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The Game is back! After a brief hiatus, Mark Simon and Bob Marks return to break down what they missed — and what’s coming next in a fast-moving 2026 election year.They revisit the biggest local political story of 2025: the removal of Sheriff Christina Corpus and why new Sheriff Bender may be the stabilizing leader the department needs. They also dig into the dynamics on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors — including how trust, alliances, and personality conflicts may shape the next year.From there, Mark and Bob discuss Mark’s recent “most influential people in the county” columns and what they reveal about a leadership transition underway — plus why emerging communities and coalitions could play a bigger role in the future.They preview key 2026 races (including a surprisingly heated contest for County Assessor), debate whether certain offices are being politicized, and examine the charter review proposal to name the Board President the “mayor of San Mateo County.”The episode wraps with a broader look at the governor’s race and national politics heading into the midterms — including voter trends, immigration enforcement, and why “affordability” could become the defining issue.New shows every Friday at 10:00 AM. Learn more at thegamepeninsula.com.
Show Notes
The Game is back! After a brief hiatus, Mark Simon and Bob Marks return to break down what they missed — and what’s coming next in a fast-moving 2026 election year.
They revisit the biggest local political story of 2025: the removal of Sheriff Christina Corpus and why new Sheriff Binder may be the stabilizing leader the department needs. They also dig into the dynamics on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors — including how trust, alliances, and personality conflicts may shape the next year.
From there, Mark and Bob discuss Mark’s recent “most influential people in the county” columns and what they reveal about a leadership transition underway — plus why emerging communities and coalitions could play a bigger role in the future.
They preview key 2026 races (including a surprisingly heated contest for County Assessor), debate whether certain offices are being politicized, and examine the charter review proposal to name the Board President the “mayor of San Mateo County.”
The episode wraps with a broader look at the governor’s race and national politics heading into the midterms — including voter trends, immigration enforcement, and why “affordability” could become the defining issue.
Chapters
- (00:00) - The Game is back (hiatus + 2026 preview)
- (02:10) - 2025’s biggest story: Sheriff Christina Corpus removal
- (05:30) - Why Sheriff Binder may be the right fit
- (09:30) - Board dynamics: unity vs. “five sole proprietorships”
- (13:40) - Most influential people list: leadership in transition
- (17:30) - Lynde, Foust & behind-the-scenes power
- (21:00) - Corzo & Mueller: trust across differences
- (24:40) - Board trust issues: Speier, Canepa, Garcia
- (28:00) - Assessor race: Canepa vs. Irizarry
- (32:30) - Politicizing non-political offices
- (35:00) - Charter review: “Mayor of San Mateo County?”
- (38:00) - Governor’s race: crowded field & top-two math
- (42:30) - National politics, midterms & immigration
- (47:00) - Affordability, campaign strategy & closing thoughts
- (49:00) - Wrap-up + weekly live show announcement
The Game is hosted by Mark Simon and Bob Marks and produced by Frank Bravo, BravoITC.com and YourTechMakeover.com. Watch or listen to every episode at TheGamePeninsula.com.
Creators and Guests
BM
Host
Bob Marks
Bob Marks is a longtime Peninsula television producer and executive. He led Peninsula TV (Pen-TV), San Mateo County's public affairs cable channel, and was executive producer of its high school quiz show, Quiz Kids. He has co-hosted public affairs programs with Mark Simon since at least 1999, and the two revived The Game as a podcast and video show in 2024.
Host
Mark Simon
Mark Simon is a veteran Peninsula journalist who writes a weekly column on local news and politics for the San Mateo Daily Journal. He was a political reporter and columnist for the Redwood City Tribune and the Peninsula Times Tribune, then a daily columnist and political writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He later spent about 15 years at SamTrans and Caltrain, retiring in 2017 as chief of staff. He lives in San Carlos.
Producer
What is The Game?
Mark Simon and Bob Marks revive their long-running cable TV show The Game, where they interview local leaders and talk widely about politics, business and sports.
Produced by Frank Bravo, BravoITC.com
00;00;25;10 - 00;00;45;29
Speaker 1
The game is on and the game is back. Welcome back to the game. Bob and I have taken a bit of a hiatus. I guess what we call it the news media business. So here we are. We're going to start the new year a little bit late. We thought we'd start with just Bob and I talking about doing almost a bunch of stuff we didn't have a chance to talk about during our hiatus.
00;00;46;02 - 00;01;06;25
Speaker 1
And also looking forward to an election year that looks to be a pretty dynamic year. So, Bob, let's just talk about 2025 briefly. The story of the year was the the removal of Sheriff Christina Corpus and any final thoughts about that before we move on to 2026?
00;01;06;27 - 00;01;31;20
Speaker 2
No, I think that it's good to have that chapter in the background for sure. And, it's going to be I think we're planning to have the sheriff on the new sheriff, Sheriff binder, soon. And, it'll be interesting to see how he's trying to put together the pieces there and to kind of bring the department back to some level of stability.
00;01;31;23 - 00;01;54;23
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. The, you know, they sat through the hearings in which they ultimately decided to select him. And increasingly, as you sat there, you realized for the time and place that the sheriff's office is in right now. He's really the right guy for the job. He's got the right kind of experience in a county. Santa Clara County is very similar to San Mateo County in that it's got rural communities.
00;01;54;23 - 00;02;16;07
Speaker 1
It's got high urban communities. It's had everything from wildfires to sea level rise, all the issues that we face in San Mateo County. So it looks like it was a good fit. Plus, he served in a department that had been through with scandal. He he emerged unscathed. In fact, they made him the interim sheriff until they picked him, picked somebody permanently.
00;02;16;07 - 00;02;21;23
Speaker 1
So he just had a demeanor that seemed like sort of what they needed right now.
