Chapter 1: What led to the decline of California's governance?
You are a Republican running for governor of California, and you are currently leading the polls. Imagine that, exactly. What happened to California, mate?
It's an amazing place being completely ruined because we've had 15 years of one-party rule. For the last 10 years, California is 50th out of 50 states. We have the highest taxes in the country for the worst outcomes. People are sick of it and they know that we need to change.
Parents, you know, they walk their kids to school and they're literally stepping over dead people who've OD'd from fentanyl. I mean, this is just unbelievable. Driven by the desire to push this decarceration agenda, downgraded a whole bunch of other crimes so that they wouldn't get automatic prison time. The wreck of an unconscious woman.
now downgraded trafficking a child for sex a whole bunch of child sex crimes i know i know and this carmel harris pushed this it just really captures the extent to which ideology has just taken over if you are elected if you are successful how are you going to fix all that
Steve Hilton, welcome back to the show.
Fantastic to be back in this very lovely setting.
Well, we wanted to present you as a man of the people.
I know, it's wonderful. This is positive populism, as I used to describe it on my show.
Well, very much in the vein of positive populism. You are a Republican running for governor of California, and you are currently leading the polls.
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Chapter 2: How does high taxation affect California's residents?
What happened to California, mate? Well, a lot of bad things. I think that's the point. this an incredible state as we can see it's the most we're just talking about it's the most beautiful place in the world as far as i'm concerned i'm traveling this day all the time it's magnificent it's amazing it's got got this incredible spirit and soul and the energy and it's all been crushed
because we've had 15 years of one party rule, Democrats in charge of everything, the state legislature, all the statewide offices, governor, state attorney general, everything. If you look at the state legislature, it's actually 30 years or so, one party rule, total disaster.
Literally, we have the highest unemployment rate in America, unemployment, California, enterprise innovation, highest unemployment rate, highest poverty rate, highest costs for everything that matters, housing costs, gas prices, electric, water, insurance, everything. The business climate, Chief Executive Magazine does a survey every year, best and worst states to do business.
For the last 10 years, California is 50th out of 50 states. US News and World Report, I think it was them or someone did a survey just recently on opportunity, putting together all the measures for that. 50th out of 50 states. School results, you know, everything. Homelessness, obviously.
And that's the thing, especially for people watching outside of California or even America, there's all the kind of highly visible things that have gone wrong. People can see the homelessness and the crime and the videos of the retail theft. All of that is true. But underlying that, the basics, of living here are just a nightmare for regular working people.
And so it really feels to me like all that stuff that people say, oh, a Republican can't win.
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Chapter 3: What role does homelessness play in California's challenges?
It's such a Democrat state. You're never going to do it. I just think that's not true. People are sick of it and they know that we need to change. And that's what I'm running on. And so far, so good. I think that it's a long way to go. The primaries next June. general election next November. So this is far from being in the bag. It's the opposite of that. I'm fighting incredibly hard, but
The idea that we can't change, that's not true. It really, really is, it's a classic thing, time for change. And people know that, there's a majority.
Last thing I'll say, if you look at those like political people, when they're looking at elections, they often say, you know, the indicator of whether you're gonna get a change of regime, an incumbent party or candidate is gonna lose, is that question is the state or the place or whatever it is going in the right direction, wrong direction.
So in the last two years, very firmly, clear majority, wrong direction, California, 60%, 65%. So the conditions are there. I actually really think we can pull this off and it'll be a real revolution when we do.
Well, we've just come from Austin and it's fascinating talking to people. Austin is like the refugee city for people who've left California. Yes, exactly. And what people, I think, don't understand is just how much of a paradise California is. It is incredible. Right. The climate is incredible. The nature is incredible. You've got access to amazing food, like you talked about, businesses.
It's an incredible place. And to chase so many talented, driven people out is quite an achievement. You know, this house is not ours. It's an Airbnb, right? We looked up how much this house... I was curious how much it costs.
Yeah.
We looked it up. The price of this house has dropped by 40% in the last 10 years.
Yes.
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Chapter 4: How has California's crime policy changed over the years?
Like, I actually say this. I'm on the road the whole time. It's a political campaign, speeches all the time. And there's a kind of basic thing I say, which is why would anyone leave an amazing place like this. It's because it's so badly run and it's impossible to live here. And they chase you out.
