(bright music) - 2025 marks the opening of a new chapter in the Sacramento region.

With a change in administrations both locally and nationally, what are the issues and personalities that will dominate our headlines?

Joining us today is Sacramento Bee California Opinion Editor, Marcos Breton.

Marcos, what do you see as the big issues that will dominate our attention and the headlines in 2025?

- Scott, happy New Year.

It's great to be with you.

I think from a statewide perspective, since we're in the state capitol after all, Sacramento, California are being set up to be antagonist to the new president, the new president-elect.

You're seeing, you know, a disastrous fire in the Los Angeles area, and the president-elect essentially blaming the sitting governor for such a thing.

I think you're seeing members of the California Republican Legislative Caucus and congressional caucus talking about advancing legislation that would defund essentially or stop high speed rail from being completed.

And that it's gonna be interesting to see how everyday Californians respond to being kind of set up as the enemies of the state as it were.

- Or one might say, the capital of the resistance, so to speak, right?

- Exactly, and you know, I think one thing that we saw in the election was that there are different tracks that we're talking about here.

There's the political track where it, at least stylistically, it is going to be the capital of the resistance, but how much that translates to the lives of everyday people, I think, was born out in the actual election returns.

And, you know, one thing that I would be looking at in California is whether you're starting to see some cracks in the deep blue state as it were, that there are large swaths of the state that are not down with sort of stylistically being the enemy of the state.

- Well, you know, you mentioned that, let's go a little bit deeper on that, because recently you completed a book with renowned political commentator, Mike Madrid, on the emerging power of the Latino community in electorate.

And at least in the early indication seemed to be that those cracks that you're talking about in some ways have manifested themselves in the Latino community, not just in California, but across the nation, with regards to not necessarily marching in unison the way that the community has politically since Prop 187 way back under Pete Wilson.

You have any reaction to that?

- I do and I agree with Mike that the Prop 187 era is over as it were.

Prop 187 for people who weren't around at that time in California, it was 1994 valid initiative that attempted to deny social services to undocumented immigrants.

It became much more than that, and it became something that really captured the anger that people feel.

Very similar to anger people feeling today about economic anxiety and the changing demographics of our state.

And so now, I think what we've seen, is that the Latino community in California is younger.

They're American born.

And they are not, they are not, and so by being separated from that initial immigrant experience, they come to view immigration in the same day that other communities do in the United States.

Which is to say that an influx, particularly of refugees, is not seen in a positive light by everyday Latinos in California or more everyday Latinos in California.

And the Democratic party, both statewide and nationally, misjudged that sentiment.

And I think they were born, the election results didn't show the president-elect carrying Latino vote, but carrying numbers higher than any republican since Ronald Reagan.

- Hmm, you know, it's interesting.

And you talk about the changing political climate, and with that come changing political fortunes.

You know, recently, because of the possibility that Kamala Harris would be the new president-elect and coming into office, there were thoughts about Gavin Newsom being at the end of his career.

Now it appears that there's been an injection of new life or at least potential new life in his political career.

And how do you think that he's going to be approaching the coming year and even beyond that in terms of trying to position himself?

Is it as a pragmatist?

Or is it, as we open the show with, just the leader of the resistance?

- Yeah, I think that, my prediction on that front, is I think that Governor Newsom's going to struggle to have his style resonate beyond California.

And I think there's compelling evidence that his style no longer even resonates in California.

- Really?

How so?

- I think that, even though they're deep in the minority, I think that legislative republicans have been able to identify weak spots in the liberal camp on human trafficking, on retail theft, and on homelessness where Newsom and other liberal politicians in California have had to defend essentially failures.

Failures of-- - Well, well, let's run through it.

Education, we can compare notes, F. What would you give them?

Affordable housing, F. Climate, D?

- Yeah, I would give him a C. Two years ago I would've said an A, but I think that he's retreated.

And homelessness, I certainly would say F. - All right, F, two more.

Transportation, F. - F. - Crime, F+.

- F. - Or F- rather.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So with that kind of report card, what's the story then for, you know, him rising like the phoenix?

- I think, and look, and I admit that I was never a fan even when he first ran in 2018 for a lot of reasons that we don't need to get into now.

But I think that Gavin Newsom is someone who looks good from a distance, but the closer you get, the less favorable the picture appears.

