State of Gold

Guest

Mark Baldassare, Statewide Survey Director, Public Policy Institute of California

Guest Bio

Mark Baldassare is one of California’s leading experts on public opinion and how its voters behave. He has directed the PPIC Statewide Survey since 1998 and led the Public Policy Institute of California as president and CEO from 2007 to 2022. Before PPIC he taught urban and regional planning at UC Irvine, and unlike most pollsters he trained in sociology, earning his PhD at UC Berkeley. He has written ten books, including A California State of Mind: The Conflicted Voter in a Changing World.

Show Summary

“Both parties are underwater in terms of their favorability,” says Mark Baldassare. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with the longtime California pollster to ask why voters who say the state is headed in the wrong direction keep voting the same way.

Baldassare says it comes down to how people feel about both parties. Asking a Democrat to vote for a Republican, or the other way around, is a hard choice, because voters “have questions about what the alternatives might do.” His polls keep finding Californians who say a third party is needed, which he reads as deep disappointment in both major parties. The biggest change since he wrote about the conflicted voter, he says, is that distrust of government has become “a fact of life,” along with a hyper-partisanship that keeps people in their political lane. He points to Arnold Schwarzenegger, an independent thinker who did his homework, and to Jerry Brown’s canoe theory of politics, paddling to the left and to the right, as what wins voters over.

The conversation moves to the ballot. Voters want to keep the initiative process, he says, but think special interests have too much influence, and they would rather have debates, town halls and a Citizens Initiative Commission than commercials. Only one in three initiatives passes, because “the default for voters is to say no.” He closes on Prop 45, the environmental review measure that pits more housing against the reasons to vote no, as the vote he expects to be the biggest surprise.

Chapters

00:00 – Cold Open: “I Don’t Actually Like Either of Them That Much”

00:19 – Welcome: Statewide Survey Director Mark Baldassare on Conflicted Voters

01:20 – Both Parties Underwater: Why Unhappy Voters Won’t Switch

02:41 – Fear of the Unknown: Why Californians Want a Third Party

03:21 – The Conflicted Voter, 24 Years On: Distrust Becomes a Fact of Life

04:33 – Grumpy Voters: Who Californians Blame Depends on Their Party

05:58 – Breaking Party Lines: Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown’s Canoe Theory

09:31 – Shifting Opinion: Same-Sex Marriage, Prop 187 and a GOP That Didn’t Move

10:50 – Ballot Overload: 14 Propositions and How Voters Would Fix the System

12:47 – Prop 39 Voter ID: Who Should Write the Ballot Language?

15:22 – Prop 40 Billionaire Tax: When in Doubt, Voters Vote No

17:28 – Election Night Surprise: Why Prop 45 Is the One to Watch

Connect with Mark Baldassare

• X: https://x.com/PPICnotes
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/public-policy-institute-of-california/
• Carnegie California profile — https://carnegieendowment.org/people/mark-baldassare

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Tom Bevan, Co-Founder and President, RealClearPolitics

Guest Bio

Tom Bevan is the co-founder of RealClearPolitics, home of the polling averages cited across American politics. He started the site in 2000 with John McIntyre and is now its president. A Princeton graduate, Bevan co-hosts RCP’s daily radio show on SiriusXM with Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon, and the two co-wrote a pair of e-books on the 2012 election. He travels the country giving speeches on the election landscape.

Show Summary

“Republicans are playing defense in a lot of these states,” says Tom Bevan. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with the RealClearPolitics co-founder to size up the 2026 midterms, from the fight for the Senate to the gas prices weighing on Republican voters.

Bevan calls the Senate a real toss-up. He points to President Trump’s job approval at 38.8% in the RCP average and a generic ballot where Democrats lead by about eight and a half points, and says to follow where the time and money are going. Trump’s trips to Texas, Ohio and Montana are about turning out the base, because “midterm elections are base elections,” though Susan Collins and Mike Rogers would rather keep their distance. Collins never led a poll in 2020, he notes, and still won by eight points.

He says gas prices have the tightest link to how voters feel about the economy because it is “a very tangible thing that everybody across this country feels in a very real way when they go to the pump.” The conversation moves to Texas, where he calls the Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico “a crazy race.” On polling, Bevan admits there have been big misses. Still, he says of the averages, “there’s literally nothing better.” He closes on election confidence, with a two-day national voting holiday he and Carl Cannon have proposed, and says ballot harvesting “erodes” trust and “should be done away with.”

Chapters
00:00 – Cold Open: Other Countries Count Ballots Faster Than California

00:16 – Welcome: RealClearPolitics Co-Founder Tom Bevan on the Midterms

00:29 – Senate Toss-Up: Trump at 38.8% and Democrats Up 8.5 Points

02:11 – Follow the Money: Why Republicans Are Spending in Red States

04:12 – Trump on the Trail: Do Red-State Candidates Want Him There?

06:04 – Senate Betting: Susan Collins, Kansas and a Weird Election Cycle

09:10 – Gas Prices: The Pump Problem Dragging Down Republicans

12:00 – Latino Voters: Trump’s 2024 Gains Are Slipping Back

13:59 – Texas Senate: Talarico, Paxton and What Went Wrong for Cornyn

17:33 – Polling Defense: Are the Polls Rigged? Tom Bevan Answers

20:39 – Election Trust: Voting Holiday, California and Ballot Harvesting

Connect with Tom Bevan

• X: https://x.com/TomBevanRCP
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-bevan-8152353a
• RealClearPolitics, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@realclearpolitics4074

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Greg Wallis, CA State Assemblyman (47th)

Guest Bio

Greg Wallis represents California’s 47th Assembly District, a stretch of Riverside and San Bernardino counties that includes Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley, Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree. A Republican in a district where Democrats hold the registration edge, he first won the seat by 85 votes out of about 170,000 cast. He serves on the Budget Committee, belongs to the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and was ranked by CalMatters as the Assembly’s top “maverick” voter for breaking with his party. Before taking office he was district director for former Assemblymember Chad Mayes.

Show Summary

Host Jon Slavet sits down with Assemblyman Greg Wallis, who rallied 61 lawmakers from both parties against a proposed Yosemite land swap, and explains why federal park cuts hit tourism towns like Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. He walks through his reelection fight in a district he first won by 85 votes, and contrasts his record with his opponent Leila Namvar’s, pointing to $24 billion spent on homelessness while the homeless population kept growing. He defends breaking with his party on wildfire prevention, describes how overgrown forests turn into tinderboxes, and lays out why gas prices keep rising as the state loses refineries. Wallis closes with a warning about cap and invest, which he says passed before lawmakers could get a fiscal analysis.

