And a very happy election night to you at seven oh five in the West, I am John Phillips here with you until nine o'clock in the evening, bringing you all the results as soon as the polls close at eight o'clock in the evening, which means you have about fifty five minutes left to vote if you have not cast a ballot yet and you would like to drop off your ballot at a polling location or vote in person at voting center that are still open all over
the state of California again until eight o'clock at night, and then who knows how long it'll be after the polls close at eight before we start to get some results in. We'd like to be with you until we know who's going to win and who's going to lose, but with Shirley Weber and a rabicus, that may take
a while. We're keeping an eye on all of the results that are going to be coming in the statewide elections, from governor all the way down to state Superintendent of Public Instruction mister Frank Motech, who you can listen to weekdays from four to five in the afternoon on talk radio seven ninety k ABC in Los Angeles. Is your Voice of business is keeping an eye on all of those races.
John Phillips, an honor to be with you and Randy Wang here tonight for our special election night coverage. I'm keeping an eye on the right now the betting markets, Polly Market, and also the calshiy markets who will advance
from the California governor primary tonight. Well looks like the money at the moment is on Javier Bisera or Javier Bakaria as I know you call him on your Great show, which shows what President Biden called him, right, Steve Hilton at seventy four percent, Tom Steyer now at forty percent. We're keeping an eye on that. That's according to Polly Market, and it looks like the Calshi markets also out with
their betting tonight. California governor primary advancers put Besera at nearly ninety four percent now, Steve Hilton's seventy three percent and Tom Steyer at forty three percent. It's going to be a fun night.
And you're also going to be keeping an eye on the Lieutenant governor's race, the state controllers race, the Insurance commissioner, and all the other constitutional offices. Yes, sir, all right. Mister Randy Wegg, who you can listen to each weekday from noon to three with me on KABC in La and KSFO in San Francisco and on the weekends on KMJ in Fresno, is keeping an eye on the LA Mayor's race and all of the ballot initiatives that are also going to be decided today.
Isn't it strange that this is the first election where we're initially going off with the gambling. This has turned into a live sports show.
Real fun.
The most the most watched race in America right now is the LA Mayors race and the polls are going to close at eight o'clock. There's going to be an update from the La County Registrar at eight thirty of all the ballots that were mailed in before yesterday, and then another update at eight forty five of all the voting that was done in person before yesterday. And if they're on time, we'll actually have result for that race.
And if they're not on time, I can give you the gambling markets that say Karen Bass is a ninety one percent chance to advance to the November runoff. Spencer Pratt has a seventy seven percent chance to advance the November runoff, and Nithia Rahman has a twenty nine percent
chance to advance the Number runoff. We'll also be looking at the ballot measures, including the sales tax increase in La County, Measure ER and Measure CB in the City of Los Angeles, which would allow the City of La if passed, to send tax bills to illegally operating pot stores. How that works, nobody knows.
All this gambling talk makes me want to order a scotch and sit down and play some bokarad You're lucky.
You don't know how to use these websites yet, because this is going to be a problem for you.
Oh, I'd be living under the freeway along with everyone else in California under Gavin Newsom. We're also joined by our pal Phil Teresi, who you can listen to weekdays from two to six in the afternoon on Kate M Jay in Fresno.
He is keeping an eye on all of the hot.
Congressional races going on here in the Golden State.
Phil, gentlemen, thank you for including me. I'm very excited to see exactly how much damage Prop fifty does to our elections process in this primary.
Well, we used to have so many contested congressional seats here. At one point in time, it was predicted by Nancy Pelosi of all people, that the road to the majority in Washington would go through California. But now we only have a handful of seats that are being contested by both parties.
And that's exactly it. When they did the redistricting, they obviously went out of their way to target folks they thought were going to be easy. Notice Tom McClintock remains unmolested by Prop fifty, but they're going hard after David Valadeo, Kevin Kylie having to jump off to a completely different district, and it's unfortunately. I think Aunt Nancy might have been up to something once you made that prediction.
