myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Meet the Candidate: Manuel Magpapian, Democratic County Central Committee for the 44th Assembly District
Every once in a while, you meet someone whose passion for change is so intense, it's contagious. That's the vibe I got when chatting with Manuel Magpapian, an attorney turned political aspirant with eyes set on the Democratic County Central Committee for the 44th Assembly District. Manuel's story isn't just about a leap from law to local politics; it's a testament to the power of transformation and the belief that one can indeed be the change they wish to see.
Strap in as we navigate the realities of political campaigning with Manuel, offering a candid look at the grueling decision-making process candidates endure and the crucial, yet often underestimated, impact of local party operations. We confront the challenges independent candidates face and dissect the roles that shape our justice system, like judges, through the lens of a voter. The conversation extends beyond the ballot to the core issues that Californians grapple with daily, from the struggles of small businesses to the pressing matter of climate action. Manuel's insight into these topics isn't just informative; it's a rallying cry for a more inclusive and innovative approach to governance.
As you listen to Manuel's journey and his unwavering dedication to community representation, you'll find yourself rooting for the underdog. His grassroots campaign's emphasis on direct voter engagement and sustainable practices is indeed the fresh approach many claim to seek in politics. Even as an independent candidate without the deep pockets of major funding, Manuel's vision for a transparent and responsive Democratic Party highlights the potency of conviction and the impact of grassroots mobilization. Whether you're a resident of the 44th Assembly District or simply someone who cherishes the democratic process, Manuel McPopion's story is a reminder that the power to influence change often begins with the courage to step forward.
www.linktr.ee/magpapian2024
Website: magpapian2024.com
For fundraising:
https://www.efundraisingconnections.com/c/ManuelMagpapian/
My Burbank Talks presents another episode of Meet the Candidate, the show where we invite anyone appearing on the Burbank ballot in the 2024 election to join us here and give our listeners a chance to learn about their background and the issues important to them. Now let's join our podcast.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, craig Sherwood here with you once again and we have a new type of podcast we're doing, since it's the election season. It's just not winter season or spring season coming up, it's the election season and we have a March 5th coming up, which is super Tuesday, and now California, since they've moved their date up to March, is part of the super Tuesday festivities. So instead of having our usual June elections, it kind of really meant nothing nationally at that time, but I still don't expect to see any candidates nationally showing up to California to stump the things here. But our first podcast and I think that you're going to find this one interesting because I am and I'm sure you're going to have the same questions that I will probably have. So you think of them and I'll ask them. But how was this Manuel McPopion? How do you know that name? You did, okay, mcpopion McPopion.
Speaker 3:It's a learning process.
Speaker 2:It's a popping and well, I kind of wrote your bio here. You're born here in Los Angeles. Okay, you have a bachelor's in political science, the University of California, santa Barbara, and you have a Juris doctor in 2016 from Western State College of Law. You became an attorney. I did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, unfortunately. No, I'm kidding. Why are all?
Speaker 2:politicians, attorneys.
Speaker 3:That's a good question. I think it's. I could just give you my personal opinion on it is, which is that I think lawyers for the most part attorneys are always involved in the law one way or the other. They like policy, they like talking about policy, they like talking about law, and whether it's constitutional or not, and I think that on its own kind of creates kind of an interest in politics as well, because at the end of the day, politics is a bunch of politicians kind of coming up. What's the best policy that we could come up with when it comes to, you know, everyday issues. You know every kind of situation that we deal with on a daily basis. Politicians come up with the law, and the law is what we, as attorney, study. So I think it's like a natural match, made in heaven for us, I guess.
Speaker 2:Well, makes perfect sense. Now, what you're running for, what you're going to be in the ballot for this is the part that I find interesting. You're running for Democratic County Central Committee, for the LA County Democratic Party, for the 44th Assembly District. It doesn't roll off the tongue.