And I believe that he has essentially retreated from a lot of the campaign promises he made related to increasing housing stock and is now, and has done away essentially with the state of the state, doesn't live in Sacramento anymore.

And I think that he's done with us.

I think that he's focused on his personal political fortunes, whatever they may be.

But it's difficult to imagine how he would translate in the swing states, for example.

- Let's bring that story in terms of political fortunes closer to home.

We have a changing of the guard here in Sacramento.

And former assembly member, Kevin McCarty, has now assumed in the mayorship after a hard fought race against Dr. Flo Cofer.

And Darrell Steinberg has transitioned out.

Also along with that transition, the long-time city manager, Howard Chan, who many argued was actually the most powerful person within the region, also is going to be moving on because of his contract not being renewed.

What do you think is the future in terms of where Mayor McCarty's focus is going to be, and how is it that we can expect him to be judged?

- Well, I mean, I think he's going to inherit all the social ills that big city mayors are contending with in California.

And I don't think that a decade of dealing with these same issues has revealed any particular bright spots in any community.

And so I think what we've landed on, for example, on the issue that is most on people's minds, particularly those of us who live in the city of Sacramento, is how to deal with homelessness.

And I don't think that the citizenry are particularly impressed or convinced that federal numbers showing a decline in homelessness is really a valid issue.

I think people feel that this is an example of how numbers can not tell the full story, and people are still experiencing these social problems.

And I think what you're going to see is increased sweeps, increased police actions, that I think the city will be more aggressive in dealing with some of the social ills, even if dealing with some of the root causes still seems to be beyond not just the capabilities of Sacramento, but beyond Los Angeles, beyond San Francisco, beyond San Diego.

We're all dealing with the same thing.

- Hmm.

One of the things that Mayor McCarty brings to the table is he's a former assembly member and had some fairly significant positions of authority within the legislature.

How do you think his particular background is going to influence his approach to dealing with the challenges that you just mentioned?

- Well, I mean, he was the public safety chair after all in his last year in the assembly.

And he has written legislation that has both tried to hold law enforcement accountable, but has also created tools to help law enforcement.

So I think that he could be.

Now, is he a favorite, for example, of the police union in Sacramento?

No, but I don't think that, I think that he starts in a better place than the previous mayor left.

And so I think that it'll be interesting for me to see if Mayor McCarty is able to strike a balance between providing the kind of citizen oversight that a city council should over a police department, which is essentially a paramilitary organization, but also retaining the respect support of the rank and file to do the difficult things that need to be done to curtail the crime that particularly our friends and who have businesses downtown have been experiencing in very drastic ways for the last four or five years.

- When you talk about those sorts of issues and with this change in regard, there's going to be new voices coming to the fore in terms of who are gonna be leading the conversation and trying to shape the direction that we go in.

When you think about people both in the political sphere, but also in the rest of the community, business, community activism, and all those sorts of things, who are some of the emerging voices that we should be keeping our eye on that you expect that we're going to be hearing from in 2025?

- Sure, so in the city, I would say that there's a generation, there's a new generation of elected leaders in their 30s and 40s who will be taking over from the last of the baby boomer generation who've kind of stepped aside or stepping aside.

So I would say in the city, Karina Talamantes, Mai Vang, Caity Maple, all members of the city council.

In the community, a very dynamic leader is Luke Wood, the president of Sacramento State, who's attempting to create more pathways for students in the black community and in the southeast Asian community to attend college, and is also trying to lift athletics into essentially the big leagues.

And so now, you know, we went through years of getting an arena and downtown, and now we're talking about a potential facility that would house a football team that could face nationally ranked teams if Luke Wood has his way.

The big question mark for me, Scott, and maybe you can shed light on this, is I think the business community in Sacramento is at a crossroads.

They, at least in terms of endorsements, sat out the mayor's race, they've had mixed success, they've had the same people on scene for years.

And I think that there's any sector of our community that's crying out for new leadership as people in the business community who have not been very successful quite frankly at making their case and having an impact politically.

Maybe you disagree with that, but that's where I'm at.

- No, I don't disagree with it.

But I would just point out, what Sacramento purports to have as a business community from my perspective, other than small business itself, is that we have institutions that are either, many of the key institutions are either non-profits or semi-public institutions.