Now, speaking of Nancy, there's also a congressional district in San Francisco where there is a hotly contested race, the race to determine who will replace Nancy Pelosi as the congress person from San Francisco, and she endorsed in that race against Scott Wiener, who is the state senator and believed to be the front runner.
She's anti Weiener, and pro Connie Chan.
While I can't say that I'm enthusiastic about either one, I'm privately hoping that Wiener wins, just so we have an excuse to keep dropping that name.
Well, we are radio people, so that's what's going on right now. We're keeping an eye on all of that for you. The Pauls again are now open for another forty nine minutes. So if you want to vote, you want to cast your ballot on any of the races that we mentioned or some that we did not mention, you have less than an hour to do so, so make sure you get your ballot turned in if you want to have your voice heard in this election. All right.
Joining us right now to talk about all of this is a woman whose voice is very familiar on the airwaves of KSFO in San Francisco KABC in LA. She's the host of the Howard Jarvis radio program. She's also a columnist in the Southern California News Group.
Susan Shelley.
Welcome, Thank you, John. Great to be with you.
So let's start out with the governor's race. Essentially, it looks like Javier Besserra is the likely first place finisher and there's a toss up going on right now for the second slot involving Steve Hilton and Tom Steyer. We've seen some reports from CNN and other shops saying that Styer is doing better than expected in Los Angeles County.
Your thoughts, well, if it's Styer and Hilton in the governor's race, it's going to be a titanic battle over Proposition thirteen because Ve Hilton has vowed to protect Prop thirteen, he's endorsed by Howard Jarvis, and.
Steyer has vowed to destroy Prop thirteen. So if you care about your property taxes in California, that's going to be quite a race to watch.
If that's what happens.
And if the race is Besarah versus Hilton, Besarah would certainly have a huge advantage in that contest.
Well, he would have a huge advantage in that the political machine and all of the major political donors, all the associations and unions in California will back him. However, he's got some legal problems and there's no getting around the fact that three people tied to tied to watching his campaign account his dormant campaign account, and you know that's another whole story that we can educate people about someday why he has a dormant campaign account. They've been
they've pleaded guilty to conspiracy wirefraud. This is not a good situation for him, and that could certainly we blow up between now and November.
We do not know how any of the ballots that have been cast, how the voters voted on those ballots, but we do know who has turned them in so far, and we know that Republican voters have turned their ballots in at a higher clip than they did four years ago, and Democrats are underperforming where they were four years ago. What do you make of that?
I think a lot of it is that people were waiting to see who they were going to vote for because it was such an unusual governor's race. Eric Swalwell dropping out and he was the front runner, and all of these others being urged to drop out, and then one of the people who was being urged to drop out was the Sarah who's now in the league position. So I don't know if the chair of the California Democratic Party survived that effort to try to drive out
people from the race. Everybody else stayed in. Eric Walwell is still on the ballot. Who knows how that will play in do it as people vote for a familiar name. It's just really hard to predict this, and I think a lot of Democrats were confused and waiting, and no one was really pushing them very hard with balla harvesting and the other types of tactics that they used to get that vote out.
Early on the Republican side of the aisle, we saw consolidation occur, primarily when President Trump came out and endorse Steve Hilton. That's when we saw Hilton start to pop in the polls, and that's when we started to see Bianco falling off. We've also seen in recent days consolidation going on on the Democratic side, where after Eric Swallwell dropped out of the race, we saw Javier Bessera on the rise, and we saw Tom Steyer move into that
second place slot. We also saw Katie Porter, who had been pulling in the double digits, slip down to the single digits, and Antonio via Rigosa, who pulled just below ten percent at one point in the race, is now near an asterisk. What do you make that.
