 Thank you for being here today. Thank you Zoe. She is the Democratic nominee for assembly. All right, so can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your background? I'd love to. So I'm from Winters, California. I'm the current mayor, but we moved to Winners in 1957 when I was three years old. And we moved there because my father had the opportunity to be the high school agriculture teacher. And my mother and my other brother and we came up in the heat with no air conditioning and my mother sat in a parking lot while my dad was interviewed and he came out saying, well, the farmers have offered us a place to live for the next couple of months and they want me to teach here in Winters. That's how I got to Winters. And I blessed that we got to go there. It was only 1200 people at the time. The community was just bustling. We had the new dam, the Barry Essa Dam was being built. We had agriculture. We had to train the wind through Winters. We had lots of businesses. And it was a great place to be raised. And so I consider my little neighborhood at the time is like we had about five different mothers that took care of all of us because we couldn't do anything without the next family knowing about it. So that's how I got to Winters. And then I went to public schools there and then when I graduated, I took off and went to Chico State. And I got really involved in politics kind of up in Chico State as well as when I was in high school. I went to Chico State and became the director of ethnic and intercultural affairs. So I did different kinds of festivals for different heritage. And then I got married, completed my education at San Jose State University, lived in Santa Cruz for a while, and then got divorced. And then I moved back to Winters to raise my two daughters. So as a single parent, I went back to the place I love. Yeah. So you raised your family where you were raised. Exactly. Yeah. Well, I knew it was safe. And so, and I knew that everybody knew each other and I knew that my kids couldn't get any trouble. So not that they would have, but I just wanted to make sure they couldn't hear about it. Yeah, I would. So how have you balanced your work life and your family? Well, you know, it's pretty tough. When you're a single mother, you have a lot of responsibility. And I took that on. I loved every minute. I love every minute of it because I have still the two girls, obviously. But I really had to figure out my days. And my days started really early in the morning, making sure I had the kids off to school. But I also, during that period of time, I worked in the technology fields. And when I worked into technology, I had to figure out the hours. Because in corporate world, you have a lot of hours that you've got to spend. And you're working on big projects and you're flying in and out to, you're flying in and out to make sure you accommodate your job, but also with the children. So it was a really difficult time. But I'm very grateful that I had a really good job and was able to raise my girls and continue to work in winters, live in winters. Yeah, so tell me about your experiences as mayor of Winters. Oh. How did that work out? Well, you know, how it worked out was just by happenstance. And when I came back to Winters, I decided to get involved in the community. Because I remember it being very vibrant. And when the economy changed, when the railroad went away, our downtown kind of died. And when I moved back, all the things of all those wonderful memories I had were gone. And I thought, so what could I do to help make change? And the first thing I did is that my mother always taught us is that there's nothing better than a welcome mat to your home. And I thought of the Winters High School tennis courts as a welcome mat to the community. And when we moved, there's grass growing up through the tennis courts. The nets were falling down. And I contacted some of my old classmates. And I said, you know, can you donate $100, $200? And somebody donated their time with a backhoe. And we fixed the tennis courts. And it got me really motivated to say, what can I do next? And I was encouraged to be a planning commissioner. And I did that, and I did it for two years. And my frustration was that there wasn't any women on the city council. And I decided, well, why not run? And I ran and was city council for three years. And then the past five years, I've been lucky enough. And I'm honored that my council members have decided that I would be the mayor. And I've continued to do that now for five years. And I've loved every single man I've ever been. So you were very involved with bringing the PG&E training facility to Winters. Can you tell me about that process? Oh, you know, I am so proud of that, how that all came together. So basically, we were sitting at, I got a phone call from my city manager. He asked if I could come to City Hall, that the PG&E was coming to Winters. And that the executives were coming to meet with us. And it was so fast, I thought, what happened? Did something happen to the gas line or something happened? And so I called another city council member, Wade Cowan. And the three of us, the city manager myself and Wade, we sat and we were addressed by these four gentlemen saying that they were looking to do a new gas operation training center in the area. They weren't going to be specific. They were looking at four different locations. And one of them was Winters. And I was like, I didn't want to be too excited, right? Because I knew that there's a lot of process to go forward. So they told me that they would like to do that outside of town, north of Winters in the county. And I was a little bit discouraged because I really could see a training facility being in the city limits of Winters. It's a benefit to have that come to in town. And so after some many conversations with PG&E, as they're trying to figure out the process of where they would go, eventually they decided to look at in Winters. And we did environmental reviews. There's a lot of process that went on. But it was being really slowly done. And I was really frustrated because I really wanted to see this project come to Winters and competing against the Vacaville and the Fairfield and other communities. It's pretty hard for small town. And so I asked PG&E staff if I could talk to the president of PG&E. And they