:17.121
It's not...
00:30:17.141 --> 00:30:33.601
and after all, it's not all that much ideological it is about change, not so much about ideology, about candidate quality, about electability.
00:30:33.961 --> 00:30:50.101
And that's why it's, there's nobody winning, not the Democratic socialists, not the old guys in the establishment, and we won't know the results, as you said, until the votes are counted.
00:30:51.219 --> 00:30:51.628
Yeah.
00:30:52.318 --> 00:31:03.138
Maybe the good part of this past week has been to shake out Becerra and and Hilton out of their hiding caves and get them out in the open and and s- and see what they believe.
00:31:03.138 --> 00:31:03.729
I don't know.
00:31:03.818 --> 00:31:04.348
Certainly
00:31:05.406 --> 00:31:06.586
This is unique.
00:31:06.616 --> 00:31:07.596
It truly is.
00:31:07.997 --> 00:31:13.626
And as I've said before, I don't think it's such a bad move by Viscera.
00:31:14.757 --> 00:31:18.297
He can only trip up, and he didn't wanna risk that
00:31:19.054 --> 00:31:19.564
okay.
00:31:19.574 --> 00:31:21.394
Hey, talk to you next week
00:31:22.028 --> 00:31:22.617
Right on.
00:31:22.617 --> 00:31:24.097
We'll continue this debate.
00:31:24.718 --> 00:31:24.748
Okay
00:31:25.698 --> 00:31:26.988
Cheers everybody.
00:31:27.605 --> 00:31:27.976
Bye bye.
00:00:01.987 --> 00:00:06.328
Welcome to another episode of Inside Golden State Politics.
00:00:06.788 --> 00:00:16.248
I'm Bill Boyarsky, former city editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and with me is our producer director, Nancy Boyarsky
00:00:17.493 --> 00:00:34.243
And I'm Sheri Bebitch Jeffe, political analyst and self-styled media maven, coming to you from the realization that I'm tired, I mean really tired, of watching our country spinning apart.
00:00:34.793 --> 00:00:46.493
The political divisions put it, at us are way wider than the 350-yard gash that nearly destroyed the Lincoln Reflecting Pool.
00:00:47.003 --> 00:01:04.834
My guess is that Trump's, quote, vandals, end quote, more responsible for our fraying democracy than any is blame for the near destruction the Reflecting Pool.
00:01:05.634 --> 00:01:12.504
This glass half empty gal will be watching how the general election campaigns play out.
00:01:13.254 --> 00:01:20.534
Will the faint buzz of kumbaya floating through this week's primaries begin to change things?
00:01:21.373 --> 00:01:24.194
hope so, but I'm not naive.
00:01:24.953 --> 00:01:31.963
The late House Speaker Tip O'Neill was right, quote, politics is local," end quote.
00:01:32.543 --> 00:01:42.123
Voters' choices will reflect the needs and concerns and desires of voters in each individual race.
00:01:42.614 --> 00:01:47.114
I think that's an important takeaway from the recent primaries.
00:01:47.823 --> 00:01:48.774
Over to you, Bill
00:01:49.495 --> 00:01:57.406
Well, one thing, Sheri, is if the president offers me a ride on Air Force One I will refuse to take it.
00:01:57.426 --> 00:02:06.115
And if he asked me"Why don't you sit back here with everybody else," my aides, the press especially, I would refuse that too.
00:02:06.615 --> 00:02:10.846
It's hard to criticize anyone taking steps to protect the president
00:02:10.889 --> 00:02:11.430
what it was.
00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:15.960
You're talking about his in and out of Air Force One.
00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:17.310
This has happened.
00:02:17.330 --> 00:02:29.159
Other presidents have done simil- similar things because there's been a threat or because Secret Service want them flying in the plane at that particular time.
00:02:29.449 --> 00:02:58.478
The difference is Trump totally, and his staff, or those of his staff who knew what was happening, just refused to bring into the situation press and the other members, including members of Trump's cabinet, who were in what is now being called the decoy plane, real old Air Force plane.
00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:00.080
listen, here's the thing.
