Speaker 1: I'll admit that I've given in to this certain instinct
Speaker 1: that I think a lot of Conservatives suffer from. It
Speaker 1: is the instinct to call whoever our lead political antagonists
Speaker 1: are morons. It's the instinct to think that our political
Speaker 1: opponents believe so many dumb things, so many evil things,
Speaker 1: so many wicked things, that we have to ascribe every
Speaker 1: kind of bad adjective we can to them.
Speaker 2: So this is Barack Obama evil?
Speaker 1: Yes, he's evil. Is Barack Obama stupid? Yes, Barack Obama
Speaker 1: is stupid? Whoa there, pumpa breaks. Barack Obama's a lot
Speaker 1: of things. He's not stupid. He's in a club. There
Speaker 1: are only forty six members in it. I'm not in it,
Speaker 1: and you're not in it. But he's in it, all right.
Speaker 1: You don't get into a club like that being dumb.
Speaker 1: You don't get elected president of the United States of America.
Speaker 1: You don't get re elected president of president of the
Speaker 1: United States of America.
Speaker 3: That's an even smaller.
Speaker 1: Club without being pretty darn smart at certain kinds of things.
Speaker 3: Now, is Barack.
Speaker 1: Obama's eloquence overblown? Is he overblown as far as certain
Speaker 1: aspects of his intellect?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 1: But the guy is undoubtedly smart, shrewd, tactical, ingenious in
Speaker 1: various aspects of the art of winning in politics. You
Speaker 1: know who else is really smart that we've overlooked like that,
Speaker 1: Joseph R.
Speaker 2: Biden.
Speaker 1: Yes, may be old, he may be senile, but he's
Speaker 1: won one more presidential election than you have. Plus the
Speaker 1: guy was elected to and re elected, and re elected,
Speaker 1: and re elected and re elected to the Senate a
Speaker 1: gazillion times. He somehow in two thousand and eight convinced
Speaker 1: Barack Obama to make him his vice president and secured
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania for Barack Obama twice, which was the real I
Speaker 1: think the reason why Obama picked him he needed sort of.
Speaker 1: I guess Pennsylvania's not really Midwest. I guess the Atlantic
Speaker 1: rural whites, with whom Biden has always been pretty popular.
Speaker 1: Biden's won Pennsylvania three times, three for three.
Speaker 3: In his presidential contests.
Speaker 1: Being I understand he's from Delaware, but he has all
Speaker 1: these It's right next, right next door to Pennsylvania, on
Speaker 1: the doorstep to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the great swing state prize. Now,
Speaker 1: is Joe Biden a genius?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: I think he's a pretty mediocre intellect, and he was
Speaker 1: a pretty mediocre into before.
Speaker 3: He was sen isle and now he's senile.
Speaker 1: But undoubtedly Joe Biden is really smart in other kinds
Speaker 1: of ways.
Speaker 2: He is very shrewd, He is crafty.
Speaker 1: He is good at the art of politics, at the
Speaker 1: art well not like the classical art of politics, but
Speaker 1: at the art of getting himself elected. And I think
Speaker 1: we have to distinguish between people being smart in certain
Speaker 1: areas and dumb in others. Biden is and has always been,
Speaker 1: kind of a dunce in a lot of areas.
Speaker 3: About law, about policy.
Speaker 1: He's a mediocre thinker at best. When it comes to
Speaker 1: winning elections. The guy is again in a club that
Speaker 1: has only forty six members, and you're not one of them.
Speaker 2: I think Kamala Harris might be similar.
Speaker 1: Now this interesting piece Eastern National Review, written by Jim Garretty,
Speaker 1: one of their editors there gives me pause. And because
Speaker 1: I had been I think guilty of sort of parroting
Speaker 1: like everybody else. Kamala Harris is a moron. Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: can't open her mouth without saying anything dumb. Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: has been a walking mediocrity. Her whole career, and she
Speaker 1: only has been able to rise to these heights of
Speaker 1: power because of other people's patronage, Willie Brown chiefly, and
Speaker 1: then the Democrat donor circle around Willy Brown. But just
Speaker 1: as Joe Biden and Barack Obama are in this very
Speaker 1: exclusive club to which I am not a member, it's
Speaker 1: also the case for Trump.
Speaker 3: By the way, when people so Donald Trump's an idiot.
Speaker 1: They're liberals who say that about Donald Trump, that he's
Speaker 1: an idiot, or even conservatives who get exasperated by things
Speaker 1: Trump says. Again, you have to remember he's been elected
Speaker 1: president one more time than you.
Speaker 3: You have, so.
