Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed California refugee Craig Huey in-studio to weigh in on the Gavin Newsom recall effort and his potential challengers’ fundraising numbers.
(Gavin Newsom clip plays)
Leahy: A day of reckoning is on the horizon for that guy. That is the left-wing, kind of very silver-spoon-into-mouth lefty governor of California.
Mr. – I’m going to go to that expensive restaurant and you can’t – Gavin Newsom. People are pretty much fed up with that guy. There is a recall election – it’s going to happen on September 15th?
Huey: September 14th.
Leahy: You are plugged into California. You grew up there, spent most of your life there until they forced you out by restricting your freedoms.
Huey: That’s correct.
Leahy: And you searched for the land of freedom, and you found Tennessee, where we still have a shot at it. You’re loving it here.
Huey: I love it here. I’m so glad we moved here. We’re out in Williamson County and our neighbors, probably 60 percent of them, are from California. And they’re all refugees because of ideology in business.
Leahy: Political refugees who have sought asylum from California into Tennessee. We’re delighted to have you here, by the way. But, you know, a lot of people in California. What’s the deal on this?
Huey: It’s a historic recall. Fifty-seven times they’ve tried to recall governors in the past. Once they were successful. This time, Newsom is in big trouble. He could be recalled. Nobody thought it could happen. He didn’t think it could happen.
He’s coming unglued. Unhinged. He recently did an interview with a friendly paper called The Sacramento Bee and he was unhinged! He was just obnoxious and his arrogance is unbelievable.
And that’s why people don’t like this elitism of Newsom. They don’t like the lockdown, the closing of the churches. Thirty percent to 40 percent of all small businesses are out of business forever because of his lockdown.
Closing down schools and allowing trees to grow uncontrollably where we have these wildfires and not doing anything about the water shortages and electrical problems. You could go on with the homeless and the crime spike.
People have had enough. Independents are disgusted. Republicans are fired up and Democrats, they’re not supporting him. They’re indifferent. So he has an uphill battle to be able to survive and he knows it.
Polls are showing that 51 percent, 52 percent of the people are going to vote to recall the governor and that’s despite so many advantages he has as the incumbent and having more money than anybody else.
Leahy: Yeah, he is totally unhinged. He went in and he used a bad word.
Huey: Totally. Maybe 50 times.
Leahy: And he’s so arrogant. He said everybody outside this state is bs-ing.
Huey: That’s right.
Leahy: Except he didn’t say bs-ing about this state. He’s a jerk.
Huey: Total jerk.
Leahy: Total jerk.
Huey: Total jerk. As I said, he’s unhinged right now. He’s unpredictable. He’s basically moving towards a new lockdown in California. He’s mandating all the teachers have vaccinations and all the kids have to wear masks.
It’s an absolute mess. Here’s what’s happening, Michael. The fundraising is going on right now. We have one candidate who’s a Republican running. He’s got $8 million. His name is John Cox. He ran before.
Leahy: Worst branding.
Huey: Terrible.
Leahy: He’s got the bear thing.
Huey: He’s wasting his own money. And then we’ve got an assemblyman. He’s got $2 million. Caitlyn Jenner, who everybody thought would be the number one candidate, she’s raised $1 million. None of her own money. Only $1 million. And then we have Larry Elder. Larry Elder has raised close to $8 million.
Leahy: Wow!
Huey: And more importantly, in the latest poll that came out, he was about 18 percent of the vote compared to the closest other two candidates, who were at 10 percent – and Caitlyn Jenner at four.
Leahy: What about this Democrat YouTube kid? What’s that kid’s name?
Huey: Meet Kevin.
Leahy: He’s a YouTube kid.
Huey: And anybody who’s a millennial knows him. So one survey showed that he was ahead of Larry Elder in the poll, but these are not likely voters.
Leahy: He’s like 29 years old and does, like, real estate YouTubes. Terrible policies.
Huey: Something that. He’s not a good candidate. He’s not a viable candidate.
Leahy: Well, he’s up in one of those polls.
Huey: He’s up in one of the polls, but he’s only raised about $200,000. And so Newsom has raised so far – guess how much, Michael?
Leahy: $30 million.
Huey: $58 million.
Leahy: (Chuckles) Where did it come from?
Huey: That doesn’t count the PACs. Much of it is outside of California, but it’s mainly high-tech like Netflix. They gave him $3 million. SEIU gave him $4 million. CTA – the California Teachers Association – $2 million. These are high-tech companies.
And under California law, you can write a check as big as you want to the recall, but you can’t write a check as big as you want to the individual candidates running against Newsom.
Leahy: Well, well, well. That sounds unfair.
Huey: Corrupt. Totally unfair. So he’s got all this money advantage. But here’s what Trump showed us back against Hillary. You don’t have to have more money to win. And all the money in the world cannot buy you love. The question is mobilizing. The question is organizing.
Leahy: And that’s your specialty. We’ll talk about that with data marketing wizard Craig Huey, California refugee, our good friend, after this.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Gavin Newsom” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
