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The Greatest Story
Joe Patterson Says California Needs a Wake-Up Call
Assemblyman Joe Patterson joins us for a real conversation about what’s going wrong in California — and what it’ll take to fix it.
We get into gas prices, homelessness, voter ID laws, parental rights, and why so many people feel disconnected from their own government.
Joe shares his journey into politics, the struggles of being a Republican in a deep blue state, and why he’s still betting on California’s future.
Joe Patterson
In California we're up around like 5, 550. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:Five-year-old. You know, maybe if they're questioning their gender, parental involvement would be kind of important for this kid that's struggling through that. But no, the law says you have to keep it a secret. I think that California is legislating for the worst parents.
Speaker 1:What is it like being a Republican in a super blue state?
Speaker 2:They do not believe in voter ID. They think they know better than what the voters just told them.
Speaker 1:What is the ultimate goal for this and who is behind?
Speaker 2:pushing this. You are actually the first person to ask me that.
Speaker 1:Well, joe, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it and also thank you so much for doing a great job out there representing District 5. First of all, before we start, I kind of want to get your take on this, so I want to show you something. So this here is a current gas price map and I know that in the last few months there's been a lot of talk about like gas prices going down in different states, but for some reason in California we're up around like $5, $5.50. What do you think about that? Why is sort of like in our state? We're like the only state maybe Hawaii as well where the gas prices are just sort of just set at such high prices.
Speaker 2:You know, honestly, it's not rocket science. I mean, it's always interesting because the governor, he did some, pushed through some legislation last year to monitor the charges, the profits of oil companies in California. You know, because they were gouging. That's what he would say. They're gouging us in California. Well, if you look at the delta between our gas prices and the national average, the delta is almost exactly the same amount as the amount we charge for gas taxes in California.
Speaker 2:It's like $1.34 or something difference on the national average and it's about the same amount. How much we charge for taxes in California. It's so simple. But they're trying to figure out you know the profits. Oh, the oil companies are gouging. You know it's like. Well, no, it's just we charge a lot for taxes.
Speaker 1:And you think it's just. That's just the way it is in California and it's not. It's not really going to change.
Speaker 2:I mean, we have additional, I will say there are a lot of other issues, but they don't. That could drive up prices even more. Some of these laws will drive up prices even more. I mean there are other things. For example, we don't really have a pipeline system in California to go to other states or bring oil in from elsewhere. The number of our oil refineries has dropped dramatically in the last decade and since we have a special blend of oil in California or gasoline in California, when a refinery goes offline, I mean we lose the ability to even produce it. So what happens? What is happening more and more is that our refined fuel is actually coming from a foreign country and they're shipping it over here because we have no pipelines to even bring it in from other states. So even if Texas could do it for us, for example, there's really no pipeline to make that happen.
Speaker 1:And the high taxes on gas. Do we know what exactly? Where does this money go?
Speaker 2:I mean, if you're at a cold winter night in your house and you wanted to start a fire, you would. You could take cash and put it in there and light it on fire, and it's basically what we're doing. To the to the gas tax money in California. I mean, look, we are spending a lot of money on infrastructure. Some of it's going to some rail projects and some other stuff. I mean it's going somewhere. But if you just drive down the road in California and we have some of the worst roads in the nation but we have the highest gas taxes that are supposed to go pay for those roads.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't really, doesn't really match up.
Speaker 1:So you're saying we probably need the Deutsch to come over here, and oh, absolutely Gosh.
Speaker 2:You know in fact, just to go off topic a little bit, but still on this is one of my colleagues who used to sit next to me on the assembly floor. Topic a little bit, but still on this is one of my colleagues who used to sit next to me on the assembly floor, bill Asseili. He was actually the first Muslim assembly member in the state's history and he's a Republican.
Speaker 2:Trump just tapped him to be the US attorney for Central California District, which is actually LA and he now has the largest population of any US attorney in the United States and he's only 39 years old. But the reason why I bring it up is because his first week on the job last week is he opened up an investigation into LA's homelessness spending. So you're going to start, I believe, seeing him investigate a lot of this money. I mean, we spent $24 billion on homelessness and homelessness has gotten worse, so I think. But gas tax is kind of the same thing. I don't know. I mean, I can tell you where the money goes, I can go in the budget and give you the numbers, but what's the effect of it?
Speaker 1:It's not good, it's just inefficient and who really knows like who at the end gets the money right. So what is it like being a Republican in super blue state?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, just to kind of, in the last two years, 58% of people who've registered to vote and those could be re-registrations or new registrations just 58% of people who've registered to vote in the state of California in the last two years have registered as Republican. About 15% have registered as Democrat. So, look, we're still a very blue state. We still only have 25% voter registration in California. Republicans do, but I think the tide's kind of changing. So if you were to ask me last year, my answer might be different than what it is this year.