Speaker 1: Couch your criticisms accordingly about the man's intellect or shrewdness.
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris has been elected vice president one time, more
Speaker 1: than any of us.
Speaker 2: And Jim Garrity.
Speaker 1: From National Review has this piece that I want to
Speaker 1: read for you guys that I think really aptly sums
Speaker 1: up Kamala's political genius, getting other more powerful people to
Speaker 1: be really invested in her success. He writes, it's almost
Speaker 1: required for in conservative circles to insist that Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: is stupid, and Lord knows, speaking off the cuff she
Speaker 1: serves up some stinkers, since she was handed the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party's nomination without any competition, even her prepared remarks have
Speaker 1: been mostly anodyne fluff. She still regularly demonstrates the political
Speaker 1: instincts of a lawmaker shaped by the far left environs
Speaker 1: of San Francisco, oblivious to what con institutes the political
Speaker 1: center in a swing in swing state America. And he
Speaker 1: gives a couple of examples, like her saying, you know,
Speaker 1: her getting that at that one heckler who shouted Jesus's
Speaker 1: Lord and saying, oh, I think you're at the wrong rally.
Speaker 1: Oh great, that will really appeal to Christian voters.
Speaker 3: Et cetera.
Speaker 2: But there's this nagging complication.
Speaker 3: Garritty continues.
Speaker 1: If Kamala Harris is as stupid as her critics claim,
Speaker 1: why does she have the Democratic presidential nomination and roughly
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty shot of becoming the first female president
Speaker 1: in US history? Do you know how many ruthlessly ambitious
Speaker 1: Democratic men and women have desperately yearned to get where
Speaker 1: she is now? How many smart, tough, shrewd, often underhanded
Speaker 1: and cold blooded politicos I've tried to claw their way
Speaker 1: up the Greasy poll and fallen short, and somehow this
Speaker 1: supposed dunce Kamala Harris managed.
Speaker 3: To do it.
Speaker 1: The record indicates that whatever Harris's results are on an
Speaker 1: IQ test or other measure of intellect, she is particularly
Speaker 1: talented by another measuring stick, one that may be even
Speaker 1: more important in politics. She is exceptionally skilled at getting
Speaker 1: other people emotionally invested in her success. Now, the column
Speaker 1: goes on to talk about various stages of Kamala Harris's
Speaker 1: development of her relationship with Willy Brown, and how after
Speaker 1: she breaks up with Willy Brown, San Francisco Chronicle.
Speaker 3: Kind of covers their relationship.
Speaker 1: It's interesting, how it's interesting reading some of this stuff
Speaker 1: from the Chronicle talking about Harris.
Speaker 3: Back then, they were sort of saying, you know, Willie Brown.
Speaker 1: Was sixty, Kamala Harris was twenty nine, and the way
Speaker 1: the Chronicle reported on it was like, you know, Willy
Speaker 1: Brown's given up on dating girls. Now he's dating a woman,
Speaker 1: this woman and Kamala Harris, who's a lawyer and you know,
Speaker 1: prosecutor some his He had some election night party she
Speaker 1: was at where he joked something about something about I
Speaker 1: think the city Halls would be a cool bachelor pad
Speaker 1: and then she glared at him and anyway, he they
Speaker 1: announced their split, and he immediately appoints her to two
Speaker 1: different patronage positions in state government, where she made about
Speaker 1: more than four hundred thousand dollars in salary over five years.
Speaker 1: And that's in nineteen ninety five dollars, so you know,
Speaker 1: she was making ninety seven thousand dollars a year, which
Speaker 1: is about two hundred thousand dollars per year in today's dollars. Now,
Speaker 1: the chronicle had this to say about Brown and how
Speaker 1: lavish he was towards Harris during their relationship. As Harris
Speaker 1: later tells San Francisco SF Weekly, the mayor gave Harris
Speaker 1: a nineteen ninety four BMW.
Speaker 3: This was in nineteen ninety four. Nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1: Gave her a BMW which she traded in for the
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven model she now drives. The car remains
Speaker 1: a tangible link to a man whom Many San Francisco's
Speaker 1: associated with political chicanery and self dealing, a connection that
Speaker 1: doesn't bode well for Kamala Harris.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Harris benefited from the Assembly speaker turned mayor's habit of
Speaker 1: dating attractive younger women, and his tendency to use his
Speaker 1: powerful positions to help his friends and supporters. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, The Chronicle completed a five part series
Speaker 1: investigating Brown's patronage army, his ethics violations, his insider deals,
Speaker 1: and the millions in soft money donations to his campaigns.
