April 2, 2026 • 7 mins
Paul Corvino sits down with Matt Mahan, candidate for Governor of California. Matthew William Mahan is an American politician and tech entrepreneur who has served as the mayor of San Jose, California since 2023.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Meet the Candidates with Division President of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino. Today I'm joined by Matt mahean Democrat running
for governor in California. Welcome Matt, Paul, thanks for having
me on, Thanks for coming. So let me ask you.
You are the mayor of San Jose. You've got a
good track record, You've been working hard, living up in
(00:21):
that beautiful coast up there. Why on earth would you
want to leave that and take that tremendous job of
being governor of this crazy state of California.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, Paul, I love our state. It's given me so much.
I grew up in a little farming town on the
central coast called Watsonville. Was lucky to get a good education,
have a chance to build a career here, got married,
bought a home, started a family. That California dream is
less accessible for people every day. We're struggling. And as
mayor of a big city, I see that. I talked
(00:52):
to my residents I represent, I serve a million people
in San Jose, and people were worried about how expensive
housing is, energy is the quality of our public schools
which has not gotten better? And what worries me the
most is that spending in Sacramento has gone up seventy
five percent in the last six years. Nothing seventy five
(01:12):
percent better. Most things are the same or slightly worse.
So I'm running on a reform agenda to demand that
our government do better.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Well, why is that we're spending more money and than
just spend any other state for education, with spending more
money than spend any state to solve the homeless problem.
But in both cases the more money we've spent, it
seems that the problem has gotten worse. How do we
fix that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, what I've learned as mayor of a big city
is that you have to create accountability for the outcomes.
And there just isn't enough of that right now. Sacramento's
working great for the highly organized special interests that have
armies of lobbyists and consultants up and strategists up in
Sacramento and are writing the legislation quietly vetoing legislation, backing
(01:57):
the sort of status quo candidates. And I'm running against
the establishment from within a party that needs to take
ownership of our public policy failures. We can't blame anybody
else in California for the high housing costs, high energy costs,
or the fact that states like Mississippi and Louisiana are
doing a better job of educating low income students than
(02:17):
we are here in California. We've got to own the problems,
create accountability for the outcomes, and that means saying sorry
to our friends and upsetting the highly organized interests that
don't want change.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It seems that the biggest problem in California, as I'm
talking to need the candidates, is affordability. Would you agree
that's the number one concern at this point?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I would agree. I've also done something about it as
mayor Well. The biggest driver of the high cost of
living is that housing is too expensive. And the reason
housing is too expensive in California is we don't build
enough of it. We've thrown up every possible obstacle to
building housing, slow permitting, expensive fees, rules and regulations. Everything
(02:59):
is more expensive in California because we have so aggressively
regulated everything. We seem to love process, bureaucracy. We allow
anybody to sue for anything. The only thing we don't
seem to be prioritizing is the outcome. And so in
San Jose we sped up permitting. We cut our permitting
times in half for new housing, we reduced our one
(03:21):
time fees. It doesn't do us any good to have
fees on paper that sound good, but that are blocking
us from getting the very thing we need, which is
housing that's affordable to working families. And when we removed
those barriers, we saw thousands of new homes get under construction.
So there are solutions, but you have to be willing
to think differently.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
The San Jose was recently rated the safest big city
in the nation. How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
You're right, We've reduced crime by over twenty percent since
I took office, and we didn't do in a few things.
Number One, we aggressively recruit talent from within our community
to make sure that our police force looks, comes from,
and looks like the community they so and so we're
really big on community policing and building trust. And trust
(04:04):
sounds very abstract, but the reality is when people trust
their law enforcement officers, they are more likely to report crime,
provide evidence, serve as witnesses. Safety is a community wide
effort and it starts with trust. Number Two, we have
invested in technology. We're using license plate readers, but we're
very aggressive about data privacy. We delete the data every
(04:27):
thirty days. We don't do facial recognition, but those license
plate readers have helped us be the only city in
the country.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
This is why are there resistance to that?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, I think people are rightly concerned about privacy in
the age of AI, but we've said, well, we're going
to get ahead of that by regulating it, and we're
going to be very clear about what we collect, how
long we keep it, and we won't keep anything we
don't need, and after thirty days we're going to delete
it anyway, but it's incredibly helpful in the moment for
responding more effectively doing follow up investigations. We're the only
big city in the country that has solved one hundred
(04:59):
percent of homicide. It's nearly four years running. And then
the final thing we've done is partner with our DA
and others to get serious about quality of life crime again.