00;02;21;26 - 00;02;44;17
Speaker 2
Yeah I agree. Particularly that last point because that situation went over a period of time. That department had a lot of difficulty. And you can imagine. The deputies and others in the department. It took some kind of leadership to bring that back together. So I think he is an ideal fit.
00;02;44;19 - 00;03;19;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. Good. The the only other sort of residual was the board did not vote unanimously to pick binder. Supervisor David Canopy, who was then president of the board, had apparently committed himself completely to another candidate from San Francisco, and he voted last. And even though it was evident at that point, it was going to be binder. And a lot of people, a lot of observers, me included, thought, well, this would be a great gesture to say in the interests of unanimity, I'm going to vote for binder.
00;03;19;18 - 00;03;50;14
Speaker 1
But he wouldn't do it now. Immediately afterward, he said he was prepared to work fully and completely with him. But, it was just one example of how at odds he can be with his colleagues and will get into that a little bit later, I suspect, when we start talking about some of the 2026 races. But he, the other thing that the the sheriffs dispute sort of glossed over is that these are members of the Board of Supervisors who don't always get along very well.
00;03;50;17 - 00;04;12;04
Speaker 1
And I know from your experience serving there, they may have not gotten along well all the time, but they kept it behind the scenes. They tended to work toward finding a consensus. This is a group that looks like five sole proprietorships in a lot of ways. Could provide some real interesting problems for them in the future.
00;04;12;05 - 00;04;13;24
Speaker 1
It'll make it more interesting.
00;04;13;26 - 00;04;14;29
Speaker 2
That's for sure.
00;04;15;01 - 00;04;15;07
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;04;15;08 - 00;04;16;24
Speaker 2
Give you a lot to write about.
00;04;16;27 - 00;04;17;23
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;04;17;25 - 00;04;20;18
Speaker 2
Talk about.
00;04;20;20 - 00;04;42;23
Speaker 1
Yeah. So listen. What? I just did a series of columns, on the most influential people in the county. I know you had a chance to read them. The error we came up in and served most of our time in, it would have been very, very easy to pick ten people and everybody would have picked the same people would have been warned.
00;04;42;23 - 00;05;12;11
Speaker 1
Slocum would have been Don horsley, Jackie Speer. And I ask you, Dave Pine, I mean, Board of Supervisors, Mike Nevin and Jerry Hill in their time. This was a much, much more of a challenge. In my analysis that I'd loved your take on is that we're in a period of transition that that the old guard that we all were probably part of it has moved on, and that we're having a new group that has yet to emerge in terms of who's going to be the more dynamic leaders.
00;05;12;17 - 00;05;24;09
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's it'll be interesting to see five years from now, I would expect this list would change again if somebody decided to do that. It's a good list.
00;05;24;09 - 00;05;27;00
Speaker 1
I mean, yeah.
00;05;27;02 - 00;06;00;23
Speaker 2
I think that, you know, the the top two, Julie Lind and Rosanne Foust obviously represent two of the most significant, politically significant organizations in the county. What's interesting about those two is in in past times, you would expect them to be at odds most of the time. But it seems like, they've discovered they have a lot in common, and they've tended to focus on the things that they have in common rather than squabble about a lot of other things.
00;06;00;23 - 00;06;34;06
Speaker 2
So, I think that's interesting. Number three, you know, I, I worked in 1981 for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, and I was a depth field deputy. One of the areas that I covered was Lakewood Lake, southeastern Los Angeles, Lakewood, Bellflower, Cerritos, Long Beach. Those areas Lakewood had a city manager that had been there for like 40 years.
00;06;34;08 - 00;06;57;09
Speaker 2
And I remember meeting with him one day. Of course, I'm young and naive. And I said, you know, I'm interested in how the relationship works between a city manager like yourself who stayed so long, and the city council. He looked at me and he said, relationship hell. Listen, son, one thing you need to understand. The city council is the enemy.
00;06;57;11 - 00;06;59;22
Speaker 1
Yeah, well.
00;06;59;24 - 00;07;27;01
Speaker 2
I, you know, I that may have been a sign of the times. And but looking at my colleague who you have, number number three, Mike and and John Maltby, who I worked a lot with, understood that you have five supervisors. If three of them decide they don't like you, you're going to be gone pretty quickly. But they build a relationship with each supervisor.
00;07;27;04 - 00;07;57;23
Speaker 2
They try to understand what that supervisor's priority is. And above all, they stay out of the political fray. They try to counsel the supervisors. And Mike has the additional ability in terms of working within the county. Very popular, I think, with department heads. And to me, one of the things that jumped out about the whole sheriff fiasco was the reaction of the board members and people around them.
00;07;57;27 - 00;08;11;09
Speaker 2
When the former sheriff tried to bring in and somehow make him an issue, he's very well liked, very well respected. And I think that really hardened a lot of feelings. The.
00;08;11;12 - 00;08;36;10
Speaker 1
The other thing that's interesting about him is, you know, harkening back to what we just said about how the the board is, is not really unified with a common sense of purpose, which gives him the freedom which he has exercised, although quietly, in, in subtly, he often sets the agenda. Yeah. I mean, the county has a a goal of virtual zero homelessness.
00;08;36;16 - 00;09;06;13
Speaker 1
Well, that's that's a mike initiative. During Covid, he really took the lead on how the county was going to be the service provider. You know, one of the things that people don't understand about the county, which you do, is really most of the social network programs, the safety net programs are administered at the county level. That's, you know, when you talk about programs from homelessness or drug addiction or, health care, the county is the place where those ultimately are delivered.
00;09;06;14 - 00;09;19;13
Speaker 1
There's not some federal agency sitting somewhere that decides how to solve that problem. So there's an immense amount of authority and immense amount of money. But it's a challenging place to serve.