said, well, no, I couldn't. And I said, what do you mean I can't? I am a mayor of a small town. And I have every right as every other mayor to talk to a president of a corporation. Well, my frustration level continued. And I decided to make a couple phone calls. And I called the general manager of SMUD, which is in Sacramento. And I asked him if he knew the president at the time. And he said yes, he did. And that he was a personal friend of his and that I could have his personal cell phone number. And so I decided, well, that's pretty cool. He goes, but call him tomorrow morning at 7.30 in the morning. And he'll be stuck in traffic. So the next morning I wake up and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, am I going to make this phone call? And I sure enough I did. And I said, hello, Mr. Johns. This is Cecilia Aguier Curry. I'm the mayor of Winters. And I want your business. And the phone got dead quiet. And he said, who is this? And I repeated myself. And he goes, how did you get my number? I go, well, does it matter? Because I have it now. And he laughed. And he says, he goes, where are you? Are you stuck in traffic? He goes, well, where are you? So I was kind of creepy, I'm sure for him. But we ended up having a half hour discussion. We made an agreement that we would not let the rest of the team other than my city manager and one of my council members know that we'd have this conversation. We wanted to make sure that we followed the process. PG&E has a process. We wanted to follow it all the way through. So after about two years and working with Mr. Johns in the background and working with staff, and we finally got the project. And it was probably one of my happiest days because it helps. In a small community, you're always looking for economic development. You're looking for job creation. This is the one that did it. So right now, the building's being built. $75 million project. We have a brand new hotel that we're going to break ground in very shortly. And after that one breaks ground, we're going to open another hotel. So there's a lot of economic development that's going on in Winners. So I'm really proud of how that stimulated our economy in Winners. Perfect. So what has been your overall experience as a female politician in a male-dominated field? Oh, that's a great one. Well, you have to have a lot of patience. Because many a time when I have run for elected office, even when I was in high school, as we've all done it and as I went to college, you're expected. You're at a higher level. And people expect a lot more out of you. And they expect you to know more. And they test you a lot more. Every question, they expect you to have an answer. And if you were to say, I don't know that answer right, I'll get back to you, that's not always acceptable. But I find my male colleagues are able to do that in quite frankly, a lot of times, no one even bats an eye. But they'll say to me, well, you don't really know that particular issue. I think it's very fair to say, I don't know. And I'll get back to you. I think people want to see politicians or elected officials be transparent and be upfront. So during my process is that when I was on planning commission, it was all men on my board. City Council, it's all been men. But it's a great opportunity for women to take a leadership role. And when I became mayor, it gave me more opportunities to expand what I wanted to learn about. You find that in a city government, you need to be at a table. And many a time, the gentleman always had another job. We all have another job because you don't get paid very much as being a mayor or a council member. But you need to be at the table. And you need to figure out ways to bring money into your community. And you need to make sure that people have visibility of what's going on. So what I was able to do is that once I had that leadership role, because as a council member, you don't want to step on anyone's feet. Because I knew that was the wrong thing to do. But what I did know was the right thing to do is that once I had the leadership, that I could go and pursue looking for funding for different projects in winters. So I became, it was a member of the Yellow County Housing Authority. I'm now the chairman of that particular commission. I decided that winters and the whole region drought and water issues were up front. And that since winters was an agriculture community, I wanted to make sure my ag neighbors, as well as my community, had good quality drinking water. And how are we going to be visionary at it? And so I got on the Yellow County Water Resources Association. Then I also decided, well, you know, there's money out there for infrastructure for bike lanes. There's money out there for making sure you have safe routes to schools. That there's opportunities for infrastructure projects. And that would be done through SACOG, Sacramento Council of Governments. So I got on that board. So I knew that everywhere I went that there's little pots of money. But if you're not at the table, it's very easy to forget about a small community. And many of the boards are gentlemen. And they're all great. Don't get me wrong. But as a woman and being a leader, you have to be a little more adamant on what you want, which you may or may not get. But for instance, at SACOG, they really focus on transportation issues, which is their goal. But a lot of the money went to the bigger area, Sacramento. But there's always a little bit of a bucket of money that's sitting out there. And so an $8,000 or $10,000 or $50,000 for small communities, a lot of money. And so every single time I would just keep bothering everybody and saying, I'd like that extra piece of money or whatever. And so that's how some of the projects happened. And that's how I think being an elected official is that as a woman, it took me some time to get my confidence. There's no doubt about it. But once you find the right people, and many a time there are other women that help mentor you along the way. And that's how I got my confidence to really be, I think, a good leader for our community. And as well as for this district, I'll be a good leader for this. Do you have any advice for other women looking to go into politics or business, actually? You have to take some risks. And a lot of us don't want to take the risk. And I've taken plenty of my life, trust