Speaker 2:It does not roll off the tongue. I'm not going to, I'm not going from mayor or congress, I'm going through others which I have never. I gotta be honest. I've never heard of it, and we're gonna get into that in a second. We're gonna get into this whole thing in a second, but first let's go back. Let's go back to the video. You're a young guy, you're in Los Angeles. We have my I love our dog Dodger here, wonderful dog Dodger.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to join us with the squeaky ball. And so you're a young kid in Los Angeles. Where was your first inclination? To either go into law or into politics?
Speaker 3:Well, politics was more of a thing that I kind of was infatuated with since I was a kid. The one thing that I could tell you is, since I was like eight years old, I remember listening to the president of the United States, bill Clinton, give a give an address to the nation, and I don't know, I was just hooked. There was something about politics to me that makes things just really interesting. I don't know about anybody else, but I always found it fascinating how politicians work behind the scenes and how they come up with policies.
Speaker 2:Days back in high school you were involved in politics there, did you run the office in high school or whatever.
Speaker 3:Okay, so after high schools, when I kind of took a hiatus, sort of, from politics. The only time that I was really into politics around that time was the 2004 presidential election. I was in 10th grade I think ninth or 10th grade and that was John Kerry versus George W Bush and that was the first time that I had like a skin in the game, I thought because I was a John Kerry supporter and I wanted him to win and I didn't like the Bush administration and that was one of the early times of me actually having a skin in the game and actually wanting someone to win. I didn't run for anything in high school. I don't know why. I think it's primarily because I was just kind of a naturally shy kid at the time and I was kind of too shy to run for something and I don't know what it is. But back then you make the little posters in the world Right.
Speaker 2:Then there's that one day where you have to go up and make a speech for the whole student body Right, and I was terrified all the time.
Speaker 3:So I thought about it because my friend ran my really close friend ran for president of the school student body and I thought about it. But I didn't think I was popular enough to be able to give him a boost up on his ticket. You know what I mean. So I kind of was thinking politically back then on my own terms and I guess it was just I didn't think I had the high school popularity to boost him into that seat so I didn't really run for anything and I never really thought about running for anything until I want to see the last three or four years. I want to say is when I started really thinking about it. Until then I was just infatuated with the subject of politics. I just always have been, ever since I was a kid. I've always liked it. I've always thought it was interesting reading up on it. It was always the federal politics that was always the most fascinating, but lately local politics has been just as interesting, if anything more dramatic than anything that I've seen in the federal stage.
Speaker 2:So I don't know if it's more dramatic than you're seeing right now with our. Well, I guess you're right because of what's going on with the presidential race.
Speaker 3:But in general, whenever you focus on, let's say, burbank or Gondale, for example, where I'm from, it's really fascinating to see how these players work and you know them firsthand. It's not like Trump or Biden where you don't know who they are. You never meet them Like you see these people on a daily basis and you see how they work behind the scenes on camera and all that stuff, and I find that interesting too. When it comes to law, it was really a very simple decision. I went into community college in Gondale and I kind of didn't know what to do at the time. I knew I was bad at math and I knew I was bad at science. So I knew anything math and science related was out. So anything doctor related was probably out too. So I kind of thought you know what's next? What is there left for me to do? And I kind of always liked the law as well. So I kind of just naturally gravitated towards pre-law kind of stuff, so that one was a lot easier and quicker of a decision for me.
Speaker 2:Once you got into the law, you're thinking well, this is a good step into politics then too. Or when did the politics, when did the two start co-mingling and merged together?
Speaker 3:The two started merging for me. After I passed the bar exam and after I got a job as an attorney for the first time, I found myself seeing that I had a lot of free time on my hands after going to work, when before I was like studying and reading and doing all the stuff. What type of law did you practice when I first? My very first job was mortgage defense. Mortgage law defense.
Speaker 2:Was that exciting?
Speaker 3:And it was not exciting at all, but it was like very rewarding when you did it correctly. The issue is that it was called the homeowner's middle of the rights. I think it's still around, although they had a time expiration at the time. It was supposed to help homeowners prevent them from falling into mortgage.
