The Ricochet Podcast - Special R> Podcast: Republican Candidate for Governor of CA John Cox

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

This morning, we had the opportunity to chat for a few minutes with the Republican candidate for governor of California, John Cox. Peter Robinson and Rob Long talk with Cox about his quixotic campaign in an overwhelmingly blue state, his positions on several key issues, and the big elephant in the corner: Donald Trump. Source

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Terms apply. Bet responsibly. 18plusgamblingcare.ie. Welcome to the Special Ricochet Podcast. I'm Rob Long, talking as always with Peter Robinson of Palo Alto. And our special guest today is John Cox, who's running for governor of California. Republican for governor, running against Gavin Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco. It is a tough race. It's a tough state. But John is taking it on and is putting on a pretty good show. He is an accountant, a businessman, a broadcaster, an attorney and a politician.

He's originally from Illinois. He became a California resident in 2011 and is now the Republican candidate into the 2018 gubernatorial election in California. John, welcome to the Ricochet podcast. Great to be with you both. I've heard a lot about your podcast, and I'm very excited about being with you. Well, thank you. So I got one question for you, which is, I'm trying to put this in the nicest possible way. You have an uphill battle against a politician who's got a lot of money and is part of the California Democratic machine. Democrats have a super majority in state government.

How are you doing? Actually, I'm doing very well, and I would take slight issue with some of that i mean we've had a whole bunch of republican governors uh the election in california here is in the midterms you know that usually brings out a good amount of republicans as a percentage of the total and that's coming through in the absentee ballots that have been received so far. People, not only that, in this state, the middle class has been howled out. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, the most homeless, the highest gasoline prices, highest housing costs, water rationing, schools that are 47th in the nation, roads that are congested and full of potholes, an over-budget,

behind-schedule bullet train that is obsolete even before it's finished. I mean, there are a lot of issues in this state, and I represent change. Mr. Newsom, my opponent, is more of the same, probably a lot worse, And I think people are going to go into that voting booth and vote for change. John, Peter Robinson here. I sent in my absentee ballot and I am delighted to be talking to the man I voted for. At the same time, I've got it here. So you moved from Illinois to California in 2011. This isn't a Ronald Reagan story where he moved to California when he was a very young man and then ran for office. It's not a Pete Wilson story. Pete Wilson, your fellow Illinoisan and our last Republican governor, moved out here again when he was a young man just after leaving the Marine Corps.

You moved out in the prime of life and, frankly, after Democrats had been running the place for over a decade. Pete Wilson, again, last Republican governor, left office in 1999, almost 20 years ago. And you used to be a Democrat. Why did you move to California in the first place, and why are you a Republican? Let me two big things. First of all, let's pierce this idea that I'm some kind of carpetbagger that has no connection to California. Go ahead. Well, wait to California. Oh, no. Go ahead.

Well, wait a minute. Yeah, sure. Go ahead. You recited a lot of issues there. But, you know, my Aunt Sylvia retired to San Diego in the early 60s. My grandparents moved to Mountain View in 1968. My aunts, my two aunts, my mom's sisters lived their entire lives in California along with my cousins. My mom retired here in 1980 into Fresno where my younger brother and sister lived. So the idea that I have somehow no connection to California is ridiculous.

My whole family is here. I'm the last one. I waited until I could develop my businesses enough to finally move to the wonderful Golden State. But it was always part of my plan. I bought the house in 2007. I obviously know a lot about California because my family has been here for 50, 60 years. So that's the first thing. The second thing, you know, I was a Democrat growing up.

You know, my mom idolized John F. Kennedy. You know, as you know, Peter, you study political science. The biggest determinant of someone's political allegiance is what their parents are. Exactly. Yeah. And my mom was a Democrat. I didn't even know what a Republican was when I was growing up. I mean, my whole family were Democrats. My great-uncle Perk was a stereotyper at the Chicago Tribune in November

of 1948, arguing with Colonel McCormick that he shouldn't run that headline, okay? So my family goes back, you know, in Democrat politics a long way. And you know what? Just like Ronald Reagan, though, the Democrat Party left me. It became a party that, you know, just serves certain interest groups. It's evolved into identity politics. You know, Ronald Reagan talked to us about, you know, freedom, liberty, small business, growth, opportunity, supply-side economics, tax cuts, these are the principles of, you know, people, you know, the aspirational society that I really represent and that I've lived. And so I think it's very natural today for me to be a Republican. I'm not a big business country club Republican. I'm a small business entrepreneurial aspirational republican like uh

ronald reagan frankly my hero jack kemp john oh my one of my heroes as well john i didn't mean to suggest you were a carpet is the way i view it there's no such thing as a carpetbagger in california because we all arrived here so recently but it's good to know about those deep family connections but my question is more like this 2011 2011, why didn't you move to Texas? Why did you come to California? Seriously, what do you see in California besides high school? What's the opportunity you see here for us? My whole family is here.