00:03:00.949 --> 00:03:22.233
What the difference was between how the Trump administration handled it and how others, including Obama and Clinton handled it, was that at least a few members of the media were brought in and briefed on what was about to happen and why.
00:03:22.932 --> 00:03:31.775
There is tape of Donald Trump saying if I go, you go." Not even facing the reality
00:03:31.896 --> 00:03:46.176
That's really very true, and I thought it shows what sacrifice he asks of his loyal staff when he even put his immigration hatchet man, Stephen Miller, on
00:03:46.227 --> 00:03:47.287
the decoy plane?
00:03:47.612 --> 00:03:50.443
The decoy or death plane
00:03:52.001 --> 00:03:56.001
I wonder if Stephen Miller knew what was going on.
00:03:56.200 --> 00:04:01.480
It would be a delight to watch him if he had no idea was happening.
00:04:01.721 --> 00:04:03.100
That's somewhat of a message.
00:04:03.311 --> 00:04:12.640
There were, I gather, two lower level staff people who went on the catering truck the president.
00:04:13.040 --> 00:04:14.860
I don't know where they fit them in.
00:04:14.991 --> 00:04:44.670
The whole thing is, shall we say, a bit bizarre, and it is not anything that he needed to have happen on a day when a- another has been released, which indicates his approval rating is down to about 33, and is not getting any air on any of the issues which were so important to him.
00:04:45.781 --> 00:04:58.521
Right now it seems to me that the media and I guess also Americans are treating him like a caricature, like a laughing stock, if you will.
00:04:58.891 --> 00:04:59.021
Is...
00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:08.781
I've never seen a president being treated way Donald Trump is being today.
00:05:09.081 --> 00:05:13.300
I'm not saying I'm crying about it, but I'm just absolutely gobsmacked.
00:05:15.369 --> 00:05:15.678
Yeah,
00:05:15.810 --> 00:05:23.600
lost the it's no longer that high, prominent, important office
00:05:24.367 --> 00:05:37.382
One thing about the week's primary elections that I was very pleased with was the resounding vote for Thanksgiving despite the efforts of of state Rep.
00:05:38.204 --> 00:05:38.653
Hong
00:05:39.122 --> 00:05:46.601
Francesca Hong to downplay my favorite holiday, or at least it's one of my favorite holidays.
00:05:46.601 --> 00:05:50.331
It's some days, some years, this really is my favorite holiday.
00:05:51.132 --> 00:05:55.291
But I def- her efforts to downplay that, she lost.
00:05:55.302 --> 00:06:09.471
And the person who won David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, who was a state rep and who also was a long time, elected official was a, won the election.
00:06:09.482 --> 00:06:11.672
And that was quite a surprise.
00:06:11.732 --> 00:06:18.901
It was a surprise to everybody, including our dear friends, the pollsters, who
00:06:19.098 --> 00:06:19.978
Well, yeah.
00:06:19.987 --> 00:06:22.997
I was about to ask you what the hell happened?
00:06:23.098 --> 00:06:32.148
The pollsters had Francesca Hong pretty well ahead up until the last week or two of the election.
00:06:32.548 --> 00:06:36.548
I'm thinking of a couple of things, but I know what you're gonna say.
00:06:37.247 --> 00:06:40.038
You just think all polls are BS anyway, right?
00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:46.209
I think that they do tend to have a heavy BS factor in them.
00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:50.519
And I'm getting to think that of of prediction markets also.
00:06:50.569 --> 00:06:53.839
I look at those with a little bit of skepticism especially when
00:06:53.923 --> 00:06:54.314
all should
00:06:55.509 --> 00:07:03.959
people bring up the possibilities that, arsonists could be setting fires and then betting on the pro- probability of a fire occurring.
00:07:04.629 --> 00:07:08.220
So let's wait till the election results come in.
00:07:08.649 --> 00:07:10.579
What about the old-fashioned way?
00:07:11.901 --> 00:07:12.752
Which is what?
00:07:12.951 --> 00:07:14.322
Use your fingers to count?
00:07:15.264 --> 00:07:17.024
What is the old-fashioned way?
00:07:17.286 --> 00:07:21.146
The old-fashioned way was to ca- was to wait until the votes came in.
