Q&A: Brian Dahle, candidate for California governor
In his 26 years as an elected official, Brian Dahle has never lost a race.
The Republican state senator believes his run for governor, which pits him against Democrat and incumbent Gavin Newsom, won't be any different.
Dahle spoke with KCRA 3 as Election Day is roughly a week away.
Q: We saw what happened in the recall, why on Earth did you decide to jump into this race?
Dahle: My family has been here for 92 years, I’ve been in the Legislature for 10 years, and I love California, and I want my children and your children and everybody’s family in California to be able to stay here: number one. Number two, to be able to make the California dream a reality. We are seeing Californians leaving who’ve been here a long time.
It’s a great state, we just have to have policymakers at the top making the right decisions. Every decision coming out of Sacramento is impacting Californians. Our education system is broken; we have homelessness; we have crime running rampant; we have inflation and we are spending more money than there’s ever been spent in Sacramento with no results.
I just ask Californians the same thing they ask their own selves: Do you want to stick with what you have or do you want something different?
| Not caught up on what's on the ballot this year? Check out our voter guide here
Q: As a farmer from the North State, what do you say to people who wonder about your stance on climate? You’ve said before you’re not a climate denier, what does that mean?
Dahle: I’m a farmer. I want to make sure we take care of the land and that’s goal number one. You can’t abuse your land and then expect it to produce. Same thing in California — I want to take care of the environment, we have our forests burning down.
The difference between my policies and Gavin Newsom’s policies is that I don’t want to off-shore our environment to places like Ecuador, bringing in 24 percent of our oil and destroying the rainforest, so if you’re talking about global warming, it’s global.
We’re the fifth largest economy in the world, so I want to produce those jobs and the things we need for California to be more environmentally friendly than anywhere in the world and that’s the difference between me and Gavin Newsom.
He wants to export all of our jobs, export our people and say we’re saving the climate when all we’re doing is shipping to places like China where they’re building a coal-fired power plant every three weeks, so that’s the difference.
I want to actually produce oil in California until we can transition into other, cleaner options, but do it in a way that doesn’t make Californians’ cost of living and impact them in such a way they can’t stay in California and that’s what we’ve seen. We pay $2.50 a gallon higher than they do in Nevada.
Gavin Newsom wants to say it’s the oil companies, but why aren’t they gouging them in Nevada? It’s because our policies here require such special blends.
Q: I know on water and storage at least, you both differ and but on water conservation, the governor has said there’s no one size fits all measure that should be used to help with drought. Do you agree?
Dahle: California is a very large state and there are areas where we need to do major conservation and we also need to produce more water. One size fits all legislation doesn’t work throughout California.
There are areas where we can store water — sites, reservoirs — that have been on the books for 30-plus years. We need to build that reservoir and capture water when we can and that will help balance out the ecosystem and water for Californians and for farms and help all across the board.
When you let that water go to the ocean, you need to capture it. At the same time, we have places like Porterville California. They have over drafted and we need to do some serious regulations there, in that area, but outside of that area, we have opportunities to produce more water.
At the end of the day, it’s supply and demand in almost all issues including water, and in California, we’re prone to droughts and floods. We just need to manage our water in a different way.
Q: It has been made clear you and Gavin Newsom disagree on abortion. Do you think that your campaign would have been easier had the Supreme Court of the United State not overturned Roe v. Wade? Had Proposition 1 not been thrown on the ballot and not have to face these questions time after time again on the campaign trail?
Dahle: I’m someone who thinks it’s actually unfortunate that we are expanding abortion rights in California when we already have laws in place that up to six months you can have an abortion.
Do I mind talking about it? No, because at the end of the day, I want to save lives. I don’t want to have people not in the position where they have to make that decision. That’s been my goal all along.
Whatever the debate is at the end of the day, I don’t change my position, I’m still somebody who does not like extremes and what we have in California is an extreme policy.
Prop 1 would allow you to abort a baby up to a minute before birth and I think that’s extreme, and unfortunately, we don’t have the opportunity to have those conversations in the Legislature because it’s all or nothing, so when I become governor, we’ll have those opportunities to talk about where should we land, and I will always move in the direction where we can save lives.
Q: To be clear, the authors of Proposition 1 do not intend to change the state's fetal viability laws, but do you have concerns about the language that you and other opponents have said is vague?
Dahle: Twenty-seven words. That’s pretty narrow with a lot of definition in there and so, even during the debate, Gavin Newsom said it would be adjudicated so that means it will be up to the courts to figure out what those 27 words say and I will pretty much agree it’s going to be open-ended.
By the way, Gavin Newsom has also talked about making this a sanctuary state where we are going to pay for abortions across our country and Californians are already suffering with putting food on the table and the budget is decreasing as we speak with the stock market going down. Can California really afford to be a sanctuary state where we bring everybody in America here and take care of the health issues that they’re talking about?