Chapters

00:00 – Yosemite Is Not for Sale: 61 Lawmakers Push Back

01:48 – Federal Park Cuts and the Tourism Economy

03:31 – Won by 85 Votes: Holding a Democrat-Leaning District

05:27 – Leila Namvar and California’s Spending Problem

07:16 – Prop 40 and Protecting Prop 13

07:55 – Breaking With His Party on Wildfire Prevention

09:26 – How Unmanaged Forests Become Tinderboxes

11:16 – What’s Really Driving Gas Prices

13:46 – Climate Goals and Rising Utility Rates

15:23 – Proving Clean Energy Can Be Affordable

16:36 – Cap and Invest Without a Cost Analysis

17:02 – Good Policy Needs Good Process

Connect with Greg Wallis

• X: https://x.com/AsmWallis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsmGregWallis/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asmgregwallis/
• Official Assembly Website: https://ad47.asmrc.org/

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest:

Shannon Grove, California State Senator (12th)

Guest Bio:

Shannon Grove is a Republican California State Senator representing the 12th District, which includes much of Kern County and the southern Central Valley. An Army veteran, she co-founded Continental Labor and Staffing Resources and still serves as its CEO. She served in the State Assembly from 2010 to 2016 before winning her Senate seat, and she later led the Senate Republican Caucus. Grove is known as Kern County’s loudest voice on oil and energy, the author of SB 237 to restart Kern drilling, and a persistent advocate for child safety and victims’ rights. With her Senate term ending in 2026, she is running for the State Board of Equalization, District 1.

Show Summary

“I don’t vote for tax increases,” says Senator Shannon Grove. Host Jon Slavet sits down with the California State Senator as she runs for the Board of Equalization in a race against Democrat Nelson Esparza. Grove explains what the BOE does, from overseeing county assessors to defending Prop 13’s two-thirds vote, and calls an $11.25 billion veterans bond a Trojan horse after $24 billion spent on homelessness. The two dig into the billionaire tax and why it could reach any taxpayer. Then the talk turns to energy: SB 237’s 2,000 Kern County permits a year, Valero’s Benicia closure, and why importing refined fuel from overseas makes no sense. Grove recounts a colleague pitching restorative justice for people who traffick children, the Safe Passage for Youth Act now on the Governor’s desk, and SB 1373’s fight over mental health diversion. She closes with Jay Leno crashing a press conference.

Chapters

00:00 – Death and Taxes: Why the Board of Equalization Matters

01:31 – An 8,000-Vote Race: Grove vs. Esparza on Taxes

02:07 – Holding the Line on Prop 13 and the Two-Thirds Vote

03:16 – $24 Billion on Homelessness and an $11.25 Billion “Veterans” Trojan Horse

04:02 – The Billionaire Tax: A Door to Taxing Everyone

05:21 – SB 237: Why 2,000 Kern Drilling Permits Can’t Flip a Switch

07:21 – Refineries Closing: Importing Fuel from India and Japan

09:45 – Kern County, Energy Capital: 58% of California’s Renewables

11:34 – Restorative Justice for Child Traffickers? Inside the Legislature

14:15 – Safe Passage for Youth: Paris Hilton and Survivors on the Governor’s Desk

16:02 – SB 1373: The DSM-5 Loophole in Mental Health Diversion

17:47 – Leno’s Law: Jay Leno Crashes the Press Conference

Connect with Shannon Grove

• X: https://x.com/ShannonGroveCA
• Facebook (Senate office): https://www.facebook.com/ShannonGroveCA
• Facebook (BOE campaign): https://www.facebook.com/ShannonGroveForCA
• Instagram (Senate office): https://www.instagram.com/ShannonGroveCA/
• Instagram (BOE campaign): https://www.instagram.com/shannongrove4ca
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-grove-b17b4116/
• Campaign Website (Grove for BOE 2026): https://shannongroveca.com/

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Gloria Romero, Candidate for CA Lt. Governor

Guest Bio

Gloria Romero is a former California State Senator who represented East Los Angeles and served as Senate Majority Leader. A longtime champion of school choice and education reform, she left the Democratic Party, and is now the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California. She is also endorsed by the American Independent Party and the Bakersfield Californian.

Show Summary

Host Jon Slavet welcomes back Gloria Romero, candidate for Lieutenant Governor, who says the biggest difference between her and Fiona Ma is education policy. Romero argues that K through 12 schools and the University of California have now collided, after 3,000 UC professors warned that students arrive unprepared and need remedial middle school math. Her fixes: bring back the SAT, tighten teacher tenure that now comes after just 15 months, pay for merit, and expand school choice. She rejects the claim that testing is racist and cites a striking figure: at current rates, a Black kindergartner in LA Unified would need 54 years to reach reading proficiency. Romero lays out her path to victory through the Republican base, independents, disaffected Democrats and the Central Valley, and tells voters Trump is not on this ballot. She closes with her day one plan for two extraordinary sessions, one to rebuild the budget from zero and one to go after waste, fraud and abuse.

Chapters

00:00 – Gloria Romero vs. Fiona Ma: The Biggest Difference

01:18 – Education: The Issue That Eats Half the Budget

03:04 – 3,000 UC Professors Sound the Alarm

05:07 – Teacher Tenure After Just 15 Months

05:59 – Bring Back the SAT, Merit Pay and School Choice

07:17 – Is the SAT Racist? The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

08:43 – 54 Years to Reading Proficiency in LA Unified

10:13 – The Math to Win: 200,000 LA Republicans Who Didn’t Vote

12:04 – No Flyover Country: Why the Central Valley Matters

12:46 – Trump Is Not on This Ballot

14:58 – Day One: Two Extraordinary Sessions on the Budget

16:55 – Going After Waste, Fraud and Abuse

18:23 – Not a Red State or a Blue State, a Golden State

Connect with Gloria Romero

• Campaign website: https://www.gloriaromero4ltgov.com/
• X: https://x.com/gloriajromero
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gloriajromero.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gloria_jromero/

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Guest Bio

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist, military historian and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and a farmer who still lives in his family’s 150 year old home in California’s Central Valley. He has written dozens of books on ancient warfare and modern politics. His newest, The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement, is becoming a bestseller.

Show Summary

“You can’t have sunlight without the sun,” Victor Davis Hanson says, quoting a senior official on whether MAGA can outlast Donald Trump. Host Jon Slavet sits down with Hanson in his family home to discuss his new book, The Counterrevolution. They start with the midterms and why Republicans have failed to address affordability, then turn to the Iran war. Hanson argues it is not a forever war, citing 38 days of combat, 19 fatalities and a $40 billion cost, and he warns against negotiating with a regime he believes is near collapse. The conversation moves to the threat from within: Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, the antisemitic fringe JD Vance must reject, and influence peddling around the White House. Drawing on Thucydides, Hanson explains how lawfare destroys the norms its users later need. He closes with the changes he says nobody talks about, from Latin America to NATO to military recruiting.

Chapters

00:00 – Back at the Farm: A 150-Year-Old Home and The Counterrevolution

00:51 – Shaky Midterms: Prices, Affordability and Selling the Boom

03:40 – A Binary Choice: Democratic Socialists and a 50-50 House

07:00 – Is Iran Jacksonian? The War Seven Months In

08:37 – Cutting Off the Mothership: Hezbollah, the Houthis and Why Not to Negotiate Now

10:21 – “I Decide What’s America First”: Can MAGA Outlast Trump?