00:07:21.947 --> 00:07:25.757
And all the old experts said,"Wait till the votes come in.
00:07:25.776 --> 00:07:42.326
Wait till the votes come in." And because of our insane desire for speed and quick results we're now in a situation where we're governed by polls and we're governed by the prediction markets.
00:07:43.387 --> 00:07:47.867
Do those two factors have any impact on the results of an election?
00:07:48.449 --> 00:07:55.699
Well, there are some indications that people look at them and use them in making their decision.
00:07:56.038 --> 00:08:00.059
A couple of interviews that I've read seem to indicate...
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:19.579
in one case it was an interview with a woman who really wanted to vote for Hong, like many Democrats I gather in Wisconsin, she was a little shy about Hong's ability to be elected the general election.
00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:29.108
And she said"I wanted to vote my heart," she voted for Crowley she perceived him as more electable.
00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:42.918
There's a new buzzphrase, phrase talking about that's making the rounds all of a sudden and all over, and it's called quality, which is, I think, a euphemism for electability.
00:08:46.058 --> 00:08:55.519
And that was one of the reasons, one of the reasons that in the end Hong couldn't make up that very very narrow margin.
00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:13.499
That margin was so thin that I have to believe that what may have cost Hong the election was her remarks about defunding the police and canceling Thanksgiving.
00:09:14.201 --> 00:09:18.804
The perception was that didn't to dumb too
00:09:19.349 --> 00:09:23.629
electability is another word for being a lousy candidate.
00:09:23.698 --> 00:09:24.649
Now, for instance,
00:09:25.246 --> 00:09:26.297
An unallowed again
00:09:26.869 --> 00:09:34.339
Electability doesn't have anything to do with what a former candidate in Maine had a Nazi symbol on his chest.
00:09:34.649 --> 00:09:36.188
That doesn't really have anything...
00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:39.139
It has more to do with common sense.
00:09:39.739 --> 00:09:43.129
That's part of what makes someone perceived as electable.
00:09:44.168 --> 00:09:44.609
That is
00:09:44.691 --> 00:09:45.591
Whether they are,
00:09:45.749 --> 00:09:46.938
I think it hurt Hong
00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:52.301
whether they have any brains or they're just plain old stupid
00:09:53.147 --> 00:09:55.206
Well, the point?
00:09:55.638 --> 00:10:06.087
the point is that the reason elections are so interesting and exciting to people like us is you really don't know what's gonna happen until it happens.
00:10:06.477 --> 00:10:36.898
And the exciting part is following the changes and the twists and the turns and if if you have the opportunity to go out with the candidates, walking the neighborhoods, getting a sense of talking to people who run the campaigns, talking to people in markets, doing all of the old traditional boring things, and from that you get an idea of who's ahead and who's gonna win and all, that
00:10:37.231 --> 00:10:37.542
Maybe.
00:10:37.705 --> 00:10:38.205
Maybe.
00:10:38.745 --> 00:10:43.876
On where you do your walking to some extent, doesn't it like prediction markets
00:10:44.917 --> 00:10:47.096
It depends on where you do your walking.
00:10:47.096 --> 00:10:54.147
Your research tells the neighborhoods that are crucial to this particular election.
00:10:54.157 --> 00:11:07.236
When I used to do that kind of work before the old legs gave out and walked up those and down those valley hills I didn't just get out of my car and start walking.
00:11:07.287 --> 00:11:09.037
I knew where I was gonna go.
00:11:09.096 --> 00:11:13.106
I talked to people who ran the campaigns on both sides.
00:11:13.506 --> 00:11:16.086
I talked to people who were involved in politics.
00:11:16.427 --> 00:11:30.397
I got an idea of where the likely target neighborhoods would be, the neighborhoods that they were gonna concentrate for their campaigning, and and those were the neighborhoods that I would go on.
00:11:30.486 --> 00:11:32.476
It's not really going out there blind.
00:11:32.476 --> 00:11:38.636
It's using common sense, and it's also using your knowledge of the area.
00:11:39.167 --> 00:11:43.366
For instance, it's extremely important that a journalist...
00:11:43.417 --> 00:11:51.767
following these campaigns knows the area, has been there before knows the c-candidates and the characters involved.
