California governor candidate Matt Mahan condemns Trump’s slush fund cronyism

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]I'm joined now by California gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan.

[00:00:02]Matt, thanks so much for joining me.

[00:00:04]Thanks for having me, Brian. So, I want to jump into the California politics in just a moment, but a little bit of national news first. Uh we have seen um Donald Trump decide to engage this week in a $1.8 billion slush fund that would basically go toward paying out these January 6th insurrectionists. So, can I have your reaction first and foremost to this latest move by somebody who who um has shown that there's not enough money for healthcare, not enough for food assistance, not enough uh resources to bring cost down, but apparently enough money to make every single convicted and pardoned January 6th insurrectionist into a millionaire.

[00:00:41]Yeah, I think it's just it's deeply wrong. It's it it This is like a a cronyism, a an authoritarian. I mean, this is a guy who thinks that he should be able to repurpose the machinery of government to serve himself and his allies. This is the the opposite of what we need from our leaders. We need leaders who are truly public servants, who are focused on making government work for people, for everyone, and for especially those who are struggling. And Donald Trump is is twisting government to serve his own ends. He's enriching himself, his family members, and is rewarding allies, and using government to punish opponents. It's deeply un-American. It is it is a direct threat to the entire founding principles and philosophy of of our republic, of our of our democratic republic. It's a it's a really scary next step in a very dangerous direction. So, what do you view California's role as being, especially in this era? I mean, California has the biggest economy in the United States, fourth biggest economy in the world. Obviously, it is a bastion of progressivism um and uh and democratic politics. And so, you know, as we see these overt attacks against democracy, what is California's role here?

[00:02:03]Yeah, I mean, you're right. We are the the bulwark against this Trump administration, and our job is to both demonstrate through our the way we govern ourselves that we respect civil liberties, democratic norms, our vulnerable neighbors, that we really express the best of American values. I think we we do that. There are a lot of tools in the toolkit. So, you know, one one approach, of course, which we've been doing have to have to continue to double down on is using the court system, making the case uh in front of judges for our interpretation of the Constitution and American principles. We obviously have to strategically use our budget to backfill cruel cuts from this administration, the bully pulpit. I've also in this race tried to make the case that the best resistance to Donald Trump is a strong California that's delivering results. When we fix our challenges and have the best policies and the best outcomes, when we have the highest-performing public schools, the safest neighborhoods, when we're building housing, making it easier for people to start businesses, when our research universities are um are uh are are driving innovation, we're really the strongest counterpoint to this MAGA movement. We're offering a different way, and I think that sadly some of our more visible public policy failures in California, particularly homelessness, overdose deaths, untreated addiction and mental illness, have given oxygen to the MAGA movement, which is why in addition to the the legal and rhetorical battles, I also want us to be focused on holding ourselves accountable, our government, state and local, for delivering results in people's lives and being that strong counter example. Okay, so let's talk about some of those issues. Uh you touched on the first one that's obviously um especially difficult to contend with. Well, you touched on two, which are homelessness and housing. And so, I want to jump into housing first.

[00:04:10]Uh what is your priority in terms of making housing more affordable and plentiful and easier to build here in California?

[00:04:18]Yeah, right. It it it is the core issue.

[00:04:21]California has is losing people, young people are losing hope because they don't see a path to homeownership.

[00:04:27]They're they're struggling just to pay the rent because it's going up faster than income. That's true for so many people, people in the kinds of neighborhoods like the one I grew up in.

[00:04:35]I I grew up in a family uh you know, working-class community. My mom was a teacher, my dad was a union letter carrier, mailman. We were paycheck to paycheck growing up. Whether or not we were going to be able to pay the mortgage was a source of stress. And I now realize in retrospect we were privileged to have a mortgage. Uh I mean, so many people are you know, one medical uh bill away from losing their apartment or or their home. So, um look, I I think fundamentally what we have to do is make it easier, faster, and and less expensive to build. It's a it is fundamentally supply and demand issue.

[00:05:12]We are blessed with a state that has seen a lot of job growth, a lot of innovation. We're very entrepreneurial.

[00:05:18]These things are not accidents. I think part of why California has the fourth largest economy and is so entrepreneurial is because we're open and welcoming. We embrace people from all over the world. We celebrate our our difference and diversity. We create room and upward mobility for people, and that's led to a lot of job growth.

[00:05:34]Sadly, our own policies have gotten in the way of building the housing we need.

[00:05:39]So, I put out a very comprehensive plan that's based on what I've done in San Jose to remove barriers and get thousands of homes under construction.

[00:05:47]We cut our permitting timelines in half.