13:31 – Jilted Egos and the Groyper Problem: Why J.D. Vance Must Draw the Line

17:51 – Thucydides on Faction: Lawfare and Who Weaponized Justice

20:00 – The Critical 5 to 10%: Independents, Latin America and NATO

22:02 – The Undersold Wins: Military Recruiting and the Border

Connect with Victor Davis Hanson

• X: https://x.com/VDHanson
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victor.d.hanson/?hl=en\
• Official Website: https://victorhanson.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Karl Rove, Republican Political Strategist and Former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush

Guest Bio

Karl Rove is one of the most influential Republican political strategists in modern American history. Known as "The Architect" of George W. Bush's two presidential campaigns, Rove served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Bush White House from 2000 to 2007. Before his government career, he ran Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked on more than 75 Republican campaigns across 24 states. He writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal, appears regularly on Fox News, and is the author of the New York Times bestseller Courage and Consequence.

Show Summary

"Authenticity matters," says Karl Rove, and he means it as a warning. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with the Republican strategist who helped put George W. Bush in the White House, to talk about what the GOP is getting wrong heading into the 2026 midterms, and what it would take to get it right.

Rove argues that the current Trump-centric strategy is a mistake. If the president isn't popular, don't make him the issue. Let candidates like Mike Rogers in Michigan and Steve Hilton in California run as individuals. He points to Trump's biggest policy win, securing the southern border, and asks why the president never went to the border to celebrate it with the local (mostly Democratic, mostly Latino) officials who would have praised him on camera.

The conversation moves to the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico, the 2028 presidential field (Rove is blunt about JD Vance: "How do you go from saying Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler to saying I'm honored to be his running mate?"), and a California voter ID ballot initiative that Rove says could start rebuilding Republican credibility in the state. He closes with the story of his great-grandfather Olaf Julius Rove, a Norwegian peasant who came to America with nothing and whose great-grandson ended up working in the White House.

Chapters

00:01 – Welcome: Karl Rove, "The Architect," on State of Gold
00:16 – The Ideal Republican Candidate: Why Authenticity Beats Consultants
01:17 – The George W. Bush Playbook: Four Big Issues and One Nobody Expected
03:04 – Dan Schnur's Rule: Authenticity, Authenticity, Authenticity
03:35 – Trump's Midterm Strategy: Why Making the President the Issue Is Wrong
04:05 – Let Candidates Shine: Mike Rogers, Susan Collins, Jon Husted, Steve Hilton
05:06 – Message Discipline and Selling the Border Win
05:21 – The Border Success Trump Never Celebrated
06:52 – Too Little, Too Late: The Midterm Convention and the $5,000 Dividend
07:37 – Three Explanations for One Promise: Tariffs, Profits, or Reconciliation
08:08 – Trump's Billion Dollar War Chest: Why Holding Back Is Indefensible
09:24 – Super PAC Math: When $1 of Campaign Money Equals $10 of PAC Money
10:42 – Paxton vs. Talarico: YouTube Dominance and the Texas Senate Race
11:12 – Paxton's History of Running Behind the Ticket
11:43 – Austin, Travis County, and Why Talarico Went Left
13:14 – The 2028 Field: JD Vance, Rubio, Youngkin, Kemp, Cotton, Cruz
14:59 – Is Vance Authentic? Rove Says No
15:31 – Hillbilly Elegy vs. the Milwaukee Speech: Populism vs. Conservatism
16:32 – The Populism Trap: Why Grievance Politics Aren't Optimistic
17:03 – Lincoln's Lesson: "As Our Case Is New, So Must We Think Anew"
17:33 – How Republicans Win California: Quality Candidates and Wedge Issues
19:04 – Voter ID on the California Ballot: A Common Sense Reform Play
20:06 – Carl DeMaio, Reform California, and the Signatures to Get It Done
20:53 – Voter ID Doesn't Suppress Turnout: The Alabama Example
22:25 – The DSA Playbook: Force Democrats to Own Their Party's Fringe
23:10 – "Workers Deserve More": The Stump Speech for Every Republican
24:26 – America at 250: Rove on Resilience, History, and the Worst Times
25:30 – The Country That Keeps Stepping Forward
26:16 – Olaf Julius Rove: From Norwegian Peasant to the American Dream
27:32 – The Desk, the White House, and the Gift of Being American
28:33 – Reagan's Lesson: "We Can Be the Shining City on the Hill"
29:05 – Jon's Family Story: From Ukraine Through Ellis Island to California

Connect with Karl Rove

• X: https://twitter.com/KarlRove
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karlrove/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/karlrove/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlrove/
• Official Website: https://www.karlrove.com/

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Roxanne Hoge, Chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party

Guest Bio

Roxanne Hoge is the Chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, the largest Republican county party in the United States. A legal immigrant from Jamaica and a U.S. citizen, Hoge is a former business owner, actress, and SAG member who has run for California State Assembly and the LA County Board of Supervisors. She has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and OANN, and writes for the California Globe. She ran the LA County GOP's voter turnout operation through recent election cycles including the successful campaign to replace George Gascon with Nathan Hochman as District Attorney.

Show Summary

Only 40% of registered Republicans in LA County voted in the June 2026 primary. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with LA County GOP Chair Roxanne Hoge to ask why Republicans keep complaining about a system they refuse to show up for.

Hoge makes a blunt case: Everything most people call voter fraud, from ballot harvesting to bloated voter rolls, is already codified in California law. The left has been building this architecture since 2011, starting with driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, then Motor Voter automatic registration, and now a system that pushes voter registrations to anyone who interacts with state government. She wrote to both Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Department of Justice asking for election monitors and got no response from Bonta, just hate mail.

The conversation then turns to LA's taxpayer-funded campaign matching system, which has quietly grown from a voter-approved 1:1 match in 1990 to a 6:1 ratio today. Raise $100,000 and the city hands you $600,000. Hoge argues the system is nearly impossible to use without public sector union ground operations, and that Mayor Karen Bass made a political mistake by publicly touting it. Hoge also calls for outlawing public sector unions entirely, warning that unfunded pension liabilities are "coming like a train, unlike the bullet train, a train that will actually hit us." The episode closes on the LA City Council's push for non-citizen voting and why Hoge believes California's best-run cities share a common thread: Conservative leadership at the local level.