Speaker 2:Right now we have a president that is pointing out a lot of the issues we all know California has and is going to force it that we have to fix some of these issues if we're going to continue to get federal dollars for a whole host of things. So while last year I felt like we were just kind of a powerless group, this year we actually picked up seats in the election, so we have more legislators this year we're still a super duper minority. We only have 20 of the 80 in the assembly. But when you have a president that is willing to listen to a lot of the concerns we've been talking about for a long, long, long time. When you have a president willing to do that, then you feel like you have a little bit of power, a little bit of wind at your back, you know.
Speaker 1:You know, it's interesting because I remember during his first term, when we had that Paradise fire I think, he flew over here to California and he met with the governor, gavin Newsom, and I remember he said something about hey, maybe we have to look into managing these forests, right, damaging these forests right, like maybe cleaning up so that it's not all this high combustible material that they just lay around and not even touch it, right Because of the policy with environmental and all that. And people were sort of like laughing at him like hey, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:Because maybe he used the word like rake or something like that right Like yeah, we're not going to rake our way out of these, these fires, it's all, it's global warming and stuff.
Speaker 1:But when you really look into the, the core issue of how all these fires basically start, um, I've heard from, uh, someone I forgot what his name was, but he's saying that when you look at the last let's say 50 years, at the last, let's say 50 years, the fire situation has gone even more worse in California, even though the governor and the government in California are saying that they're doing all these things there's a lot of money going to whatever they're doing, right, but it's not really helping it.
Speaker 1:And is this true? I don't know if you heard about this, but I've heard that helping it. And is this true? I don't know if you heard about this, but I've heard that you know. So they're trying to reduce the greenhouse emissions right in California, which I heard that it's only 1% that California is putting out compared to everyone else, like China, like 39% or something. And when you have a fire like they just had in LA, when you have a fire like they just had in LA, the Palisades fire that all the effort, that whatever was done to somehow lower the total emissions, that one fire just puts us all the way back, is that true?
Speaker 2:Oh, big time. I mean cars and fires. They have different types of emissions, right? So you could probably argue well, if you take cars off the road you're still saving some emissions, but, yeah the know, reducing the number of trees or whatever. But the effect, again, has not been. In fact, there was an investigative report a few years ago that showed California, let's say, you know, spent X amount of dollars and only accomplished about 10% of what it said it was going to do. Um, but if you go up, if you take a helicopter into the sky over the forest, you can see how dense it is.
Speaker 2:You really don't realize it when you're in the ground but, when you're up and you know the canopy covers everything, and so there really needs to be something to be done about it.
Speaker 2:And, by the way, the last five years I think the fires in the last five years have been those combined have been bigger than the fires forever basically, I mean, they've really kind of amplified and I think we obviously have to do a lot more about that, and there may be a lot of reasons for that, but it's just it's pretty amazing that we haven't really accomplished a lot to prevent fires from occurring in the first place. It's pretty sad.
Speaker 1:Well, in the last few years, I started paying attention a little bit more to what's going on in our state politics and I have a lot of respect for people like you who are, you know, have a lot of common sense right, and you guys look at certain issues from perspective where it's just common sense. But I do want to ask you how did you start your political journey? Did you always maybe from your school years you wanted to enter politics, or was this something that you decided later on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went into school thinking that I was going to be a like teacher actually, so I went to college, thinking I was going to be a teacher, and then, a couple years into that, I just got really interested in politics and so I joined. I actually was a registered Democrat when I went to college, and then I switched my party to Republican and then, got involved with the college Republicans and did some internships at the Capitol, so I was always kind of interested.
Speaker 1:So what made you switch? You were pretty young.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had some friends that were just kind of influential and just I didn't know why I was a Democrat. I mean, my parents were Democrats, so I was a Democrat.
Speaker 1:You're from Napa, right yeah.
Speaker 2:So I didn't really understand anything at that time. I mean there are a lot of people are Democrats who understand a lot right.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying, at that time I didn't understand anything and registered as a Democrat and just had some friends who were influential. So I ended up changing my party, just based on discussions, and started studying government and the different philosophies and things like that. So I'm actually a government major, not a political science major, actually government major, the differences of governments, and that was kind of interesting. I kind of had an international affairs emphasis, you know. But after I left college I did work in some legislative roles for a while and then just kind of left that all together, started my own business, had my own stuff going on in rockland where I was like I am running for city council. So I ran for city council and then then this came up and I ran for this. So, um, I never really planned on any of this. You know, really I think a lot of people kind of, like you know, plot out their trajectory.
Speaker 2:I don't really. I don't have any political goals after this.
Speaker 1:I don't even know if I'll serve 12 years because I was going to be in my next course. Yeah, so I don't.
Speaker 2:It's a. You know it's a hard job in a lot of ways. Uh, so I don't even know if I'll serve 12 years. Yeah, so I don't. It's a. You know it's a hard job in a lot of ways, so I don't. So we'll see. I got young kids, you know.