[00:05:49]We dropped our one-time fees. Cities have a lot of fees and process and red tape. And we just we can learn from other states. We we we may be a you know, the best state in the country, but it doesn't mean we've got everything right. And you know, in Colorado, they're building the exact same home at half the cost. A lot of that is fees, permitting timelines, and and regulatory burden that that we've created through our own policies. So, we have to fix that. You know, if if that process seems obviously so intuitive, why do you presume that that current leadership in California at the state and local level hasn't done enough to to basically counteract it, to rectify these issues that everybody seems to be able to diagnose right now?

[00:06:34]Well, we're moving in that direction, and I I think Governor Newsom has done and and the legislature has done some important work around making it easier to build from a zoning perspective. We have, you know, there was this movement that uh the shorthand was legalize housing. You we shouldn't have restrictive zoning and height limits.

[00:06:51]And so, that movement uh what you might call the YIMBY movement has scored really impressive and important wins in recent years. But we still have this cost issue. And the cost issue is harder because it is counterintuitive for Californians, for many of us in the sense that it it creates tension with our deeply held environmental inclinations, labor rules, and and and you know, there there are tradeoffs. We have impact fees that sound great on paper and have real constituencies behind them. I talked about fees. So, let me just break this down. Cities across the state had one-time development fees that often add 10 to 20% to the cost of housing.

[00:07:34]That it is much lower in Colorado or Texas or other places. But those fees represent things people really care about. The the inclusionary requirement to afford basically affordable housing fees, park fees, traffic impact fees, other environmental mitigation. And so, you have a constituency around each of these fees, and historically, that was the solution. It was actually business and you had unbridled capitalism, and it was, "Well, we need more fees. We need more pathways to sue if developers do bad things." But, we've swung the pendulum to a point where even though it all sounds good and it all started from a well-intended place, we've made it so expensive to build that it's hard to finance a project these days. So, we just have to right-size it.

[00:08:18]All right. So, um on on the other issue that I brought up, which is homelessness, what sets you apart from the other candidates who are running? Obviously, you know, you can't have a gubernatorial race in California without discussing the issue of homelessness. That's one of the issues that that you alluded to were being seized upon by the right. Um and you know, every year, every election, we have state and local officials come out and say that they're going to do X Y Z to solve homelessness. Uh why are you in a position where you're able to do it?

[00:08:49]Yeah, because I'm the only candidate who has who has done it. And as a mayor of a big city, uh I'm proud of my track record. I challenged us to treat homelessness and and particularly unsheltered homelessness, people living outside in tents and cars with no services, no infrastructure, no hope in so many cases, to really treat it like a crisis. Politicians love to run for office calling homelessness a crisis, and then they get into office and they don't act like it's a crisis. If if you have a fire or an earthquake, you scramble to set up safe safe places for people to go. You bring in aid. You immediately start helping people rebuild and and triage what people need. We we've come to so many of our political leaders have come to see street home unsheltered homelessness as as an inevitability. And I said, "No, that's wrong. We can't leave human beings outside to live and die, literally die on our streets." We've had We have thousands of people a year who die on our streets. It's totally unacceptable morally, also socially. And the impact on the broader community is huge. We have kids who are scared to walk to school because they don't want to walk through an encampment, and I I don't blame them.

[00:10:00]So, what we've done in San Jose is really challenge the the status quo on this.

[00:10:06]We shifted our our budgets to much more pragmatic solutions. We're investing in prevention, keeping people housed, and reducing the inflow so we have a more stable population so we can really help the folks who are out there and not just have this continuous flow of folks in.

[00:10:21]So, that's short-term rental assistance and case management and and various strategies around prevention. And then for those who are currently in in unsheltered tent encampments, we have built interim housing. 2,200 units of converted motels, tiny homes, and modular units, and really built fast, cost-effective alternatives to the streets. And then number three, and this is the part where you know, my own party, Democrats, sometimes are hesitant, but I've seen the results. We have held people accountable for coming indoors when private interim housing that meets people where they are, that's low barrier, does not have a strict sobriety requirement, allowed you to bring your pets, your partner, your possessions, really designed with the input of people who have the experience of being homeless. When it's available, we let people know in our city camping can't just be a choice. We got to get you indoors into a safe place. And that balance of compassion and real alternatives combined with some accountability has led us to lead California in reducing homelessness.

[00:11:26]We're down 1/3 We have 1/3 fewer human beings living outside in tent encampments than when I started as mayor. And I think we've really started to build a model for how we how we solve this crisis in California. So, if you were to put a number on on what a reduction in homelessness or homeless encampments would look like that you would consider a success by the end of your first term as governor of California, what would you put that number at?