I have to say that when you look at the actual ballot, not the polling questions, but the ballot that the voters have to confront with sixty one names on it. Searching for the one that you want to vote for is a ten minute project by itself. So I'm not sure that these polls are completely accurate. It could be that some of the candidates that we think aren't going to do well will do better, or it could be that everybody drops to zero except the Sarah because all
the Democrats got on board at the last minute. I have found this particular election to be just incredibly difficult to predict.
The betting markets have Karen Bass, the incumbent mayor of Los Angeles, seeking another four year term, and Spencer Pratt, of The Hills reality show star who's home burned down on the Pacific Palisades. They have those two candidates making it to the November ballot. Is that what you expect to see?
Yes? I do.
A lot of people said that Spencer Pratt had a social media campaign, but when when you looked at the fundraising in the last reported period, which was mid April to mid May, he raised almost three million dollars to Karen Bass's about two hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
That's real.
When people are donating at that level, even when they're afraid of the government retaliating against those businesses, which they are in Los Angeles, When they're donating at that level, something real is going on. And I think he's been out in the community. He's been working very hard on retail politics, not a social media campaign, a lot of interviews, You've done interviews with him. I think he's worked very hard at this and I think he could win.
The thing that.
Is so odd to me about that race is typically, when you see an incumbent running for reelection, the focus is on the incumbent, the focus is on their performance. We know the iconic line, are you better off now than you were four years ago? But in this race, it seems like they've taken the heat off of Karen
and the focus is entirely on Spencer Pratt. I had John Thomas, the political consultant, on earlier today and I asked him, do you think that's because of political bias or do you think that's just because he's a more interesting person? And people are going to read a story about Spencer Pratt, but maybe not read one about Karen Bass.
Well, you know, to me, he's been telling the truth, and we've been missing the truth in Los Angeles for quite a while. When you hear people in the government say everything's fine, except we just need one more tax increase for more of these same homeless contracts, and they say, oh, these are our unhoused neighbors. Nobody's a drug addict, They're just it's the price of housing in Los Angeles. And people have a right to live in a free apartment
at the beach because that's their home. Everybody in Los Angeles knows something's really wrong, and when no one in the government is saying it, and then you get someone like Spencer Pratt who puts his name on a ballot and calls it the way people are seeing it, it's tremendously powerful. And that's what I think is driving the success of his campaign. He is telling the truth about so many problems, corruption, drug addictions, incompetence, city city offices.
This business of not rebuilding the Palisades is so it's so emblematic of what everyone has experienced in Los Angeles. Ask anyone who's ever tried to build a gazebo in the back yard what it's like to deal with Los Angeles, and I think he's resonating for that reason.
Susan Shelley, host of the Howard Jarvis radio program, columnist in the Southern California news group. You can reader in the pages of the OC Register, the Riverside Press Enterprise, the LA Daily News. Thanks so much for stopping by. Thank you all right, Frank, you're keeping an eye on all of the statewide contests. One of the statewide contests that you are watching closely this evening when the polls close at eight, is to see who will become California's
next attorney general. We know that Rob Bonta is seeking another four year term the city attorney for Huntington Beach. The Republican candidate is running against him in that race. He's been actively campaigning statewide and it looks like those two candidates could end up in a runoff. It was widely expected before he filed for reelection that Rob Bonta
would run for governor and not attorney general. But at the eleventh hour, despite the fact that Kamala Harris didn't get into the race for governor and Alex Padia decided to take a pass Rob Bonta decided to run for reelection instead, surprising a lot of people.
Very well put Democrat incment. Rob Bonta facing that challenge from Republican Michael Gates for the role of California's Attorney General, will be watching that race very very closely. Michael Gates is part of the Golden Ticket slate of candidates that was organized by Steve Hilton, the front running Republican candidate who will be watching tonight and the governor's race. Gates is a former trial attorney who served as the Huntington Beach City Attorney. As you well know John Deputy US
Attorney as well. He's raised the less than half of what Bonda raised to keep his seat according to the latest reports I've seen, and it looks like Bonda's predecessor, by the way, was Javi or Bessera. So he's running for governor and right now, according to the Benning markets, in the lead at the moment. So it's going to
be a very interesting night. As we've tracked all the state wide races here at this desk, the Attorney General race, Superintendent of Public Instruction will have the State treasurer race as well as of course, the Lieutenant Governor and all important insurance Commissioner, which takes on added significance given the firestorm horrific disaster. They're calling it a second disaster given
the slow pace of recovery. So the state insurance Commissioner races something else will be watching very closely.