Speaker 1:So we'll just go by where the wind goes, you know so well, you must then still have at least some sort of a like desire to make make some change right, like is that something that kind of keeps you going, like you know that in your position you can help make some necessary changes in the state.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean we've gosh, I've actually gotten a lot of new laws created, to be honest, and a lot of people say like, oh, you're creating new laws, we don't need new laws. No, some of them are pretty good and I'll give an example is we had a bill passed last year. I mean, one of the biggest epidemics in our schools right now you know a Snapchat and social media and things like that is that kids are being extorted, which is called sextorted. You know sextortion, basically, you know, show me naked pictures or things like that, Right, and so kids aren't really understanding that these. First of all, there's criminals out there that are extorting these kids for inappropriate pictures and things like that, but it's. It can get really bad into sex trafficking too, you know. I mean, it's really amplified, and so we passed a law that said, as a part of California's health framework, which you have to learn in high school already, that you would learn the risks of social media, that you could become a victim of sextortion.
Speaker 2:Acknowledgement we also got a bill signed that said, when you register for school, that one of the biggest issues right now is, I think, happening with young kids is they're experimenting with drugs, right, and I think when I was growing up it was pot, which pot wasn't going to kill you, you know. But now kids are taking pills and things like that and that'll kill them. It could kill them, right, so, um. So I passed a bill that says when you are uh, when you register for your kid to go to school, one of the notifications on there is hey, you understand, there's uh drugs out, opioids out there that are being abused, and your kid can die of a fentanyl. It's much better than that, but fentanyl is one of those and it's, you know, it's just a two sentence thing in notifications that parents already get.
Speaker 2:Now look, I don't read the notifications a lot myself, so I do acknowledge that a lot of people aren't going to read it, but we have 6 million kids in public schools in California. If only one percent of people read that, that'd be, you know, 60,000 people that would understand that this is something that could cause death, right? So we have a lot of things that we've worked on, so you can get a lot of stuff done being a Republican, you know, just just because we're so outnumbered there doesn't mean you can't do things.
Speaker 2:We just can't have the big ideas.
Speaker 1:So for those people who don't really understand the position of an assemblyman, can you kind of summarize? What exactly are you guys responsible?
Speaker 2:for. So the best way to do this the top line is, if you think of your member of Congress, who sort of represents you on the federal level, makes votes and things. That's what I am on the state level, so I'm a legislator on the federal level makes votes and things. That's what I am on the state level. So I'm a legislator on the state level. Kevin Kiley is my legislator on the federal level.
Speaker 2:But in short, it's kind of two jobs. One is that we represent an area, represent about a half a million people throughout California. All live in Placer, el Dorado counties. Every two years they get to decide whether they like me or not and send me back or not, and it is a full-time job. We have two roles.
Speaker 2:One is to legislatively, so we do the state budget, but we also make new laws or take bad laws off the books and everything there is done by majority vote. You know. So, being a Republican and being able to stop a bad budget, for example, like how these gas taxes are spent, it's very hard to do. But then the other thing we do other than legislative and budget over here is that we have a local office in Rockland and if people have issues with state agencies. You know the DMV, the Employment Development Department, the DOJ. I mean we go on and on and on. Department of Real Estate. We can help assist with those issues. That's kind of called casework. So we do that all the time. I mean I have two members on my team. All they do is help people with issues folks are having, with the issues people have with the state so how do you guys decide which issues to take on?
Speaker 1:like, how do you guys is this some sort of like you guys get a complaint in a letter email, or is this some other effort?
Speaker 2:Anywhere. I mean, I remember one time the sextortion legislation I just seriously came from. I was watching my son's football practice one day and one of the moms came up to me and I've known her for a long time and she serves on a board of a nonprofit that deals with sex trafficking and she just told me hey, you know, I have this idea. And so I said, oh, I like this idea and we kind of narrowed it down and refined it and then we introduced it and put it through the legislative process. So sometimes they're just ideas from random people off the street. Sometimes you get ideas from law enforcement or community leaders, sometimes you get ideas when you're on your jog in the morning and you just said let's introduce this, you know.
Speaker 2:So, they comes from a whole range of things. Obviously, I have sort of like my passions, things that I work on. Um, those can change too from year to year. Um, work on those can change too from year to year.
Speaker 2:Affordability has been a big one right now, so but a lot of those are just hard to address because we're the super minority party, you know so. But I get ideas from all over the place. I mean, if I see you and you propose an idea and I think it's a good one and I can sort of fit it within the limits that we have in the legislature, then maybe I'd introduce it, you know.
Speaker 1:How often does? Let's say, if a Republican the minority comes up with a like something that's common sense, that's going to help regular people, that the other side, kind of you know, votes for it as well and wants to help out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we okay on something that's really really big that actually would help everybody. Let's just think utility rates. Right, I mean, they're so expensive, it's the insurance, those two things Number one and number two of what I get emails on For us to solve those issues as Republicans and introduce something to solve that, the chances of that getting out are near zero or they're near zero. But on sort of these smaller issues where maybe you see something in the community that's happening public safety issue that you kind of learn about. That's nuanced you can get plenty of things done. You can get plenty of things done, but the big issues are always controlled by the majority party.
Speaker 1:So are you familiar with the AB 1955? Oh, yes.
Speaker 2:So, oh, very familiar. I actually had a bill relevant to it.