00;09;19;15 - 00;09;42;04
Speaker 2
Yeah it is. And I want to focus on two other people on the list. And you touched on it a little bit earlier. Noelia Corzo, and Ray Mueller, both supervisors. They come from a very different life experience. They have very different views on a lot of issues in the world. But they came together. And they worked.
00;09;42;05 - 00;10;09;20
Speaker 2
It seemed from the outside, seamlessly together and really played the central role in, in this whole drama that took place over the course of more than a year. And I think in a way, you know, without getting to polish, this is what people are really looking for in government. They want people to work together, even if their differences.
00;10;09;22 - 00;10;31;02
Speaker 2
The interesting thing is, neither of them tried to shove the other one out of the way and say, I'm more important than you are. They seem to work very well together, and I think most of the people in the county and, and throughout the country would like to see us going back to a time where people with differences still were able to work together.
00;10;31;05 - 00;10;54;13
Speaker 1
Yeah. Well, and I think the key to that is that they trusted each other. Yeah. And I think that's the sort of the undercurrent of this whole discussion. They don't all know each other very well. So that may not help in terms of building trust. This issue really provided the opportunity for, for Noelia Corso and Ray Mueller to work together and to learn to trust one another.
00;10;54;16 - 00;11;17;09
Speaker 1
And it'll be interesting to see if, if they unify on some other issues. But we'll see. I mean, the fact is, on the Board of Supervisors, Jackie's spirit is still a high profile person. But, I think she went in sort of expecting people would just sort of listen to her and do what she expects them to do, because she was used to that, her prior job.
00;11;17;11 - 00;11;39;17
Speaker 1
Frankly, none of them seemed to trust, Supervisor Canopy very much because they think he's only out for himself and they've all had, at one level or another, some kind of experience where they thought they had an agreement with him, and maybe they turns out they didn't, or they didn't have the one they thought they did. And then at least Lisa Gaucher is still, I think, still just finding her feet.
00;11;39;24 - 00;11;59;28
Speaker 1
She's been in office about a year, and she has had two different chiefs of staff who have left. Right. Which does not, as you know better than I do, does not speak well. And it raises some interesting questions. We'll see what kind of initiatives she's able to take in the future, and whether or not she can do so with meaningful support.
00;11;59;29 - 00;12;14;10
Speaker 1
There's a city manager that I went in to talk to one day and asked him, you know, how do you manage a new supervisor or a new city council member barreling into your office? And I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do this. And when I'm done, I'm going to do everything else.
00;12;14;13 - 00;12;24;02
Speaker 1
And he said, you just wait till they're done. And then you say, do you have three votes? Yeah. That's the challenge is, you know, and I think that's going to be a challenge for this board.
00;12;24;04 - 00;12;47;22
Speaker 2
Yeah. The other thing about the board is last year things were kind of frozen in place to a great degree. So much attention, so much focus on the sheriff's issue. That this year that's not there. And so new issues, new agendas and things like that are going to come to the forefront. So we may get a better idea this year.
00;12;47;25 - 00;12;49;20
Speaker 2
Of how that board is going to work.
00;12;49;26 - 00;13;17;22
Speaker 1
Yeah. Well, I think we will. And we'll see. One of the things that was challenging for me doing this whole basically, you know, interview about 25 people, and I asked them who's the most influential? But they were all political people. They understood it was in that context. And so one of the things that I, I, I don't want to say troubled me but gave me pause, I guess, is, you know, if you want to pick the most influential person living in San Mateo County, it's probably Larry Ellison, right?
00;13;17;25 - 00;13;38;01
Speaker 1
But he plays no role locally, right? And so that's why I decided it's a local column. Local newspaper. I'm going to focus local. But but the question is, is there anybody else that you think, I overlooked or some other way of looking at it that might have been useful just in terms of informing future conversations about who's power and who's out.
00;13;38;04 - 00;14;02;03
Speaker 2
I think the, the three columns that you had really touched on a lot of different people. You know, when you and I were talking about this a year ago or last year sometime. My first reaction was, you know, five of the ten richest people in the world live in the Mid Peninsula area. Not all in San Mateo County.
00;14;02;05 - 00;14;34;20
Speaker 2
But Larry Ellison, Larry Page from Google, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin from the co-founder of Google, and Jensen Huang, who, you know, is is the founder of Nevada. But you're right, it's they don't focus other than Zuckerberg, who I think has done more than the others. They don't really focus locally. They're on the world stage. So again, I think, you know, we're going to continue to see changes.
00;14;34;22 - 00;15;05;03
Speaker 2
You know, you've got Nicole Fernandez. Noel. Noel. Yeah. Two people that, may not have been on the list a while back. And I think we're going to see more diversity. I notice that, no, there's no Asian figure that kind of rose to the top, obviously. Millbrae, has a very high Asian population. But, you know, it's an exercise.
00;15;05;05 - 00;15;20;29
Speaker 2
It's a lot of work to talk to 25 people. And so I commend you for that. And it's something, you know, as a columnist, it's you want people to debate, you want people to have their own opinions. And so I think it was a good exercise.
00;15;21;05 - 00;15;45;15
Speaker 1
Well, speaking of the Asian community, it's an interesting thing because, again, during the time that we were most heavily involved in politics, I think everybody expected the Latino community to emerge as a major force. Right. And certainly if you look at the Board of Supervisors, there's a Latina who's the president of the board. There are more Latino officeholders than there have ever been, and that's a direct result.
00;15;45;16 - 00;16;04;26
Speaker 1
I'm convinced of district elections. There's a lot of things about district elections. People don't like it makes it makes these offices more parochial. People will focus on their district. I, Don horsley, is broad minded, a civil servant and public servants that are known when we're asking him a question about something in East Palo Alto. And it's not my district.