Q: Experts say Proposition 1 will boost Democratic turnout. That doesn’t concern you at all?
Dahle: I would say definitely. The party in control and the governor put it on the ballot because they know their policies across the board are failing Californians and they’re worried.
I think if you’re a one-issue voter, if that’s your issue whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, I think it drives them out on both sides. We’re going to find out where Californians are and I think that’s exciting to see where we’re at.
You’re someone well-known in the Legislature for having good relationships both in and across the aisle. Why?
Dahle: I believe that building a relationship is where you really start when you want to make good legislation. My wife (Assm. Megan Dahle) and I vote against each other all the time and we have a wonderful marriage.
We need more of that in the Legislature. So how do you do that? You build a relationship; you build trust, and you learn what other people’s opinions are and you take those and together you work on the things you can agree on.
I use my friend Assm. Reggie Jones-Sawyer as an example. We are totally opposite when it comes to criminal justice; we don’t agree at all. But on Boys and Men of Color, we work together on that. I have Native Americans in my district. The highest suicide rate among young men is Native Americans 18-25. He in turn has young Black men in his community that are struggling as well, so we have a caucus that’s called the Boys and Men of Color Caucus.
Q: Also, you’ve had progressive Democrats in your district like Speaker Anthony Rendon and former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez. Tell us about that.
Dahle: Lorena has been in my home in Bieber. We took the Speaker, Assm. Phil Ting — it was a Bipartisan group and actually Assm. (now Congressman Jay) Obernolte — who had a jet, which was really nice, flew us up there and we went to our farm, went to our home.
I also showed them fire issues where we thinned the forest and talked about our watersheds. We sat and had lunch and went back to Sacramento. I’m friends with her and she texts me back and forth. We disagree on things, but it’s not personal. That’s the point: When you take it and make it not personal, you can get things done.
I think I’ve had 127 separate lawmakers in my district.
Q: You’ve also mentioned stories about your interactions with Newsom, what were those like?
Dahle: Every year, I buy every legislator a box of See’s chocolates and we give it to them. It’s an 8th-grade fundraiser for the kids in Bieber so they can actually come to the Capitol, so we buy chocolates and hand them out to the Legislature.
I also bring peaches mostly every year. I bring peaches down when the crops are good and I hand out peaches and I gave him a lug of peaches when he was lieutenant governor, and he wrote me a nice little note back and said thanks for the peaches.
I invited him to come fishing. I know he likes to fish. We have world-class fishing. We didn’t get to put it together but I invited him and I invited Jerry Brown to come as well.
As governor, I would have every single legislator in my office and build a relationship and we will try to move on the things that we agree on and make California a place where the California dream can become a reality.
Q: What’s your response to the latest PPIC poll showing the governor still has a big lead but at the same time, shows the majority of Californians think the state is going in the wrong direction?
Dahle: I think Californians are realizing they’re living something different than what they’re being told. I think you’re going to be surprised come Nov. 8. I actually believe I can win this election.
Polls are taken by high-propensity voters and I think there’s going to be a lot of people who don’t usually vote who will go vote and that poll will be upended come Nov. 8.
Q: What are the first steps you’d take upon taking office if you are elected governor?
Dahle: First, focus on driving down the cost of energy and electricity in California because that across the board helps Californians. Second, work on crime, remove the parole board we have in place and get a parole board that keeps people in prison. Third, work on fentanyl; 5700 Californians were poisoned last year. I would issue an executive order to try to get it off the streets.
How will you vote for each Proposition on the ballot this year?
Dahle:
Proposition 1 – No
Proposition 26 – No
Proposition 27 – No
Proposition 28 – No
Proposition 29 – No
Proposition 30 – No
Proposition 31 – Yes
Learn more about each proposition here
Q: Your family came here 92 years ago, where did they come from?
Dahle: My grandfather came in the Great Depression looking for work from Utah and he was able to get a land grant in Siskiyou county because he was a World War I veteran, so he put his name in a pickle jar, and they drew his name out, and he got an 80-acre land grant, which I have a copy of the deed in my office, which was signed by President Roosevelt.
Q: And your family right now?
Dahle: Our oldest son Chase is 22. He’s running our business today. He’s planting our fields, taking care of our customers; it’s awesome to watch. My middle son Reagan is out on the campaign trail most of the time, staffing me and helping me on the campaign, and then we have our little sweetheart, Roslyn, who just turned 13 Oct. 19. She attends school in Sacramento. So Meg and I — it’s awesome — we’re both elected. We rent a house here in Sacramento and we’re together every day, which really makes it nice as a legislator to be able to go home to my family every night.
I’ve been elected 26 years. I spent 16 years on the Board of Supervisors. My children don’t know anything different than dad’s a farmer but he also works in the government trying to make California a better place, so they’re used to it. We obviously talk to them about this race and to make sure they were comfortable and they all agreed the sacrifice would be good for their future in California so they’re all in.