Chapters

00:00 - Cold Open: "Voter Fraud Is an Excuse for Not Doing the Work"
00:16 - Welcome: Roxanne Hoge on Republican Voter Turnout in LA County
00:30 - Voter Fraud vs. Voter Apathy: The Real Reason Republicans Lose
01:17 - Charlie Brown and the Football: Why Conservative Wins Get Reversed
02:22 - Gascon Out, Hochman In: Proof That Turnout Works
02:56 - Ballot Harvesting, Motor Voter, and the Legal Framework of "Fraud"
03:42 - The Open Letter to Rob Bonta and the Unsecured Ballot Box on Skid Row
04:34 - Election Monitors and the DOJ: What Hoge Asked For
04:59 - Automatic Voter Registration and How It Harms Legal Residents
05:40 - 200,000 Missing Republican Voters: Fix Your Own House First
06:08 - The Basketball Analogy: Stop Whining About the Refs and Play
06:32 - LA's 6 to 1 Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Match: How We Got Here
08:24 - Karen Bass Broke the First Rule of Fight Club
08:40 - DSA-Backed Candidates and the Stakes for Non-Democrats
09:11 - The 88 Cities of LA County: Where Common Sense Still Wins
10:09 - Queen for a Day: Outlaw Public Sector Unions
10:50 - The Sword of Damocles: Unfunded Pensions Coming Like a Train
11:31 - Non-Citizen Voting: The LA City Council Push
11:54 - Incrementalism: From School Board Votes to Full Franchise
12:54 - Pre-Registering 16-Year-Olds and Boiling the Frog
13:21 - Would Non-Citizen Voting Pass? The Exodus Problem
14:28 - Support the LA GOP: lagop.org and Every Dollar Goes to Turnout

Connect with Roxanne Hoge

• X: https://x.com/RoxanneHoge
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxanne-hoge-42323193/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goplosangeles/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LosAngeles.GOP
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GOPLosAngeles/videos

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Jon Fleischman, political commentator and author of the "So Does It Matter" Substack

Guest Bio

Jon Fleischman is a veteran California political commentator, publisher of the "So Does It Matter" Substack, and one of the state's most respected voices on ballot initiatives, fiscal policy, and taxpayer advocacy. His voter guide covering all 14 November 2026 ballot propositions is a go-to resource for California voters looking for clear, principled analysis.

Show Summary

Jon Fleischman joins Jon Slavet to break down California's November 2026 ballot, which features 14 propositions, the most in recent memory. They cover six key measures: Prop 3, which would make the 13.3% top income tax rate permanent after voters were promised it was temporary; Prop 39, Carl DeMaio's voter ID initiative; Prop 40, the so-called billionaire tax that Fleischman warns is really an "everyone tax" because it gives the legislature unchecked power to levy wealth taxes on anyone; Props 41 and 42, counter-measures that would nullify the billionaire tax if either gets more votes; and Prop 43, the Save Prop 13 initiative restoring the two-thirds requirement for local special taxes. Fleischman explains how the California Teachers Association bankrolls the tax push, why even Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra oppose the billionaire tax, and how Hoover economist Joshua Rauh calculates it would cost the state $25 billion. The episode closes with which ballot outcome will send the strongest signal about California's future.

Chapters

00:00 – Jon Fleischman on California's November Ballot
00:24 – 14 Ballot Initiatives Overview
00:57 – How Ballot Measures Reach California Voters
02:28 – The Attorney General's Ballot Language Bias
03:03 – Prop 3: Making the 13.3% Tax Rate Permanent
03:47 – How the Teachers Union Drives Prop 3
05:01 – Impact on Small Business Owners
05:31 – Prop 39: The Voter ID Initiative
06:18 – Will the Anti-Trump Campaign Kill Voter ID
08:04 – Prop 40: The Billionaire Tax
08:39 – Why Newsom and Becerra Oppose Their Own Party
10:20 – The Everyone Tax: Why All Californians Should Worry
11:38 – The $25 Billion Cost Nobody Talks About
12:33 – Props 41 and 42: The Billionaire Tax Poison Pills
14:46 – Prop 43: Save Prop 13
15:13 – The Howard Jarvis Deal That Made Prop 43 Possible
16:51 – Which Ballot Outcome Will Define California's Future

Connect with Jon Fleischman

• X: https://x.com/FlashReport
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-fleischman-0205024/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonFleischman/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jonfleischman

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
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• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

John Phillips, KABC Talk Radio Host & OC Register Columnist

Guest Bio

John Phillips is a Southern California radio host, political commentator, and columnist for the Orange County Register. He has covered California politics for two decades and has been called the state's political historian by figures in the California political establishment. Phillips is a regular voice on the intersection of state policy, elections, and the consequences of one-party rule in the Golden State.

Show Summary

California has one gubernatorial debate this November, and CNN is moderating it with out-of-state hosts who have no stake in the issues destroying the state. Host Jon Slavet sits down with veteran California political commentator John Phillips to walk through the full landscape of the November 2026 ballot: the governor's race between Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton, the LA mayor's race between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, 14 ballot initiatives including three major tax measures, and the homelessness crisis that no level of government seems willing to solve. The conversation closes on the LA mayor's race, the homelessness industrial complex, and a historical parallel that sticks: in the 1930s, when Upton Sinclair nearly won the governorship on a platform of government ownership of farms and factories, California's business elites (the Chandlers, Hearst, Louis B. Mayer) stepped in and stopped it. Today's elites, Phillips says, the Elon Musks and Peter Thiels, have the resources to do the same. Will they?

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome: John Phillips on the State of California Politics

00:30 – One Debate, CNN Moderators, and the Issues They Won't Touch

00:59 – Homelessness, Insurance, the Bullet Train: California-Only Problems

02:46 – The Train to Nowhere: Waste, Fraud, and Uber Blacks to Sacramento

03:51 – Becerra 60, Hilton 38: The PPIC Polls and the Basement Strategy

05:30 – Embarrass Becerra Into Debating: Boyle Heights and the Cold Storage Fire

06:38 – 14 Ballot Initiatives and the Case for Direct Democracy

07:18 – Hiram Johnson, Southern Pacific, and Why Initiatives Exist

08:06 – The SEIU and CTA: The New 800-Pound Gorilla in Sacramento

09:39 – Prop 43: A Supermajority for Local Taxes (Currently Failing)

10:08 – The Billionaire Tax (Prop 40): How It Split the Labor Movement

11:19 – Will the AI Industry Leave California? The Catastrophic Risk of Prop 40

13:01 – Bass vs. Raman: The LA Mayor's Race Nobody Wants

15:13 – The Doctored Fire Report: Karen Bass Can't Learn from Failure

16:03 – Defund the NGOs: The Homeless Industrial Complex

16:51 – Enforce the Rules: Rehab, Treatment, or Prison

17:39 – Dr. Drew and the Missing Coordination Between City, County, and State

18:20 – Nothing Changes Until People Vote Differently

20:18 – Upton Sinclair and the Elites Who Saved California Before

21:29 – Today's Titans (Musk, Brin, Thiel) Won't Step Up. Yet.