I just got through telling you that. part of it, frankly. The other bigger question is, why when I get here, after having fought the corruption in Illinois, why would I even think that I could do something in California? And Peter, the answer is, you have something in California here. I should say we, because I am a Californian now. We have something here in California that is not available in Illinois, and that's ballot initiatives. You can change the Constitution here without worry of the political establishment. Try to do that in Illinois. Look at what Bruce Rauner has accomplished. in Illinois, and he's going to probably be defeated because he also abandoned half of his party by signing a bunch of things that his own party didn't like. But, you know, he couldn't

accomplish anything against the corruption. I believe that the people of this state, California, are sick of the corruption. They're sick of the interest groups that dictate what goes on in Sacramento. Gavin Newsom is a walking, talking special interest. I've got ideas about how to reform this system. And frankly, one of the reasons I am running for governor is not just to turn around the state, you know, on a practical level with housing and gas prices and other things, but it's also to reform this political structure, which is basically influence peddling personified. I think that's an attractive opportunity. Hey, John, it's Rob Long again.

So, I mean, Peter mentions Texas all the time because he lives in Palo Alto and he lives in Silicon Valley, and half the people there are packing their bags to go to Texas. How did California get this way? I mean I remember – I mean I was – I grew up – part of my childhood was in California, and I can remember. It was the state of Ronald Reagan. It was the state of Pete Wilson. It was the state – I remember in 1988, the last election that we had where it was assumed that California was going to go Republican. The Republicans had an L, a big electoral lock, a big L across the country, straight down the West and across the Mid-South and the South and the Southwest.

How did it get so messed up? You know, you can trace it to the rise of union influence in politics. I'm not anti-union at all. My mother was a member of the Chicago Teachers Union. I support collective bargaining rights. What I don't support is political corruption. And I don't care if, you know, if it's big businesses like Verizon or Blue Cross or Airbnb influencing politicians. You know, those are all, by the way, big supporters of my opponent. Or if it's public sector unions. And that's what's really happened in California.

And frankly, it's happened in not only California, but Illinois and New York and New Jersey and a bunch of big states. You know, these interest groups use their vast resources. Not only that, they're tied to a lot of people, and they grab political power. And the average individual voter, the person who's just trying to get by, has almost no influence on the process. They're buried underneath an avalanche of TV commercials and, you know, and people, you know, out working, you know, going door to door. And it's just a big hurdle to overcome. And I think that's what's happened to California and a lot of these interest groups,

particularly trial lawyers and environmental groups. Again, I don't mean to exclude big businesses, you know, Verizon, AT&T, Chevron, they're all involved in the process too. They're manipulating our policies. And of course, their thing is to get policies bent to what they want. And sometimes, and frankly most of the time, that's at variance with what should be a generalized idea of what's good for the most of the people. But as a fairly conservative guy who lives and works in Southern California, in Hollywood, I mean,

the listeners will chuckle at the fairly conservative part. When I describe myself as conservative, they always push back. But one of the things that happened was the California Republican Party got extremely conservative. It got fundamentalist conservative. And in California, you think of the famous conservatives in California, they're kind of groovy. Are you – where do you – I mean look, there's two questions here. The one question is – I'll take a slight issue.

Yeah. How conservative are you socially on social issues? And then the second question is, I guess we got to talk about the big T in the room. What are you going to do about Trump? He's not popular in California. just gone total social conservative, there's always been a social conservative wing of the Republican Party, just like there's a very socially liberal wing of the Democratic Party, right? I mean, you know, think about them nominating somebody that was pro-life. Would that ever happen? Absolutely not. So, you know, the extremes of each party are certainly present there. What's happened on the Democratic side? Well, because of this huge influx of money and manpower from these interest groups in Sacramento, the Democrats have really been able to consolidate power. And because of that,

a lot of Republicans left the party knowing that they can't get anything done anyway. They might as well re-register as decline the state. And, you know, if you can't beat them, join them kind of thing. And so now the Republican Party has what's left, which, frankly, you're right, is probably more on the conservative wing. I would argue, though, that like a lot of parties, it has a spectrum. And a lot of those decline the state voters you're reading about. There's five million of them in California now. Those are former Republicans that, you know, either objected to the social conservatives, but more importantly, probably decided that it was better to be declined the state since

they'd be able to get something accomplished. And, you know, they recognize where the political winds were blowing in that respect. Now, in terms of the president, you know, I heard Newt say this, I think it was just yesterday, and I thought it was brilliant, just like I think a lot of things that Newt says. It's not that Donald Trump is conservative. It's not that he is necessarily a class act. I mean, I certainly repel the idea of calling a woman horseface. I think that's just ridiculous.