[00:11:55]Yeah, it's a it's a great question. I would say something on the order of 1/3 as we've done in San Jose. I'm I'm in my fourth year in San Jose and what we did in the third largest city in the state is what I was just describing and built we scaled up cost-effective alternatives. We invested in prevention.

[00:12:12]We saw the number of people living outside come down by about a third. So, it would be on that order. I mean, I will say I am always skeptical of politicians who come in with these big headline numbers. We're going to build 3 million homes and then we you know, we build 500,000 or something. So, I just I you know, but yes, we we've been heading in the wrong direction. We've been spending tens of billions of dollars and we've seen the number of people outside either grow for many years or now kind of level off. Totally unacceptable. We need to scale up a lot of shelter. We need to build more housing. We need to invest in prevention. And when alternatives to the streets are available including treatment centers, we need to require people come indoors.

[00:12:51]Finally, um a topic that that's near and dear to my heart as I live in Los Angeles, moved here for the entertainment industry and have watched the industry get decimated over the course of the last decade or so. We're at the point where we have the fewest number of people who work in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles or in California more broadly that we've had, you know, I think since they've been tracking this. And like anecdotally, I've seen my own friends in my own circles of people leave this state and in some cases leave the country to follow the jobs whether it you know, whether it be in the UK or or Canada. And of course, there's a bustling film industry and plenty of other countries around the world, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, um and uh and so in terms of kind of resuscitating this industry, uh what would be your plan for Hollywood?

[00:13:45]Yeah, thanks, Brian. And you know, all three of the issues you've you've raised here, uh housing costs, homelessness, Hollywood, our three H's, are are all real crises for the state and they need to be treated as such. I'm I'm running because I've seen a complacency in our government around these issues and and a few others I would say are our third-grade reading levels would be another that for me would rise to that level where a majority of our kids are not on grade level for reading, just to give you another example. But on Hollywood specifically, you're right. In a an iconic industry, a core part of California's identity, a source of well over 100,000 middle-class jobs, a a driver of so much other economic activity, the heart of of what of our most important largest city, it is at risk here. And we have been way too slow to react. I put out the first plan for bringing production back to California of any of the candidates in this race. I took a lot of time early on when I first got in the race to talk to everyone, a really diverse set of people in the industry. Um you know, the the unionized workforce, Sa- SAG-AFTRA and and IATSE and and the Teamsters and other and their members.

[00:15:06]Uh you know, talent, uh producers and directors, financiers, and really get a well-rounded view of it. The the first and most important thing we have to do is put a stake in the ground, recognize that production's not coming back if we aren't bold, and create a tax credit that makes the cost of production feasible in California. And my proposal is dead simple. It was the first plan, it's the simplest plan. I think it's the best of any of the candidates in this race. It is matching what you're seeing in other very competitive states and countries. It's a 40% tax credit. It's above and below the line, so you're capturing the full production cost, and it's uncapped. So, we just say, "This is the new rate." And you don't have to go through a bunch of rigmarole of of all this paperwork, and then waiting, and hoping, and am I going to get it, and is it tapped out or not? And And that uncertainty kills investment, as you know. So, I think we keep it dead simple, very aggressive. Now, we know there are other things. We've got to solve the housing crisis so that people can afford to live here who work in the industry, right? We've got to improve permitting so that the friction around actually shooting in California is more straightforward. I mean, there are other things that have to be AI is a threat to the industry. We've got to strike that balance between two of our leading industries, our creative industry, Hollywood, and tech, and say, "Look, your image, your likeness, your voice is part of your it's it's your IP. It's It's It's something It's you, and you need to be compensated when it's being used by a third party." And so, I I think there's a lot to work on here, but I would start with just making it possible to finance production in the state again, cuz I think that's really at the heart of where we started to get our lunch eaten by a lot of other places. Yeah. And I'm And I'm glad you said uncapped tax credit, because oftentimes it comes down to that. Is Is the tax credit better here or in Atlanta, or in New Orleans, or in New Jersey, or in New York? I mean, all of these different states, and of course, different countries saw what we were able to build in California, and how lucrative and and sexy this industry is, and you know, did what they needed to do to take it away.

[00:17:15]And a lot of times, you know, these producers are just looking for where is it going to be the most financially viable, financially advantageous for me to do this project? And if there's better tax credits in Atlanta, they'll go to Atlanta, like Marvel did. And then Marvel saw that there were better tax credits in the UK, and so they left Atlanta and went to the UK. And so often times it's just that's the bottom line, is who's going to have the best tax credit. We know that as far as tax credits are concerned are concerned for the entertainment industry, it's a net positive ROI, and so the more money that you that you put toward these tax credits, the more you make uh on on the other side of this thing. So, I'm I'm I'm glad to hear um your position be that that you want to see an uncapped tax credit.

