3/24/26: Cake (Band) Fundraises for Progressive Challengers and Doris Matsui Lies in SFGate Article

Here is the SFGate article I reference in this episode.

Cake, from Sacramento, held a fundraiser before their Sunday night concert for both Mai Vang and Effie Phillips Staley (who is from Sacramento but running for Congress in New York where she's been living against Republican Mike Lawler). Note though that in California, we have jungle primaries where the top two vote getters will advance, but in New York, they still have Democratic primaries. 

I also go through this article line by line and also reference Elk Grove vice mayor Darren Suen trying to convince me Doris Matsui is the better candidate in the race for spurious reasons.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hi fans and stalkers, this is Erica Lee, host of Disrupt Your Politics, coming at you in Sacramento, former congressional candidate. Tonight, I just wanted to talk about yesterday and the cake concert I went to that was in support of two progressive primary challengers. Mai Vang, who's running for Congress here in California's 7th Congressional District, against entrenched moderate corporate bot Democrat Doris Matsui. Also happens to be an out-of-touch octogenearian, just won't retire. And then also Effie Phillips Staley, who is from Sacramento, but she is running for Congress in New York, where she's been living for a while now. And she's challenging the extra awful uh Mike Lawler, he's a Republican, who did flip a seat to red from blue, although New York lost a house seat like California did in 2022. So they did have some heavy redistricting as well, but the seat that he flipped in large was had been a blue seat. So it's it's definitely one that can be flipped back. So the reason that Effie is involved, though, is because like I said, she's from Sacramento, but she knew the members, some of the members of the band Cake before they became Cake. And both my and Effie coincidentally went to Sacramento High together. Uh, well, not together, different years, but they both went to Sacramento High. And so did some members of Cake, the band. So uh Cake tonight, I think, played their last concert out of three that they they held here in Sacramento. I think I read that they hadn't performed here last since uh 2019. And a lot of people may not even know who they are. They they have had a handful of hits, and I think that if even if you don't know the band's name, you probably do know the songs. And also former Congressman Jamal Bowman came out. He's from New York. He came out to support both Effie and Mai, and they appeared at her campaign office opening that I missed. I got there really late and everyone had pretty much gone. But um, I did get to meet Effie and I really, really liked meeting her. We've been chatting a little bit behind the scenes online, and um, and she recognized me. It's always interesting to me when people recognize me. I think I don't look anything that I look like when I'm on video in on TikTok or anything, but um and a few people at the show did recognize me as well from TikTok. And also after the concert, I went outside and a new friend of mine was talking to a reporter, and so I was just kind of lingering talking to someone else, waiting for him to finish. And then at some point he said, Well, who you really want to talk to is Erica here, because she actually ran in this race first. And so I talked to this reporter from the New York Times for several minutes, and she was very nice. I do feel like she asked some leading questions about ageism and and some other things too. But I made sure to say, you know, with regard to Matt Suey's age, it's easy for people to say, well, she's 81, she should retire, but it's really just the age of her ideas, essentially, because most people who are oxygenarians still in Congress have been there a long time. And they're just they're just out of touch, out of date. I mean, she's still accepting corporate pack money. That's something she's always done. And so for a lot of these entrenched politicians who have been accepting money like that this whole time, it's not really inherent for them to refuse it, even though they easily could. And I said, I don't have to condone it to understand it, but you know, that's just an explanation and not an excuse, essentially. And I even said, I remember Congressman Andy Levin in 2022 when he had accepted some corporate money and he he refused it. He sent it all back. And he challenged Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who he was challenging, because like like California and New York, Michigan also lost a house seat that pitted Andy Levin and Haley Stevens against each other. And Andy Levin uh challenged Haley Stevens to send that money back. And her response was, Well, that's just something new that you've done, or you just did it. Like, so he had accepted it before essentially, but she never did. She's one of APAC's biggest darlings, and uh Andy Levin did unfortunately lose that race, but he did say, you know, when I when I gave that money back, it was like he felt free. He felt free. I just want to say, too, that I just remembered that I saw a post from former city council member Steve Hansen, who posted a picture of him with Doris Matsui and Nancy Pelosi and was celebrating their just their existence, basically, leaders in Congress. He's endorsed uh Doris Matsui. And he used a cake song for his post on Instagram, which is obviously in reference to the cake concert. But you know, who's gonna where resistance band is gonna come out and perform for Doris Matsui to help raise money, right? No one's inspired by her. No resistance band is inspired by her. But you know, I just I just remember too, it's kind of funny that um she's married to a DC billionaire, and I noticed that he only donated$3,500 