00:11:52.317 --> 00:11:58.616
All of those things go into a mix of where you go to find out what's going on
00:11:59.773 --> 00:12:07.923
Yeah I hear you saying, and tell me if I'm wrong, that, are better at predicting winners than pollsters are
00:12:08.658 --> 00:12:13.058
No, they're not because jour- a journalist doesn't go in for predictions.
00:12:13.099 --> 00:12:16.448
I never predicted who would win.
00:12:16.619 --> 00:12:18.839
That was one thing I stayed away from.
00:12:20.226 --> 00:12:21.336
But did you predict it was stronger?
00:12:21.908 --> 00:12:26.558
I think any good reporter would stay away from predicting who would win.
00:12:26.589 --> 00:12:28.249
That's not really relevant.
00:12:28.259 --> 00:12:30.269
You don't think of who's gonna win.
00:12:30.548 --> 00:12:40.259
You think about who's doing what, where are they going, what are they saying, what kind of literature are they handing out, what are they saying on television?
00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:51.589
The, all those things are what you think of, but you don't don't predict the winner of a campaign unless you're, really foolish
00:12:51.945 --> 00:12:53.524
If your editor insists, huh?
00:12:53.924 --> 00:12:57.134
No, my editor would never insist on that either.
00:12:57.585 --> 00:12:58.615
I don't think so
00:13:00.086 --> 00:13:20.636
But let me go back just a real quick minute to the question about the polls, all of whom in both Michigan Wisconsin had the Democratic Socialist candidates running away with the election until the election, when they didn't run away from it.
00:13:21.716 --> 00:13:30.417
Part of the problem is the structure and the mechanism the debate, of the polling instrument it- itself.
00:13:30.716 --> 00:13:37.197
Apparently, this was particularly true in and also in Michigan.
00:13:37.596 --> 00:13:56.677
The pollsters themselves, when, you know, that you weigh the sample, and they believed that there would be a far larger turnout of young voters, and that those voters would go to the younger Democratic Socialists, and it didn't happen.
00:13:57.136 --> 00:14:03.356
And that, that kind of tweeted a problem for the pollsters.
00:14:03.807 --> 00:14:18.576
Interestingly, and I don't know if anybody even talked about this and what it might mean, but both Michigan and Wisconsin have open primaries, not at all in terms of the vote ours, if you will.
00:14:19.017 --> 00:14:25.116
Voters don't even register a political party, so I don't know how you get your sample.
00:14:26.067 --> 00:14:27.927
you hold your finger up to the wind.
00:14:28.236 --> 00:14:32.057
But that's certainly gonna skew something at some point.
00:14:32.506 --> 00:14:33.557
So much...
00:14:33.907 --> 00:14:51.047
I've always said and will always say that polls are simply snapshots in time, by time this second, the next minute, the next day, the next month, and things can change and change dramatically, and they did
00:14:52.219 --> 00:14:54.928
I think that's very true and very evident.
00:14:54.958 --> 00:15:09.399
And somebody who's in the political business or business of m-managing campaigns or just being a fan knows that the polls could change in a minute or five minutes, or more likely in a couple of days.
00:15:09.489 --> 00:15:09.899
Yeah.
00:15:09.948 --> 00:15:10.729
Yeah, that's right.
00:15:10.749 --> 00:15:12.558
That it's a moment in time.
00:15:12.568 --> 00:15:14.759
It's a snapshot in time.
00:15:14.869 --> 00:15:16.239
And that's all it is.
00:15:16.889 --> 00:15:18.719
And I think they're of value.
00:15:19.649 --> 00:15:22.269
Any information you get is of value.
00:15:22.948 --> 00:15:26.048
And so polling information is part of the mix.
00:15:26.178 --> 00:15:27.048
Even if it's wrong
00:15:27.304 --> 00:15:33.205
You study the polls, and you go deeply into the polls, who they talk to and all of that.
00:15:33.379 --> 00:15:35.440
The past record of certain polls.
00:15:35.850 --> 00:15:37.980
And from that you draw a conclusion.
00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.519
It's the same with the betting markets.
00:15:40.629 --> 00:15:42.940
That's very valuable information.
