Show Notes
California’s state governance problems continue to grow and fester under Gov. Gavin Newsom, as a $21 million wildlife bridge remains uncompleted and over-budget, and even a planned gubernatorial debate to be held at the University of Southern California had to be canceled because the candidates who qualified weren’t “diverse” enough.
The University of Southern California was to host the debate of the top 7 candidates based on their current standing in the polls and also on their fundraising numbers. That wasn’t good enough for Democratic Party activists who complained those criteria excluded several low-polling minority candidates. Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers of the On Background podcast look at this and other issues vexing the Golden State’s politics.
“USC folded like a cheap suit,” Crabtree says.
To pick the debate participants, “USC professor Christian Gross comes up with this formula: 65 percent based on the polling and then 35% based on fundraising,” says Eggers. “The math yields only white candidates Steve Hilton, Chad Bianco, Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, excluding minority candidates including Xavier Becerra, Tony Thurmond, Betty Ye, and Anthony Villaraigosa.”
“The real thing that stuck in their craw was that the low-polling candidates were all minorities, but they included Matthew Mahan, who is a more of a moderate, in the debate, even though he was polling in the low single-digits,” says Crabtree.
“So, what was USC dong to include Mahan? Well, there are some ties between him and USC,” she says, but adds that Mahan was able to get into the race late while also quickly ramping up his fundraising to compete with the more established candidates.
“That was the linchpin,” she says. “This shows how ridiculous California is. They can’t hold their second televised debate, with two months to go before ballots start coming out for the June 2nd primary.”
Gov. Newsom will be stepping down in November but has well-known aspirations to run for president in 2028. Crabtree contrasts images of Newsom hobnobbing with former Cal. House Speaker Willie Brown and former President Bill Clinton on the same day that LA news outlets were reporting that homeless people are living in the sewers underneath the city. As governor, Newsom spent more than $20 billion on homelessness in the state during his term, and it has only gotten worse, likely due to fraud in the programs he set up.
“ I am part of a new group of reporters that is trying to expose more fraud (in the state). Everybody seems to care about fraud now in California,” Crabtree says. “The Government Accountability Institute, me, and my co-author Jed McFatter have spent years exposing the corruption in California with our book Fool’s Gold.”
Recent anti-corruption news from California has focused on a “butterfly and cougar bridge to nowhere,” a planned wildlife bridge to help wild animals cross one of the LA areas busiest freeways. After four years, and so far, more than twice the original budgeted cost, the “Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing” bridge is still unfinished. It has cost the state $114 million so far.
As Eggers notes, when finally completed, this will have taken longer to build than the Golden Gate Bridge.
After playing a video clip of the project manager, a woman named Beth Pratt, Crabtree explains: “She’s a left-wing activist in charge of building this $114 million cougar and butterfly bridge. Never mind that butterflies fly, so they don’t really need a bridge. This woman has turned this into a boondoggle… It’s been a job creator for left-wing activists.”
Crabtree goes on to describe how the project has hired indigenous people as spiritual consultants. “One of them tells a story about how she was providing offerings of native tobacco and human hair to their sacred plant relatives to sort of honor the bridge, umm, and I guess create some good karma.”
“This is par for the course and Gavin Newsom’s California. And that’s what we’re trying to expose.”