Speaker 1:on Wednesday I presented a bill relevant to AB and I'll tell you more about it. Okay, I just kind of want to read this because maybe for some people who are watching this, maybe they don't know what it's about. So California became the first Us state to bar school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child's gender identification change, under a law signed by governor gavin newsom. Obviously, he's kind of uh trying to distance himself from this. Right now. He's going on podcasts, uh, bringing in some conservatives, and he's like oh yeah, we democrats we got to change something right now because it's not really looking good for us. I don't know what his plan is, but he's sort of he's he's trying to say that, uh, the this law basically was so that the teachers don't get fired if they refuse to notify the parents of their uh, the student, if there's something going on.
Speaker 1:When I just read, do you hear a lot from your constituents about this? Is this true? That kind of what most people how? They see this as an issue. Is this actually an issue or is it really what Gavin's saying? It's just no big deal.
Speaker 2:I mean it's a very big issue. Uh, absolutely it's. Uh, I mean, I can't say, if your kid plays youth sports these days uh, high school sports you are likely going to have somebody on your team or another team that they identify as a different gender than what they were born. And so, basically, this happened several times in my district where we've had a female athlete who lost to somebody who was born as a male born as a male, you know. But so I know that that's happening.
Speaker 2:But really, what what is happening in some school districts have is they have something called, uh, gender plans, which is how do you want to be identified? You know he, him, they, you know that, that, they, them, um, pronouns, pronouns. But also, like, do you want to go by your name? And what this debate had to do with is should schools be required? Like, if I wanted to start being called Joanna at school, I could say but don't tell my parents. And then so the teacher, under this law, would not be able to tell my parents that now I want to be called Joanna and go to the female restroom instead. So that is actually what this law says.
Speaker 1:But what age does this apply? Is it even an elementary?
Speaker 2:Yeah, starts at age one. I mean that's what's kind of interesting is that there's no real debate even on this stuff. It's like, well, don't you think like there's? I mean, okay, you want to talk about high schoolers, or 16 and 17-year-olds, but a five-year-old maybe, if they're questioning their gender, maybe their parental involvement would be kind of important for this kid that's struggling through that. But no, the law says you have to keep it a secret. Wow, yeah, and actually I had a piece of legislation up on Wednesday that all it said was that and this is actually federal law.
Speaker 2:But I was trying to say we're going to comply with federal law by saying that parents have access to all official and unofficial records that schools maintain on their child. And it died on a party line vote. And I'd always ask them like, well, what kind of records do you think should be secret from parents? And nobody would ever say anything because it would kind of be politically dumb right to say I think this should be kept from parents. It must remain a secret unless the child chooses to share it with a parent. You know another thing when your kid turns 12 years old, you lose access to all their medical records in California. So you lose your right to access to those medical records. So you could log in and make appointments to go to the doctor. So you'll be able to. You could log in and make appointments to go to the doctor, but you won't have access to the results unless the child chooses to give you the results, since when.
Speaker 2:That's been around for a while.
Speaker 1:It's been around for a while. But okay, joe, like I'm, you know, I try to be thinking in terms of common sense, or what makes sense, what doesn't Like, what is the ultimate goal for this, and who is behind, you know, pushing this stuff out.
Speaker 2:I think that California is legislating for the worst parents. I mean, if you think of any of these scenarios where a child is in crisis, let's say a 16-year-old Right now a 16-year-old girl can be taken out of school to go have an abortion, let's say, and the parents have no right to know that. So maybe in some circumstances, if that happens, the parent is going to do something violent to the child. So the legislature is really protecting against the worst parents. But I think most parents are good, normal people, whatever normal means.
Speaker 2:I don't know how I would respond in that reaction, but I don't think I would harm my child. I'd want to have a conversation with my child and they're obviously in a situation of crisis, right? Why would you exclude parents from that? It just makes no sense to me. So I can't really tell you who brings this. That's just the. These things are the philosophy of the majority party, and I'm not saying the average Democrat. My parents are, my mom's a Democrat, my brothers are Democrats. I mean, I live in California, a lot of my friends are, so it's not I'm not saying that's even the view of Democrats. I'm saying that is the ruling class of Democrats in the legislature is very progressive and very, very extreme.
Speaker 2:Remember just this last election, proposition 36, which passed with like 70% of the vote. The crime one passed in every county, passed in every legislative district in the state. Yet many Democratic legislators opposed it and continue to try to chip away at it, even though their constituents just said no, we support this. They think they know better than what the voters just told them six months ago up there in politics.
Speaker 1:I don't think that they really go down and talk to people and and and really care a lot about what their constituents really want and think, because it to me, like some of these things. It just I cannot believe that that there are more people who are, you know, supporting these kind of laws and bills that I don't think they're good for society.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I mean I don't think people really understand how disconnected it is in Sacramento from just everyday life. I think if you polled 100 people people do you think you should know what happens in your kids life at school? 90 of them are going to say yes, but I don't know. But then they continue to vote.
