Steve Hilton & Spencer Pratt: Fixing California, Cheaper Gas, Ballot Fraud & CA Republicans
In a Nutshell
Steve Hilton, a Republican running for California governor, argues the state's one-party Democratic rule has created the highest poverty, unemployment, housing costs, and worst business climate in America through regulatory bloat and corruption. He proposes cutting regulations by half, making the first $150,000 tax-free, eliminating hidden gas taxes, and reducing government headcount to reverse the exodus of businesses and residents. Spencer Pratt details how California's election system enables legal ballot harvesting, mail-in ballot fraud, and taxpayer-funded drug distribution that perpetuates homelessness and crime.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Steve Hilton is a candidate for governor of California who is notable as a Republican and a British immigrant who moved to the state in 2012. California represents the essence of America through innovation, energy, ambition, and rebel spirit that has created transformative industries including entertainment, technology, and agriculture.
Despite California's natural advantages including natural beauty, weather, innovation ecosystem, and great universities, the state faces severe problems after 16 years of one-party Democratic control. California has the highest poverty rate, highest unemployment rate, and highest cost of living in the country. Housing costs are the highest nationally with median house prices near one million dollars against a median individual salary of $65,000. Chief Executive Magazine has ranked California 50th out of 50 states for business climate for over a decade.
One-party rule has created an insular, self-regarding elite focused on ideology and special interests including unions and trial lawyers. Sacramento has one of the most corrupt systems in terms of donor influence on politicians. The state has the worst litigation risk in the country with a 90% chance that businesses starting in California will end up in litigation.
Democrats control all eight statewide elected positions, the state legislature with a two-thirds majority, every big county and city, and the state supreme court with a 6-1 Democrat-appointed majority. In 2023, the Sacramento legislature passed 1,118 bills, creating regulatory bloat with over 420,000 regulations currently in place.
Hilton proposes reducing regulations from over 420,000 to under 200,000 by the end of his first term. He plans to cut state income tax to make the first $150,000 tax-free. Additional proposals include canceling high-speed rail, implementing a 10% headcount reduction in government, 5% efficiency measures, and stopping funding of nonprofits that worsen homelessness. These changes would generate enough savings for tax cuts.
Hilton advocates for sensible energy policy using California energy resources instead of shipping oil globally, which actually increases emissions. He targets reducing gas prices from $6 to $3 by eliminating hidden taxes including the low carbon fuel standard and cap and invest program, which adds approximately $1.50 to gas prices. The cap and invest program funds high-speed rail. He also proposes capping vehicle registration at a flat $73 per year by abolishing the DMV.
Initial polling showed a 30-point gap between Hilton and his Democratic opponent. Subsequent polls showed the gap narrowing to 25 points, then 18 points, then 14 points, with the latest poll showing an 8-point gap. Hilton's internal polling at campaign start showed 33% solidly supporting him, 41% solidly supporting his opponent, and 26% up for grabs. The 26% persuadable voters are primarily non-college educated working people focused on practical cost-of-living issues.
Hilton reports intense voter sentiment with people telling him "You have to win" rather than offering conventional well-wishes. Multiple lifelong Democrats at a 9/11 memorial event told him they would vote for him. Business leaders consistently state that if Hilton doesn't win in November, they will leave California, potentially turning the current exodus into a "stampede for the exits."
Hilton's opponent Javier Bera is described as a 36-year career politician. Susan Rice, President Biden's head of domestic policy and former national security adviser, reportedly called Bera an "idiot" and an "ass." Another Biden cabinet member stated that running a large executive agency is "not exactly his skill set." Hilton argues Bera would continue the same policies that have harmed California's business climate and increased costs.
California's fourth-largest economy status is largely driven by Silicon Valley's wealth generation rather than broad job creation. Peter Thiel observed that Silicon Valley acts as a "resource curse" for California by generating tax revenue that reduces pressure for good government. Net private sector job creation since the pandemic is essentially zero. The GDP figure includes government size, which has doubled in the last 10 years.
Spencer Pratt ran for mayor of Los Angeles as an independent candidate, using AI-generated videos to communicate messages about truth-telling. He won significant support from Democrats despite being positioned as a Republican candidate. Pratt attributes his success to grassroots movement and message rather than technology, noting that people want truth-telling over political positioning.
Pratt describes California's political system as a "corrupt criminal mafia cartel" that launders tax money in ways that increase deaths on streets while claiming compassion. He argues Republicans can beat the system by showing up to vote, citing President Trump's concept of being "too big to rig."
Pratt describes his Los Angeles mayoral race where he was initially winning by 10% against Democratic opponent Nithya Raman when celebrating at Don Antonio's. Subsequently, the third-place candidate began gaining votes daily in what Pratt describes as mathematically impossible circumstances. He notes this occurred despite the third-place candidate being a Democrat running against the incumbent Democratic mayor.
In California, mail-in ballot witnesses can sign with a smiley face or an X, and one witness can verify up to 43,000 ballots. The system is designed so that what people consider cheating is actually legal under current rules.
Four nonprofits show up daily at MacArthur Park in LA to hand out crack pipes, needles, and drugs including fentanyl. Taxpayers fund these nonprofits through government contracts, effectively paying for the distribution of drug-related materials. One nonprofit worker was caught selling drugs while being paid to distribute needles.
A Latino couple running a shoe store for 14 years in South Central LA is going out of business due to street vendors who don't pay taxes, rent, or comply with licensing requirements. In 2018, Sacramento passed a bill legalizing street vending statewide, preventing cities and counties from regulating it. This includes food vendors pouring grease into drains, creating rodent problems.