And the father of four daughters, I would object to that. But, you know, he is an anti-liberal. He is a reaction to the Obama years where there was so much liberal regulation and, you know, grabbing of the economy and the reins of the economy so much in the Obama administration so that we had such meager growth, he's basically an overreaction of that. He's an anti-liberal. And that's what the country wanted in 2016. I guess that's the best way I would describe that. And that's not me. I'm more of an economic growth conservative in the Jack Kemp mold. You know, Art Laffer, supply-side economics, I believe, is the key to growth and opportunity.

And that's what I'm going to be talking about. And I hope people see that and don't feel threatened by the fact that I happen to be in the same party. I'm a different person. John, Peter here once again. I think I already know the answer to this because I think in a slightly roundabout way you already addressed it. But one question, of course, we've already dealt with, can you win? You believe you can? There are polls that indicate that Gavin Newsom's lead is shrinking.

All right. This next question is how on earth could you govern if you did win? It's very likely the Democrats are going to return big majorities, two to one majorities, to both houses of the legislature. But your view, and then, of course, you've got unions to contend with. Your view is the governor and the people of California can work around the union Democrat establishment by using the ballot process. Is that correct? That is how you would... Well, that'll be part of it, Peter. But, you know, I'm going to also start to work day one on reforming the political structure. You're right. I don't want to be Bruce Rauner. I don't want to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. No slam against those two guys. They, I think, tried their hardest and, you know, have been unsuccessful beating back this

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the people in this state are ready for a change. They don't want to be bombarded by 30-second TV ads anymore. They don't want to open their mailbox to an avalanche of mail pieces. They actually want to sit and talk to their representatives and even know their representatives. And that's the way that we're going to get some of these reforms done that need to get done. John, last question here from Peter Robinson. Election Day is one week from tomorrow. How will you be spending election night? The way, oh, election night, I'll be enjoying it with people who have supported me, my friends.

I think I still have friends left, even though I put the arm on them so much to support the campaign. And they have. I mean, we've raised almost 16 million in this campaign, which is a lot more than I expected. You know, I'm going to spend this last week, Peter, talking to real people. We're going to do a bus tour the last five days. I'm going to be traveling around the state. And you know what? The forgotten Californians of this state, the people who get up every day and work and don't work for government, but work in the private sector and have to pay $5 for gasoline now, who have to pay incredible amounts

for rent, have given up on the idea they're ever going to be able to buy a house, who are staring at water rationing in 2022. Think about that. We're sitting next to the Pacific, and we're going to be able to buy a house who are staring at water rationing in 2022. Think about that. We're sitting next to the Pacific, and we're going to have water rationing in this state. Our schools are 47th in the nation. People are going to look at this and say, gee, this is not right. We've got to do something. And I'm expecting to win on next Tuesday.

I have a lot of confidence in the people of this state. They're going to make a good decision. John Cox, thank you so much for joining us. We will put in the show notes a link to your website, and we will remind our California listeners that this is a big state. It is a tough state. It is a hard state to win, and you're trying to turn over the machine, and we wish you the very best. Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you, John. Good luck.

Thank you, Peter. I appreciate your vote. I hope you still have good feelings about that vote. Are you kidding? I'm delighted that I and I and I actually you have two votes because my wife voted for you as well. Oh, wonderful. Can you tell some of those billionaires in Palo Alto that this state is not very well managed and maybe they're liberals?

Maybe they'll disagree with me on social issues. But you know what? I'm not running on those issues. I'm running to just get this thing turned around. I hope they, you know, I'll tell the ones who are left. I have one friend who's moved to Montana and another friend who's moved to Texas. That is not a joke. It is really happening. People are leaving the state. I see that all the time. I mean, you know, of course these people, you know,

listen, if Gavin Newsom gets in there and he's looking for revenue, let's face it. A lot of these people are, have bought houses in Nevada or Idaho, but they're really spending most of their time in California. You know what I know. They love the weather here. They want to be here for sure. John, thanks. Do you think Gavin Newsom is going to go after them?

I think he will. Anyway, thank you. Hey, thanks, John. Good luck. All right. Thanks. Bye-bye. Thank you for joining us on this very special Rich Cage podcast.

So, Peter, it's a tough state, right? It's an extremely tough state for a Republican. God bless him. God bless him. Good for him. He doesn't need this trouble. I know. He just doesn't need this trouble.

Talking to you and me in the middle of the morning here in California, he's got another, who knows how many campaign stops. He said to shake down all his friends for money. Oh my goodness, really. I truly, God bless John Cox. The likelihood that he'll win is as close to zero as anything is going to be in this political season, but he's doing some good.'s showing the flag he's he's making arguments and who knows who knows who knows weird things have happened um peter she talked to you later this week later this week rob take care