And so when you're looking for purely private sector institutions to represent the business community, they're pretty few and far between.

And so what we call the business community and the business leadership within our region would not be considered in most other major metropolitan areas, not that they're not significant players who make significant contributions, but the problem is, is that many of the folks and the institutions that they represent have a either below the waterline tie or a direct above the waterline tie to government and government funding.

And so that kind of makes the punches that are thrown pulled a bit because of the fact that they're dependent so much on the very institutions and individuals leading those institutions that they might criticize.

So again, I'm not in disagreement with you, but with all that being said, Marcos, if there is a need for a new leadership class in what we have of the business community, which many times really comes down to a few key real estate developers and a few old families in terms of their history and contributions to Sacramento, like the family behind the rails chain and others, what is it that you would be looking for them to do?

What is the role that's yet unfulfilled?

- You know, I think the role is to take a more expansive view of the issues that are facing us.

And if I were to make a criticism of my friends in business is that, listen, I understand when your major investments are tied up in downtown and you're concerned by what you see every day on the streets.

But I think the, like I look at cities like Indianapolis, for example, which is very similar to Sacramento in many ways, except obviously they have far more charitable dollars that are funneled into the communities.

But it seems to me that in other communities, successful communities, they've adopted strategies of dealing with the challenges that face the community, and we never seem to get there.

We only talk about the societal ills and how we want them out of our faces, and we don't go beyond that.

And what I think that some people in politics have tried to say is, you know, we can't arrest our way out of this problem.

And so it's been very difficult to have a community consensus on what to do and how to attack this.

Sacramento is very similar to LA in the same way.

The LA is a much bigger community, but much more dollars that haven't been able to address the issue either.

But we never seem to get to that conversation.

And I think it would be one worth having.

- Well, it is certainly one that seems to get a lot of light, but not much heat associated with it.

One place where it is that it does seem that we are beginning to have a bit of a boomlet in terms of positive activity, the King's win-loss record not withstanding, has been in sports.

And so we do have the King's arena now.

There's been significant movement on major league soccer and that seems to have momentum behind it.

And we've got the benefit of Aces at least temporarily taking up residence in West Sacramento.

You are a devoted follower of sports.

What are you most excited about over the coming year related to our sports activities?

- Well, I mean, I think, what always excites me about this is not just that, like I don't follow sports unlike some of my friends do who they could cite a chapter and verse on statistics.

Those things aren't the things that are most interesting to me.

What I've enjoyed about the arena downtown and the recent success of the Kings is that it connects people.

It galvanizes people.

And the arena is becoming a place again to where you walk the concourse and you see a huge swath of the community and people from all kinds of different backgrounds.

And I think that anytime that you can create that kind of energy in the community is a good thing.

And so we'll have that opportunity on the other side of the river with the Ace in the coming year.

And my unabashed hope is that the Aces designs on Las Vegas fall through completely fail miserably and that Sacramento becomes a long-term destination for a major league baseball team, which I think the community could support.

- What big under-reported issue in the last year do you finally hope takes center stage, not just in terms of the media's focus, but in terms of the community really focusing its eyes and energy on?

- Well, I probably have said this before, I've got a couple of them.

I probably said some of these before in past appearances on this show.

But would love to see Sacramento take more steps forward on being able to bring more jobs to the region.

I would, as someone, as a parent, the two 20-year-olds, would love to see the next four or five years, see our community make real progress on creating pathways and opportunities for our best and brightest students to have a place for them to where they don't have to flee to San Francisco or to Los Angeles or to New York.

We have two fantastic educational institutions in our region with Sacramento State and UC Davis and I would add, you know, the city college system as well.

- And let's not leave out University of the Pacific.

- The University of the Pacific.

And I would say that we create and nurture just brilliant students.

And it would be great if those brilliant students then became brilliant leaders at a greater level than we currently do now.

- All right, and I think we'll leave it there.

Look forward to looking at how things go during the next year, and we will catch up with you a little bit later and find out how it went.

- It's always a pleasure and happy New Year to everyone watching.

- Happy New Year to you as well.

And that's our show.

Thanks to our guest and thanks to you for watching Studio Sacramento.

I'm Scott Syphax.

See you next time right here on KVIE.

(bright music) - [Narrator] All episodes of Studio Sacramento, along with other KVIE programs are available to watch online at kvie.org/video.