The state operates under a system where doing the right thing gets punished and doing the wrong thing gets rewarded. There are approximately 50,000 food vendors who received $500,000 for carts while the city couldn't afford $200,000 to repair a reservoir cover that led to a town burning down.
Karen Bass burns down one town every four years, while her potential replacement Nitia Ramen presents an even worse option. Bass was out of town during both the Pacific Palisades fire and the Boyle Heights warehouse fire that burned for a week with 85 million pounds of rotting meat.
Republicans cannot win in California using traditional approaches. The winning message focuses on common sense issues: stopping tax money from being stolen, allowing kids to return to parks, and avoiding communist policies. These are non-partisan concerns rather than Republican versus Democrat issues.
California has the talent, energy, and opportunity to build amazing businesses and companies again. The state needs to eliminate insane regulations, lawsuits, fees, and taxes to return to its previous economic success.
Ballot harvesting is legal in California. DSA operatives go door-to-door, return multiple times (harassment tactics), and collect ballots from apartment buildings. They can sign with smiley faces as witnesses. Republicans who attempt the same tactics find it doesn't work unless they operate nefariously.
Once mail-in ballots arrive at counting locations, they are separated from their envelopes, breaking the chain of custody. This prevents connecting ballots to specific signatures or addresses, making it impossible to audit or trace origins.
It's illegal to electioneer at polling places like basketball courts, but DSA operatives can go door-to-door with ballots, offering free money, cell phones, and Netflix subscriptions in exchange for votes. Voter ID is required to fly on planes and shop at stores but not to vote.
Hundreds of ballots are mailed to an empty parking lot in downtown LA where people have registered addresses. There could be up to a million ballots circulating that DSA operatives could harvest and fill out.
The reservoir that was empty during the fire remains empty. A hose now supplies the Palisades through regrown dead brush. Insurance companies dropped coverage due to 60 years of dead fuels surrounding communities. Cutting fire breaks would have cost under $500,000 to prevent billions in damage.
It's illegal to cut dead brush on state park land due to protected milk vetch plants. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was fined $1 million for cutting dead brush around a downed pole. Federal fire services are being hindered by plant protection priorities over human safety.
A mass tort lawsuit with 10,000 victims alleges negligence by state parks, LADWP, and the city. Firefighters reported smoldering coals on hillsides before the January 7 fire, and state park employees took photos of smoking hillsides but didn't act, claiming they weren't firefighters.
Initial videos and content were created to help the community and set the record straight about government incompetence.
When Spencer Pratt saw that Mayor Bass was going to automatically become mayor again, he called Rick Russo to ask if he was going to run. After Russo said no, Pratt decided to run with the intention of trying to stop her from becoming mayor, even if it meant him becoming mayor. Pratt addressed criticism about his lack of experience by stating that LA needs a mayor who enforces the law, and that neither Mayor Bass nor Niti Ramen have any intention of enforcing laws because it doesn't look good.
Pratt explained that it doesn't look good to tell illegal food vendors they can't ruin small businesses that have been paying taxes for 40 years, as this is framed as messing with at-risk communities. He emphasized that these are simple things he would have been able to do as mayor, but it's unfortunate that it will take four years of what he calls "pure destruction" before people might call him to run again.
Steve Hilton asked Spencer Pratt what he's currently doing with his time. Pratt mentioned three opportunities in play and explained that content creation became important to him after getting out of politics. He realized there are so many lies that he witnessed firsthand in his city that he needs to be out making content with the truth. Pratt stated that the truth doesn't have a side and that people across the country are trying to destroy it. He mentioned that living this all day long has him feeling like he needs to fight for America, comparing himself to Jason Bourne.
Pratt is now flying to New York to meet with people, trying to help them because he doesn't want New York to go down even worse than LA.
When asked about the other two opportunities, Pratt mentioned he was going to be the big guy in AI as mayor because he was going to turn Skid Row into data centers. Steve Hilton mentioned having a call about data centers and explained that for a city like LA whose infrastructure is collapsing, they could take private business and billions of dollars to put data centers where naked drug addict zombies are, with the condition that companies redo water pipes and infrastructure.
Pratt suggested they could retrain fentanyl addicts to be electricians, mentioning that Meta has a program for that. Hilton noted that Pratt solved two problems at once with this approach.
Steve Hilton suggested that Pratt should consider doing reality TV because he's incredibly quick-witted and entertaining on camera. Pratt explained why he doesn't like reality TV, stating that the only thing worse than people in politics is that there's too much image crafting, which makes bad reality shows. He noted that everyone is now image crafting trying to create a persona, concerned about what will be in the comment section or what people will say on blogs.
Pratt mentioned that the last reality show he was on was the reboot of The Hills, and that everybody was faking their actual identity. He observed that watching any politician now is like watching a bad TikTok influencer, comparing Abdul to thinking he's Alex Earl.
Hilton expressed that it was a mistake not having Pratt as mayor, stating that not only would great things have gotten done, but this would have been the most entertaining mayorship in history. He suggested Pratt should run again. Pratt noted that he's actually way more of a threat to these people now because he has two years to really get into these communities. Hilton suggested that Pratt torture Karen Bass for the next two years.
Pratt stated that Karen Bass is not their worst nightmare and that he will never say anything positive about Nitia Ramen and the DSA people. He mentioned that his Democrat friends don't understand what the DSA is, and he keeps telling them to go on their website because it's not a conspiracy. Pratt listed that they want to abolish the police and that the list goes on, and this is what they stand by. He noted that he used to call them commies and people would say you can't call them that, but now he's like that sounds nice because it's a compliment to them, and they're anarchists.
Hilton concluded the segment by introducing Spencer Pratt to the audience.
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