Speaker 1: The FBI investigated Brown for years, but no charges were
Speaker 1: ever filed against him. By mid twenty two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: Harris was growing frustrated with her boss, Terarris Karren's Halenan,
Speaker 1: and was contemplating a run for district attorney. So Harris
Speaker 1: worked for a couple of different Willie Brown appointed positions.
Speaker 1: Then she got a kind of high ranking position in
Speaker 1: the San Francisco DA's office. So she's chafing under her boss,
Speaker 1: contemplating running for district attorney herself. Halenan had hired her
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight to head up the office's career
Speaker 1: criminals section. She left after two years to go work
Speaker 1: for the San Francisco City Attorney's office. In her two
Speaker 1: thousand and three campaign for the job, the San Francisco
Speaker 1: Chronicle referred to Brown as Harris's political sponsor, so he
Speaker 1: goes on and on and on and on. Harris succeeded
Speaker 1: in getting all of these different people from Brown to
Speaker 1: really back her. I think he opened doors for her.
Speaker 1: He introduced her to people people, said Mark Duell, a
Speaker 1: prominent developer and philanthropist who played a pivotal role as
Speaker 1: an early Kamala Harris fundraiser. Having Willy's name attached to
Speaker 1: something is pretty incredible. Is pretty credible. Former congressman in California,
Speaker 1: Democratic Party Chairman John Burton later told Politico, I met
Speaker 1: her through Willie. I would think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that most of the people in San Francisco met her
Speaker 1: through Willy. Burton made those comments in a detailed twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen Politico profile of this largely ignored but pivotal chapter
Speaker 1: of Harris's life, the story of how she became a
Speaker 1: rising star in the sharp elbowed world of San Francisco
Speaker 1: city politics. A short version is that Harris was exceptional
Speaker 1: at persuading wealthy San Franciscans to invest in her political rise. Harris,
Speaker 1: in this less explored piece of her past, Harris used
Speaker 1: as a launching pad the tightly knit world of San
Speaker 1: Francisco high society, navigating early on this rarefied world of influence, opulence,
Speaker 1: charming and partying with movers and shakers, ably cultivating relationships
Speaker 1: with VIPs who had become friends and also backers and
Speaker 1: donors of every one of her political campaigns, tapping into
Speaker 1: deep pockets, and becoming a popular figure in a small
Speaker 1: world dominated by a handful of powerful families. This stratum
Speaker 1: of San Francisco remains a profoundly important part of her network,
Speaker 1: including not just powerful Democratic donors, but an ambassador appointed
Speaker 1: by President Donald Trump who ran in the same circles.
Speaker 3: This is from a piece in twenty nineteen when Trump
Speaker 3: was president.
Speaker 1: As she advanced professionally, jumping from Alameda County to post
Speaker 1: in the office of the District and City Attorneys across
Speaker 1: the Bay. She was a trustee too, of the Museum
Speaker 1: of Modern Art, and active in causes concerning AIDS and
Speaker 1: the prevention of domestic violence, domestic abuse, and out and
Speaker 1: about at fashion shows and cocktail parties in galas and
Speaker 1: get togethers at the most modish boat boutiques. She was
Speaker 1: in the breezy, buzzy parlance of these kinds of columns.
Speaker 1: One of the pretty things. She was a rising star.
Speaker 1: She was rather perfect, and she mingled with spiffy and
Speaker 1: powerful friends who were her contemporaries as well as they're
Speaker 1: even more influential mothers and fathers. Okay, so she was partying,
Speaker 1: going to cocktail parties, et cetera with all the gen xers,
Speaker 1: and the gen xers' dads were funding her. Every ambitious
Speaker 1: democrat in San Francisco passed and present wants the deep
Speaker 1: pockets of the movers and shakers in their corner. Many
Speaker 1: try Harris succeeded. Chalk it up to charm or charisma,
Speaker 1: or other people seeing her as a useful vessel for
Speaker 1: their priorities in agenda. Also note that compared to the
Speaker 1: rest of the country, the political spectrum in San Francisco
Speaker 1: runs from A to B.
Speaker 3: It's liberal to also liberal.
Speaker 1: Everyone is a Democrat and almost everyone is a progressive
Speaker 1: of some stripe. That means that an ambitious candidate needs
Speaker 1: qualities beyond political stances to stand out from the crowd.
Speaker 1: You would be surprised how many celebrities proplayed a role
Speaker 1: in the two thousand and three San Francisco DA raced.