[00:17:55]I I think it it's critical, and and it's a huge risk to not do it. We are already paying the price, and it and again, it's not about it it's about the workforce.

[00:18:06]This is about people having careers and opportunity, and and it's about our our identity as a state. I I Yeah, I take it very seriously, so I appreciate you asking, and and it's solvable, and as governor, I'm going to make it a a priority. And finally, last question here, um I've been especially focused on redistricting on the national level, and I was uh very supportive of Prop 50 and uh and and using uh the tools that we have at our disposal to fight fire with fire and neutralize this this power grab by Trump that he was taking that he was taking part in in Texas.

[00:18:41]But since then, since we've neutralized those five seats in Texas, we've seen Republicans redraw their maps in Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, uh Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and this redistricting war is just going to continue. Um even in the event that other blue states are able to jump in into this process, um which you know, look at you know, at its core, I do think is a scourge, and I do want to see national legislation banning partisan gerrymandering nationwide, but I but what I want to see first and more importantly is no unilateral disarmament on on the left. And so, even if we're able to wield some weapons that we have, you know, for an extra seat in Maryland, um in New Jersey, a few more seats in New York, um a few options for seats in in Illinois and Colorado, we still have no bigger weapon than California. And so, in the event that this continues to go um in this direction, would you be a proponent of a map that's that's basically a a a 52 to nothing map in the event that, you know, we have these Republican states who view this process as them being entitled to engineer themselves a permanent majority in the house? And if California is one of the only weapons that we have to counteract that, um until we have some nationwide legislation banning partisan gerrymandering nationwide, would you be in favor of a more aggressive approach to neutralize what we're seeing happen at the hands of the GOP?

[00:20:11]Well, Brian, I look, I supported Prop 50 and I I hear your argument and I I I fully agree with I think you made the key point, which is you can't unilaterally disarm. And so, I get where you're coming from with this.

[00:20:26]What I said though when I endorsed Prop 50 was I fear this is a race to the bottom that has no end and that in the long run it's not clear to me that our party's going to win this. And so, am I am I open to continuing to fighting to fight fire with fire? Yes, and I I need to look at your your proposed maps, but but look, I I think that that at some point this this doesn't serve anyone. And my my fight more than anything is number one, I guess I'd say two things on it.

[00:20:57]Number one, we have to make a stronger case nationally to ban partisan gerrymandering in all 50 states. And I'm I I know you're acknowledging that. I know we're not disagreeing on that. I just I I think we sort of say it in passing and then move back to the our entrenched you know partisan battles and I want to I want to find a way and it it's a priority for me to build a more diverse coalition and really change public opinion on this nationally because I think it really undermines the long-term health of our democracy and I'm worried about it. And so I mean frankly I kind of held my nose and and endorsing prop or supporting prop 50 because it just it felt like we're in this race to the bottom. It's really dangerous. Now I get it. The the the other side the other team isn't playing fair and and so I wouldn't expect, you know, we shouldn't unilaterally disarm.

[00:21:45]But here's the other thing I'd say.

[00:21:47]That those games are only going to get Republicans so far. At the end of the day voters are pretty smart in in aggregate over time. And we don't always get it right in every election, but in the long run I believe that that the the arc of history does bend toward justice.

[00:22:01]And I think my number one job as governor is to make this state shine, to make it work, to get to improve our public schools, to build housing, to bring Hollywood back, to get every child on on grade level and and every homeless individual indoors and and really make a national case that Democratic policies are more fair, they're more life-affirming, they are they're more productive, they create greater opportunity, and that our values are right because they work in practice. And that's that is my primary focus because we could we could sort of fight the political games forever and and end up losing our democracy. So I'm I guess I'm a little you know I'm a little torn on it to be honest, but I'm happy to continue the conversation with you and let's see how things are playing out. Matt, for folks who are looking to help your campaign, where can they go?

[00:22:55]Thanks. Well, first of all, Brian, I appreciate the opportunity. It's been great to chat with you. You asked some great questions on really important topics. My uh my website's probably the best starting place, Mahan, m a h a n for california.com, pretty easy to to find online. And then I'm all over social media. You can find me on any platform where we're constantly talking with folks about the issues and how we're going to get California on a better track and really make sure it is that beacon of inclusivity and and hope and upward mobility and really a strong counterpoint to this to this MAGA movement. So um so Brian, thank you for the opportunity. Of course. Well, I'm going to put that link to your website right here on the screen and also in the post description. For those who are watch uh listening on the podcast, I'll put it in the show notes.

[00:23:39]Uh thank you so much for taking the time. Best luck in the campaign trail.

[00:23:42]Thanks, likewise. Appreciate it.

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