Speaker 1:What's interesting is they continue to vote for who's ever there already I have a question about that, though, like do you think that here in California our voting is? You know our voter rolls are clean, and I know that. Is it true that in California, if you are a poll worker and during election, you have no right to ask the voter to look at their ID? Is that actually true?
Speaker 2:Yes. So how it works is when you go register to vote. So the law is when you register to vote, or this is federal law when you go register to vote, or you and this actually came under Bush, so this has been around for a long time when you go register to vote, you either have to show your ID then or when you go vote for the first time. So California is, they say, complying with federal law. You can actually go register online.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm not saying anybody should do this because this would be voter fraud, but you can register online right now at the Secretary of State website with no social security number or any identification information, and then what's supposed to happen is the county is supposed to look. Whatever county you registered in is supposed to look for an ID. So I know in Placer County that is what our registrar voters will do We'll go request an identification before you can do an eligible ballot. But in California what counts as an eligible identification is like your gym membership card, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that. So now, when I signed up for my gym, you know they asked me my name and number and address, but I mean they didn't like verify that.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean I could have put in any name and I could have used then that gym membership card to register to vote. So now Trump has actually said he's going to come at that Now Trump has actually said he's going to come.
Speaker 2:at that he's going to enforce the existing law that is on the books, which is no like. We mean a real ID, like an actual identification, and my philosophy is, by the way, too, the reason. I just can't believe it. I mean, I've introduced bills to require voter ID and they go nowhere. They don't even get hearings, but they keep saying my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like, oh, some people can't afford it, or you know, it's a poll tax, and I said, well, just give them one, then it's the foundation of our democracy. Just give them an ID, then the taxpayers will gladly pay for that person to have an ID to make sure that our election system is devoid of any fraud. But they do not believe in voter ID.
Speaker 1:I also remember in this past election California was probably one of the states. Maybe there was another state, but I was looking at the total votes coming in um weeks, weeks after election. Um, I I don't understand that with some states they can count all of their votes. Uh right, you know that same day at the end. Maybe like some votes don't get counted until the next day, but you know the result within two days, but in California it's weeks. I just don't understand that.
Speaker 2:See, you're speaking my language. I had a piece of legislation up also on Wednesday. All I suggested was let's reduce that by seven days, because right now it's at 30 days or 28 days, one or the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I said let's reduce it by seven days, because right now it's at 30 days or 28 days, one or the other. 30? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I said let's reduce it by seven days and not a single Democrat voted for it and I had no opposition to the bill. No organization, nobody wrote in an opposition to the bill and I still. I mean, they are married to having a long voting system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to me, this issue with the voter ID issue, I think it's just, it just smells Like there's a reason why they're trying to push that. Otherwise, like I don't, because, like I would travel to another city in the state you know, and I would kind of like talk to some groups of people and stuff and I just almost everyone I talk to, whether they're a Democrat or a Republican. Most of the people are, they have common sense and they're like yeah, you know that's fine Voter ID. You know that that's fine voter id. You know it's our, our right to vote during an election. It's you know it. I don't know it. I just don't don't understand why they're treating it like like that only for a reason is that maybe there are some shenanigans going on? Well, exactly, I exactly.
Speaker 2:I don't. You know, I will say the majority of people, the vast majority of the population in California supports voter ID. There's pulling on it even Democrats, the majority of Democrats. So it's a pretty bipartisan issue. But you again you have the extreme you know extremist viewpoint in Sacramento that we can't check voter IDs. I mean it's, it's crazy. I mean we have. You know, they always talk about how great you're, you know europe is and you know all the great things going on over there and almost every country in the world checks voter ids. We're like one of the only that doesn't check voter ids. I, I don't understand, it's not. Are you saying that those countries? Because they say like well, we need all the time to count the ballots and we have a secure election? And were you saying all those other countries that do it overnight or count overnight? Are you saying those aren't secure elections? Because I think maybe the UK and France, they'd probably disagree with you on that, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in your political career, are there certain like politicians that, whether in the past or current, that you kind of look up to like you respect most?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, just sort of historically, I've always thought Ronald Reagan was, when you just listen to his speeches on the beaches of Normandy about World War II and you just the idea of freedom and how freedom in the United States is really what you know just propelled the world forward, you know, and just how the average person wants freedom, and some people don't even know what freedom is because they've never had access to it, and so I always thought that that was, that's like. The foundation that should be the foundation of the united states is freedom, and I can't say either party's really good at freedom anymore. You know, recognizing freedom, um, you know, self-determination, say what you want to say within, you know, as long as it's not too crazy, um, obviously, but, uh, so I really enjoyed him. And then I think also not that I necessarily agreed with everything about him, but just from a california centric, is I really liked arnold schwarzenegger.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, look the get, you know the guys made a lot of mistakes in his life, including when he was governor. Um, in terms of his personal life, right, but, um, but I liked how he he governed like a real person, like with a personality. You know, I don't feel like he will. He wasn't overly. Uh, like I, like, even in this interview, I don't. I don't have notes, I don't have, I wasn't prepared, I didn't even read the questions in advance, like I, just you're going to get what you get from me and.