00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:55.190
Everybody knows, p- a s- there's a storm of people rushing to the betting booth to put their money on a certain candidate in a moment of hysteria.
00:15:55.789 --> 00:16:00.799
Now they may be driven by all kinds of things like at the races.
00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:04.659
They may be driven by having three or four beers too many.
00:16:04.809 --> 00:16:05.559
Who knows?
00:16:06.046 --> 00:16:06.265
Yeah,
00:16:06.316 --> 00:16:07.346
it's not reliable.
00:16:07.446 --> 00:16:10.145
It's part of the information mix, but not
00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:11.100
Without question.
00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.960
And you have to look at it that way.
00:16:14.019 --> 00:16:40.230
But I also think that part of the reason these campaigns were s- were so focused upon by media and picked apart, if you will, was because made better viewing, it made better reading, and it all hung on is, are Democratic socialists taking over American politics?
00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:40.990
No.
00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:45.789
As I, I said in the beginning, every race has to look at every race.
00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:50.980
Sure, you can find trends, you can find themes.
00:16:50.980 --> 00:17:05.619
It's clear to me that the Democratic Party is debating about the establishment, the old guys spending too much time in charge and they gotta leave.
00:17:05.849 --> 00:17:09.539
Change, a big one, a big issue.
00:17:10.059 --> 00:17:19.609
And, the demand of young voters in particular of moving into leadership positions, think we saw that.
00:17:20.390 --> 00:17:28.900
wasn't real- it was, of course, something to do with labels and ideological labels.
00:17:31.069 --> 00:17:47.730
the only common thing I saw in that dynamic was that there was a whole lot of yelling for change, whether it's progressive or establishment, old or new in the political arena.
00:17:48.089 --> 00:18:02.903
One thing I did see was that very interestingly, it was not a good time to be an older Democratic incumbent running for re-election.
00:18:03.752 --> 00:18:04.542
They got booted.
00:18:04.553 --> 00:18:16.682
Did you know that there are House incumbents defeated in their primary this year, and that's a high, that's a high number, and seven of them were Democrats.
00:18:17.593 --> 00:18:24.202
Now, that to me deserves to be put into the equation of what have we learned?
00:18:24.653 --> 00:18:25.542
What does it mean?
00:18:26.083 --> 00:18:26.742
What does it mean?
00:18:26.843 --> 00:18:32.053
What is where are we going with this demand cry for change?
00:18:32.413 --> 00:18:34.002
Where do you think it's taking us?
00:18:34.012 --> 00:18:40.202
Is it taking us to a smaller government Is it taking us to government healthcare?
00:18:40.792 --> 00:18:43.692
Is it gonna make our lives better, worse?
00:18:44.601 --> 00:18:45.790
Who the hell knows?
00:18:45.884 --> 00:18:47.375
Isn't that the big question though?
00:18:47.762 --> 00:18:53.853
That's theoretically one of the questions voters ask before they vote.
00:18:54.682 --> 00:19:02.262
But it, as you pointed out earlier, we're not gonna know what government even looks like until the votes are in.
00:19:02.542 --> 00:19:04.182
That's the bottom line
00:19:05.921 --> 00:19:17.974
The race for mayor of Los Angeles, by the way, is getting to Very tight and very close and very interesting.
00:19:18.724 --> 00:19:19.494
We have two...
00:19:19.944 --> 00:19:27.335
We have the mayor, Karen Bass, and we have Council Member Lamon.
00:19:27.684 --> 00:19:30.664
And they're fairly close in the polls.
00:19:30.765 --> 00:19:33.394
There's a, a poll out today apparently.
00:19:33.615 --> 00:19:34.545
There is a poll.
00:19:34.855 --> 00:19:50.765
I just got a, a copy of a Karen Bass campaign fundraising email, which indicated that a Politico poll has the breakdown Bass 41%, Raman 35%.
00:19:51.605 --> 00:19:56.704
It's a six-point Bass is ahead.
00:19:57.075 --> 00:20:01.815
The question is it ahead enough or is it too close?