me. But they all come out. There's always an opportunity to learn. And you learn from some of the risks you've done. Particularly if you're going to run, I would really like to see more women to get involved. So whether it's even in your church community, or if it's helping with 4-H, or Future Farmers America, or helping at the schools, or helping somewhere in your community, there's always a need. And I think that's a really good place to start. Because as women, particularly as we start our families, it's difficult to balance all of that. It's really hard. And many people are families at first, and work, or other activities take on a later time in our life. And that's what happened to me. I always thought I'd really like to be somewhere in a position of helping. I'm a helper. I like to volunteer. I like to be involved in the community. But there's a time where women just can't get to that next level, because we have so many other obligations. Now, with my life the way it is now, my children are raised, and they're gone. I jumped at the opportunity to move on. And if it wasn't for women asking me to run, I probably wouldn't have done it. Yeah, they motivated me a lot. So it was a group called, oh, I'm going to go blank, but it is right now. But anyway, no, it's anyway. But anyway, I was very honored. It's close the gap, excuse me. It's close the gap. And they promote mentoring women and helping them navigate through getting elected, whether it's a committee or an official position somewhere. But it's tough. And I'm tested every single day. Everybody tests me every single day. Yeah. So do you have any specific examples of a double standard? I am. You know, I think that I don't ever think of it as a double standard. Maybe I should. But I try to work with people and collaborate. And that's the only way I feel really comfortable. I mean, we do know that there's some roles that are definitely people consider a man's role. And they test us all the time. So I don't have a specific, you know, there's many of them out there, I'm sure. But right now I just really can't think of it because I really like to collaborate with people. And I like, you know, men work just as well. I think I bring something different to the table. We have a whole different conversation with me. I guarantee it. Yeah, it's good to have some representation too. Right. Why do you think it's important for women to get involved in politics? Oh, we bring so many different things to the table. We see things in a different light. And we bring fresh ideas. We're more visionary. We know how it can affect your family life, your community. We look at things in a whole different way. It's not an ego thing for me at all. What I'm doing right now is because I love what I'm doing. I love helping my community. I love helping this region. And I think that's what we bring to the table. We have to, I just have, I think women will sit down. I'll give you a great example. Many people know that I'm really for internet for all. And I will do anything to figure out that every child, every adult has an opportunity to have good quality internet at a reasonable price. And I was sitting with four other women. One is the CEO at Lafko. One is the head of the Yolo County Library. One was the Yolo County Social Services and myself. And we sat down and said, you know, why is it that we don't have internet for all in our county? It just makes no sense. We really only have four cities to deal with. We have a pretty great, I mean, a really collaborative county that people work together. And we just kind of put our heads together and decided to approach the board of supervisors and talk to them about a study that we would like to prove to the county as well as to the major telecoms, as well as to PUC, is that when you buy a cell phone and it says that you have coverage all over the map and then you go out there to whatever specific area you go to and then it says no service, you know that that map's probably not very accurate, right? So we decided to see if we could get a study done of the county who was gracious enough, a lot at $60,000, the study was done, and we proved to the PUC that those maps from the big telecoms were inaccurate. That's what it took. It's for four of us to sit together and just say, you know, why not? Why do we keep waiting for something to happen? Let's all work together. So the collaboration piece with women is great because we sit around and we think about different ways to approach something. And we've been very successful in that work. I know that the broadband is working hard in Davis. The information we gather, they're working out here in Davis, they're working as a solution for Yolo County. And so I'm really excited to see which each one of the communities and how we figure out a broadband solution, yeah. So how do you think that having a woman as president, potentially having a woman as president of the United States will change the future of politics? Oh, I think it's going to be great. I think it's going to prove that many women will feel a lot stronger and feel more confident of going out and sticking their neck out. I mean, I gotta say is that, you know, I think about when Secretary of State, I'm just blank on her name, Hillary, yeah. Yeah, like Clinton, I just keeps thinking to myself, who would have sat there for 12 hours and gone through all the questioning she had on Benghazi? Who would have done that? Would the men been asked the same questions? Would they just drilled and drilled and drilled? And I am so proud of the fact that no matter what, whatever side you think, she sat there and did that. And she has been a trooper since she was quite young and people are forgetting of all the wonderful things she's done as a young student, as a lawyer. She has brought a lot to, for all of us to be very proud of. And I think people are really, really hard on her. And even in my campaign, they were really, really hard on me. And I just had to keep thinking I had to keep focused. And I look at Hillary and I say, good for you, girl. She's kept focused. You try to keep away all the other chatter that's going around. You have to keep focused on what your goal is. And I think she's gonna do a great job. And I hope that we, people give her a chance. And obviously in four years, she'll be running again. And if people think she's done a good