Speaker 1: Harrelson helped incumbent Hallman raise money, while Harris was backed
Speaker 1: by actors Chris Rock and Delroy Lindo, comedian Eddie Griffin,
Speaker 1: and talk show host Montel Williams. Montell Williams even dated
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris briefly. When push came to shove, the most
Speaker 1: powerful figures in San Francisco democratic politics chose to back
Speaker 1: her in subtle ways over to older and better known
Speaker 1: white guys. So the piece just goes on and on
Speaker 1: and on and on about all of these ways that
Speaker 1: Harris continued to just continued and continued and continued to
Speaker 1: make friends and influence people. By the time she got
Speaker 1: to her second term as district Attorney, the comparisons to
Speaker 1: Barack Obama were common. Sam in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: San Francisco Weekly wrote, the rumor mill is already swirling
Speaker 1: with hints that her ultimate goal is the chair currently
Speaker 1: occupied by by America's first black president, Barack Obama. So
Speaker 1: as DA of San Francisco, she was saying this, and
Speaker 1: she had the money in the connections to back up
Speaker 1: those ambitions. At every key moment in her career until
Speaker 1: her presidential campaign, Harris has had bigger, wealthier, more powerful
Speaker 1: and more influential names, sizing her up and concluding she
Speaker 1: was the one, and she's taken that in her politicking
Speaker 1: skills to two terms as city district attorney, two terms
Speaker 1: as a state attorney general. One term is senator, one
Speaker 1: term is vice president. Because she dropped out of the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty Democratic primary before any votes were cast, she's
Speaker 1: never actually lost a race in her life. The closest
Speaker 1: she came was finishing second out of three candidates in
Speaker 1: the first round of that two thousand and three district
Speaker 1: attorney race, qualifying her for the runoff. Since becoming the
Speaker 1: Democratic nominee, she's raised more than a billion dollars in
Speaker 1: less than three months. The Harris campaig and as twenty
Speaker 1: five hundred staff members in three hundred and fifty three offices.
Speaker 1: As The Washington Post laid out, her campaign has more staff,
Speaker 1: more volunteers, a larger surrogate operation, more digital advertising, a
Speaker 1: more sophisticated smartphone based organizing program, and extra money for
Speaker 1: extraneous bells and whistles typically reserved for corporate product launches
Speaker 1: and professional sports championships. The New York Times examined efforts
Speaker 1: in four pivotal counties, Erie County, Pennsylvania, Kenosha County, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: Maricopa County, Arizona, and Cobb County, Georgia, and concluded that
Speaker 1: Democrats in many places are outpacing Republicans in terms of
Speaker 1: paid staff and doors knocked. If Harris is such a
Speaker 1: hapless dunce, how does she keep getting so many other
Speaker 1: people to work around the clock to elect her?
Speaker 3: Pretty good question. It's a pretty good question.
Speaker 1: She's good at certain things now, unfortunately for her. And
Speaker 1: I'll just end it with this, getting powerful people to
Speaker 1: invest in you.
Speaker 2: That's the secret to success.
Speaker 1: In California politics or San Francisco politics, where you really
Speaker 1: only have to appeal to one side that'll get you
Speaker 1: to the top of the heap of the Democrats having
Speaker 1: political patronage that can make your vice president. But to
Speaker 1: get most of the country to vote for you, you're
Speaker 1: going to have to appeal to someone other than your
Speaker 1: big time packers.
Speaker 3: We'll see when we return.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump works at a McDonald's and I laughed my
Speaker 1: butt off next on the John Gerardi Show. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you've all seen the pictures over the weekend of Donald
Speaker 1: Trump working at a McDonald's, which is really just Trump
Speaker 1: just has all of his best moments around fast food.
Speaker 1: Like I still think the funniest slash most relatable thing
Speaker 1: from Trump's first term was when I think it was
Speaker 1: after Clemson won the national championship and he had them
Speaker 1: all over at the White House and he bought them
Speaker 1: just a ton of fast food, which the clemsing kids.
Speaker 3: Were like, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the photos from that were just so flipping funny.
Speaker 1: Trump working at the McDonald's and just really getting into it.
Speaker 1: Is this is why he's a good politician. It's it's
Speaker 1: just hilarious seeing Donald Trump do these things and just
Speaker 1: take to it kind of like a natural.
Speaker 3: And then the liberals were like, he didn't.
Speaker 2: He didn't actually work at the McDonald's.
Speaker 1: Thing.
Speaker 2: They pre screened all the people who would come through
Speaker 2: the drive through.
Speaker 3: That that wasn't that.