00;16;04;27 - 00;16;33;17
Speaker 1
So there's that propensity to to defer to somebody else. But that being said. The fact is we have a broader diversity on the board than we've ever had. And most city councils. What's interesting is if you look at registration, the Asian community has outstripped the Latino community. And my guess is that that will that, that that community will emerge as a major force much more quickly and much more broadly.
00;16;33;19 - 00;16;54;28
Speaker 1
And there are Asian City Council officeholders. There are people who are working very hard in the a community to to sort of raise up the next generation of leaders. So I think we will see that, but they have yet to do so. And the other challenge there is that it's a mistake to think of the Asian community.
00;16;55;00 - 00;17;22;16
Speaker 1
Yeah, there's a huge difference between somebody who emigrated here from China because they were forced to leave the country and somebody who came here from Vietnam or from Pakistan or from India. And so historically, ethnic communities, when somebody from their community runs, they tend to unify around the person. I don't know if that's going to be the case, but you mentioned Millbrae, something like 70% of the population there is Chinese or Chinese.
00;17;22;18 - 00;17;44;27
Speaker 1
So it's a it's a group of people who are coming and they seem much more economically engaged and, and politically engaged, and frankly, the Latino community does. Right. So that was something to look to in the future. Speaking of the future, we have, a number of issues come in a number of races coming up in June and November.
00;17;44;28 - 00;18;15;17
Speaker 1
Almost almost every city council, if not every city council in the county, has an election in November. But right now we have some races in June. And who'd have thought he was going to be a hot race for assessor? Yeah. But Mark church has stepped down after I don't know how many years in office. David, who has long been openly talking about running for it, and now it's like, you know, hours later and it looked like he was going to have no opposition.
00;18;15;17 - 00;18;43;07
Speaker 1
But instead we have Jim Irizarry, who has been Mark churches chief assistant for many, many years in the race. The Labor Council has endorsed canopy, and they are formidable. It's why Julie Lind is at the top of the top ten list. Meanwhile, three of Canopus four colleagues have endorsed Irizarry. Not canopy, but Jackie Speer among them.
00;18;43;09 - 00;18;49;14
Speaker 1
Jerry Hills endorsed Dave Pine. What's your take on this race?
00;18;49;16 - 00;19;18;10
Speaker 2
Well, you know, I normally when you look at a race. The overriding factor is name identification, particularly in a county wide race like this. But there is a significance to a ballot designation. What you have next year. Name on the ballot. That comes into play more in these kinds of offices than, say, necessarily a supervisor or some other position.
00;19;18;13 - 00;19;45;06
Speaker 2
It, you know, having the labor endorsement canopy, having a donor base. That he's proven he can raise money. Certainly would would give him tremendous advantages. One of the interesting things beyond the ballot designation and the endorsements is that, now I've lost my trend of thought again.
00;19;45;08 - 00;19;50;00
Speaker 1
The meantime, what's interesting to me about the job is it's not a political job.
00;19;50;02 - 00;20;19;06
Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, it's it's. And that's exactly what I was going to say. It's and I think that he has Irizarry has the message, the narrative that's even more important now than it would be at any time in the past. And that is we shouldn't politicize this office. And obviously when people think now about politicizing offices, they think about Trump, who's not very popular in San Mateo County.
00;20;19;09 - 00;20;52;03
Speaker 2
And so that narrative is very powerful. And in a well-run campaign. If you have an issue like that, you need to focus entirely on that issue. You need to pound away on that issue. You need to look for opportunities to try to claim that in this case, Dave is a political animal, and that really what you need is somebody who has been part of this department, which really has had a remarkable reputation going back to Marvin Church.
00;20;52;05 - 00;21;19;22
Speaker 2
In terms of how we run elections, how efficiently they're done, how quickly results are given. So I think he needs to pound away at that. But the problem is I, I don't think I don't know him that well. He's an independently wealthy guy. And even though he has endorsements from a lot of high profile people, traditionally that doesn't translate into money.
00;21;19;24 - 00;21;34;02
Speaker 2
Right. And so he's got to have enough resources to to really push that narrative out there. And if he can, then I think that there's, there's a real a real shot.
00;21;34;05 - 00;21;52;05
Speaker 1
There are two ways you raise money, either based on your own ability to go into a room full of people and convince them to give you money. And Canada has a skill at that. He has. We saw it four years ago when he ran for Congress. He came in with a network of his own creation of people who historically had not been involved in politics.
00;21;52;07 - 00;22;09;25
Speaker 1
In fact, many of them were from the Asian community in North County. The other way is, if it's a job people think is important and they want to have influence with it, so they give you money so that when you're in office, they can call you up and say, hi, I need help. This is not one of those offices.
00;22;10;02 - 00;22;31;15
Speaker 1
No. Nobody's lining up to give money to the assessor because there's nothing, you know. We had a guy who ran in Santa Clara County, Rishi Kumar, who actually said during the campaign he was running for assessor. He was going to lower property taxes. Like it was absurd. He doesn't do that. Can't do that. Their only job is to make sure that the tax bills get out on time as they're accurate.
00;22;31;17 - 00;22;57;14
Speaker 1
It's the same with all the. You know, I like that the name clerk is in the title of the job, because that's a very accurate description. It is their job to get these governmental agencies to run a well. Yeah. And there's no money in that for some contractors, I guess there is in some level or another. But it's it's not the kind of same kind of thing, kind of influence you can have when you're in the legislature legislative position.
00;22;57;15 - 00;23;00;03
Speaker 1
So it'll be very interesting to see what happens here.