job, then she'll be there again. And I really have to hand it to her is that I'm very proud to say that Hillary Clinton may be my president in the United States. I remember quite frankly, as in God rest her soul, my mother really wanted to see a woman president. And when Geraldine Ferraro around as vice president and I took her to go meet her, it was very touching. So I think there's a lot of women out there right now that are saying, I thought I'd never see this day and I think it's fabulous. Yeah, that's right. Do you think that seeing more women as politicians will motivate other women, like the motivate younger generations of women and girls to go after a career like that? Yeah, I think so. I think we're seeing it right now. Currently, there are seven women that are running for, there's more, but it appears that seven women will now be in the legislature and they're Latino women. And I'm really excited to work with them. And they are from various age brackets. Some have children, never been married, some, and it's gonna be a really diverse group. We have conversations that I've met with some of the potential winners and candidates. And we are just laughing about, isn't it fun about this part, isn't it? And it's just like we're, it's a camaraderie. I had the pleasure of me visiting with Senator Wolk the other day. And I said, so what did you like about it and what was important to you? And she mentioned the fact that it was really important for her is to meet some of the other women, have dinner, and just have that, you know, good old girls' conversations. And so I'm looking forward to that because I think we have so much more in common than not. And that'll be a really fun time. I mean, I'm looking forward to it. There's a lot of work ahead of this. I'm not, you know, I know there's a lot of work, but I think we also have to have that downtime to have that networking time, yeah. Did you face similar issues being a woman in business as you do being a woman in politics? Do you find that there's the same stereotypes and the same bias against you? Yes, it was, so years ago I worked for two huge corporate technology firms. And I won't even mention their names, but it was really probably the most difficult jobs I've ever had. I knew my business backwards and forwards, I could tell you about payroll and human resources and all those things. And I was selling software products at the time and the men always got the better deal. And as a matter of fact, I'll never forget it. On a Mother's Day weekend, we had probably the largest sale that we were going to make to the state of California, three women and I. And on Mother's Day weekend, I no longer had that sales account and four men undermined us and tried to sell the product to the state of California. And it was a multimillion dollar deal and luckily it didn't all come together for them but it was really, really disheartening because when you sell a product to a government, it takes two or three years to do that. It's not like overnight. And our quotas were as high as the men and which was fine with us but it was just the way things were handled and it was very disheartening. Corporate America is very frustrating to me. My daughter works in a major sporting company and she's the only woman and she sells athletic wear and she has to work much harder than the men have to work. They expect more from her. They almost poo poo her when she does a presentation and then they'll say, oh my God, that was the best presentation I've ever seen. Now I get it. But it's frustrating is that I think that in the corporate world, it's difficult. You have to have a lot of self-confidence to get through some of the tough times. Do you have any advice on how to build up that confidence? I think you take any opportunity that you can when you're in corporate world. I mean, if you have the opportunity to do any extra training because you want to make sure that your resume grows along the way because years ago, those of us that are my age, we had like one job. We stayed with that one job and we went from day one, 21 years old until you retired. And it's a little bit difficult for me to watch someone go every two years to a new job. And so it's different than what it was. But I think along the way, do you just have to completely build your resume, network, network, network, network, meet people, get their names, try to put it in your database, try to remember who they are. Because there's a day that you might need that and I have met some of the people, I met 30 years ago, that have been already helpful, that might be at the Capitol, that maybe are lobbyists or whatever, they're back in my world. And so you realize how small the world is and never burn a bridge. Don't burn a bridge because you never know who you're gonna see again. So yeah, that's one thing that I would recommend, yeah. Okay, do you have any recommendations on what women can do to sort of minimize the pay gap or like anything that they can do to make sure that that's not something that is affecting their paycheck? Well, you know, we're really fortunate. In the past couple of years is the legislature and the governments really realize, I mean, how important is that this equal pay for equal work? And that's really forced everybody to follow that along those lines. And it's been way too long coming. And it's great that it's happening now. And so we need to look forward and not back. I can't change, we can't change what happened in the past, but we can look for other opportunities. You know, like I said, additional training. Any way you can promote yourself, you should always do that and it gains confidence. If you get a chance to be in a leadership group. So there's numerous ones that are out there within your community, within churches, but the more confidence and the more times you get to be in a leadership role, do it. If you have a chance to be a speaker, raise your hands that I want to be a speaker because it helps. And people can tell you when you have confidence, right? So I also belong to a group called American Leadership Forum and I was really fortunate to be with that group. So I now have a class of, there's about 25 of us that were in that class. I was in class 13 and we had a great time. We were a whole year together a couple of times a month and you learn to speak in front of other people and