Speaker 1: Was a stage thing, Like, yeah, no kidding, the guy
Speaker 1: was flipping almost assassinated. Yeah, they didn't have random strangers
Speaker 1: walk up to the counter to order food or walk
Speaker 1: up to the drive through. Yeah, they were probably trying
Speaker 1: to make sure nobody with a gun went through.
Speaker 3: The drive through. Okay, yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm sure the franchise owner was like, hey, let's have
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, and then they probably set it up. Everyone
Speaker 1: knows that. Everyone is like, Secret Service is a thing.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's staged. The Secret Service is not gonna
Speaker 1: let Donald well hopefully they're not gonna let I mean,
Speaker 1: god knows, they let some guy hang out on a
Speaker 1: roof looking at Donald Trump suspiciously for you know, a
Speaker 1: really long time before he actually shot him. Anyway, the
Speaker 1: Secret Service is not gonna let some random stranger just
Speaker 1: pull up in the drive.
Speaker 2: Oh it's Donald Trump. Plam plam plam, Like yeah, no kidding.
Speaker 3: It was staged.
Speaker 1: And it's still more time than Kamala Harris has ever
Speaker 1: spent inside of McDonald's.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2: That's the hilarious thing is that Kamala Harris made this.
Speaker 1: It's all part of this backdrop story of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris made this claim that she had worked at
Speaker 1: a McDonald's and then journalists can't find like any proof
Speaker 1: actually that she did, and they are now it's now
Speaker 1: like Donald trum Trump is wrong for making fun of
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris for possibly making up this story that she
Speaker 1: worked at a McDonald's. Like he needs to show evidence
Speaker 1: that she did as opposed to Hey, media, maybe you guys,
Speaker 1: could you know, examine this claim. I mean, I'll concede,
Speaker 1: it's not the most important. Whether or not Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: worked at a McDonald's sometime in her past is not
Speaker 1: very important. It's just that she seems like she maybe
Speaker 1: lied about it, and it's trying to fit. She's trying
Speaker 1: to make up this narrative of oh, I'm just a
Speaker 1: middle class kid, and it's like, well, your parents were
Speaker 1: both like professors at Stanford, Like that's not exactly middle class.
Speaker 1: Like I don't I guess I don't understand this instinct
Speaker 1: of politicians to be like, let me be kind of
Speaker 1: deceptive about my past in order to make myself seem
Speaker 1: more likable. Even though this is something that could be
Speaker 1: checked up on, like Tim Walls, like kind of old
Speaker 1: come old weapons are used in combat.
Speaker 3: It's like, well, you were never in combat or you know,
Speaker 3: his his.
Speaker 1: Oh my whoops are doodle mistakes, little whoopsie doodle misstatements
Speaker 1: about overstating my military service, which is like, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: not a whoopsie doodle. You know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I ran for politics I'd be like, yeah, I'm I was.
Speaker 1: I was upper middle class and pat worst like, yeah,
Speaker 1: my dad was a northopedic surgeon.
Speaker 2: I did pretty okay. Yeah he was doing pretty okay.
Speaker 1: Like, I just don't understand this instinct to think, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you'll be so much more relatable if you say I'm
Speaker 1: a middle class kid when you weren't, and and like
Speaker 1: people can look this up and verify it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I sometimes I put myself in the shoes
Speaker 1: of these politicians. I can't figure them out anyway. It
Speaker 1: was just hilarious, and you know, it is a thing
Speaker 1: where as much as in the first segment, it's true,
Speaker 1: I think Kamala Harris is more of a force to
Speaker 1: be reckoned with, and Republicans want to give her credit
Speaker 1: for I think the fact that she has fostered so
Speaker 1: much donor money and so much engagement from really elite,
Speaker 1: successful donors who who put her into her position. Joe
Speaker 1: Biden didn't want a pick her to be vice president.
Speaker 1: He had no reason to want to pick her other
Speaker 1: than the donors pushing it. She's only the presidential candidate
Speaker 1: right now because donors insisted. The donors shoved out Biden
Speaker 1: and escorted her to the top. So that's something to
Speaker 1: reckon with certainly, but her appeal to the common man,
Speaker 1: and ultimately it's the common man has exactly one vote,
Speaker 1: just as much as a billionaire has exactly one vote.
Speaker 1: So in that regard, Donald Trump could be kicking her butt.
Speaker 1: When we return, we're going to shift to some local
Speaker 1: elections stuff and a local assembly race that kind of
Speaker 1: turned a little nasty. That's next on the John Girardi Show.