Connect with John Phillips

• X : https://x.com/Johnnydontlike
• YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@randywangradio

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• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
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Guest

Fiona Ma, California State Treasurer

Guest Bio

Fiona Ma is California's State Treasurer, overseeing the state's debt portfolio, investment pool, and savings programs including CalSavers, CalABLE, and the ScholarShare 529 plan. A CPA by training, Ma has held five elected offices over three decades: San Francisco Board of Supervisors, State Assembly, State Board of Equalization, and two terms as Treasurer. She is currently running for Lieutenant Governor against Republican Gloria Romero in the November 2026 general election.

Show Summary

California ranks dead last among all 50 states for business climate, according to the latest Chief Executive magazine survey of CEOs. In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with State Treasurer Fiona Ma to ask what she would do about it if elected Lieutenant Governor in November 2026.

Ma, who spent her pre-government career as a real estate tax accountant advising businesses on where to locate, makes the case that California has failed to create meaningful incentives to attract or retain companies. Texas now has more Fortune 500 headquarters than California, and Ma says the state government's lack of outreach to business leaders is a core part of the problem.

The conversation covers a wide range of policy ground: the $1,600 per acre tax burden crushing family farmers, a wine grape surplus with no market, the cannabis industry (where 60% of sales are now illegal due to tax rates as high as 40%), the philosophical debate over billions in state spending on undocumented residents while citizens struggle with affordability, and Ma's work launching the Early Wealth Partnership Navigator with Google.org to help families access savings programs. Ma also signals openness to a California flat tax, calling the current system too complicated for ordinary taxpayers.

Chapters

00:00 - Cold Open: "I Used to Advise Companies to Leave California"
00:15 - Welcome: Fiona Ma on the Lieutenant Governor Race
00:30 - Resume vs. Policy: The Contrast with Gloria Romero
01:29 - Agriculture Deep Dive: 250 Farm Tours and Counting
02:53 - The $65 Billion Ag Industry Under Siege
03:19 - $1,600 Per Acre: The Tax Burden on Family Farmers
04:00 - Wine Grapes With No Buyer: A Real Crisis Right Now
05:28 - CEO Survey: California Ranked #50
06:05 - What Incentives Does California Actually Have?
07:37 - Newsom's CEO Phone Calls and the Real Response
07:55 - Education: The LG Sits on UC, CSU, and Community College Boards
08:44 - Pell Grants, Cal Grants, and the 85% In-State Shift
09:51 - Student Housing Crisis: Living in Cars, Driving Hours
10:18 - Paid Internships: The RIT Model That Works
10:53 - Billions for Non-Citizens While Citizens Struggle
11:29 - Unintended Consequences: Emergency Rooms as Primary Care
12:17 - Cannabis Banking: An Obsession With Good Reason
12:56 - Auditing Dispensaries by Counting Cars in Parking Lots
14:14 - Ten Years Later, Still No Real Banking Access
14:50 - Revenues Down 30%: The Black Market Flourishes
15:53 - Cultivation Tax, Distribution Tax, Local Tax: The Full Stack
16:34 - 60% of the Market Is Illegal Products
17:20 - The Fix: Lower Taxes, Better Banking, Federal Action
18:51 - Supporting Kids and Families: The Early Wealth Navigator
20:12 - One Stop Shop: Why Families Shouldn't Need 10 Websites
21:43 - Queen for a Day: The Single Biggest Priority
22:28 - A California Flat Tax: Could It Work?

Connect with Fiona Ma

• X: https://x.com/fionama
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fionamacpa/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionamacpa/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/fionama
• State Treasurer's Office (official site)
• Campaign website

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• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Suzette Valladares, California State Senator

Guest Bio

Suzette Valladares represents California's 23rd Senate District, spanning Santa Clarita, the Antelope Valley, and the high desert. Born and raised in Los Angeles to a family that has been in California for a hundred years, she was first elected to the State Assembly in 2021 before moving to the Senate, where she has made affordability the test she applies to every vote. She is a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and one of Sacramento's most persistent authors of public safety legislation, from human trafficking enforcement to lifetime protective orders for victims.

Show Summary

Senate Democrats killed all three of Senator Suzette Valladares' affordability bills in a single day. She joins host Jon Slavet fresh out of session to explain who runs Sacramento, starting with the story behind her politics: A Latino family a century deep in California, now watching relatives leave for Texas and Arizona because they can no longer afford the state they were born in. The same pattern runs through her public safety work. Her MAST Act, a statewide human trafficking task force bill built to include survivors, passed the Senate without a single no vote and died in Assembly appropriations. Kayleigh's Law, which would let judges issue lifetime protective orders so victims can stop re-petitioning courts every few years, was whittled from lifetime to 25 years, to 20, and then gutted entirely. She also explains why every sexually violent predator released in Los Angeles County has been placed in her high desert district, and what would happen if one were ever headed for Beverly Hills. The back half is about how she wins anyway: The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a build-first energy answer that pairs small modular nuclear with extending Diablo Canyon, the E15 fuel bill that could save drivers 20 to 40 cents a gallon, and the Reagan rule she governs by: It is amazing what you can achieve if you do not care who gets the credit.

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome: Senator Suzette Valladares
00:28 – Three Affordability Bills, Killed in One Day
00:49 – 100 Years in California, Family Leaving Anyway
01:42 – The CARB Letter: Refineries and Cap and Invest
04:17 – Mend It or End It?
04:30 – Build First: Small Nuclear and Diablo Canyon
05:26 – Public Safety and the MAST Act
10:15 – A Task Force Without a Single Survivor
11:47 – Kayleigh's Law: Gutted in Appropriations
13:33 – Predator Placements in the High Desert
16:16 – The Beverly Hills Double Standard
16:56 – Inside the Problem Solvers Caucus
19:24 – E15: 20 to 40 Cents Off a Gallon
21:10 – Reagan's Rule: Credit Doesn't Matter
21:48 – Writing an Op-Ed Across the Aisle
23:44 – What Gives Her Hope: The Next Generation

Connect with Suzette Valladares

• X: https://www.x.com/senvalladares
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senatorvalladares
• Facebook (Official): https://www.facebook.com/SenValladares
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzette-martinez-valladares-53794a28/

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Guest

Nick Gillespie, Editor at Large, Reason Magazine

Guest Bio

Nick Gillespie is editor at large at Reason, the libertarian magazine founded in 1968 under the banner of "free minds and free markets", where he has spent 32 years making the case for limited government and individual autonomy. He hosts The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie and co-wrote The Declaration of Independents, which argued a decade ago that unaffiliated voters had become the largest bloc in American politics. The grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants who arrived in 1915, he lives in New York City, where he watched the Democratic Socialists of America take the mayor's office up close.

Show Summary

"They are beating nothing with something." That is how Nick Gillespie, editor at large at Reason, explains the sudden rise of democratic socialism in America's blue cities. The DSA has a young, motivated army and a big promise: rent control, price controls, Medicare for all. What it ran against in New York was Andrew Cuomo's sense of entitlement. On the national stage, Gillespie says, JD Vance fielded a question about expensive gas and the high cost of living without mentioning tariffs, the Iran war, deportations of the people who build houses, or federal spending that went from $4.4 trillion to $8.8 trillion in two fiscal years.