I mean, the business, you know, I used to run businesses, started companies here and back in England and just including restaurants. I mean, just basic, you know, These businesses that are so precious to the heart of a community, bars, restaurants, all that, just it's a nightmare. I mean, there's so many stories. I get them the whole time.
Every day you collect because people tell you their stories. A woman who tried restaurant owner in wine country near where I live up in the Bay Area, near San Francisco. She tried to, well, she did eventually expand. She built an extension to her patio.
more guests to increase the number of guests from 35 to 50. you need a permit to go through a process it took six years and a million dollars what in fees lawyers inspections you have to pay for the inspection environmental report this that it's typical i mean there's something called this is going to sound obscure but it's a really good example of
the insanity uh just in terms of just regular you know operating anything in california you've got something called paga the private attorney general act passed in 2004. it outsources the enforcement of state labor law to just regular lawyers attorneys instead of the government
has become a total racket for lawyers trial attorneys as they say um who are by the way the second biggest donors to democrat politicians that's why it's happening number one donors are the unions that's why the unions run everything number two
the lawyers private attorney general has turned into an extortion racket for lawyers and the government so the tiniest infraction like this made up you know you spent spell someone's name wrong on the pay stub your break if you're running a restaurant and after every five hours you're supposed to give you know have a certain number of minutes of break one minute late
And you're hit with a lawsuit. And these are costing businesses. They have to settle because you don't want to go through the process of going to trial. 60 grand, 70 grand, 100 grand, bigger businesses, millions a year. Just the cost of doing business. Just insane. I mean, there's so much.
over the years of this one-party rule, it's just become this ridiculous, bloated, nanny state bureaucracy, all paid for through higher taxes. They just keep spending money. They doubled the budget of the state of California in the last 10 years. Everything's worse. I mean... Nothing works. It's just California isn't working. And so you're right. It's a beautiful place.
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Chapter 5: What impact has climate policy had on California's economy?
It's like you've got everything here. It's like to the west, and there's ranches and cowboys, and then you go up to the Sierras and the beautiful mountains, Yosemite that people know, but... It's incredible. Everywhere you go, the coastline's magnificent. It's an amazing place being completely ruined. I mean, my last book was called Califalia, reversing the ruin of America's worst-run state.
Look, I'm in agreement with you on that. I remember I came to California the first time in 2002, summer of 02. I looked around and I thought, this is a paradise. Yeah. This is a paradise. And then you go to the places that I went for the first time, Santa Barbara, And it's a completely different place. It looks downtrodden.
It looks defeated. Disgusting. I mean, it's disgusting to me. You know, the lack of pride. And it's not just the big cities, but the squalor. That's the right word. You cannot believe it. The filth everywhere. Trash everywhere. Of course, homelessness, that's very visible. Everything that goes with that. We literally have plagues of rats now.
Like, that's not an exaggeration because the squalor and then actually, it's actually a really good example because they've banned a certain kind of rodenticide. So you go to the Central Valley. I just, when I drove here from there just to be with you here today, it's the greatest agricultural area in the world, the Central Valley of California.
That's being ruined because they won't give farmers water because of their climate ideology. They've banned a rodenticide, so now there's plagues of rats everywhere. I mean, it's just a joke, but it's a warning to everyone because this is what happens when the ideology of the left just is allowed to run without constraint. It's a real warning. It's the worst run state in America.
And you've got Gavin Newsom, the governor, sort of running around lecturing everyone on social justice and compassion and cruelty, whatever. Meanwhile, we have the highest poverty rate. As I said, one in three Californians can't afford to meet their basic needs, food, shelter, healthcare. I mean, it's a total failure.
And it's a really good indication that once you go down that road of today's leftism, this is where it leads. It's a disaster.
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Chapter 6: How does the bureaucracy affect business operations in California?
But also as well, look, it's a truism, but let's be honest about it. You get the politicians you deserve. When we were talking about the excesses of wokeism and people going completely off the deep end, California was a literal punchline to many comedians' jokes, and for good reason.
Yes. Are you saying you mean people voted for this crap?
Yes.
Yes. And I think that because everyone said, well, how's it been allowed to happen? Well, partly because it is so nice here. So you can put up with a lot. I mean, some people, you know, business people say, well, it's the California tax. It's the weather, you know, like you put up with all this crap to be here because it is so amazing. But I think it's got to the point.