00;23;00;07 - 00;23;19;09
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think it will be. And you know, I think Jim has the work his work cut out for him. It'll be interesting to see if there's actually somebody emerges. Consultant running his campaign. I think that. Would that be very helpful? Maybe. You know,
00;23;19;12 - 00;23;40;16
Speaker 1
If you look at the lineup of people who endorsed him right away. Yeah, they're all experienced political people, some more than others. So then the question is, do they do they really step up, or is this the extent of what they're going to do? Are they going to go raise money for them? Are they going to take the the top political consultant they know and say, you go do this.
00;23;40;17 - 00;24;02;17
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's all possible. But we've also seen this kind of endorsement and that's the full extent of what happens. So it'll be you know, so that's the challenge because the Labor Council I don't know if they're going to have people walking precincts for this race. I'd be surprised if they did. Yeah, but that still means mail. It still means money.
00;24;02;19 - 00;24;30;10
Speaker 1
That money goes with a labor Council tells it to go. So, you know, in Canada, as we said, has its own network. And, I mean, I used to joke, he's like God. Wherever two or more gathered, he has been there. You know, if you're in, if you're involved in any kind of community activity in this county and you haven't met David, it's because you decided not to walk across the room and shake his hand because he is really everywhere.
00;24;30;13 - 00;24;51;23
Speaker 1
One more thing local before we move on to some of the other stuff, because the assessment race is interesting in the larger national context. There is a every 8 to 10 years, as you know, they form a committee to review the county charter. San Mateo County is is one of like 17 counties in the state. I think that has a charter rather than some other sort of legal instrument.
00;24;51;25 - 00;25;20;18
Speaker 1
So they're reviewing it to see what should or shouldn't be added or deleted from the charter. But the most intriguing one is the proposal that the president of the Board of Supervisors be designated the mayor of San Mateo County. Now, I've actually advocated for something like this because it frustrates me. You know, there'll be a story about some regional issue, and you see San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland quoted, and it's like San Mateo County doesn't exist.
00;25;20;19 - 00;25;24;15
Speaker 1
And that's particularly true transportation issues. But what's your take?
00;25;24;18 - 00;25;55;28
Speaker 2
Well, you know, again, I think that, the president of the Board of Supervisors is a rotational position. And so if if a person could be appointed or elected to a position like that. And, you know, become a real voice, become somebody that's visible. I agree with you. I think that would make a huge difference. I'm not sure just simply making that designation.
00;25;56;00 - 00;26;00;26
Speaker 2
We'll it'll it'll be better. But I don't think it really changes the dynamics that much.
00;26;01;01 - 00;26;18;27
Speaker 1
Yeah, I agree with you, I think. I think it's a good idea, but I think it ought to be an elected position, and I think I'll be somebody who runs countywide, because otherwise, what's the authority there from a district? And the only place they've been elected is the district. Every other mayor has to run citywide. Not only that kind of bothers me.
00;26;19;01 - 00;26;44;28
Speaker 1
Find the mayor of Redwood City or San Mateo and somebody else's roaming around saying they're the mayor of the county. There are kind of bother me. It's like, you know, who made you God. So anyway, let's talk a little bit about the governor's race. The newest thing I saw in Politico today was, some supporters of Eric Swalwell say he's now in the top ten tier at 14%.
00;26;45;01 - 00;26;53;29
Speaker 1
And the Republicans, who are right now one and two in the race in the polling, have begun fighting with each other. I can't figure out where this is going to go.
00;26;54;02 - 00;27;29;26
Speaker 2
Yeah. It's, you know, I here's how I look at it. Swalwell, to me, is the most likely candidate for Democrats. If they if they really start to get nervous to coalesce around around him. We saw this week that Senator Adam Schiff, supported him. Porter, I think, has the ability to create a base. I mean, this is an election where as we look at the polls now, the winner is going to be probably in the 20s or 30s.
00;27;29;29 - 00;27;57;09
Speaker 2
In terms of the June election, you've got none of the candidates here. Nine Democrats, two Republicans. Most of raised in the neighborhood of 3 to $4 million so far. But you've got Tom Steyer, who is contributed 28 million to his campaign and spent probably close to 30 million so far on advertising. It's hard to say.
00;27;57;10 - 00;28;21;24
Speaker 2
California has experience with very wealthy people from the outside who come in and say they're going to fix everything. And those people have tended not to get elected. So it's it's hard to see the other candidate that I would say is in the top tier, kind of on a probation basis. Is Matt Mehan the mayor of San Jose?
00;28;21;26 - 00;28;48;14
Speaker 2
He's raised $1 million in a very short period of time since he recently announced. And obviously, his base looks to be the the tech community. Which is getting stronger and stronger. So it's an interesting race on the Republican side. Chad Blanco, who I'm very familiar with, is the sheriff in Riverside County. I would say that he makes Donald Trump look like Adlai Stevenson.
00;28;48;16 - 00;28;54;04
Speaker 2
I know I'm I'm I'm getting myself a little bit. And most people won't understand that reference. You do?
00;28;54;07 - 00;28;58;03
Speaker 1
Someone is happy to hear Adlai Stevenson again. Yeah,
00;28;58;06 - 00;29;23;13
Speaker 2
Exactly, exactly. Steve Hilton, you know. So, Fox News commentator. I think he worked for British Prime Minister David Cameron. And they are fighting with each other. They are really starting to go after each other. You got nine Democrats that are splitting 60% of the vote, at least if you kind of look at it generally. And two Republicans said splitting 40% of the vote.
00;29;23;14 - 00;29;52;00
Speaker 2
So you can see why right now the Republicans are leading. I think the Democrats will get nervous. And we'll try to coalesce around 1 or 2 of the candidates. What's interesting is you've got Sarah Viera, Tony Thurmond, Betty Yee, who've all held, either held or run for statewide office. So they're their names that have some familiarity.
00;29;52;05 - 00;30;02;19
Speaker 2
And that's the real danger for the Democrats. If people don't drop out at some point, you could get into a very tricky math problem in this election.