Gillespie then takes apart what the socialists are actually selling. The goal is a world without billionaires, which in practice means a world without the dynamic economy that raises living standards. Price controls failed in the 1970s and everywhere else they have been tried. He also names who is buying: highly educated, mostly white, upper income voters for whom socialism is a source of meaning and a status symbol. The same generational signaling, he argues, explains why anti-Israel politics now travels bundled with the socialist package. The back half goes wider. Independents are the biggest voting bloc in America and Gillespie argues both parties are "paper mache" institutions, one captured by the DSA, the other by a backward-looking leader in Donald Trump. He defends Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as builders rather than looters, explains why Starlink may be Musk's most revolutionary product, and closes on America's 250th year: bullish, because we always do the right thing after trying all the wrong ones. Then a warning for Jon's home state. California and New York are handing their future to Texas and Florida, and it is entirely about governance.

Chapters

00:00 – Cold Open: Beating Nothing With Something
00:24 – Welcome: Nick Gillespie of Reason
00:30 – Why Socialism Is Rising in Blue Cities Now
01:40 – New York's Mayoral Race: Mamdani, Cuomo, and Sliwa
02:50 – JD Vance and the $100 Gas Tank Answer He Skipped
03:59 – $4.4 Trillion to $8.8 Trillion: Where Inflation Came From
04:46 – What Socialists Are Selling vs. What They Can Deliver
06:14 – Abundance: Build More Housing and Prices Fall for Everyone
07:53 – Who Votes DSA: Educated, White, Upper Income
08:37 – Symbolic Grievance and the Cost of the Wrong Degree
09:17 – Why Socialism Comes Bundled With Anti-Israel Politics
11:41 – The Right Plays the Same Signaling Game
12:27 – Independents: America's Largest Voting Bloc
12:54 – The DSA Owns the Democrats. Who Takes the GOP?
13:47 – Elon Musk, First Trillionaire: Cautionary Tale or Victory?
14:16 – Two Ways to Get Rich: Looting or Building
16:25 – America at 250: Why Gillespie Is Bullish
17:40 – One Generation Away From Losing Liberty
18:20 – California and New York Are Handing It to Texas and Florida

Connect with Nick Gillespie

• X: https://twitter.com/nickgillespie
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.gillespie.940
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gillespienick/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-gillespie-2ba38786/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheReasonInterview

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Guest:

Stephen Moore, Economist; Co-Founder, Committee to Unleash Prosperity

Guest Bio:

Stephen Moore is one of the country's best-known free-market economists. A co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and the Club for Growth, and a former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, he served as a senior economic adviser to Donald Trump and, with Larry Kudlow, helped craft the tax cuts that passed in 2017. He first came to Washington in 1983, when the national debt was $1 trillion, and today he also sits on the board of Lightspeed, a company building houses with robots.

Show Summary

California's billionaire tax is headed for the November ballot. Moore's answer starts with a construction worker's line he loves to quote: "I was never hired by a poor person." His new Committee to Unleash Prosperity project puts a number on it, finding that a billionaire's benefit to everyone else, in jobs, wages, and taxes, runs about ten times what they keep. Tax billionaires, he argues, and you simply get fewer of them, and he explains why the national wealth tax Ro Khanna wants, with the floor dropped to $50 million, would put California in an even deeper hole.

Moore runs through the rest of the fiscal picture with the same bluntness: a federal budget he says could be cut by a third, a Social Security system he calls the worst investment of your lifetime after comparing his own $3,500 monthly benefit to the $10,000 an index fund would have paid, and a broken health care market.

The conversation closes on the two forces he thinks decide California's future. First, AI: the farm-tractor logic of creative destruction, the data centers he calls the ignition switch of the economy, and the cancer cures he expects within 15 years. Second, taxes: his advice to the next governor is one Prop 13-sized reform - a 5% flat tax, that he says could set off another California gold rush.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome: Economist Steve Moore
00:11 – The $40 Trillion Debt: How Bad Is It Really?
00:48 – The Least Rotten Apple in the Cart
02:15 – Houses Built by Robots: The Productivity Boom Ahead
03:29 – Crafting the Trump Tax Cuts with Larry Kudlow
04:30 – Cut Washington by a Third, Get Better Government
05:40 – The 12% Fix: Social Security as a 401k
06:49 – The Worst Investment of Your Lifetime
07:27 – Insurance Companies Are Ripping Us Off
08:17 – The Question No Patient Asked in 30 Years
08:50 – No Prices, No Market: Health Care Transparency
10:32 – Iran, Oil, and the Price at the Pump
12:21 – "I Was Never Hired by a Poor Person"
12:35 – What Is a Billionaire Worth? The 10x Math
13:46 – The Myth of the Robber Barons
16:29 – Why a National Wealth Tax Buries California
18:06 – The Farm Tractor Rule: AI and Creative Destruction
19:50 – Curing Cancer, Restoring Sight: The AI Upside
22:40 – Data Centers: The Ignition Switch of the Economy
23:01 – Advice for California's Next Governor
24:33 – Prop 13 Then, a 5% Flat Tax Now

Connect with Stephen Moore

X : https://x.com/StephenMoore

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-moore-89bab738a/

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

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• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
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Guest:

Alex Marlow, Editor-in-Chief, Breitbart News & Host of the Alex Marlow Show

Guest Bio:

Alex Marlow is the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, where he was the site's first employee and has run its newsroom since 2013. He is a bestselling author whose latest book, Breaking the Law, examines the six major court cases brought against President Trump. A Los Angeles native who came up through an elite LA prep school, UC Berkeley, and an early obsession with talk radio, he covers national politics from the perspective of someone still living in, and rooting for, Southern California.

Show Summary

Gavin Newsom is polling at or near the top of the 2028 Democratic field, and Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow joins host Jon Slavet with the obvious question: how does anyone run for president on that record? Marlow runs through the surplus that became a deficit, the fires, the homelessness, and the oppo file Axios reports is already being assembled - and explains why none of it may matter in a Democratic field he considers weak.

Marlow makes his calls: the Republican side is already settled for JD Vance (the one name he gave Trump when asked who should be vice president), Kamala Harris still in the driver's seat on the Democratic side, and a warning about the one kind of candidate who could take it from her. He and Jon dig into Scott Galloway's Newsom worship, why Woke 2.0 is just Woke 1.0 with new branding, and the question Marlow says decides whether California is salvageable at all: will the tech elite follow Elon Musk and Sergey Brin out of the Democratic coalition, or keep grading Sacramento an F and voting for it anyway?

The back half is a two-way report card on the Trump administration, from unsold victories like prescription drug pricing to the handling of the Iran strikes and tariffs, and it closes with Marlow's historical parallel for this moment: a new Gilded Age, where technology cured boredom and, in his telling, made us less informed, stupider, and crazier.

