Jon Slavet

But here's the thing.

California is a tale of two worlds.

If you have money...

and you work in certain industries, you're doing great.

But if you are working poor, working class, middle class, the people we need to focus on, you are hurting in California.

Well, it's very tough.

And again, speaking for California, if you look at all the metrics that matter, I mean, despite the fact that we've got sunshine, Hollywood, beaches, and you can go skiing in the morning one day and being on the beach in the afternoon on the same day in California, again, if you're in the 73% of people in the middle working class that think the state's going in the wrong direction, which is what our polling shows and is just sort of common sense,

The reason is, and it's in the headlines every day, because California is in the bottom of every metric that matters, despite the fact that we're the world's fourth largest economy.

So if I hear another person in California who's elected say that we're the fourth largest economy, my head's going to explode.

Because education outcomes, number one in poverty, number one in homelessness, number one in energy costs, number one in housing costs.

There are reasons why, Chuck, which we can get into.

So it's really a tale of two worlds in California.

I've not actually advocated for a flat tax.

Well, I've not actually spoken about tax policy overtly yet, but my view is that if you look at California...

You know, we've got the highest marginal rate in the country at 13.3%.

And the reality is that in California, half of our people work for small to medium-sized companies.

The national average is a little bit bigger, California a little smaller, because we have such huge companies operating out of California as well.

It sort of reduces the average.

But half of our people work in small businesses, and small businesses are the engine of that

you know, middle class upward mobility and small businesses that are overtaxed and overregulated can't grow.