Speaker 2:I kind of like that with Schwarzenegger is you got what you got? And, by the way, that's what I like about Trump too. He's at his worst when he's reading from a script, but he's his best when he's just being honest with people. You might not agree with the guy, but I like the realness of that. So, that's kind of what I aspire to do at all times.
Speaker 1:That's true, because I think that in politics there's a lot of people that I noticed that sort of have to be one way. When someone is, you know who has a camera right in their face, or they're making a speech, or they're saying something that's going to be recorded, that's going to be out there on the news, they're real, you know things that they really believe in. They don't really put out right, especially with so much division. Uh, especially right now or in the last what like eight, ten, ten years there's has been like this division, almost like I don't even know if it's possible to to bring these two sides closer together. Yeah, um and do and do you find it sometimes difficult or like conflicting sometimes, depending on where you go and what people you're talking to?
Speaker 2:I mean, you always have your audiences of things that you're going to say. You're not going to say certain things with certain groups. It's not that you're lying, it's like I'm not going to go talk to the environmental club about you know.
Speaker 1:uh, I love oil or something you know but I mean, if they asked me about it, I'd tell them the truth.
Speaker 2:Um, but I just I can't keep lies straight and all that kind of stuff. I've always thought like, well, what happens if you know this thing you did in college surfaces or something you know? It'd be like, I mean, I was dumb and I was in college, you know. I mean.
Speaker 2:So I think people spend a lot of time not really being authentic, uh, in my role and my and I just I don't have time for that and I love meeting, by the way, with groups that I disagree with. They are like my favorite meetings. I can meet with conservative Republican groups all day long and have not an ounce of conversation like deep, meaningful conversation, because there's no disagreement.
Speaker 2:You know, and sometimes I do get disagreement from people from my party, but for the most part it's like those are very easy conversations, but if we're going to solve problems, we have to talk to the people we disagree with.
Speaker 2:So I do have there's a group in Sacramento, a huge environmental group based out of Sacramento, but they have members, particularly in Auburn actually, and my staff was like, yeah, you know you shouldn't do this meeting, you know it's. And I said no, absolutely I would love to do this meeting. And so it was a group of you know four or five environmental activists and honestly, probably if you asked them I'm actually I know if you, if you ask them, they'd be like, oh yeah, that was a great meeting. That was great. I mean, I was just very honest where I was on issues. We had a great conversation. I told them where maybe we could work together on issues. In fact it even got to a point where I had a piece of legislation on forest management actually, where the organization removed their opposition to the bill because they understood where I was coming from.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow you know, so it's like we just need more of that Just be, honest with people Like what's the worst thing, what's the worst consequence of if I say something dumb or do something dumb or make a bad? I lose my office, I'm fine. I got my wife and kids and I'll find another job. Like, I'm not that stressed out about it, I like it, I want to stay in it for as long as I want to be able to stay in it. Maybe only two more years I'll want to do it, I don't know. But I'm not like beholden to it. I can find another job, just fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I really respect that. I think I noticed that about you because I did meet and talk to other people in politics, so I really, really respect that. What are your thoughts on the tariffs?
Speaker 2:You were actually the first person to ask me that I hadn't really thought about what my response would be. Um, well, you know, um, my wife works for a company where we uh, you know have a fair number of shares in that company and we're about like 25% poorer than we were two weeks ago. Um, you know, what's interesting is a lot of them are reciprocal tariffs, right? So this company charges, or this country charges 10, we're going to charge 10 right and I don't understand.
Speaker 2:so, on one hand, I don't understand why we just let these other countries have tariffs on us with impunity, you know, and just do nothing about it. So so I I understand the need for them, but also and it really does disadvantage our workers here when you have tariffs, things like that but I mean you do have to be careful. I mean this last week the bond market, you know, got in a really bad spot, and when people lose faith in the American government, you know, obviously it becomes more expensive for the government to borrow its excess money it needs every year.
Speaker 2:So it makes mortgages more expensive, I mean all those things. So I have a threshold for tariffs. I don't know really what that is. I think the rollout was pretty aggressive, so we'll just have to see how it moves forward.
Speaker 1:It's very I'm walking on eggshells doing it, but I think I'm okay with pushing the envelope a little bit and seeing just doing what other countries do to us yeah, you know well, I've been watching several videos of trump way younger, way back in the day, like maybe 35, 40 years ago, and he was pretty much saying the same thing. Everywhere he went he was like, hey, uh, you know japan, look what japan's doing, taking advantage of us, you know. And now china, right, um, anyone who has been dealing with china, having either dealt with in the business or people there are doing business they pretty much say the same thing. Like it's almost impossible If you have an idea, you come up with an idea, right For a product and you want to make it over there like you can forget about, like how good your patent is or whatever, like it's going to be taken from you and you're going to turn around and the next day you'll see your.