Chapters
00:00 – Welcome: Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow
00:17 – Newsom at the Top of the 2028 Polls
00:50 – The Record He'd Run On: Surplus to Deficit, Fires, Homelessness
02:08 – The Oppo File Is Already Being Built
03:12 – A Field So Weak the 10th Strongest Republican Wins
03:41 – Scott Galloway and the Newsom Aura
04:47 – The Tech Elite: Will They Follow Musk and Brin Out?
05:48 – Focus Groups: F Grades, Same Votes
06:16 – The 2028 Matchup: JD Vance vs. Kamala Harris
09:25 – Woke 1.0 vs. Woke 2.0: No Difference
12:41 – Can the Democrats Course-Correct Before 2028?
14:26 – Marlow's Honest Report Card on Trump
15:59 – The Unsold Victory: Prescription Drug Prices
18:20 – Jon's Case: Stale Bread on a Soviet Shelf
19:55 – The Historical Parallel: A New Gilded Age
20:29 – We Cured Boredom and Got Stupider
22:37 – The Positive Spin: This Gilded Age Builds Millionaires

Connect with Alex Marlow

• X: https://x.com/AlexMarlow
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlownews/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/alexmarlowmedia
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexMarlowShow
• Website: http://alexmarlow.com

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Mike Murphy, Republican Political Strategist; Co-Founder, EVs for All America

Guest Bio

Mike Murphy is one of the Republican Party's most successful political consultants, having advised presidential and gubernatorial campaigns for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with dozens of GOP senators, governors, and members of Congress. A longtime media strategist and co-host of the Hacks on Tap podcast, he later founded EVs for All America and the EV Politics Project, organizations working to take the partisanship out of electric vehicle adoption in the United States.

Show Summary

Republican strategist Mike Murphy joins host Jon Slavet to lay out why he thinks California Republicans are mathematically doomed in the near term, what he actually advised Steve Hilton to do differently, and why he sees Democratic frontrunner Xavier Becerra as this cycle's Joe Biden. Murphy digs into the recent Berkeley poll showing deep partisan splits in trust of California's election system, explaining why the state still is not part of the multistate voter file compact most others use. The conversation turns to the 2026 midterms, where Murphy predicts Democrats take the House by a narrower margin than historical trends suggest, and where he thinks the real fight, and the real risk for Republicans, is the Senate.
He closes on lighter ground: The 3,000 mile electric Porsche drive he just completed for his nonprofit EVs for All America, why China's auto export numbers should worry every American policymaker regardless of party.

Chapters
00:00 – Cold Open: Can Republicans Take Back California?
00:15 – Welcome: GOP Strategist Mike Murphy
01:21 – What It Would Actually Take for Republicans to Win California
02:31 – His Advice to Steve Hilton's Campaign
05:05 – Is Becerra "The Joe Biden of 2026"?
07:03 – The $100 Billion Deficit That Could Force Real Change
09:30 – The Berkeley Poll: Trust in California's Elections and Voter ID
14:01 – The 2026 Midterms: What Happens to the House
15:01 – The Real Fight: Control of the Senate
17:00 – Why Trump's White House Won't Sell Its Own Economy
18:12 – One Trump Policy He Actually Likes
18:57 – His Break With Trump on Foreign Policy
19:33 – Hope for a Post-Trump Conservative Reset
20:18 – Driving an Electric Porsche Coast to Coast
21:45 – China's EV Dominance and the National Security Stakes
24:18 – What Gives Him Hope for California

Connect with Mike Murphy

• X: https://x.com/murphymike
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelemurphy/
• Substack: https://substack.com/@mikemurphy1

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• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest Bio:

Joshua Rauh is the Ormond Family Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution, where he leads the Fiscal Policy Initiative. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research centers on public finance, state and local government pension liabilities, and taxation. From November 2019 to March 2020 he served as Principal Chief Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He has testified before Congress on public pension debt and is best known for his "Hidden Debt, Hidden Deficits" series, which documented the true scale of unfunded pension promises across U.S. states. Find his finance Substack here:https://libertylensecon.substack.com/

Show Summary

In this episode of State of Gold, host Jon Slavet sits down with Stanford economist Josh Rauh to work through the numbers behind California's proposed Billionaire Tax and why Hoover Institution research puts the net fiscal impact at negative $25 billion. Rauh explains how the tax is already accelerating founder departures, how the legislation could be leveraged to sieze assets from any Californian, and what France's failed experiment tells us about what happens next. The conversation shifts to the federal debt, where Rauh makes the case that $40 trillion in accumulated deficits is the single biggest threat facing the American economy: The real reason mortgage rates won't come down, the reason 25 cents of every non Social Security tax dollar now goes straight to interest payments, and why the 1970s stagflation era is the closest historical parallel if Congress doesn't change course.

Chapters
00:00 – Josh Rauh Joins to talk Billionaire Tax and the Federal Debt
00:54 – The France Parallel: What Macron's Repealed Wealth Tax Proves
02:17 – The $25 Billion Math: Why the Tax Would Lose the State Money
03:36 – Founders Already Fleeing: "Raise the Series B, Then Leave"
04:09 – The Legislature Loophole: One Word From a Millionaire Tax
05:35 – Could This Become a 2028 Democratic Primary Weapon?
07:37 – If It Passes: The Zuckerberg January 1 Cutoff Problem
08:50 – Revenue for the State or Prosperity for the People?
10:00 – Proposition 42, Teachers' Pensions, and MediCal for Undocumented Immigrants
12:59 – Tariffs & Spending: Why They're Not the Biggest Threat
15:28 – The Real Crisis: $40 Trillion in Federal Debt and Your Mortgage Rate
18:07 – Clinton's "Balanced Budget" and the Accounting Fiction
18:55 – Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security: Half the Budget Nobody Will Touch
22:26 – What a Federal Debt Crisis Would Actually Look Like
26:41 – California's IOU Playbook When the Market Corrects
29:22 – Reasons for Optimism in California

Connect with Joshua Rauh

• X: https://x.com/joshrauh
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-rauh-01a02017/
• Stanford Website: https://web.stanford.edu/~rauh/about.html
• Personal Website: https://www.joshuarauh.com/

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Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
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Guest:

Elizabeth Barcohana, Attorney & CAGOP Delegate

Guest Bio:

Elizabeth Barcohana is a California Republican strategist, political commentator, and founder of Vote Gold, a 501(c)(3) voter education organization working to register 460,000 Republican voters in Los Angeles County. She serves as Chair of Jewish Community Engagement for the California Republican Party and is a prominent voice on California politics, election integrity, and Jewish community issues. Her family fled Iran just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a history that shapes her urgent perspective on antisemitism and political displacement. With over 95,000 Instagram followers, she has built one of the most engaged conservative audiences in California.