Speaker 1: One of the local races that I have taken some
Speaker 1: interest in because it's actually it actually affects me. It's
Speaker 1: one of the districts I live in is the California
Speaker 1: State Assembly race for Assembly District eight. This is the
Speaker 1: district that Jim Patterson currently sits in. Jim Patterson is concluding,
Speaker 1: I believe a full twelve years of service in the
Speaker 1: California State Assembly. For those who don't know, in California,
Speaker 1: our state Assembly members and state senators, our state legislators
Speaker 1: have term limits and you can only serve a maximum
Speaker 1: of twelve years in the state legislature. So either you know,
Speaker 1: eight years in the state Senate and four years in
Speaker 1: the State Assembly, or twelve years in one or the other.
Speaker 3: House, et cetera.
Speaker 1: So Jim Patterson has served twelve straight years in the
Speaker 1: California State Assembly and is term limiting out. I will say,
Speaker 1: by the way, just to congratulations to Jim for I
Speaker 1: think twelve pretty exemplary years as a public as a
Speaker 1: state assembly member, following up from prior years of service
Speaker 1: as mayor of Fresno.
Speaker 3: He's really going to go.
Speaker 1: Down as I think one of the great local politicians
Speaker 1: in our history. And you know, a real job well done.
Speaker 1: He's always been extremely pro life and extremely generous and
Speaker 1: kind to me and to write the life of central California.
Speaker 1: So I you know, I just want to say congratulations
Speaker 1: to Jim. So replacing him is a big deal. It's
Speaker 1: a very Republican heavy district. If you win it, you've
Speaker 1: got pretty good Assembly job security for a decent long time.
Speaker 1: And the candidates in it are David Tanjipa, who is
Speaker 1: currently works as a staffer for fason A County Supervisor,
Speaker 1: Nathan Magzig, and the other contestant for the race is
Speaker 1: George Rodanovich, whose name many of you might recall. George
Speaker 1: Radanovich was a Republican member of the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: who represented this area Clovis for many many years in
Speaker 1: the nineties and I think into the two thousands until
Speaker 1: he was ultimately replaced by Devin Nunettes and Radanovich left Congress.
Speaker 1: I believe it was after Radanovich's wife got very ill
Speaker 1: and passed away under very sad.
Speaker 3: Circumstances, and.
Speaker 1: His you know, he being a member of the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives. I think his wife was in Virginia. So
Speaker 1: he stepped away from politics after that, and lately Radanovic
Speaker 1: has tried to come back into local San Juquin Valley
Speaker 1: electoral politics. He ran for state Senate unsuccessfully two years
Speaker 1: ago in twenty twenty two, in this disastrous race where
Speaker 1: a Democrat has won. A Democrat in twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: won a sixty to forty Republican advantage district.
Speaker 3: Why so, the.
Speaker 1: Seat in question is California's fourth state Senate seat, and again,
Speaker 1: this is a state Senate district. State Senate districts are huge,
Speaker 1: They have almost a million residents of peace and I
Speaker 1: think it was kind of more northern San Jauquin Valley.
Speaker 1: Ridanovich was one of four Republicans who ran for this
Speaker 1: thing in the primary and there were two Democrats. So again,
Speaker 1: this is the California jungle primary system. Radanovich is in it,
Speaker 1: and Radanovich is obviously the biggest name. He's he had
Speaker 1: been a multi term member of the House of Representatives.
Speaker 1: Here he is running for a state Senate seat. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, he's old, he's got his old connections, he's
Speaker 1: got his old political allies, he's got all this stuff
Speaker 1: backing him, and he can't get a big percentage of
Speaker 1: the vote. He's got three other guys of a much
Speaker 1: less stature running also, And basically, you know, you got
Speaker 1: sixty percent of this district are Republicans, forty percent or Democrats.
Speaker 1: This is a safe Republican district, a rare thing in
Speaker 1: California politics. And in the twenty twenty two primaries, guess
Speaker 1: what happens. Those four Republicans basically split the vote between
Speaker 1: themselves roughly fifteen percent apiece, and the two Democrats both
Speaker 1: get around twenty percent. So guess what happens this seat,
Speaker 1: which is sixty to forty Republican. Two Democrats win the
Speaker 1: primary and face each other in a runoff. The Republicans
Speaker 1: lose a state Senate seat because of how incompetently managed
Speaker 1: that primary was Ridanovich somehow couldn't find a way to
Speaker 1: stand out enough from the crowd to get himself over
Speaker 1: kind of about twenty percent, in spite of the fact
Speaker 1: that he was far and away the most senior, the
Speaker 1: most experienced, had way more name recognition, way more endorsement, etc.