to her campaign when he could actually donate$7,000, like the other billionaires for donating to her campaign. So is her husband one of those ethical billionaires? You know, because how that works is anyone can donate, the max you can donate to a federal campaign is$3,500. But you can donate another$3,500 for the general as well. So either you can wait until she makes it to the general and then donate again, or you can donate it all, all you can donate$7,000 at once. So it kind of helps with fundraising and bolster their numbers and make them seem more viable, right? And they can spend it. But if a candidate accepts a$7,000 donation and they don't make it to the general, then they have to refund the extra$3,500. So that's our funny campaign finance. So when I I talk about Steve Hansen, former city council member, he's the one who he was he was a failed mayoral candidate in 2023, 2024. And DSA, our local DSA here, endorsed Dr. Flow Cofer, who barely lost the mayoral race altogether, just by a few thousand votes out of like 200,000 cast due to dark money interference. But uh DSA did endorse her, and Steve Hansen at the time, when he was still running, said that DSA supports Hamas terrorists, implying that his opponent, Dr. Flow Kofer, supports Hamas. So that's the kind of Democrat we're dealing with here. And then come to find out, a friend of mine who I've known, like I hadn't seen him in a long time or talked to him in a long time, but my dad first met him in 2006. His name is Neil, when they worked on the Charlie Brown campaign. And then in 2008, that's when I met him. And my dad was still helping with that campaign. And uh he ran for some local races, did not win them. And then I went away for a bit and I came back. And so I reconnected with him when I moved back here and then was running for Congress. And so we met up and I paid for appetizers and a drink. Uh, and he told me who I should talk to, fully knowing that I was running a progressive campaign against Doris Matt Suey. At the time, I thought it was very helpful and it was really good to see him, and we had a good time. But then come to find out, he supported Doris Matsui the whole time. And uh I felt kind of like, you know, he said I remember talking to him about that because he was liking some awful comments on Facebook too, especially from this terrible old wit, bitter white dude named Steve Maviglio on all of the posts about my Vang. But that uh he said, Well, you know, you should go after Kylie because uh um the Republicans are the ones who are bad. It's like, yeah, but the Democrats are the ones who keep losing to these bad Republicans. And then I saw that he supported Doris Matsui and then endorsed her. Not that anyone cares about his endorsement, I think, but that was really kind of a hard pill to swallow. I think my dad would have been disappointed, and I told him that too. I just thought, this is what happens when you're in Sacramento politics for that long. You just kind of get used to your friends with everybody and you all vote the same way and support the if electeds in Congress, and you just like being their friends, you want to get jobs with them, but you don't care about what's actually best for the rest of the rest of us, you know. They it's I don't know, it's it's been a hard pill to swallow, to be quite honest. Anyway, I want to I want to talk about this uh San Francisco Gate article that uh was published a few days ago about the My Vang and Doris Matsui race. So basically, it was published about six days ago now, and it's actually overall, it was a good article, but again, it's by it's in the San Francisco Gate, the sfgate.com. But if you Google, I'll I'll put the link to this uh article in the show notes. But it says the bitter California primary fight between an 81-year-old and a 40-year-old. It's got a great picture of my Vang, whatever picture of Doris Matsui. It's written by Russ Lester Black. So the one thing that it says about um Doris Matsui and my Vang, it says it says, quote, Vang said the 81-year-old Matsui who is married to billionaire Roger Zant lacks the energy to represent voters and is out of touch with the working public. That is correct. That is very correct. I mean, I'm the one who said she has privilege uh to her face at a town hall. And Doris Matsui said, I don't have privilege. And even people who like her laughed in the audience. So let me see what else it says here. She says, Matt Suey told SF Gate that she thinks the party needs younger leaders, but refuted the idea that she lacks the energy to keep working in Congress. And then it says here, during her time in Congress, Matsui has been celebrated for bringing billions of dollars in federal funding to protect flood-prone Sacramento. That makes me laugh. And that reminds me of a lot of the conversations I've had lately, even too, with voters. When I ask people who support Doris Matt Suey still, the rare person in the wild, they I said, Why do you support her still, right? And they said, Well, she's been good with flooding. Now, look, if I've been in Congress 21 years and when I am and someone is asked about what I've done, what what have I done? What am I best known for? Flooding. I think I would pack it in, pack it up, whatever. I mean, when if I had as much clout and power in a deep blue district with no challengers for over 20 years, and the only thing that people can say that's good that I've done is to address flooding, that's a terrible legacy. And to be quite honest, any decent demo office would have addressed flooding, right? Like, what does she stuck her neck out on? You know, what is she passionate about? Like single parent healthcare, nothing. She could have been wrong on anything and gotten re-elected for real. I just I don't understand this this flooding thing. And then she even talked about it in this uh Comstocks