giggle about things because as a leader, I think a lot of people don't realize it's lonely. And whether you're in a corporate world or with your elected position or whether you're a chancellor of a college or whatever, being a leader is a tough job. And a lot of people don't want to, they're not as open with you any longer. You're not included as often because they think that you're different but you're not. And I think the hardest part about being in leadership role is being lonely and kind of left out. You get left out of certain things and that's probably the hardest part that I will be honest that it's been for me, yeah. So you notice that people treat you differently when you go for a higher position or when they think that you are more important maybe than what they feel that they are. So there's that exclusion. I think that's true because, so when I became mayor of Winters, people started calling me mayor and I really had a hard time with it. I said, please don't, I'm Cecilia. That's just the way it is. What you see is what you get. And I understand the importance and the titles that people wanna put on you. But I also want people to realize what you see is what you get. And I really am, it's not about a title. It's not about anything other than I want to do the best for people. And I get frustrated when someone, I'm not included sometimes, just like, man, I used to be included on that and what happened? But it has nothing to do, I think they're standing off thinking that I'm not the same person, but I am. So it's a little bit, it's odd, it's very odd. So I really make a point is that when I meet leaders that I really make a point of being inclusive with them and saying, you know, would you like to meet? Can you have a cup of coffee? And they'll go, oh man, no one's ever asked me before. Oh, sorry. Yeah, so. Do you have any particular causes that you're passionate about that have come upon you from your past experience, like your family life or growing up in winters and all of that? So I have a real big cause, I'm a couple of them. First is my, I help start with another council member, a group called the Hispanic Advisory Committee so that we could help making sure that many of our farm workers in winters, we have quite a few, could become citizens. So we worked on that, so our committee is the goal is always to try to raise money for scholarships, it tries to make sure they're aware of other community functions such as understanding it's okay to be that the police officers are gonna be nice to the fire department, or we try to walk them through immigration issues and we've been very successful on that. So that was my number one, my mother was Mexican. When we came to winters, she helped many farm workers with health access, but there was plenty of people in winters at the time when we moved, they told my mother she'd never be anything because she was Mexican. And so I always remember her saying, they'll find out that I'm a really good person so it was very hard on us when that happened. But the other one is that my father recently passed away, actually it'll be almost two years ago, but prior to that he was really lonely when my mother had passed and he wanted to find a place to meet other seniors. Now granted we had our church and we had other activities but there wasn't really a center for senior citizens. And knowing that senior citizens right around the alley for me, I'm almost there. I wanted to really help him get a senior citizen center. So he, before he died, we were trying to work on things and then we found out he's quite ill and he passed away and we decided to start a senior citizens foundation. And the foundation is to help us build a center for the seniors and we've been very successful. That's gonna be groundbreaking here in the spring. So it'll be a place for all the seniors to come. It'll also have some housing affiliated with it. But the thing that's the best is that I think communities are forgetting about our seniors. And we thought we didn't have very many people in winters. And as this group has kind of started this whole foundation and been very involved we're up to about 150 seniors are now in the group. We just got a bus for them. They're starting to take trips. They're starting to plan with the senior citizens centers going to look like. So it's gonna be a great community vibe and I can't wait for that to happen. So continually trying to raise money for the foundation so that we can keep it going. But I've been blessed with meeting so many people that are helping us put that project together. Yeah. Have you found that once they have the opportunity to speak up about their needs that they are really happy to do so and they have a lot to say? They're great. So every single city council member meeting it is so great to see the seniors in the audience. We didn't have that forever. And they all have matching shirts and they are so excited to be involved in the community. And they now have a website, they send out email but they come to the city council meeting and they every single time they come up and they do public comment and they tell us about what they're doing. And I just wanna cry every time thinking my father's saying this is exactly what I wanted to see happen. So I just beam and the other day a couple of weeks goes my birthday and they were all there and they brought me my own senior citizens shirt. And I'm just touched by having it. Of course I haven't worn it anywhere yet because I've been campaigning but there's nothing better to see where your projects come to fruition. And that one by far is just, I just can't wait for the building to be built and to see the activity and the excitement to happen so. When did you say that was being built? Well, I think the breaking ground next March they're hoping to do that sooner but we have another project affiliated with it which is just as good as a healthcare center. So right at this one piece of property we have on winners there's going to be Yolo Federal Credit Union our seniors center our senior housing and then we're gonna have some healthcare access. So it's everything's walkable. I think it'll be a great little small community for our seniors. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. Wow, so you've motivated senior citizens to come out and speak about their needs. Do you have any ideas of how to do the same for young people? Because I know there's a lack of involvement for the younger generations in politics. So a couple of things. So with young people we've started a winter city council, student city council. And it's a tough group to get together because winners is so small. Many of the students are in numerous activities. So they're either in FFA or they're in football or baseball or whatever they're in. And it's great because being from a small community you almost have to find something to be involved in. So they have technology classes and competitions. But I'll say is that trying to find a recreational thing for them has been always a real challenge. I think we've probably seen it here in Davis when they're trying to do the teen center and then you just don't see the teens come to where they don't wanna be there. Let's face it. So what we've been doing is that we've found is that the infamous tennis courts, my welcome Matt, are not being used so often as tennis courts. They're being used for soccer. So like futsal, they call it futsal. And so we are going to build a futsal court because there'll be 20, 30 young men they're playing under the tennis court's lights. And so we're gonna move, we're gonna build a futsal court down to our city park or refurbishing our city park so it's well lit. We put in some new basketball courts. And when it's sports related in winter, it does really well. And I'm only hoping that these are kind of things that we can do throughout the district as we go forward. Yeah, and I'm sure if young people see what's being done for them through the city government that'll motivate them more to like get out there and vote or at least be at meetings. Oh, I can only hope, yes. Yes, I think that's always a good thing when people understand how important it is to go out and be involved in the community. So if you could give me a suggestion, how should I do that? Oh gosh. I know, because wouldn't it be that easy that you could get people to go out and vote? I mean, we should be honored to vote. This is why we live in America. It's a democracy. We're diverse. We don't all have to, and I love to figure out why aren't we getting more of our younger people out to vote? You know, I think a lot of it is self-motivated and if people are interested in voting, then they'll go out and do it. Like this current election has a lot of people who've never voted before voting because it's something new and exciting. So I think if young people, myself included, can understand how exciting politics can be if, because it can really change your life, and especially on a city level or a state level, that might change your life more than a presidential election will, I think, like bringing up issues that matter and then giving them the opportunity to talk about what matters to them, too. So then maybe some representation, and then if there's only some way to make voting really cool or like a social media campaign, something like that might work well, it's hard to get anyone to do anything. Well, I think our secretariat state right now is probably really trying to figure this out because it's really difficult because a lot of people didn't think about this, I don't think. Our pamphlets for voting are really big this year. Now some communities have a lot of extra measures on their ballot and is the ballot, once you put it in the envelope, is it too heavy? So do you have to put one stamp on it or do you have to put two stamps on it? If you don't have enough postage on it, what happens to that mailer? What happens to that ballot? So some counties are putting on there like, hey, warning everybody, you need two stamps on this. So we do need to figure, we need to update, right? We are in California where there's innovation is the best. But people are very obviously nervous about security and hacking and those things. And then quite frankly, let's remember that many communities don't have internet and how can they vote online? Maybe find central voting spots, but we need to really kind of think how we're gonna redo that. Yeah, and I think something about getting this huge pamphlet in the mail makes people look at voting and participating as a chore. And if there is a way to minimize that or to explain that it only takes about five minutes to register, it doesn't take that long or you can vote on the measures you care about. You don't have to read through the entire thing. I think just explaining the basics and then talking about how it's actually not that difficult if you put 20 minutes worth of effort in. So I think that would be another thing. I think too, as local government, you get to see it, right? So I think if anything, vote locally so that you can have a voice where you live. There's a measure, H, I believe that's here in town, vote. Get out and vote, support your schools or whatever you wanna do, but get out and vote. I tell my kids all the time, if you can't complain, if you don't vote. Exactly. So they tell their friends the same thing. So yeah, so I luckily my girls vote, but if you don't, don't complain. Yep, I think that is an interesting problem. There's a lot of people have a lot to say about issues and then they don't actually write a letter to their representative or they don't vote or anything. Right, go to a city council meeting, go to a planning commission, go to the parks and rec meetings. That's how you just kind of get some momentum and get a little more confidence too because you gotta go find out things. One of the things that we're doing right now is that as we go through this assembly district, it's six counties and I'm working really hard to win and I hope I can be successful, but during the trails that we've been making, is that one of the things we've done is to try to find out about what's happening in rural healthcare access, trying to find out about transportation issues in the whole district, trying to find about affordable housing. And I think that every time I go and meet with these different groups, it gives me more leverage when I'm sitting to try to make a decision, is how am I gonna make those decisions? When I feel it, I touch it, I understand it, I feel really confident on a decision I may or may not make. I will be diverse and I'll listen to all the issues. But you know, a couple of people have heard this story a couple of times, but I had the