00;30;02;21 - 00;30;24;17
Speaker 1
Meaning that since the Democrats and Republicans are dividing up 40%, they could each get 19 or 21, and then the top Democrat gets 17, and you have the two Republican general and the election, we should add we should add that the primary is not a traditional primary anymore. The top two vote getters, regardless of party, end up running again in November.
00;30;24;19 - 00;30;28;12
Speaker 1
And the Democrat, whoever it might be, would love to run against a Republican.
00;30;28;13 - 00;30;29;20
Speaker 2
Absolutely.
00;30;29;23 - 00;30;41;26
Speaker 1
Which may be why none of them right now, somebody has to start pressuring some of these nine Democrats. Some of them have to get out. Somebody has to be telling them it's not there for you this time. Yeah.
00;30;41;28 - 00;30;49;20
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, I was going to say Tony Thurmond is raised $180,000. So far, so,
00;30;49;22 - 00;30;51;26
Speaker 1
Even elected assessor in this county.
00;30;51;28 - 00;31;01;00
Speaker 2
Exactly, exactly. So, but, you know, people who run for office don't get out easily.
00;31;01;02 - 00;31;20;14
Speaker 1
Yeah. You know. Yeah. They get up every morning, and if you're a guy, you're shaving the face of the governor. You know. It's fascinating with Steyer, the amount of money he has spent. And it's clear the one thing he has not done is make people like him. He who's off his kind of even because this comes off as kind of unlikable.
00;31;20;14 - 00;31;42;09
Speaker 1
It's like, I don't want to spend four years with this guy, right? Mehan is the new flavor of the month, right, in Silicon Valley because certainly back him. But, the only problem Mehan presents to me is, it seems to Swalwell. So what was the only Northern California in the race? So that would have been enough to get him 20 to 25% of the vote.
00;31;42;14 - 00;32;04;15
Speaker 1
But now with somebody else in. That's I think one of the reasons why you're seeing people moving towards Swalwell is because they realize that this is his chance, and maybe they can get man to drop out. Yeah. You know, the fact is the tech industry doesn't have the glow about it that it used to. And so much of their support from Mehan is built around the billionaire tax.
00;32;04;19 - 00;32;27;21
Speaker 1
The proposal that's now initiative that's in circulation. Now to to add a 5% tax to anybody within come over $1 billion. And I know that's always been troubling to you, Bob, but because of your income. Yes, but but you know, I don't even think that's all that popular. Not but I don't think it's driving people toward Mehan, except the Silicon Valley.
00;32;27;21 - 00;32;30;00
Speaker 1
People who are all billionaires.
00;32;30;03 - 00;32;40;16
Speaker 2
Again, what? Mehan, what they can bring to him is, is money, both the direct contributions or having an independent expenditure committee. So.
00;32;40;18 - 00;32;40;25
Speaker 1
You know.
00;32;40;26 - 00;32;55;08
Speaker 2
California, you've spent 30 billion to get elected in California. You have to be up in that 20 to $30 million range to really reach people across the state.
00;32;55;15 - 00;33;15;03
Speaker 1
Yeah. You know, it used to be that a political rally in San Francisco was for people watching TV and radio. Well, that that's not the case. And that's the other odd thing about Stiers. He's on TV, which, you know, and he's buying NFL stuff like that, but it just isn't. It isn't the, that it used to have.
00;33;15;07 - 00;33;31;14
Speaker 1
Right. The midterms, the obviously the Democrats are convinced they're going to take back the House back. They're also beginning to be convinced that they might even take back the Senate. Other than Matheson.
00;33;31;16 - 00;33;32;11
Speaker 2
Very tough.
00;33;32;18 - 00;33;58;17
Speaker 1
Very difficult there. But, I just read a new Gallup poll that showed the people who identify as Democrats is up a little bit. People who identify as liberal is up even more. And there's an as you would expect, the drop in the number, drop in the number people with as conservative as Republicans. And these were people who swung to Trump, even even in this state.
00;33;58;18 - 00;34;26;07
Speaker 1
He didn't carry the state. But you you know, I did go through, some of the counties and there are counties where his his vote total was 5 to 10% higher than it was when he ran in 2020. What's interesting is there's a huge surge in people who declare themselves 56%, who declared themselves independent, 40 years ago, that was 25 or 20%.
00;34;26;14 - 00;34;50;28
Speaker 1
So it's it's a pox on all all of you. I think it's about. So then the question is, where does that go? Is there enough dissatisfaction with Trump and his policies? Because everybody, I think is almost immune now to his personality, right, of having it being a deciding factor? If you're if you're upset about Trump and the way he behaves, you were never formed to begin with.
00;34;51;00 - 00;35;00;03
Speaker 1
But obviously somebody was. And it was because they thought, well, I like what he's going to try and do. So the question is, is he doing those things or is he losing support because of it?
00;35;00;05 - 00;35;30;21
Speaker 2
Yeah, he he clearly two areas that he's lost a significant support. One is independence. And the other is Latino males, which as you recall, was such a big deal in, in the last election. And so, yeah, you know, I mean, traditionally the incumbent loses ground in the midterms. You know, go back to 1922. I mean, 2022.
00;35;30;24 - 00;35;58;20
Speaker 2
And the Republicans were talking about a red wave that was going to take over the country and put them in power for decades to come. Well, that didn't materialize. I think the Democrats are, you know, they've had such a downtime, a period since the last election. And so now they're beginning to feel some energy. And, but, you know, I think they certainly are going to take to house.
00;35;58;20 - 00;36;23;07
Speaker 2
I don't see a scenario where that doesn't happen. The Senate, you know, there's a ways to go there that's tough to do. And so, we'll we'll see what happens. It's still early. You know, there are a number of congressional races out there that pit two Democrats running against each other, or two Republicans running against each other.