article, an interview that she had last year. So when I was still running, you know, I was looking up everything about her. And she she admitted that when she was first elected into Congress on the coattails of her dead husband, she said, I didn't know anything about flooding, so I had to learn about it. Which also reminds me, um, at this retreat that I went to on Saturday with the Democratic Party of Sacramento County, there were just about 20 of us there. And uh Elk Grove Vice Mayor Derek Sewan arrived very late and he came in and somebody made a comment about how, oh, we were just talking about how the electives never come by. And then he said, you know what? He says, I'll tell you why they don't come by. It's because we're not really made to feel welcome here. And I I was I just thought he missed my whole speech about how I, as a progressive primary challenger, didn't feel welcome here. And this is a job he chose and got elected to do, so I'm not whatever, dude. But after that, you know, I was trying to get my free sandwich before I took off. I wasn't gonna stay for the whole retreat, and that was planned in advance, to be quite honest. But he introduced himself to me or vice versa. I was gonna talk to him no matter what. But um, he said, Oh, you know, I'm whatever I am, and I said, No, I'm Erica. I said, I was actually the first person to run in this race against Doris Matsui. I said, I couldn't help but notice that you voted for her as a delegate over my vang at the endorsement convention. And he says, Yeah, I said and he then he just started to shit on my vang. I didn't even know what he was talking about, to be quite honest. But he kept talking about someone, you know, with experience, especially in these times. And I said, Yeah, but these people with experience keep losing to Trump. I said, That's not exactly helpful. And I said, She's not giving anyone to come out and vote for to vote for her for, right? No one's going out to vote for Doris Matt Suey. No one is excited to go vote for Doris Matsui. And I said, By the way, you know, she had no experience, and her husband was 37 years old and came straight from city council when he was elected into Congress. My Vang is older than him now, and he she's in city council, and now he's saying that she's not qualified or has experience. And then when I when I mentioned how Doris Matsui didn't have any experience didn't have any experience when she was elected 20 years ago, I said, I had almost everyone, if not everyone in this room has more experience than Doris Matsui when she was first elected for Congress. And he said, Oh, but but that was 20 years ago. And he said, But you know, I heard she had uh she was a lobbyist before though. I said, Oh yeah, I've heard that rumor too that she was a corporate lobbyist. I said, you know, but it's funny, you can't find any mention of that on her house website or her campaign website because she knows it's toxic. And he says, Well, no, but you know, he says, much like you said you worked on the hill, because I told him I had worked on off the hill in healthcare policy, and you know, and I've worked on campaigns. He says, So you have experience on the hill. I said, I said, Yeah, but she's she was a corporate lobbyist. So she was, I said, that means that she was um speaking for corporations and not for people, which actually is exactly what she's doing today. It's the same thing. And so, I mean, I was punching holes in everything he said. I, you know, it's kind of like I still feel like with these, especially these moderates, it's kind of like on my worst day I'm smarter than the smarter than them than they are on their best days. Because I don't have to lie, I'm authentic. They have to make excuses for this weak ass congresswoman. So anyway, I'm just gonna go back to this article now. Oh, it does it does reference that uh during the town hall, it says Matsui reportedly shouted that she doesn't have privilege after an audience member brought up the congresswoman's wealth. That was me. That was me. So it says Vang has criticized Matsui for not hosting more town halls. Matsui defended her action in the district, although she declined to commit to hosting any further town halls. Yeah. One thing she did say to the B once when she refused to answer whether she would hold more of them, she had some word solid answer, and she said, Well, you know, a lot of people just don't feel comfortable with all the shouting and stuff lately, too. It's like, first of all, how would you know? Because you haven't held one. But second, the people who do show up at those meetings who are, you know, basically going after their members of Congress, it's because they haven't been holding town halls. So they have all this pent-up frustration, you know. So if she met with people more regularly, they wouldn't be as frustrated. God, this woman, I swear. She says, in quotes, I meet with constituents all the time, and so does my staff. I think they are the most active staff around. I'm very active. She doesn't know what I do. Here, I know what she doesn't do is meet with constituents. I have scheduled over 15,000 meetings with Congress for work over the past 10 years. It's probably more than that. Doris Matsui is the only member of Congress who doesn't have a scheduling web form on her website for constituents to request a meeting with her. I know that because that's what I use sometimes to schedule meetings for constituents. I'm scheduling these advocacy days for that I work with on contract. So when you call her office and ask about it, they just say, Oh, just use the email me portion, like meet Doris. I said, No, no, no. That's for if you want, um, that's for if you want her to support a specific piece of legislation. If you look at every other House member's website, including Tama Clint Talks, Ami Berras, Eric