All right. We have about forty more minutes, just under forty minutes for the polls to be open here in the state of California. If you have not voted and you would like to cast your ballot, you better hurry up and do so because the polls are closing fast. We are live on election night. My name is John Phillips, joined in studio by Randy Wang, Frank Motech and remote from Fresno, our colleague Phil Teresi on loan from KMJ
in Fresno. We'll be back in moments. Don't you go anywhere, And we continue at seven twenty four on this election night. My name is John Phillips, joined in studio by Randy Wang, Frank mootech and in Fresno, our colleague in Pale, Phil Teresi, who is joining us as well. All right, Randy, you are keeping an eye on the voting centers in Los Angeles County in terms of which ones are busy which ones are not busy. We have a little over a half hour left of voting. What are you seeing?
I'm seeing a lot of procrastinators.
John.
Here's the thing. You've been able to vote in this election for about a month, and I have been looking at this website all day locator dot lavote dot gov all the voting centers in the largest county in California. One out of every four voters lives in LA County. And the way this chart works is if it's green, that means there is no wait, or it's fifteen minutes or less, And up until about five minutes ago, nearly
every single one of these places is green. But here we are with thirty five minutes left to be able to vote, and there's a ton of places now that are getting a little busy because people waited till the last possible minute to vote. What is this a college
term paper? Now, most of the places are still easy, so like, for instance, if you are waiting in an hour plus line in West Hollywood at the Aquatic Recreation Center, you can go over to the Fairfax Senior Citizen Center less than a mile over on Melrose, and there's no wait. So look it up for yourself. If you're standing in a long line because you waited till the last minute,
you got a locator dot lavote dot gov. You can vote at any voting center, not just the one in your neighborhood, or you could drop that ballot in a box. But if you wore a speedo to go vote, you're probably more comfortable at the Aquatic Center than the Senior Center. And you probably went to Tom Steyer's party last night. That's true.
All right, let's check in with Phil Teresi in Fresno. Phil, one of the congressional races that you're watching very closely. There is David Valadeo, the incumbent Republican congressman who is seeking a two year term in the House of Representatives. The Democrats are having a primary to see which Democratic candidate there's a more moderate candidate in that race, a more liberal candidate in that race, who will face off with the incumbent Republican in November.
Well, I think that it's entirely possible that Randy Vegas, by accepting the endorsements of AOC and Bernie Sanders in a congressional district that, with a single exception and has gone to David Valadeo for thirteen years running, may have shot himself in the foot, Doctor jas Meat Baines out of the Assembly. She conducts herself well, She's got the local party endorsement, she's got the state party endorsement, and Vegas.
While I think that he is credible in his role as a school board member, probably has aired a little too far to the left. Certainly the way that the money has gone in this race, We've seen a lot of outside cash come in in favor of the aegis, I think with the intention of giving an inferior candidate to Valadeo for the general election. But David's got a reputation for incredible constituent service, and he has continuously won a district that has gone left in every presidential election
by thirteen and fifteen points. I don't think Valadeo has a question of will he hang on to the job. I think the question at this point is is he going to spend a little money keeping it away from Viegas or a lot of money keeping it away from Bains.
Now Baines portrays herself as a moderate candidate. Is she an actual blue dog Democrat or is she just not a Bernie type.
Would I would say the latter. She's not full blown AOC Green Party wingnut. I wouldn't go so far as to describe Baines as a socialist. But she's not a moderate and she's not a blue dog. This is not somebody who would fall into line with Jack Kennedy's policies if he were alive.