Speaker 1:You know the thing that you worked on, you created, you invented whatever. Now it's. You know the cheap version is somewhere online, you know available and it's I yeah, it's, it's very I know that that when you look at what the stock, how the stock market is reacting, the bond market, it's, a lot of people are panicking, worried how all is going to, how this all is going to play out, play out, um, but I, I, I do feel like when you look at our national debt, how it has been just growing, growing and now like just to service this debt, it's like it's what it's um similar to the, the military or defense budget.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like so I when I when, the more I learn about this, I wonder, okay, what would be another way of approaching this huge problem that this country has? And some people think, well, it doesn't really going to affect me right now, so we can just kind of continue kicking the can down the road. But when you have, you know, children and you're thinking about, you know, the future of this country and the future generations, then you have to ask OK, how else can we fix this? Right? Because I look at what other prior presidents did. Nobody really did. They went out there, they talked about oh, we got to do this, we're going to lower taxes, we're going to balance the budget. You know all these like same terms, same you know phrases, but our national debt continues to grow and it's like how do you solve this issue? Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It is definitely. Well, you know, there's a theory out there that you never have to solve it, that you cause inflation. You continuously cause inflation to where the debt load as a percentage of the dollar actually goes down. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Because you know, just like you could buy a hamburger for five bucks five years ago, Now it's ten bucks, right? So it's the same theory with the debt. You just keep driving inflation and so the impact of the debt comes down. So I mean I'm not saying I subscribe to that.
Speaker 2:I'm just telling you that's the strategy, and so that's why sometimes monetary policy on the federal level, on the federal level, it will intentionally cause, you know, devalue the dollar or cause inflation, because there is no chance we can ever pay off. What is it like? $35 trillion now, or something we all remember, probably when it was like 10 trillion, you know, and now it's 35 trillion and maybe more. It's just, I mean, how much is our total budget at all sources, social security, everything is like three or 4 trillion. You know what I mean. So there's just no way we can ever pay it off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting. Well, we'll see what happens. I guess this. It's been pretty turbulent in the last few days, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. It's really interesting that because you mentioned, Trump has been saying this for a long time and he has. It's really interesting to me that people get so mad at Trump for doing exactly what he said he was going to do, like he always said he's going to deport people who are here illegally. He's always said he's going to deport people who are here illegally. He has always said these tariffs are unfair. I mean, he has literally told you exactly what he was going to do and he's doing it and people get all bothered by it. Yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, yeah, so what?
Speaker 2:do you think about Gavin Newsom? You think he's going to run in 2028? Yes, yes, yes, yes, I mean I don't know how long he might not last to 2028. I mean, because he could, right like, get his presidential campaign up and going and then sort of peter out and then there's not really a presidential campaign for him. But it's hard for me to imagine him just going away.
Speaker 2:I mean he's doing all this stuff, these podcasts. He's kind of moderating. I don't want to say moderating, because he's not really moderate, but he's getting more rational, I guess, on some of these issues. So I think he's going to be running.
Speaker 1:Do you think most of the people in California can tell that it's just him kind of putting on this, this front, just to maybe like trick some people? And I don't know, because to me, like he just does not seem like he has like even an ounce of just you know being real and like he's. He's, he's doing one thing, he's signing all these laws, you know, and then he goes on the podcast and and and tries to solve a problem. Hey, you know, for us democrats, what are we doing wrong here, you know, and people are saying, hey, I mean, can mean, can't you? What are you talking about? Look what you've done with California, you know, I don't know, I just don't understand that there's still more people in this state that would vote for this guy. I just don't understand that.
Speaker 2:In a lot of circles he's insanely popular. I don't really understand how or why.
Speaker 1:But Bill Maher, like he loves this guy, you know, and when you really start drilling and asking him questions like, why do you like this guy? You know, well, he's like, he looks like he could be a good president, it's really there's no like substance or like, hey, he's done this or that. This is why I yeah, you know I like him, but look how he, um, how he governed during covid, what he has done, you know, with all these different policies, uh, with immigration, you know, and all that I don't know.
Speaker 2:I yeah I mean I would just start off this. You know, if he was running, you know like a debate or something like well, governor Newsom, like what would you say in your time as governor? What was your number? What tell me your top three accomplishments? I yeah, I mean I'm sure he would say like, oh, got us through the pandemic, or whatever. Well, I mean anybody who was governor got us through a pandemic. That doesn't mean he did a good job. I mean kept schools closed forever. We have declining enrollment throughout the state.
Speaker 1:All these schools.
Speaker 2:People have lost faith in their school system. You know there's a lot more doubt around vaccines than there ever were. You know there's a lot more doubt around vaccines than there ever were. And I think that that's not just crazy people out there saying, oh, vaccines are scary, you know what I mean. That's the government actually instilling kind of lying about what the vaccines were.
Speaker 2:I'm, by the way, kind of controversial, but I got vaccinated for COVID three times. I won't do it again. Third one almost killed me, but I got vaccinated. I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit on that, but like third one made me really sick. So the but I remember getting vaccinated in April 2021 and thinking like this is an amazing day, cause I've been told that these vaccines are, you're not going to get COVID, right. I was like this is an amazing day because I've been told that these vaccines are, you're not going to get coded right. I was like this is an amazing day, the world is going to be reopened and free. And you know, of course, none of that happened. They tell you need to get your vaccine, you know, revaccinated every year or whatever, in your normal flu shot if you want to get your flu shot.