opportunity to go up to Dignity Health Care at the hospital and I had a wonderful tour, a wonderful discussion with the team there and had a tour of the mental health areas. And we really need to deal with some of that, I mean, we do need to deal with that throughout the state and this district. But you know, to walk into a mental health 5150 ward and look around and see the people and talk to some of the staff and then going to the long-term mental health ward, it was moving to me. And I get a big lump in my throat to have nurses, big burly men, the nurses that hugged me as I left to say, no one's ever come to ask me about the issues of mental health, you know, talking about it. And so being able to have that heartfelt understanding and discussion, I think it's only made me a better assembly person. So that's why I'm really like, I really am trying to make sure I understand those issues. So when they come to me, I can easily say, have you ever been to a mental health ward? Have you seen how hard these people work? Yeah. Do you understand the stress that they're under? So not only for that, for many things that I'm trying to grasp as much information and learn as much as I can. Yeah, having that firsthand experience brings a whole different aspect to the table. It does. Are there any other issues like mental health that you think are underrepresented in politics? Well, one thing is that, so I'm a farmer. I farm 80 acres with my brothers and I think you and I've discussed this before. And I've learned a lot, there's a tenor regulatory that I had no idea about. So I really hope to, I plan on working hard in the agricultural, I'm hoping to be on the ag committee. I think also water, you know, water's a big thing that I'm very crucial in talking about different things with the water. But for instance, we've done tours at different water facilities throughout the region. We've done, I'm going to go do a tour at Sites Reservoir. Again, I want to thank and shout out to Senator Wolk. She's offered to help guide me with some of the issues around the Delta and the Twin Tunnels. So, you know, so again, it goes back to mentoring and finding those people in the network that can help you out. There's no sense in recreating the wheel so many times. But I've been really blessed with a lot of great women in this district and to follow in their footsteps on all the issues. I mean, Helen Thompson's been great to me. She's been a guiding force for a long time. I kind of give her a bad time every now and then. I go, how am I doing? You're doing just fine, you know? A delay in Easton. I mean, there's just people that you find along the way to help guide you, so. So do you find that actually talking to the people being affected by an issue is the best way to come up with some sort of solution? You need everyone at the table. So, you need a diverse group at the table. You definitely need to hear them. You have to be a really good listener during this period of time because generally it'll come out what the real, the issue is. And you know, it's been really amazing is that I have a lot of coffees that I do in the district. And I'm tired of coffee. But we'll sit there and I'll say, free coffee for the hour, come by and visit with me. And I've met with veterans. And it's very touching to hear that they are not getting their healthcare. And it was great being able to pick up the phone and call Congressman Garamendi's office, and they took care of it. So you have to be kind of a, learn a little bit about, you know, learn a lot about what many things and trying to coordinate them. And it's really been fun because luckily I've had the relationships with Congressman Thompson and Garamendi with Assemblymember Dodd, Senator Wolk. All these people are going to help you a long way. Yeah, there's connections. All those connections. Where you need to be. Yeah, how do you network? And like as a woman, do you find that networking is different than it is for male politicians? I don't think it's any different. I think that, you know, women, you know, I like, I'm chatty as you can tell. But I like to find out about people. I like to find out about like, you know, from simple things like how are you, how's your day? And then people tell you, but like, what's your family like or where are you from? And then you'd be shocked how many times you're gonna go, oh, you're from Davis? Oh, do you know so-and-so? And all of a sudden you've got this network of people. I think you need to do, networking's the number one thing. Right now I have a great gal that's working for me. She's been helping me and I'm gonna bring her on to the staff and I take her everywhere. I take her everywhere. I want her to know this district as well as I know the district because I will not be able to be out in the district as much as I am right now. And I'm gonna have to depend upon and to have trusted confidants that are gonna help me out. And she's networking and she goes, I can't believe you know so many people. I go, well, it took me 62 years to do it sweetheart. So you got plenty of time to do it. Yeah, do you have any advice for, like I'm a college student. So do you have any advice for how I can start networking to build those connections for my future careers? Belong to some clubs. Oh, okay. So get involved in some clubs. Take a small leadership role because obviously you're schooling's first but find a leadership role. Get into a club, find a little niche. So you wanna be in the business, there's business sorority fraternity type groups that you can join. Go talk to your professor. They will lead you in great directions. They'll tell you some great clubs that are out there. So I would definitely do that. I'd get initially get on some clubs. Go down and go to the city council meetings. Go to the chamber of commerce meetings. They're free, you can go to those kind of meetings and learn here about business and what people's businesses are coming to town and what their issues are maybe with the city how does permitting work. So you may wanna think about doing something like that. Go to planning meetings. You'll learn a lot about business there. Okay, thank you. We're going to take a quick break to announce the Davis neighbors night out. So it is this Sunday, October 16th. And to find out if there's an organized party in your neighborhood, call Carrie Dyer at