00:20:02.625 --> 00:20:11.555
It's not yet looking like, and it doesn't mean a thing, the very close elections that we saw in Michigan and Wisconsin
00:20:12.028 --> 00:20:25.219
Bass suddenly, unexpectedly arranged for her opponent to be booted off the chairmanship of two of important committees that deal with homelessness, a major issue in this election.
00:20:25.588 --> 00:20:26.959
We know that for a fact?
00:20:27.288 --> 00:20:37.548
We know that Marquise Dawson her colleague and and member of the council said that"Yes, we are changing." She's n- she's no longer gonna hold those posts.
00:20:37.868 --> 00:20:39.499
She acted surprised, too.
00:20:40.038 --> 00:20:51.388
That was a sort of surprising thing for Mayor Bass to do,'cause she's usually very quiet and soft-spoken, and here she are, is she gives her rival the boot.
00:20:51.494 --> 00:20:54.015
pointing out that it was she who initiated it.
00:20:54.015 --> 00:21:08.164
I'm not defending her, I'm just saying that I'm not g- it looks to me, and perception in politics is reality, that there was some little fiddling going on there that had to do with the mayor's race.
00:21:08.625 --> 00:21:15.305
But I'm not gonna be as firm as you are in your interpretation of the dynamic.
00:21:15.625 --> 00:21:33.994
It's not gonna help Bass, I don't think, that the perception may well be that she's been playing the political boss and is, as Ramin put it, the the avatar of the establishment of the status quo.
00:21:35.125 --> 00:21:37.644
I just think the whole thing is very dumb.
00:21:38.265 --> 00:22:01.325
As chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee of the city council, has part of the responsibility for the uptick of homelessness this year Although, of course, she is only talking about the fact that in her district homelessness is down 49%.
00:22:02.055 --> 00:22:12.875
seems to me if you wanna her on her stance on homelessness, you connect her to what's going on citywide.
00:22:13.934 --> 00:22:23.505
already is connected with the fact that citywide homelessness has risen in the last year or so.
00:22:23.845 --> 00:22:26.275
Almost, they're not thinking ahead.
00:22:26.409 --> 00:22:28.257
That's what Trump's Guilty of
00:22:29.161 --> 00:22:30.770
I think the mayor's thinking ahead.
00:22:30.800 --> 00:22:34.939
I think the mayor probably said,"Get rid of her." I don't,
00:22:34.989 --> 00:22:35.098
let's do it
00:22:35.290 --> 00:22:37.461
I don't need her on the city council.
00:22:38.550 --> 00:22:40.931
She had a lot of criticisms of Ramont.
00:22:40.931 --> 00:22:47.601
I don't need her on the city council, not attending meetings, holding up legislation,
00:22:48.128 --> 00:22:48.578
Yeah.
00:22:48.871 --> 00:22:49.520
Not taking
00:22:49.558 --> 00:22:50.568
you've been calling me.
00:22:50.780 --> 00:22:51.911
stance on that.
00:22:52.131 --> 00:22:53.310
I would say that, I'd say that there's...
00:22:53.810 --> 00:22:56.361
If I were the mayor, I'd say,"The hell with her.
00:22:56.510 --> 00:22:58.750
Out." That's-
00:22:58.866 --> 00:23:03.957
think it's stupid, I'm sorry, a whole lot of reasons at this point in time.
00:23:04.557 --> 00:23:07.817
Why in the middle of a very hot political campaign?
00:23:08.166 --> 00:23:10.356
Why didn't hap- that happen earlier?
00:23:10.386 --> 00:23:16.196
I just think, politics perception is reality, and it's what's...
00:23:16.967 --> 00:23:28.426
I think now that I'm thinking about it, it's the, the public response to Boyle Heights is taking it in the ear on Boyle Heights.
00:23:29.267 --> 00:23:37.176
was a difference between the way she approached Heights and the way she approached the Palisades fire.
00:23:37.946 --> 00:23:55.307
But because of the Boyle Heights fire, people are now hearing once again, reading once again, about a really bad time in Karen Bass's first, maybe only, mayoral term.
00:23:56.027 --> 00:23:56.606
That's it.
00:23:56.656 --> 00:23:56.797
I...