And the goal here isn't to be punitive, but if
someone's dealing with addiction mental illness and that's leading them
to steal from the corner store, break windows, leave trash everywhere,
(05:20):
we need to intervene and hold them accountable for getting
the treatment that they need to turn their lives around.
In California has been way too lax and hands off
around quality of life crime, which is a disservice to
the broader community obviously, but also to that person who
needs treatment.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
At least to My next question is you've had a
great track record as far as in the homelessness situation,
where you reduce homelessness by almost a third.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We've led the state. Yeah, well, Paul Mayers are accountable,
at least they should be. You know, I take my
kids to the grocery store and every single person comes
up and wants to ask questions about what are you
doing about that tent encampment or that pothole or that
crime that just happened. So we've been laser folk on
how we deliver results. And in this case, we weren't
spending our money effectively. And that's true for the whole
(06:05):
state of California. We spent over thirty billion dollars on
homelessness and seeing the number of people living outside go up.
So what did we do. We built basic, safe, dignified shelter.
We converted old motels, we bought prefabricated modular units, tiny homes,
safe parking sites, and when it was available, we required
that people come indoors and use it. And what these
(06:28):
sites all have in common is we're not spending a
million dollars building a shiny new apartment building. We're getting
people privacy and dignity and connecting them to services. It's
all about the case management, treatment, job training, reconnecting people
with loved ones. That's what transforms lives, not building a
million dollar adore shiny new apartment building, which is how
we've been spending too much of our money.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well, thank you so much. It sounds like you've got
more of a moderate policy, or.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I call it getting getting back to basics. And my
argument is, we know there's a lot of talk of
the resistance and a lot of my fellow Democrats simply
want to blame Donald Trump for our problems. I believe
that the best resistance is delivering results and showing that
our values in California, our inclusive values are being supportive
(07:17):
of a diverse immigrant community. Being creative is really that
it works in practice. We have to prove to people
that can make their lives better.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Hey, we've been talking to Matt Mahon the mayor of
San Jose who is running as a Democrat for governor
of Rhatan, California. And I think the overall theme today
has been trust, accountability, and common sense. Well see, thank
you so much for coming on. We enjoyed having you.
(07:45):
This is Paul Corvino, Division president at iHeartMedia saying thank
you for listening to another episode to meet the candidates.
This is Meet the Candidates with Division President of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino. Today I'm joined by Matt mahean Democrat running
for governor in California. Welcome Matt, Paul, thanks for having
me on, Thanks for coming. So let me ask you.
You are the mayor of San Jose. You've got a
good track record, You've been working hard, living up in
(00:21):
that beautiful coast up there. Why on earth would you
want to leave that and take that tremendous job of
being governor of this crazy state of California.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, Paul, I love our state. It's given me so much.
I grew up in a little farming town on the
central coast called Watsonville. Was lucky to get a good education,
have a chance to build a career here, got married,
bought a home, started a family. That California dream is
less accessible for people every day. We're struggling. And as
mayor of a big city, I see that. I talked
(00:52):
to my residents I represent, I serve a million people
in San Jose, and people were worried about how expensive
housing is, energy is the quality of our public schools
which has not gotten better? And what worries me the
most is that spending in Sacramento has gone up seventy
five percent in the last six years. Nothing seventy five
(01:12):
percent better. Most things are the same or slightly worse.
So I'm running on a reform agenda to demand that
our government do better.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Well, why is that we're spending more money and than
just spend any other state for education, with spending more
money than spend any state to solve the homeless problem.
But in both cases the more money we've spent, it
seems that the problem has gotten worse. How do we
fix that?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, what I've learned as mayor of a big city
is that you have to create accountability for the outcomes.