Well, you know, my plan is that it's got to the point where that is it. No more. We are going to change. because we can't take it anymore. And actually, I just want to come back to the economic thing, because you've got this situation where, again, the governor, Gavin Newsom, runs around saying, well, everything must be great because we're the fourth biggest economy in the world.
And statistically, that's true. It's a big economy. Fourth biggest in the world, great. But beneath that big number, which is driven by a lot of really, especially in the Bay Area, these big tech companies that are just making huge amounts of money, but actually don't employ very many people.
At the same time, yeah, fourth biggest economy in the world, but highest unemployment in America, highest poverty rate in America. So that is not a well-balanced, healthy economy.
And I think that's what is really, you know, coming home to roost now for them, which is that the people that they claim to speak for, you know, regular working people, particularly Latinos, especially now the majority in California, have just been completely screwed by this stuff.
And that dream of, you know, the California dream and, you know, a good job where you make enough to raise your family in a home of your own, it's all gone. I mean, it's just, and I think people are getting sick of it and they just need a positive alternative. That's what I'm trying to provide.
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Chapter 7: What solutions does the guest propose for California's issues?
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for those who are interested in how the government works here, it's a mirror of what you get at the national level. You've got the executive branch run by the governor, and you've got the legislature, like Congress. And the legislature is churning out all this crap. I mean, all the time. And they have a super majority, the Democrats.
which is a two-thirds majority, which, by the way, is not legitimate. It's the product of gerrymandered maps. Let's not get into that. Whatever, it exists. That means they can pass anything they want without any kind of input from Republicans. And they're just passing a ton of, I mean, apart from anything else, it's just the amount of it.
Like, I just did an event in Sacramento, the state capital, just highlighting the sheer amount of legislation. Like, this year, this calendar year, the session, they passed 1,117 bills. We stacked them up. We printed them out just to see. I mean, I know I'm short. It was literally double my height, okay?
And every year, more and more crap pushed by lobbyists and all the special interests, all that stuff. So you can't really do anything about that as governor. You can't just unwrite laws. But what you can do is deal with the bureaucratic aspect of that. You run the government.
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Chapter 8: How can California's resources be better utilized for economic growth?
And there's a number of things. So let's just take the regulations. I'll give you a really couple of specific examples. So one of the things that's most insane about this current ideology, and actually, if you look at... like what's causing the most damage, if you had to single one thing out, it's the climate extremism, actually. When you look at like the real driver of
The cost of everything being so high, including housing, is this climate, I call it climate elitism, because the people who are paying the price for it are working class Californians. And that, a ton of that is not legislated specifically, is the way it's implemented by these endless agencies. We've got 200 plus state agencies like CARB, the California Air Resources Board,
that are just churning out these new rules and everything from trucks. And, you know, they have this thing called VMT, vehicle miles traveled, that gets in the way of building anything. Because if you want to build anything, you have to do a calculation of vehicle. How many vehicle miles traveled will be the result of you building a new housing development?
A guy who runs a lovely, just sweet, exactly the kind of business I love, right? It was an artisan gin company.
distiller in the central coast of california beautiful young entrepreneur you know he's lovely business he was telling me that he doing really well and he wanted to build a second still like whatever you know i think that's the right and they you had to go through all the crap and it was denied because of vmt vehicle miles traveled because it would increase
vehicle miles trapped yes that's called growth that's called progress like more development more great and they don't want that But that stuff is coming out of the bureaucracy. So what, as governor, you can do, you appoint thousands of people to hundreds of these agencies. Another example is in the same sort of area, oil and gas. So we have abundant oil reserves in California.
I mean, you know, just kind of behind us in Kern County, 70 miles or so. And I mean, not as big as some of the states, but I think we have the fifth biggest in America. We used to produce most of the oil and gas we use in California from within California. Because of their war on fossil fuels, the climate warriors are shutting it down. So we now are in a ludicrous situation.
We're using about the same as we ever did, but instead of producing it in Kern County near Bakersfield and it coming on a nice clean pipeline to the refineries here in LA and up on the coast, In the Bay Area, we're now shipping it in on giant supertankers, the most polluting form of transportation on the planet. They run on bunker fuel, which is like the most dirty, spewing out carbon emissions.
Our number one supplier of oil now, it used to be California, used to be from here, is Iraq. where they produce it in a terrible, dirty way, terrible human rights record, but that's what we're now doing. And also our gas prices, we have abundant oil reserves, now higher, the highest in the country, higher than Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's just insane, right?
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