00:23:57.374 --> 00:24:12.094
You can't in a bell jar if you're running for office, but you can try not to do s- things that make you be perceived negatively, unevenly, if you will.
00:24:12.193 --> 00:24:16.034
And I think Francesca Hahn understands that now, when six...
00:24:16.743 --> 00:24:34.564
remarks that she made six years ago on social media about defunding the police and about canceling Thanksgiving wound up having, I think, a very dramatic impact on the election, on her losing that election
00:24:34.769 --> 00:24:39.390
Sherry, you used to work for a guy who was speaker of the state assembly.
00:24:39.390 --> 00:24:40.990
His name was Jesse Unruh.
00:24:41.539 --> 00:24:52.609
Now tell me how Jesse Unruh would've reacted to Roman's continued attacks on him if he were running for office.
00:24:53.130 --> 00:24:55.180
Well but Robin is the opponent.
00:24:55.180 --> 00:24:55.480
What is she gonna do?
00:24:55.498 --> 00:24:58.048
What would he, what, what would we have, what would he have done?
00:24:58.208 --> 00:24:59.508
What crummy office, what cr-
00:24:59.778 --> 00:25:00.498
Raven
00:25:00.587 --> 00:25:03.317
what crummy office would he have given her?
00:25:03.807 --> 00:25:04.877
Oh, he did that
00:25:05.089 --> 00:25:06.809
how would he have exiled her?
00:25:07.029 --> 00:25:08.940
How would he have made her life miserable?
00:25:09.001 --> 00:25:09.031
Yeah.
00:25:09.031 --> 00:25:10.031
Thor Wakefield,
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:10.349
How-
00:25:10.961 --> 00:25:28.511
hard right Republican member of the assembly, himself given an office on the sixth floor of the state capitol right next the cafeteria, and it was about the size of a postage stamp.
00:25:29.442 --> 00:25:30.071
That's what he did.
00:25:31.897 --> 00:25:36.117
And he said,"Yeah, I did it." They all knew that it was, the speaker's choice.
00:25:36.798 --> 00:25:38.877
So I don't understand what that
00:25:39.125 --> 00:25:39.145
Do
00:25:39.218 --> 00:25:39.567
to do.
00:25:39.567 --> 00:25:39.998
It's apples
00:25:40.266 --> 00:25:45.185
you think, oh, do you think Jess would've put up with what Ramon's handing out?
00:25:46.605 --> 00:25:48.115
With romance what?
00:25:49.172 --> 00:25:50.592
Her criticism of the mayor
00:25:51.626 --> 00:25:52.366
how have you not
00:25:52.625 --> 00:25:54.345
Oh, she, oh, you're not-- She's not cr-
00:25:54.356 --> 00:25:55.067
an election?
00:25:55.164 --> 00:25:57.105
she's not criticizing the mayor?
00:25:57.394 --> 00:25:59.795
Oh, she's praising the mayor?
00:25:59.984 --> 00:26:07.015
No, she's criticizing the mayor, and I'm just asking you what your old boss, if he w- if he would've tolerated that.
00:26:07.144 --> 00:26:08.565
he was running against
00:26:09.144 --> 00:26:13.994
I would've said, I would've said,"No, put her out on her ass." That's what he would've done
00:26:15.711 --> 00:26:16.040
He did.
00:26:17.141 --> 00:26:18.711
telling you that's what he did.
00:26:18.990 --> 00:26:31.820
And I'm telling you that s- at least a bit matter of timing and a bit of handling or not handling it.
00:26:32.641 --> 00:26:50.921
I don't, And he may well have decided if he was in the middle of a, a nasty race to either have someone in the Democratic caucus play that game just simply use it and throw it back at opponent.
00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:08.181
Sorry, I may be totally wrong, but I don't see what Bass is gaining, if indeed she's the motivation, the demand, behind a re- removing Rahman from her chairmanship
00:27:09.048 --> 00:27:19.169
We got believe it or not, Hilton running for governor of California and Becerra running for governor of California.
00:27:19.169 --> 00:27:26.679
We got them on the same stage a few days ago in Sacramento, and we looked for differences between them.
00:27:26.679 --> 00:27:42.499
Now I was looking at the transcript of their meeting up in Sacramento at a political forum and I could see Becerra opposes denying medical care to poor immigrants.