the Davis city manager's office. And the phone number is 757-5602. And then for more information on that, go to daviscommunitybuildingprocess.net. And the upcoming guests on Davis Wednesday Live at five are Brett Lee, city of Davis mayor pro tem. And on November 9th, our guests will be the UCD interim chancellor Ralph Hexter. All right, and then a couple of last questions for you. If you could go back and talk to your college self, what advice would you give her? If I could go back and talk to my college, would I even hear that last part? And what advice would you give your college self about career and politics and? I wish I would have done it sooner. Okay. I wish I would have taken some chances earlier on. But I was raising a young family on my own and so I really had to have a job. But if I had it differently, still have my girls don't get me wrong. But I wish I would have gone into politics sooner because I look down the line that I wish I would have been able to start 10 years ago and make more change. And not that I would ever, maybe I would have never run for the assembly. I don't know, but right now it's an opportunity's in front of me. I can't wait to take off and do the job. But I will say that if I had a chance, I probably would have done this a lot sooner. I didn't know the power that was behind it. I was frightened because of, it was a man's world. I see it right now as I'm meeting with some of the assembly people and the people over at the Senate. It is, it's still a man's world over there. People don't realize that women are just as strong as the men are. I was told that I had a brass backbone because sometimes I just say it and it comes out and it's like, uh-oh, but you have to be tough. I've had to be in a tough business world. I was in a tough, I said on every board, majority, I mean, I'm probably the only woman on most of those boards. So you have to be tough and I wish I could have done it sooner. I wish I could have done it sooner. And you mentioned taking risks. What do you mean by that? I'm putting yourself out there because putting yourself, what I'm doing right now is risky. I'm sitting and doing forums. I'm talking about things that are important to me. They're bringing up topics that I'm not familiar with. They're, you know, and people judge you and they don't know the real you. And so one of the challenges I have is my opponent is just tries to bully me and I have to sit there very quietly and not say anything and it's frustrating. But you know what, you gotta take the high road sometime and people really know you. They'll know what you're about. So it's risky because not only that, I have children and I don't want my kids to hear some of the stuff that people are saying bad about me, which is all untrue. It's just really tough. It's tough on your family. It's tough on your friendships. It's tough on your, you know, everyone. So you gotta, it's risky. And I mean, I wanna commend you. This is risky for you to do this. And I'm proud that you are doing this. I think it's fabulous because you know, this interview might open the door for you for other things and you just don't know it. So now you've tested it and do you like it and will you do it again? And so I really think it's fabulous that you and I have a relationship now that we've met a couple of times. I think you're gonna do well. You're gonna be a great business woman. You may be in an elected position, intern, ask about internships and stuff. I think you're gonna do great and I'm really proud that you've gotten through this. This is good. Well, thank you for being here today and thank you to our audience for watching. So I have learned a lot from this interview and I think some key points are that women need to get out there and just represent themselves and there's not enough representation in politics and in the government. And I think that you mentioned that going to city council meetings is a good way just to start and then you can go from there. And what, do you have any other tips? You know, I think that, you know, going out, you need to get, like I said, get yourself out there and going to, you know, clubs and going to find out about things. I mean, I know that I think Rotary clubs have a group for high school and college people. I'd make sure that you go over to the campus. And although you said you go to the JC, but you know, go over to UC Davis and go see what the different clubs are doing. The Democrats, the Republicans, the libertarians, whatever. Go see what they're doing. Join one of those clubs. I think you're gonna just say, oh my gosh, this is really, really fun. And why am I gonna warn you? Once it's in your blood, it's gonna be hard to get out of because I love every minute that I'm doing this. And like I said, I wish I would have done this years ago, but it is what it is. Well, you're here now and that's what's important. So you also mentioned, or you're running for Assemblywoman. And what are your objectives once you get, if you get into that position? Well, if I get into that position, first and foremost is that, you know, I have to make sure that I understand I'm trying to get my staff together right now. But I'm gonna be working on agriculture. I'll be working on water issues. I'll hopefully be on natural resources committee. So right now I'm kind of going through what committees I want to be on. I wanna make sure that I have some, I may or may not have any legislation the first year. It's not uncommon to do that. I think you gotta get your feet wet. You gotta understand the whole system. But you know what, I'll be very successful over there. And I can't, like I said, I can't wait to represent you and your family. The seven, the six counties in the region, I can't wait to be there. So I really appreciate this opportunity to work with you. I hope that you will feel free to come see me in the capital and sit down and we'll have this conversation again maybe for a year from now. Yeah, well thank you for giving me some more understanding of what you do and how, what you do and then what you plan on doing. And for giving me some insight on what it's like to be a woman in politics. I think that's very helpful for me and for any other woman and any actually men too, viewing to understand that and have some insight on that. So thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you so much.