Speaker 1: So he spectacularly screws that up. So two years along
Speaker 1: he wants to run for this assembly seat, and maybe
Speaker 1: this assembly seat is a more natural fit for him.
Speaker 1: He was a congressman from Clovis. This Assembly district covers Clovis.
Speaker 1: It's back in his old Clovis stomping grounds. He's running
Speaker 1: for this state assembly seat, running to replace Jim Patterson. Now,
Speaker 1: Jim is not endorsing Radanovic. I don't know all the details.
Speaker 1: I know there were some you know, I can't speak
Speaker 1: to reasons for Jim's support or lack of support. I
Speaker 1: know there were some farmers who were not as thrilled
Speaker 1: with Radanovich and certain decisions he made and certain things
Speaker 1: he pushed for back in the old days. But Jim's
Speaker 1: not endorsing Jim. Patterson's not endorsing Mdanovich. Patterson endorsed David Tanjipa.
Speaker 1: Tanjipa is a former president state football player. He's a
Speaker 1: staffer for Nathan Magzig. He's a young guy, relatively new,
Speaker 1: certainly new to electoral politics, but a smart guy, enthusiastic guy,
Speaker 1: kind of a new fresh face on the local scene.
Speaker 1: So it's clear that in the primaries, like this assembly
Speaker 1: seat is similarly an incredibly Republican heavy district, and the
Speaker 1: primary elections happened earlier this year, and the two top
Speaker 1: vote getters were Tanjipa and Radanovich, but Radanovich was winning. Okay,
Speaker 1: Rodanovic got more votes, uh than David did than David
Speaker 1: Tanjapa did, So I think, I mean, my instinct and
Speaker 1: the instinct you know, talking to kind of people around town,
Speaker 1: is that seems like Radanovich was winning on his way
Speaker 1: to winning. Perhaps who knows, uh, you know, it's hard
Speaker 1: to tell with these super local races, not like there's
Speaker 1: tons of intensive polling on it like there is for
Speaker 1: the presidential race.
Speaker 2: And something just happened.
Speaker 1: Over this weekend, over the last few days that I
Speaker 1: think may wind up shifting the race. Ridanovich sends out,
Speaker 1: and this is a mailer that was sent out to
Speaker 1: a lot of Clovis addresses. I had a friend send
Speaker 1: me a copy of it. Paid for by Danovitch for
Speaker 1: Assembly twenty twenty four. So this is not paid for
Speaker 1: by a This is critically this is not paid for
Speaker 1: by a super pack that is working independently of but
Speaker 1: in support of Radanovitch. This is genuinely Radanovitch for Assembly
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. This is Radanovich's main campaign thing, and
Speaker 1: it's a pro obviously a pro Radanovich thing. Endorsement alert
Speaker 1: General Election twenty twenty four, and he's yelling about how
Speaker 1: the Fresno B apparently endorsed David Tanjipah, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: that's not the that's not the victory that you'd think.
Speaker 2: The Fresno B.
Speaker 1: The idea that the Fresno B would endorse Tanjipah over Radanovitch,
Speaker 1: I don't think is some slam on Tanjipa. I think
Speaker 1: it's actually a real critique of Verdanovitch, that Radanovich, in
Speaker 1: the B's eyes, is such an old like the he
Speaker 1: is nothing if not clout chasers. I think they would
Speaker 1: naturally want to go with the incumbent. But maybe they
Speaker 1: just think Rodanovich is so fairly unimpressive that they decide
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 3: The other way.
Speaker 1: So they note that the Fresno b which endorsed Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: also endorsed David Tanjapa. Meanwhile, the Republican Party endorses Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and George Rodanovic. So Radanovich notes that Fresno County
Speaker 1: Republican Party has endorsed him, not David Tanjipa, which, again
Speaker 1: I feel like this is just people going with the incumbent.
Speaker 1: I think it's people going with the person that they
Speaker 1: think is going to win and wanting to crey favor
Speaker 1: with him. I don't think Presnoe County GOP has any
Speaker 1: antagonism to Maybe they do, maybe they don't, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But again, also county parties endorsing people, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: essential committee making an endorsement. It's you know, five or
Speaker 1: six people who are getting the sense of local Republicans
Speaker 1: but may not exactly reflect their sense's It's not like
Speaker 1: there's a primary process here. He also got endorsed by
Speaker 1: the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association, because of course Radanovich is old.
Speaker 1: He's been hanging around California politics for decades. He's been
Speaker 1: hanging around California politics since David Tonjiapa was born, So
Speaker 1: of course he's buddies.
Speaker 3: With all these Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association guys, you know.