Today, and with the House of Representatives so closely divided, if it comes down to one or two seats to determine who is in control of Congress, this seat could really matter in terms of the national scene.
Oh absolutely. Valadeo's delivered for Republicans consistently, and his fundraising reflects that there's a lot of faith in his ability, despite the fact that he is not a gold star MAGA Republican. But in the case of David Valadeo, being a little more moderate, being willing to reach across the aisle serves him well. One of the other opportunities to flip is actually one district over D twenty one, where Jim Costa is the incumbent and has been there for
decades and he's got too serious. Republicans after that seat, Lieutenant Colonel Lorenzo Rios out of Clovis and Kyle Kirkland here in Fresno. And in both cases there's an opportunity for Republicans to snag that seat if they rise to the occasion.
All right, and of course, the polls close in a half hour. Hopefully we'll have some results to bring to you, some numbers to talk about in a little over half an hour. It's election night, John Phillips joined by Randy Wang, Frank Motech, Phil Teresi. Don't go anywhere, and we continue at seven point thirty five in the evening, with about twenty five minutes left of the polls being open here in the state of California. It's John Phillips, Randy Wang,
Frank Motech, Phil Teresi. Now, one of the things that you notice when you open up your ballot when it was sent to you in the mail, was how many names were on that ballot, particularly in the race for governor.
Sixty one names. In fact, it was a full page front and back on my eleven page ballot because La County had an insane amount of judges. But there are a lot of names running. We talk about the top four or five, maybe the top eight that'll be in a debate. But it's very possible that some of these names could get a few votes here or there, including disgraced former Congressman Eric Swawell who is still on the ballot,
Boring Betty E that is still on the ballot. But there may be voters out there John that just decide screw it, I don't care. I'm voting for Barack di Obama Shaw Or there is one guy and this is his actual name. Now he's a no party preference candidate. His name is Living for God and Country DeMott Episcopal. Or if you really want to enjoy yourself, cast your vote for thunder Parlay.
I wonder what club they dance in. All right, It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is a columnist and founder of the Recall of District Attorney Chase A. Boudin in the City and County of San Francisco. He's also host of the Really San Francisco podcast. You can get him online at Richie Greenberg dot org and follow him on Exit Greenberg Nation. Richie Greenberg, welcome, Thank you so much.
For inviting me tonight on the special special evening for all of us.
There is a hotly contested congressional race going on right now in San Francisco to determine who will replace Nancy Pelosi.
Felosi had stayed out of the race for quite some time, not endorsing any candidate, until very recently when she came out in support of Connie Chan, san Francisco supervisor, who is running against Scott Wiener, the state Senator from San Francisco and front runner in the race, and Nancy Pelosi I don't believe has a lot of love for Wiener, because she'd not only let her name to Connie Chan, but she's been out and about campaigning on her behalf.
Yeah, that's exactly right. You know, with all of this excitement that we're seeing up and down this state here, it's a very exciting, very exciting election cycle. I don't know if you agree, but there's just a lot of buzz out there and in San Francisco specifically because of that the congressional race. I would not say to replace Nancy Pelosi. I would say to succeed her, because there's
really no replacing her. She's been in power for nearly forty years, thirty seven thirty eight years or so, and she's one of a kind. Love her or hate her. So yeah, it was very interesting to see that come out just a few days ago last week, that Pelosi went ahead and made that announcement to endorse Connie Chan. I believe that Conye Chan really needed it because even though she is known within the city, she's a member of the eleven member for the supervisors that's our city council.
She's sort of a boring person, I'm sorry to say. She's not that that controversial. She's not that well liked or hated. She's just there as a member. She's not
a firebrand, she's not, you know. So she's she needed the help, and I think this strategically placed the endorsement from Pelosi because, as you said, uh, Scott Wiener is one of those really, really controversial individuals that has made his mark in Sacramento with all of those pieces of legislation that we were proposed and many of them passed that have such a niche a niche effect on LGBTQ and a few other issues. But he's made a lot of people angry all up and down the city of
the state. So unfortunately, polls show that he is probably going to win even in November. But you need to put up a fight somewhere. And there was a second and third place neck and neck uh in the polling, which was Connie Chan. And this ds a completely uh just out of his mind, AOC type of socialist Marxist psychot or he pronounces it shoycut shoycout chakra batti.