00;36;23;10 - 00;36;31;05
Speaker 2
And so until those things get resolved and we see who's actually running, I think we'll get a clearer picture.
00;36;31;07 - 00;37;12;10
Speaker 1
The news media and of course, I'm part of them, although I have not yet committed this sin, is looking for any sign of a crack in Trump's hold on the Republican Party. And so when there's a horrendous shooting, and Trump says something offensive, one Republican will say, yeah, I kind of wish he had said that. The appalling video that he put out, the Trump himself, put out the Obamas apes did actually get some interesting response, a little more vociferous that, you know, he should apologize, which, of course, he has never done and never will.
00;37;12;13 - 00;37;32;25
Speaker 1
But also that is clear, the ice stuff in Minnesota. I mean, he just they just announced they're leaving, right? You know, I would have bet serious money that he would never do that. So that tells me that even if there's not a crack in the Republican ranks, he is susceptible to that sense that his policies are not succeeding.
00;37;33;01 - 00;37;45;06
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. One interesting thing about Minnesota, and this is going to make a lot of people probably not in San Mateo County, not thrilled with me.
00;37;45;13 - 00;37;46;26
Speaker 1
This is Bob.
00;37;46;28 - 00;38;19;10
Speaker 2
Yeah. You've now got the Department of Corrections in Minnesota working with Ice. They've identified, I think, last count, over 600 people in the jails there that they call the worst of the worst. And they are systematically going about, basically deporting those people. The Biden administration estimated between 4 and 500,000 of violent criminals that are in jails across the country.
00;38;19;13 - 00;38;50;07
Speaker 2
My guess is that percentage here in California is very high. And so I think the fact that sanctuary cities, sanctuary states and all of that, I understand where they're coming from. But I haven't heard anybody defend these violent criminals that are in jails that are costing localities. You know, when I was involved, like 40,000 year to house a prisoner, you've got jail, overcrowding and all of that.
00;38;50;07 - 00;39;23;22
Speaker 2
So to me, that's the way this thing could move forward. Both Homan and the head of the Department of Corrections have said that, you know, we're now working together in concert. You wouldn't expect that to come out of this. Clearly, people don't want roving bands out there picking people off the street. You know, while a majority of people still believe every, every illegal should be sent out of the country if they're here illegally, I certainly don't agree with that.
00;39;23;25 - 00;39;39;25
Speaker 2
But I do think very strongly that there's got to be some cooperation, particularly when it comes to a jail population where you've got people that are easily identifiable as bad guys, bad women, whatever you want to say.
00;39;39;28 - 00;40;00;26
Speaker 1
Well, it's an interesting question. Zero cooperation with Ice. And what you're saying is, and I hadn't thought of it to be brought it up, which is they're finessing the issue. They're eliminating the sort of explosive element of these guys roaming around the street. And they're not police officers. They're not even well trained. I mean, when they shot that woman.
00;40;01;03 - 00;40;24;27
Speaker 1
Good. Renee. Good. In the car. I mean, I've hung around cops for years, and they all say the same thing right down the license plate. You can go to their house later and get them when you need to. This was nuts. In in. None of them would admit to thinking it's a good idea to stand in front of a moving car, just even if it wasn't the idea that he was claiming, he was just like, well, what are you doing there in the first place?
00;40;24;28 - 00;40;55;09
Speaker 1
So there's some. So making that part of a go away, maybe what they have figured out they need to do. Because the fact is, people do believe there are too many people in this country who shouldn't be here who are bad for this country. The flip side is, you know, especially in our in our area, we can all we all know people who are probably in this country illegally but are making important contributions, whether it's in their family, sending their kids to school, paying taxes, doing work that a lot of our children would never do.
00;40;55;15 - 00;41;15;27
Speaker 1
I mean, I love this idea that they're taking jobs from Americans because it's about all the time. Time, all those white high school teenagers got off their asses and started picking strawberries. Yeah. The the other interesting thing, and it goes back to a local issue. San Mateo County Board of Supervisors is on a record zero cooperation with Ice.
00;41;15;29 - 00;41;40;00
Speaker 1
And they were having that discussion. It troubled me because I was thinking, you know, there's no exception. You know, and the anti ice advocates who really pressuring the board at the time were saying, you know, we want these people to get out of jail. They've done their time and they're allowed to go back to their family. And my first thought is well what if they went to jail because they beat up their family and they shouldn't go back there, you know?
00;41;40;02 - 00;42;04;13
Speaker 1
And in fact, Ray Mueller tried to offer up some what I regard as fairly modest amendments to it. And that's when David Cannibal launched a tirade in which he called Mueller a racist, and they rejected his view. But this is a problem that isn't necessarily been resolved here yet. And in fact, it's one of the questions I look forward to asking the sheriff, what is he going to do if I shows up in our community?
00;42;04;14 - 00;42;27;16
Speaker 1
And, you know, suppose there's a group of protesters masked, you know, facing a thousand Ice guys and the cop show up to try and mediate the situation, as a friend of mine said, which way would they be facing? Would be facing the ice guys, or would they be facing the protesters? So it's yeah, it you know, I think there's widespread support for the Biden administration.
00;42;27;16 - 00;42;57;16
Speaker 1
Let this get out of hand. Right. But the other thing that's interesting is that there's an effort in Congress to, to renew the idea that if you've been here a number of years and you've been essentially a productive member of society, you don't get citizenship, but you get to stay. Right. Right. So they're looking for ways to finesse the controversy part of it without which is, as you're saying, over cause people to overlook the parts of what they're doing.
00;42;57;16 - 00;42;59;02
Speaker 1
There may have been what people wanted.