Speaker 1: By the way, which, by the way, Harvard Howard Jarvis
Speaker 1: Taxpayer Association, which the only things they care about are taxes.
Speaker 1: I would prefer a politician who you know, wasn't comfortable
Speaker 1: with the whole with Howard Jarvis. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: why don't we just back another fiscally conservative, socially liberal Republican.
Speaker 1: Nothing that's never been tried other than the forty times
Speaker 1: we've already tried it. Now, let's get to the heart
Speaker 1: of why this flyer is really problematic again. This was
Speaker 1: a flyer George Rodanovich sent out for his race against
Speaker 1: David Tanjapa.
Speaker 2: The mailer comes out.
Speaker 1: On the birthday of David Tanjapa's late father, who passed
Speaker 1: away in March. I know this because my dad passed
Speaker 1: away also in March, I think, days apart from David's dad,
Speaker 1: and we actually kind of bonded a little bit over
Speaker 1: this that both of us lost our dads right around
Speaker 1: the exact same time. So it comes out on the
Speaker 1: day on his dad's birthday, his father who just passed
Speaker 1: away in March, and the ad uses because I mean,
Speaker 1: it's an attack ad against David Tanjapa.
Speaker 2: He's a good looking guy. There aren't many bad photos
Speaker 2: of him.
Speaker 1: Okay, he's big, tall football player, right, big, tall, handsome,
Speaker 1: you know, son of a gun. And the photo they
Speaker 1: use is I remember this because it was right around
Speaker 1: when my dad died and I was thinking about the
Speaker 1: same thing. After David's father passed away. After Toanjipa's father
Speaker 1: passed away, he recorded a video on his Facebook page
Speaker 1: just sort of him talking and talking about it, and
Speaker 1: it's like they took us still from that video. So
Speaker 1: on his dad's birthday they release this attack ad using
Speaker 1: a video a still image from a video Tanjiba recorded
Speaker 1: where he's you know, pouring out his guts a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, the guy's dad just passed away. He's really
Speaker 1: sad about he's broken up. He's thanking people for their
Speaker 1: expressions of you know, kindness and condolences, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean that's where they had to you know, that's where
Speaker 1: they had to go to find the one not great
Speaker 1: looking photo of him and put it in black and
Speaker 1: white as if it's some sinister thing, like like you know,
Speaker 1: like it's a like it's something. And so clearly this
Speaker 1: is people directly in the Radanovitch campaign. We're trawling through
Speaker 1: all of David's Facebook stuff to try to find one
Speaker 1: bad photo, and they get this video where here's the
Speaker 1: guy talking about his dad's passing. And that's where you
Speaker 1: take your still image to put in black and white
Speaker 1: and make it look.
Speaker 2: Like David's this Oh, bad guy, David.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's really slimy. It's really slimy.
Speaker 1: And look, I don't know what Danovich knew versus whoever
Speaker 1: put this mailer together new, but somebody in the Rodanovitch campaignnew, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm taking a video from Donjaba pouring his heart out
Speaker 1: about his dad's death. I'm going to use a still
Speaker 1: from that as my negative attack photo. Really like that sucks.
Speaker 1: That's a nasty thing to do. I think Radanovitch should apologize,
Speaker 1: he should clarify what he knew about this ad. And
Speaker 1: by the way, if you want to get rid of
Speaker 1: this idea, oh, I'm just the same old, same old
Speaker 1: Republican politics, same old same old incumbent stuff. This image,
Speaker 1: which is the main thing for Donovitch has to fight against.
Speaker 1: Then don't do stuff like this when we return, how
Speaker 1: election ads are ruining football? Watching for families next on
Speaker 1: The John Girardi Show. Watching football with your children is
Speaker 1: always something where you've got to be a little vigilant
Speaker 1: for commercials. I've got nine to eight, six four year
Speaker 1: old and a two year old watching games with me,
Speaker 1: and I have to kind of, you know, especially in October,
Speaker 1: you got Halloween's scary movies coming out.
Speaker 3: I got to be vigilant with that.
Speaker 1: Now, I've got to be vigilant because, I mean, to
Speaker 1: their credit, Trump aligned people, Republicans are really attacking Democrats
Speaker 1: on transgender stuff, talking about how bad it is, showing
Speaker 1: pictures of you know, all these different trans things that
Speaker 1: Democrats support. But it's also like, really, this is another
Speaker 1: thing I have to police when I'm just trying to watch,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to watch forty nine Ers Chiefs.
Speaker 3: What a bizarre culture we're in. That'll do it. John
Speaker 3: Girardi Show, See y'all next time. On Power Talk,