Speaker 2:So I just feel like people felt like they were lied to. I felt like I was lied to. So if they would have just come out and said from the get-go hey, you know the COVID vaccine, you're going to have to get it every year. This is going to save you for this time period that we're in this pandemic, but, like in another year, you got to go get another one, and a year after that, a year after that, a year after that, if they would just say that from the get-go, it wouldn't create a distrust. Maybe I would have made a different decision or people. But I just think there's complete distrust and all these people who have distrust in our vaccine system. I understand, you know, because the government lied to you, literally lied to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, last couple of questions. What do you think California's future will look like? Are you optimistic or pessimistic where the state is headed?
Speaker 2:You know I asked my colleagues jokingly one time my Democratic colleagues, like if you could look back at, you know, similar to what we were talking about with Newsom. But, like in the last 10 years I joke with them about this all the time Like what would you say you've done to improve the lives of Californians? Like, just name one thing you know I can't name it Our affordability has gone. Or you know we can't afford anything. Housing prices are a lot. You know they're switching to electric cars where the average car value in California is like $5,000 and they want to get everybody in a $30,000, you know, toyota or something.
Speaker 2:So the reason why I'm optimistic is because our government is so out of touch, so out of touch that people are like we got to do something about this.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I said, we picked up some seats in this last election and who knows what's going to happen. But I just think if you just walk down the street you know this city in particular is very 50-50, by the way, republicans, democrats you walk down the street and you just pull a random person out and ask them what do you think about the? How do you think our state's doing? I don't think they're going to be like, yeah, it's going great. So I just think the animosity, the concern is there, that if Republicans can paint a picture of, I mean, this is like once in a generation opportunity, that we do care about you being able to survive in this state, then I think we do have an opportunity, not just from a partisan, like pick up seats. We just need more balance and we need to be able to work together on issues we disagree on to be able to actually address these issues, because we're not doing it right now.
Speaker 1:it's not happening I just wonder how, what will it take for for people to kind of get closer and work together? Because, like I'm also, sometimes I go on X and I watch different conversations take place between the left and the right, and I'm also living here in Auburn where, like you said, 50% Republicans and Democrats, and as soon as an issue comes up that has to do something with Trump. Recently, trump said that hey, I, even if I come out with with a um cure for cancer, these people that are sitting on this side right here when he was doing the address, said they're, they're not gonna clap and it's so true, like, no matter what he does, no matter so if. If someone is out there and they're like well, I really support and I like this thing, what Trump is doing right away, a lot of people, they're not going to listen to anything else after that.
Speaker 2:You know Gavin Newsom's policies, but if any Democrat proposes something to improve the quality of lives for people, I do it on a regular basis in terms of small things, you know, because there's no real big things that they're doing to improve our lives. But I vote for Democratic bills all the time. And if Gavin Newsom had an idea that that might be a fight still, but would improve the lives, I would 100 percent support it. But it's. You know. There's an actual example on this Trump thing and that's when, you know I mean not to go back to vaccines, but the vaccine was created when he was president. Yes, he's the one who funded it, expedited it and got it approved. And so many people on the left were like I will never take a Trump vaccine and turn around to 2021, when he's gone, and everybody's like if you don't get vaccinated, you are a terrible human being, you know. And so it's like wait, you actually were opposed to it when he was president because he shepherded that forward. So there's an actual example where that happened. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah I remember during 9-11 you know what happened kind of brought people together. Uh, you know, I I just I hope that we don't have to face another serious situation in this country too, because even COVID right, it was bad for everyone, but it actually divided people even more. It didn't bring people together.
Speaker 2:Ash, you brought up 9-11 again. I literally was just having this conversation with a guy who served in Afghanistan last night. I said one of the saddest moments in American history, you know, I mean for sure, was obviously 9-11. I mean, I remember exactly where I was that day. But subsequently, but subsequently, when the United States unified behind just being an American and protecting the country, that like one year period, because that's basically all it lasted, but was like the best, it was so great yes, just the unity in this country that we were all aligned to stop terrorism from happening. You know.
Speaker 2:I remember that Gosh it was such a good feeling, you know so Well, Joe, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much for your service. Anything else that you want to say? How can people get in touch with you if they want to get in contact with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, if you Google Joe Patterson, I'm sure my state websites would come up. But you know, if people ever have an issue, like I said, with the state agency or whatever, you know they just have thoughts on state issues they can email us, call us and we do respond. I mean, if we get emails I actually will respond to them, like me, you know. So we try to be really responsive and happy to help anybody Like it's, even though sometimes it could be kind of a hard job. When you think about the politics, the best part by far like right after I leave this, I'm going to do an honor for a nonprofit of the month that's doing some great stuff, right. So being able to recognize people and the great things that they do and all the great stuff in our community, you know, there's definitely a good side to the job. It's just the politics gets in the way every now and then.
Speaker 1:Well, we're fortunate to have people like you out there. So, thank you so much. Thanks, appreciate it.