You don't even let John try to pronounce that one.
Oh no, I get yeah, yeah.
Really, it's at least I say psycot like psychotic shoycott chakra batti.
Who who has.
Spent millions of his own money. It's kind of like Tom Steyer. This guy's a self hating uh, you know, send a millionaire who's just running along. He got uh the endorsement from Rashida Tleban, from uh ilhan Omar and others. He had Hassan Piker at one of his campaign rallies, so it was that kind of a nutcase. But was was pretty much pulling right neck and neck with Connie Chan.
So this endorsement from uh Nancy Pelosi will most likely help her and differentiate her from psychot and put those two going through tonight's primary into the final in November.
Why is it that Nancy Pelosi doesn't like Scott Wiener because clearly she is not fond of the boy.
Well, you know, look at what all the work has garnered for Pelosi. She has a incredible rolodex, a database of all those people that she can go to for fundraising, for caucusing, for getting things done in Washington, d C. Whatever favors need to be pulled for all of that. Right, So, clearly Scott Wiener is not someone that could step into her shoes in some format that would make her donors, the party's donors, the Democrat Party pleased. Right, So he
has his own agenda. He is viewed at is viewed as at being the local leader of the lgbt Q I A two plus members of the community, and you know, they just don't mesh that well. So I believe that that is the reason why that they want to have someone in Washington that can just step in in place of and to succeed Pelosi. And Connie chan who has been with Pelosi in a lot of these events and mixers in the last year or so, sort of grooming
Connie Chan. I'm not sure, but you know, she makes the most sense in a sense, rather than this Shykat Chakrabati. I like seeing his name and Scott Wiener.
Nancy Pelosi was widely expected to come in with Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown and Adam Schiff and others and all get behind a candidate for governor.
They did not do that.
Why do you think Nancy Pelosi stayed out of that race?
Well, you know, it's this is a very interesting infighting election cycle. You've got the Democrats that are in disarray, who are trying to fight off advancing Republicans, as we see in LA with Spencer Pratt, with Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco. So it's interesting to see that they don't want to help either ruin or I think it's just ruining for the most part. Newsom, as we know, is very problematic. I don't think that an endorsement from him
would be very help full. Adam Shift similarly, and you know, if they were behind Eric Swalwell, that was quite a shocker of a crash and burn. So you know, let them do what they can do. Now, let's see where the chips fall after tonight, see which of the Democrats can move forward. You know, we've got Javie Rassara most likely going to make it through tonight. Still up in the air. What's going to happen with Steve Hilton. I'm
hoping he will make it forward. He came to San Francisco and did a brilliant town hall, So I think that that's what the reason is that let's see what happens after tonight.
Richie Greenberg columnist and founder of the Recall of District Attorney Chase of Boudin Movement and host of the Really San Francisco podcast. You can get him online at Richie Greenberg dot org and follow him on x at Greenberg Nation. Richie Greenberg, thanks so much for stopping by my pleasure. All right, we have about fifteen more minutes for the polls to be open here in the state of California. If you want to vote, you have well fifteen minutes
to do so, so you better hurry up. All right, Let's go to our colleague Phil Teresi in Fresno, because Phil Ritchie just talked about the opening that's right now going on in San Francisco. Given the fact that Nancy Pelosi is retiring, you're taking a look at all the congressional races on the ballot here, and we'll be going over those results as soon as the polls close at eight.