And there just isn't enough of that right now. Sacramento's
working great for the highly organized special interests that have
armies of lobbyists and consultants up and strategists up in
Sacramento and are writing the legislation quietly vetoing legislation, backing
(01:57):
the sort of status quo candidates. And I'm running against
the establishment from within a party that needs to take
ownership of our public policy failures. We can't blame anybody
else in California for the high housing costs, high energy costs,
or the fact that states like Mississippi and Louisiana are
doing a better job of educating low income students than
(02:17):
we are here in California. We've got to own the problems,
create accountability for the outcomes, and that means saying sorry
to our friends and upsetting the highly organized interests that
don't want change.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It seems that the biggest problem in California, as I'm
talking to need the candidates, is affordability. Would you agree
that's the number one concern at this point?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I would agree. I've also done something about it as
mayor Well. The biggest driver of the high cost of
living is that housing is too expensive. And the reason
housing is too expensive in California is we don't build
enough of it. We've thrown up every possible obstacle to
building housing, slow permitting, expensive fees, rules and regulations. Everything
(02:59):
is more expensive in California because we have so aggressively
regulated everything. We seem to love process, bureaucracy. We allow
anybody to sue for anything. The only thing we don't
seem to be prioritizing is the outcome. And so in
San Jose we sped up permitting. We cut our permitting
times in half for new housing, we reduced our one
(03:21):
time fees. It doesn't do us any good to have
fees on paper that sound good, but that are blocking
us from getting the very thing we need, which is
housing that's affordable to working families. And when we removed
those barriers, we saw thousands of new homes get under construction.
So there are solutions, but you have to be willing
to think differently.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
The San Jose was recently rated the safest big city
in the nation. How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
You're right, We've reduced crime by over twenty percent since
I took office, and we didn't do in a few things.
Number One, we aggressively recruit talent from within our community
to make sure that our police force looks, comes from,
and looks like the community they so and so we're
really big on community policing and building trust. And trust
(04:04):
sounds very abstract, but the reality is when people trust
their law enforcement officers, they are more likely to report crime,
provide evidence, serve as witnesses. Safety is a community wide
effort and it starts with trust. Number Two, we have
invested in technology. We're using license plate readers, but we're
very aggressive about data privacy. We delete the data every
(04:27):
thirty days. We don't do facial recognition, but those license
plate readers have helped us be the only city in
the country.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
This is why are there resistance to that?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, I think people are rightly concerned about privacy in
the age of AI, but we've said, well, we're going
to get ahead of that by regulating it, and we're
going to be very clear about what we collect, how
long we keep it, and we won't keep anything we
don't need, and after thirty days we're going to delete
it anyway, but it's incredibly helpful in the moment for
responding more effectively doing follow up investigations. We're the only
big city in the country that has solved one hundred
(04:59):
percent of homicide. It's nearly four years running. And then
the final thing we've done is partner with our DA
and others to get serious about quality of life crime again.
And the goal here isn't to be punitive, but if
someone's dealing with addiction mental illness and that's leading them
to steal from the corner store, break windows, leave trash everywhere,
(05:20):
we need to intervene and hold them accountable for getting
the treatment that they need to turn their lives around.
In California has been way too lax and hands off
around quality of life crime, which is a disservice to
the broader community obviously, but also to that person who
needs treatment.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
At least to My next question is you've had a
great track record as far as in the homelessness situation,
where you reduce homelessness by almost a third.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We've led the state. Yeah, well, Paul Mayers are accountable,
at least they should be. You know, I take my
kids to the grocery store and every single person comes
up and wants to ask questions about what are you
doing about that tent encampment or that pothole or that
crime that just happened. So we've been laser folk on
how we deliver results. And in this case, we weren't
spending our money effectively. And that's true for the whole
(06:05):
state of California. We spent over thirty billion dollars on
homelessness and seeing the number of people living outside go up.
So what did we do. We built basic, safe, dignified shelter.
We converted old motels, we bought prefabricated modular units, tiny homes,
safe parking sites, and when it was available, we required
that people come indoors and use it. And what these
(06:28):
sites all have in common is we're not spending a
million dollars building a shiny new apartment building. We're getting
people privacy and dignity and connecting them to services. It's
all about the case management, treatment, job training, reconnecting people
with loved ones. That's what transforms lives, not building a
million dollar adore shiny new apartment building, which is how
we've been spending too much of our money.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Well, thank you so much. It sounds like you've got
more of a moderate policy, or.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I call it getting getting back to basics. And my
argument is, we know there's a lot of talk of
the resistance and a lot of my fellow Democrats simply
want to blame Donald Trump for our problems. I believe
that the best resistance is delivering results and showing that
our values in California, our inclusive values are being supportive
(07:17):
of a diverse immigrant community. Being creative is really that
it works in practice. We have to prove to people
that can make their lives better.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Hey, we've been talking to Matt Mahon the mayor of
San Jose who is running as a Democrat for governor
of Rhatan, California. And I think the overall theme today
has been trust, accountability, and common sense. Well see, thank
you so much for coming on. We enjoyed having you.
(07:45):
This is Paul Corvino, Division president at iHeartMedia saying thank
you for listening to another episode to meet the candidates.
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