Swables, they they all have a thing, they have a web form. It's a link that says schedule a meeting or meeting request, something like that. And you can go on there and you can indicate what date or what date range you can put if you want in DC or in the district, and you put, you know, specifically what you what you want to talk about, the number of attendees. They're all they're a little varied, but it's you get the idea, right? Go on her website. She does not have that function. That's a very niche piece of information that I know. So when she says she meets with constituents, what she means is she's meeting with donors, she's going to events and speaking to them and shaking their hands, but she's not holding meetings with them. She's not holding meetings with them. And so I know that because I used to be a hardcore colon cancer prevention advocate. And we used to go meet with our members of Congress. I met with her once. This was like in 2012 or 2013 when I was her constituent. Another time I was her constituent, and I met with her because I was her constituent. I wanted to talk about my dead mom who died from colon cancer. And it was a nice meeting, and she was very nice. She doesn't do that anymore. Because you know, another reason why I know she doesn't do that? Because these elected, they cannot wait to post a picture of these meetings on social media for content. Like, oh, I met with this colon cancer group today. Oh, I met with this Alzheimer's group today. Oh, I met with this gun violence prevention group today. Look at her social media. She does not do that. And when she does meet with people, it's fellow electeds. And when you look at the pictures, that she's wearing the same outfit, she's sitting in the same spot on her couch, facing a fellow elected or probably a donor, and they just space them out. But she is not actually holding constituent meetings. I promise you that, because there's no photo evidence of it either. Anyone should be able to subpoena that information, to check her calendar, what her, see what her day-to-day activities are, and then see how often she actually flies back to Sacramento. And on and honestly, that is one of the reasons I decided to run against her, too. That and her rude staff. Oh my god, her staff is so rude. Erin Jones, you're a rude one. Oh, this article talks about how Matsui's district office, her loan district office, is located in the in a building named after her first husband, the Robert T. Matsui building. And it's really high up. You have to pay for parking, you have to pay at least$6 to park there. I did that once to go follow up on my meeting requests because they were ignoring me. There's no bus that drops off right in front of that building either, by the way. Also, Senator Alex Padilla has his office in that building, and I was so annoyed by that. And he's in door stores, Matsue, because of course, but that is not an accessible place to have a district office. I'm just, I'm sorry. It's not, it's just because it's named after her husband. Oh, and here's the real problem part of this article. So My Vang has told me this story, and she's told this at fundraising events, and she told this like at house parties, and she told this at the endorsement convention that she was basically deciding whether or not to run for Congress after this meeting she had with Doris Matsui because she couldn't provide a cogent answer on what her immigration policy was because she had shared concerns from her own community, why she was basically one of the reasons for her visit and why she had been trying to schedule a meeting with the congresswoman. And she said it took about five months and many attempts to do that. But she said that Doris Matt Suey didn't know the answer didn't have a good answer on immigration, basically. And so Matt Suey said she's completely distorting the facts of that. And it says Matsue also said that most of the meeting was spent discussing a gubernatorial pardon for a family member of Vang. It says Vang, who is Hmong, denied that description of the conversation, saying she was asking about someone from the Hmong community. Now that's really shitty. I mean, why would my Vang lie about that, right? And I just know that she's not telling the truth about that. Doris Matsui. So oh, so there's a response here. She says, it was not a family member, it was a constituent in our city. The individual was Hmong, but wasn't a family member, Vang said. Kevin Lau, a spokesperson for Matsui's campaign, said the congresswoman's entire staff at the time recollect Vang describing the person as a family member. And this guy, I'm gonna talk about this guy in a second, too. He works for one of the worst people, I swear to God. This article ends with uh Matt Sui saying, I welcome this challenge too. I'm excited to showcase my record and my vision for another term. Well, we still don't know what her vision is. I don't know where that what that vision is. It's not clear. It's if if anything, it's very nebulous. But Doris Matsui, My Vang has said at house parties and fundraisers that she told the congresswoman to please reach out to her because she was thinking of running for Congress. She couldn't say that she was challenging her because they were in a federal building, but she said Doris Matsui never called her. So she doesn't welcome this challenge either because MyVang has challenged her to two televised debates. And we have not heard anything in social media about that that those have been confirmed yet. One of them, I think, was by the Sacramento Bee and then a neighborhood association. Doris Matsui can't debate. So if she welcomes this challenge, then why isn't she actively participating in it, right? Thanks for listening, everybody. I'm I'm signing off on that note. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and good night.