00:27:43.489 --> 00:27:45.328
He absolutely denies that.
00:27:45.328 --> 00:27:52.788
Hilton wants to eliminate medical care for poor immigrants.
00:27:53.269 --> 00:27:54.429
Is there a difference?
00:27:54.499 --> 00:27:58.888
Are we seeing a difference come out as the campaign goes on between the two?
00:27:59.653 --> 00:28:02.553
I gotta say, I haven't seen anything about the campaign.
00:28:02.563 --> 00:28:04.502
You found the transcript, I didn't.
00:28:04.992 --> 00:28:06.682
But of course we are.
00:28:07.002 --> 00:28:10.403
Becerra's not been endorsed by President Trump.
00:28:12.042 --> 00:28:24.353
Steve Hilton takes a much harder line on policy, on crime, on other MAGA-type conservative Republican-type issues than Becerra does.
00:28:24.563 --> 00:28:28.542
He takes a harder line on immigration Becerra does.
00:28:28.623 --> 00:28:36.442
Remember, one is a Democrat and one is a Trump-endorsed Republican.
00:28:37.313 --> 00:28:40.202
That's the big difference, and that's a...
00:28:40.532 --> 00:28:46.682
That's really something that's hard for Steve Hilton in California.
00:28:47.702 --> 00:28:53.532
It's it, that endorsement is, at best, a double-edged s- sword.
00:28:53.833 --> 00:29:06.022
It may bring Republicans out, all four of them, but it may also bring Democrats out, and independents who don't appear to like Donald Trump either.
00:29:07.222 --> 00:29:13.942
That's the difference, and in California it is an ideological difference, but it is more than that.
00:29:14.353 --> 00:29:25.212
And this is a state where it could well be that Trump's thumb on the scale, it could be damaging from Hilton.
00:29:25.462 --> 00:29:32.353
And don't forget, the numbers are such that Hilton has a heavy load to carry, if at all, anyway
00:29:34.351 --> 00:29:37.090
Sherry, this is this has been a tough one
00:29:38.201 --> 00:29:38.601
Yeah.
00:29:38.840 --> 00:29:46.300
I just wanna make one other point since we are, we're both, we were talking about both the primary elections and the mayor's race.
00:29:46.340 --> 00:30:16.201
If you look at what's going on, if you look at the dynamics of both races, I see the LA mayor's race as basically a microcosm the debate within the Democratic Party in particular, nationwide, in states, in localities, in congressional districts, and in the campaign for LA mayor, youth age, establishment versus newbie.
00:30:16.701 --> 00:30:17.121
It's not...
00:30:17.141 --> 00:30:33.601
and after all, it's not all that much ideological it is about change, not so much about ideology, about candidate quality, about electability.
00:30:33.961 --> 00:30:50.101
And that's why it's, there's nobody winning, not the Democratic socialists, not the old guys in the establishment, and we won't know the results, as you said, until the votes are counted.
00:30:51.219 --> 00:30:51.628
Yeah.
00:30:52.318 --> 00:31:03.138
Maybe the good part of this past week has been to shake out Becerra and and Hilton out of their hiding caves and get them out in the open and and s- and see what they believe.
00:31:03.138 --> 00:31:03.729
I don't know.
00:31:03.818 --> 00:31:04.348
Certainly
00:31:05.406 --> 00:31:06.586
This is unique.
00:31:06.616 --> 00:31:07.596
It truly is.
00:31:07.997 --> 00:31:13.626
And as I've said before, I don't think it's such a bad move by Viscera.
00:31:14.757 --> 00:31:18.297
He can only trip up, and he didn't wanna risk that
00:31:19.054 --> 00:31:19.564
okay.
00:31:19.574 --> 00:31:21.394
Hey, talk to you next week
00:31:22.028 --> 00:31:22.617
Right on.
00:31:22.617 --> 00:31:24.097
We'll continue this debate.
00:31:24.718 --> 00:31:24.748
Okay
00:31:25.698 --> 00:31:26.988
Cheers everybody.
00:31:27.605 --> 00:31:27.976
Bye bye.