But not long ago, the state of California had Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic leader and Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House, two of the most important positions in the Congress of the United States. And then Kevin McCarthy was knocked out a speaker. He resigned from his Bakersfield area congressional seat. He was replaced by another Republican of Vince Vaughn. Nancy Pelosi resigned as speaker, got out
a leadership, but stuck around in the Congress. And even though she wasn't in leadership, she was still one of those voices that was very strong privately in the Democratic Party and getting Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee back in the twenty twenty four election. And now the state of California after this term won't have either one of them.
Yeah, it's I think that it's been quite a loss on both sides in terms of fundraising power and quiet authority. I mean Pelosi and McCarthy are about as different as two members of Congress could possibly be, god knows as speakers. They had absolutely different experiences. But the secret sauce for both of them, and I think that probably no small part of why both of them got to bite at that apple is their fundraising prowess, and I don't see anybody coming up in the Congress right now that's able
to match it at quite that level. I think that you've got some interesting possibilities if Kevin Kylie is able to lock into this new district. Kylie's got a interesting appeal that I think could serve really well Inland California. But in terms of rock stars that are going to pull that kind of money down that, there's nobody in the race for Polos seat, not Connie Chance, certainly not Scott Wiener that's going to have that kind of fundraising power.
Now.
James Gallagher and his effort in the special election that may change things. His credibility in Sacramento is legendary, and it's possible that he's going to be able to bring some of that, but I think that the standard on both parties, unfortunately, is a little bit diminished right now. In terms of that soft power.
All right, we have about twelve more minutes of the polls being open here in the state of California. That's when the polls close. That's when the results could theoretically start to come in. It's CALIFORNI you so don't bet on it, but.
Emphasis on theoretical you actually have a better bet if you bet.
Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Whatever the case, We're going to be here with you all the way until nine o'clock. Don't you go anywhere. This is our special coverage of election twenty twenty six. It's John Phillips, Randy Wang, Frank Motech, Phil Teresi, Don't you go anywhere, And we continue at seven fifty one in the evening. It's John Phillips, Randy Wing, Frank Motech, Phil Teresi, here with you until nine o'clock in the evening. There is nine more minutes
left of voting here in the state of California. If you're in line, they'll let you stay there and cast your ballot. So if you do want to vote, you better get on that right away.
It's like you're trying to get a funnel cake right when Magic Mountain closes.
Good luck with that, all right. There are a number of ballot initiatives in the San Francisco Bay area that you're keeping an eye on, Randy, that will have hopefully results coming in in just a few minutes.
Well, I've got the Chronicles website up, so hopefully we'll see something when the polls closed. Turnout has been higher in San Francisco. So Measure A we talked about this one on the show yesterday. That is the earthquake bond that is supposed to help retrofit firehouses, build those high pressure pumps, but also helps repair a bart storage yard
and build some affordable housing because why not. Measure C would lower the gross receipts tax for small businesses who only make up to seven and a half million dollars. Measure D would raise the gross receipts tax for any overpaid CEO company where the CEO of a company makes more than one hundred times the average salary of their regular employees. Here's what's bizarre. If Prop C and Prop D both pass, whichever one gets more votes cancels the
other one out. So either grosser receipts taxes are going up or they're going going down or they're staying the same. Meanwhile, in Alameda County, we are looking at Measure E. This is the one hundred and ninety two dollars parcel tax that's supposed to go to public safety. But like every parcel tax, they can use the money for whatever they want, and that's what they've done over and over and over again.
They also have a DA's race in Alameda County with a familiar face on the ballot.
Yes, the current District Attorney Ursula Jones Dixon, who was appointed to that position after she took over for recalled DA Pamela Price, is up against recalled DA Pamela Price, and she's got some getting even to do.
And Frank Botech, you are keeping an eye on all the statewide constitutional offices, including the contest to see who will be California's next insurance Commissioner.