00;42;59;09 - 00;43;29;18
Speaker 2
Yeah. To me, the most insidious part of this, obviously, when you start shooting people in the streets, that's the detention. And it's not a good thing, but the level of fear that exists. And I see it because, you know, obviously, I know a lot of Asians. My wife is Asian and Latinos down here. And the level of fear, even even for people that are citizens.
00;43;29;21 - 00;43;53;23
Speaker 2
But may have a family member that came in as overstayed their visa. That, to me is where it it really strikes home to me that we just shouldn't have that kind of environment. The other thing that Trump did earlier on, which really, kind of set me off, is he talked about quotas. We've got to have 2000 a week that we're deporting.
00;43;53;25 - 00;44;22;15
Speaker 2
And once you start doing that, then the incentive is to find anybody that you possibly can. And try to deport them. So, it's it's it's hurt him politically. Clearly. But I think there are ways, a ways to solve this and to work together. Hopefully that Minnesota example can be done in places like California and Arizona and New Mexico, places like that.
00;44;22;22 - 00;44;41;18
Speaker 1
Okay. But this is a political show. So what's the political you know, clearly they're worried about the midterms. Is this has this issue peaked too soon? And then by November, it may not be the same issue? Or does it have staying power because of the anger he's generated and the fear?
00;44;41;21 - 00;45;12;16
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, nine months, I think, for about nine months away from the election. Things change very quickly. Yeah. Immigration. You know, with all the hoopla and everything. His numbers on education, on immigration, while they've gone down, they're still higher than his job approval. Numbers. And so, you know, I think it's hard. It's hard at this point to say what's going to be the the issue.
00;45;12;19 - 00;45;40;27
Speaker 2
Things have a way of cropping up. But I don't suspect that Trump is going to be more popular. But I think that the trick is going to be Republicans being able to run their own race. You know, you Democrats have made a big deal about a couple of state legislative races in Texas where there's been a huge swing in voters, but a lot of those races have local overtones to them.
00;45;40;29 - 00;45;51;21
Speaker 2
And so it's easy to overflow that, it's certainly, when you look at the numbers, should be disconcerting to Republicans. So, you know, again.
00;45;51;27 - 00;46;03;03
Speaker 1
Go ahead. All politics is local. Yeah. Congressional races. But the other thing, I think, and maybe this is a good way to wrap it up, but.
00;46;03;05 - 00;46;26;16
Speaker 1
I don't I think we've already proven running against Trump does not work. Yeah. You have to have some idea that to give to people about here's what I'm going to do. And it can't just be whatever it is, whatever he wants, I'm against it. And so if you look at that state Senate race in Texas, you know, the the ads this guy ran were very issue oriented and very his own resume oriented.
00;46;26;23 - 00;46;47;01
Speaker 1
He doesn't talk about Trump in his ads. He talks about what he wants to do. That brings us to the word affordability. And there's no question that people are feeling a crunch. Economic gas is up another almost $0.50 here just in the past few weeks. So it's you know, it'll you know, it's the classic pundit thing to say.
00;46;47;04 - 00;46;49;07
Speaker 1
It remains to be seen but.
00;46;49;09 - 00;46;50;17
Speaker 2
Only time will tell.
00;46;50;24 - 00;47;15;23
Speaker 1
Yes. Yeah. But in fact, we don't know yet what the issue is going to be that really brings people to the polls. There's a lot of anger, and I think the answer among Democrats is to use that to mobilize voters to show up, to register more people to, to to do work now to make sure that the polling places are going to be safe, that no one's going to mess with the mail in ballots here.
00;47;15;27 - 00;47;26;09
Speaker 1
So there's a lot of work to be done. They can lay a good foundation for a win, and this is the time to do that. And that's almost a non-issue. It's it's sort of rides above the issues.
00;47;26;10 - 00;47;55;17
Speaker 2
Right. Another factor is the Republicans have an unbelievable advantage in terms of money. This this time around. Now, again, the Democrats went through that down period. My guess is there it's starting to rev up. But if you look at all the various committees, congressional committees. The Republicans are way, way ahead in terms of money, which can play a role in this.
00;47;55;17 - 00;48;26;12
Speaker 2
But my guess is when we're talking about this after the November election, the Democrats will control the House. The Senate may be a more narrow, controlling by the Republicans and the final two years of Trump's presidency are are going to be kind of just a mishmash of, you know, and I think the more he could become irrelevant, the crazier he'll get.
00;48;26;15 - 00;48;44;09
Speaker 2
And so, you know, it's hard to say how this is going to play out. But, you know, very soon we're going to be talking about the 28 election. And obviously there there are a number of different candidates in both parties out there already running for 28.
00;48;44;12 - 00;48;46;11
Speaker 1
Well, we'll save 28 for another day.
00;48;46;12 - 00;48;49;21
Speaker 2
Yeah. That's right. At least for another week. Yeah.
00;48;49;24 - 00;49;07;22
Speaker 1
This has been fun. Bob. It's been great to seeing you again. It's been fun to talk about all this stuff. And it's fun. Thank you, all of you, for joining us. It's been fun talking to all of you. And we will be back. We're going to do this every Friday at 10:00 in the morning. Which means you can watch us live.
00;49;07;23 - 00;49;29;09
Speaker 1
God help us. But then we'll post it everywhere. Our producer, Frank Bravo, has been running our our website address on there, and you can find us on Facebook, on YouTube, anywhere where you download podcasts. And on the game peninsula.com. So we're looking forward to a fun year. This is going to be a lot of interesting things to do.
00;49;29;11 - 00;49;31;02
Speaker 1
Now on that note, I'm Mark Simon.
00;49;31;08 - 00;49;32;10
Speaker 2
I'm Bob marks.
00;49;32;11 - 00;49;36;18
Speaker 1
Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Frank Bravo for producing this. And we'll see you next time.