Home Podcasts California Underground: Your Sane Insight into California Politics
California Underground: Your Sane Insight into California Politics

California Underground: Your Sane Insight into California Politics

California Underground 363 Episodes Sep 16, 2026

California Underground is a podcast that provides clear, rational commentary on California politics. Each week, it features engaging interviews and roundtable discussions with political candidates and passionate Californians, tackling pressing issues facing the state. The podcast aims to help listeners stay informed about the complexities of California governance.

Episodes

Voter ID and Recall Reform, Explained
Voter ID and Recall Reform, Explained Sep 16, 2026 01:00:21 Voter ID has passed in 36 states. California could be next — and the measure on this ballot is trailing in the polls even though the same policy wins by a landslide almost everywhere else in the country. Orange County GOP Chairman Will O'Neill joins Phil and Camille to make the case for Prop 39 (voter ID and citizenship verification) and Prop 5, a recall reform written by the one state legisla
LA County Cut Fire Relief in Half
LA County Cut Fire Relief in Half Sep 9, 2026 01:19:20 LA County set aside $10 million specifically for fire victims. A revised board motion, passed months later with little public notice, cut that fund in half — the same year the county filed a lawsuit publicly branding itself as fire survivors' defender.This episode also covers the one Napa winery that's been paid back after a 2025 fire that destroyed dozens of others' harvests — co-foun
Props 3 and 43: The Pension Math and the Author Voting No
Props 3 and 43: The Pension Math and the Author Voting No Sep 3, 2026 01:06:41 In 2012, California voters approved Proposition 30 — officially titled "Temporary Taxes to Fund Education." The new tax brackets were written to expire in 2018. Voters extended them in 2016. This November, Proposition 3 asks whether to remove the expiration entirely.Phil and Camille go through what those fourteen years actually produced. Funding did rise: per-student spending increased 1
Your Tax Dollars Fund Radical Nonprofits
Your Tax Dollars Fund Radical Nonprofits Aug 26, 2026 01:14:09 A California Assemblyman named his own nonprofit "Nonprofit of the Year" — three weeks before it received a $6 million line item in the state budget he helped pass. In this episode, we pull that exact page of the budget and show what else is on it: a group tied to last year's Los Angeles riots that helped write the law shielding organizations like itself from public scrutiny, and a g
LA Taxpayers Are Funding Karen Bass's Campaign
LA Taxpayers Are Funding Karen Bass's Campaign Aug 21, 2026 01:04:38 Los Angeles pays a qualifying mayoral candidate six dollars in public money for every one dollar an individual donates — and in the current mayor's race, challenger Nithya Raman has drawn more of that taxpayer match than Karen Bass. Phil and Camille break down how the public matching-funds program actually works, why the "isn't it a First Amendment violation to fund a candidate I oppo
Billionaire Tax Fight: Props 40, 41, 42
Billionaire Tax Fight: Props 40, 41, 42 Aug 12, 2026 01:00:46 California's billionaire tax is on the ballot this fall — and almost nobody fighting over it is who you'd expect. The state's own nonpartisan analyst won't back the $100 billion revenue number the sponsors are citing. A 1979 law from the same tax revolt that gave California Prop 13 has been rewritten as a legal kill switch aimed squarely at this measure. And the single largest dono
Newsom's High-Speed Rail Contradiction, Explained
Newsom's High-Speed Rail Contradiction, Explained Aug 5, 2026 01:07:19 In 2024, Governor Newsom hired a new CEO to run California's high-speed rail and said the state would "begin to lay track, design and build stations, and buy trains." Two years later: the trainset procurement line in the state's own 2026 Business Plan is blank. No trains have been bought. We pull the paperwork.We also get into California's Democratic Party convention — where
Newsom's Diaper Deal Wasn't Competitively Bid |
Newsom's Diaper Deal Wasn't Competitively Bid | Jul 29, 2026 01:11:58 Gavin Newsom said his administration's diaper deal with Baby2Baby — a nonprofit tied to his wife's own foundation — was competitively bid. California's own contract database says it wasn't.This week: the receipts on the $6.2 million diaper contract, Newsom's affair resurfaces, Sheng Thao crime story continues to expand, and why the Attorney General's rewritten ballot title
Comrade Newsom? Is Newsom Really Aligning with the DSA?
Comrade Newsom? Is Newsom Really Aligning with the DSA? Jul 22, 2026 01:02:34 Gavin Newsom says he'll campaign for any Democratic nominee heading into 2028 — but his team went quiet when asked if that includes candidates from a self-described "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" caucus. This week: what Newsom actually said, what he wouldn't answer, and what it means for his national ambitions.Also on the show: Katie Porter was a frontrunner for governor a year ago. S
Newsom's FBI Wiretap Scandal Deepens
Newsom's FBI Wiretap Scandal Deepens Jul 15, 2026 01:09:30 This week, Phil is joined by guest co-host Randy Wang of KABC Radio for three stories out of Sacramento and LA that all come down to the same question: who's actually accountable when the numbers don't add up?First, the documented timeline behind the FBI's investigation into Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson — including new reporting that an informant was record
The Real Math Behind California's Proposed Billionaire's Tax
The Real Math Behind California's Proposed Billionaire's Tax Jul 8, 2026 00:58:32 California's proposed billionaire tax says it will raise $100 billion for healthcare, food assistance, and education. New research from Stanford's Hoover Institution puts the real number closer to $40 billion — and argues the measure could leave the state worse off once billionaire departures are factored in. This week, Phil talks with Hoover Institution research fellow Benjamin Robert Jar
Spencer Pratt Declares War on LA and Newsom Flip Flops on Billionaire's Tax
Spencer Pratt Declares War on LA and Newsom Flip Flops on Billionaire's Tax Jul 1, 2026 01:10:08 Spencer Pratt is calling Karen Bass "Karen Basura" over the Boyle Heights warehouse fire — and while his delivery is pure reality TV, the documented $17.6 million fire department budget cut he's pointing to is real. We dig into the permit history, the budget records, and why the firefighters' union is now bypassing City Hall to ask voters directly for funding.Then: Gavin Newsom w

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