Well, first of all, I'm sitting here in AWE after Randy Wang Ryan read all those names there, the verbal gymnastics with the names of some that looked like the bottom line of an eyechart. So we're had a great job on that. Now it's my turn to tackle some of these names. Certainly the state insurance commissioner seat very very important given what's happened here in southern California with
the horrific firestorm disaster last year. The insurance Commissioner, by the way, is the person's responsible for regulating what's really the nation's largest property insurance market, including not only homeowners insurance, but auto insurance, health insurance, pet insurance, you name it, workers comp as well, So a very very important position. The candidates that you'll be seeing on the ballot for the next five minutes or so include Senator Ben Allen,
who's being termed out of the state legislature. Senator Allen will be leaving the legislature running for insurance Commissioner, Jane Kim, head of the California Working Families Party, who was also in San Francisco, by the way, Patrick Wolfe, a financial analyst, Steve Bradford, a former state senator assemblyman, and on the Republican side, Stacy R. Caden, the longtime insurance agent who's part of the Golden Ticket that Steve Hilton has organized.
She's running for state insurance commissioner. And Merritt Farron, attorney who lost his home in the Palasades fire at last year. Also on the ballot for State Insurance Commissioner. Will be following all the statewide races tonight. Governor, Lieutenant governor, state Insurance Commissioner, state treasurer, Secretary of State Controller, and Attorney General.
Back to you, BILTERSI both Republican candidates. Both of the major Republican candidates for governor, Steve Hilton, formerly of Fox News, Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, have been campaigning heavily and Republican vote rich portions of the state and the Central Valley is at the top of that list. Which candidate had the biggest presence in the Central Valley this cycle, Oh.
No question at all. Steve Hilton. He made the rounds on local radio, local TV, he did multiple town hall events. Chad Bianco made a respectable showing for a California gubernatorial candidate, but he didn't make the same impression as Hilton. And looking at social media feedback every time we talk about the governor's race, it's a back and forth between the
Hilton and Bianco's supporters. But I think that for as much love as Chad gets, I think Steve Hilton's going to carry it and I think that Trump endorsement was really only a small piece of it.
Did any of the Democratic candidates have a visible presence in the Central Valley this cycle?
We saw Bisera come through for at least one town hall, but in terms of really serious efforts to connect with valley voters, no, there were no major events from the Democrats, Like I said, other than Bisera. Katie Porter did come through for an early candidate forum, and Katie and left again immediately because she's getting no love in the Central Valley.
But she said she loves the tacos in Bakersfield.
Look after Hilton's Barstow Street taco fiasco, she gets a pass on the Bakersfield Crag.
When you would mention Katie Porter's name on your radio program on KMJ and Fresno, what kind of reaction would you get in the male bag and on social media, Oh, the.
Boos and the hisses were absolutely mind betting. She is not well liked. And it's interesting because a lot of the coverage, and I'm sure you saw this, a lot of the coverage revolved around, oh, well, a woman can't have a strong personality in politics without getting called the B word and I never heard our audience go down that road. The objection to her was not that she's female. The objection to her was that she treats her staff like garbage, and she's just kind of a belligerent dope.
So it's you've just tickled Johnny Pink. His favorite topic in this whole race has been Katie Porter.
Oh, and let me tell you, all you have to do is mention her name. And the email is so filthy we can't even read it on the air. But every time you hit the Pinota, candy comes out.
Oh, unquestionably, No, she is. She suffers from exactly the same personality defect Hillary and Kamala have that it's not that it's a female candidate, it's that it's an unlikable human being.
Well, one listener send us an email today suggesting that if she loses this race, she could go to the state of Idaho and run for office there because potatoes are their biggest export.
Poor Candie.
All right, So we now are about sixty seconds away from the polls closing here in California. If you're not in the parking lot, if you're not in line right now, you're probably not going to get a chance to vote. So if you're right there and you can make that fifty yard dash and get in that line, you'll be okay. If not, you probably missed your opportun tunity to vote. In theory, we're going to have results coming up in
just about forty five seconds. We're here live with you until nine o'clock in the evening covering this primary election here in the Golden State. It's John Phillips, Randy Wang, Frank Motec, Phil Teresi. Don't you go anywhere