Show Summary

Elizabeth Barcohana joins host Jon Slavet for a wide-ranging conversation about rising antisemitism in American cities, the accelerating leftward shift of California's Democratic Party, and what Republicans can actually do about it in Los Angeles County. She describes, for the first time publicly, her family's contingency planning for possible displacement from Los Angeles, drawing a direct line from her parents' flight from Iran months before the Shah fell to what she sees forming in American cities today. From there the conversation covers why so many Jewish voters remain with the Democratic Party despite rising antisemitism in its progressive wing, why Barcohana believes the DSA takeover of California's Democratic establishment is already complete, what the LA City Council's non-citizen voting proposal actually contained and how far it exceeded anything California law currently permits, and why Vote Gold is targeting voter registration as the single highest-leverage play available to California Republicans right now.

Chapters

00:00 Rising Antisemitism & Contingency Plans: Discussing safety concerns and family history in Los Angeles.

01:17 Lessons from the Iranian Revolution: Comparing historical Jewish diaspora persecution to modern urban realities.04:48 Demystifying the Jewish Democratic Vote: Analyzing historical alignment and the post-Oct 7th political shift.

08:47 The Progressive Democratic Takeover: Explaining why far-left factions have already captured urban party leadership.

10:17 Auditing the LA Mayoral Primary: Assessing Spencer Pratt's campaign and the Bass-Raman runoff.

14:05 Non-Citizen Voting Push: Unpacking the LA City Council's proposal and progressive voting strategies.

19:34 The Vote Gold Initiative: Outlining the 460K LA campaign to educate and register voters.

Connect with Elizabeth Barcohana

X: https://x.com/E_Barcohana

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethfromcalifornia/

Official Website: https://www.elizabethbarcohana.com/

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest

Nick Gillespie, Editor-at-Large - Reason Magazine

Guest Bio

Nick Gillespie is an acclaimed libertarian journalist, cultural critic, and Editor-at-Large at Reason, the magazine of free minds and free markets. The former editor-in-chief of Reason.com and Reason magazine, Gillespie hosts The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie podcast and is co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America. Recognized as one of America's leading classical liberal commentators, he offers sharp, principled analysis on technology, government overreach, free speech, and the future of human agency.

Show Summary

As artificial intelligence rapidly accelerates toward recursive self-development and human-level intelligence, a high-stakes debate is unfolding over who should control its safeguards. Libertarian commentator and Reason Editor-at-Large Nick Gillespie joins host Jon Slavet on State of Gold to discuss why handing AI regulation to politicians will stifle technological progress and entrench corporate monopolies.

Gillespie exposes how entrenched tech giants utilize "regulatory capture" under the guise of public safety to write rules that protect their market share and block emerging competitors. Addressing the global AI race, Gillespie argues that attempting to out-regulate an authoritarian state like China is a losing strategy, insisting that America's true competitive edge lies in free-market dynamism and first-to-market innovation. Finally, Gillespie rejects apocalyptic AI job doom-saying, offering an optimistic vision of AI as an empowering tool - that will ultimately expand human agency, creativity, and economic opportunity.

Chapters

00:00 Recursive AI Growth: Examining AI's evolution toward breakout self-development.
00:53 Industry vs. State Safeguards: Explaining why self-policing beats political control.
01:24 The Regulatory Capture Trap: Detailing how Big Tech uses rules to crush competition.
02:12 Beating China in Tech: Leveraging free markets vs. state-directed AI.
02:46 AI & Job Doomsday Myths: Viewing AI as an empowering tool for human agency.

Connect with Nick Gillespie

• X: https://twitter.com/nickgillespie
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.gillespie.940
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gillespienick/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-gillespie-2ba38786/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheReasonInterview

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/

Guest:

Chef Andrew Gruel, California Business Owner

Guest Bio:

Andrew Gruel is an acclaimed chef, television personality, restaurateur, and elected official serving on the Huntington Beach City Council. Renowned for founding Slapfish and American Nightcap, Gruel has become a leading national advocate for small business freedom, food quality reform, and fiscal realism. His hands-on experience navigating California's heavy regulatory environment, labor mandates, and municipal challenges provides an authoritative critique of local governance, state legal overreach, and the economic policies impacting working families.

Show Summary

Los Angeles is hurtling toward a financial abyss, driven by exploding pension liabilities, mismanaged city budgets, and an unsustainable administrative apparatus. Following the primary election, the city faces a November runoff between progressive incumbents whose primary solutions remain expanding government, adding regulations, and raising taxes on a depleted tax base. Chef, restaurateur, and Huntington Beach City Councilmember Andrew Gruel joins host Jon Slavet to deliver a candid audit of the fiscal collapse facing Southern California's largest municipality.

Gruel explains how the flight of productive taxpayers and businesses has left Los Angeles unable to maintain basic municipal infrastructure, creating an administrative power vacuum. Rather than waiting on an inept municipal government, Gruel emphasizes the need for grassroots civic action and neighborhood-level self-governance. He also exposes the destructive legal mechanisms crippling California employers, placing particular focus on the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) - a unique legal framework that allows trial lawyers and state agencies to turn minor errors into ruinous class-action lawsuits.

The conversation pivots to broader economic and health reforms, evaluating the real-world fallout of Sacramento's fast-food minimum wage mandate on price inflation, job losses, and forced automation. Gruel contrasts LA's municipal decline with the independent charter city model implemented in Huntington Beach. Drawing on his work with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Gruel outlines a practical vision for dismantling top-heavy food supply chains, and restoring free-market transparency.

Chapters
00:00 LA’s Financial Abyss: Examining municipal budget paralysis and election fallout.
01:05 Pension and Overtime Traps: Auditing police overtime costs and pension liabilities.
02:23 Power Vacuum and Local Agency: Reclaiming neighborhood control amidst government failure.
04:37 Grassroots Civic Action: Funding local safety and infrastructure outside government.
05:36 The PAGA Threat: Explaining how labor law litigation destroys small businesses.
06:59 How PAGA Class Actions Work: Detailing $500k lawsuit penalties over minor errors.
09:12 Huntington Beach Charter Model: Utilizing local control to counter Sacramento mandates.
10:56 Fast-Food Mandate Fallout: Analyzing job losses and price inflation from wage hikes.
13:11 MAHA and Food Supply Reform: Dismantling corporate food monopolies and supply chains.
16:07 Rapid Fire & Culinary Secrets: Sharing the secret to a perfect roast chicken.
17:31 Demand vs. Unit Economics: Finding hope in California’s unmatched natural assets.

Connect with Chef Andrew Gruel

• X:https://x.com/ChefGruel
• Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/andrewgruel/
• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgruel/
• Website:http://www.chefgruel.com

Enjoyed the episode? Subscribe to our podcast, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join the conversation on Instagram and LinkedIn with the hashtag #stateofgoldpodcast

Connect with State of Gold

• X: https://x.com/realjonslavet
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stateofgold/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stateofgoldpodcast/?hl=en
• Website: https://stateofgold.com/