Speaker 3:Falling into what do you call it being late on your mortgage, for example, and not losing your home, for example, because of the recession, that happened, the faulting or something, especially when a single family, or maybe a single parent, it's a very morally good thing to do because you're basically taking on banks, but at the end of the day, what ultimately happened was that this law that they passed in California was really weak and it didn't really have too much teeth to kind of help people who are late on their mortgage payments. So it wasn't as rewarding, because 99% of the time they would basically lose out on the thing.
Speaker 2:Because the banks have paid a lot of money to lawyers at the politicians where the poor little homeowner doesn't.
Speaker 3:So you guess who's gonna win those battles after making laws, which is why those laws always have that kind of expiration date to it. It's never set in stone forever. It's gonna be like, okay, we'll pass this law for a certain amount of time and then it expires, and after that I kind of didn't like what I was doing. So I decided to switch to insurance defense kind of area. I was working as an attorney at a boutique law firm that did subrogation, which is basically the individual gets into an accident, let's say, and the insurance company has to pay out a certain amount. They try to get that money back because at the end of the day it's for their insurance to get it back. It's not very cool. Dinner time talk conversation.
Speaker 2:But it paid the bills. Basically it's necessary though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's necessary work. Yeah, and after that I switched to insurance defense, again for state farm and house council for state farm, and now I'm at in house council for all state insurance.
Speaker 2:Okay, now you went to the dark side and joined the corporate guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been corporate now.
Speaker 2:Now you're the guy that's evicting some poor little house all the time, right now.
Speaker 3:Boy oh boy.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean you have to have lawyers on both sides.
Speaker 3:There's no doubt about it. Right, and insurance defense actually helps those insured as well, because the insured has to pay out money and if it's not their fault, they should be able to get that money back, which is something that does help the individual out as well. So in a way that is what I have been doing and in a way it is a more moral thing to do. But during this time I wanna say after my first job I found myself having a lot of free time on my hands. I didn't know what to do exactly. I guess most people kinda just enjoy not doing much and kinda just sitting back, but I kinda got more involved in the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it says here. You became an executive board member for the YWCA Glendale in Pasadena, the vice president of the Glendale Parks and Open Space Foundation, president of the Southern California Armenian Democrats and the longtime member supporter of the American Armenian National Committee of America. So you are involved in a lot of different areas. You know what about politics? I mean, is this your first run at politics?
Speaker 3:It is. It's the first run at politics. It's also the first time I've ever ran a campaign. Before I've been involved in campaigns as phone banking and stuff Like today I did some phone banking, for example but it's the first time I'm actually running a campaign and I gotta be honest, I thought it was gonna be. I don't wanna sound like I'm cocky or conceited or anything, but I actually really enjoy doing this. Like it's not as difficult as I thought it was. The difficult part is raising money honestly.
Speaker 2:That's the hard part in my opinion. I've heard every candidate say that. You know, you watch the circus on, you know it's always about making those phone calls, everything else.
Speaker 3:It's weird. It's a weird experience because I was always raised with a very old school kind of conservative mindset of like, hey, like you handle your own business, you know all this stuff. But being in politics, you need to ask money from people to see if they would donate to your campaign and at the end of the day, it's and I keep saying this to people it's an investment in the community. It's not going into my pocket, you know what I mean. It's going into the campaign so we can get the right people elected into office. And that's what I keep reminding people, because it is a weird thing to do, you know, like asking people to donate money to something, but hopefully it's for a cause that they would want to see succeed.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest with you. I mean I think it's a tough thing to do. And then what happens? One guy says okay, here I'm going to give you $20,000 or something or $50,000. And they give it to you and you do well, and they get elected and they come to you and say you know, I kind of need something. That's going to be. I think every politician has to go through that and that's going to be. You know, that's going to be a tough day for you when that comes up, you know. And you have to tell him I don't know if I support that or not. Right, right right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:That's another thing about politics that I haven't seen yet and hopefully I have the privilege of seeing that firsthand after March 5th.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean that is another thing too, because at the end of the day, I think every candidate and politician kind of goes through the same thing, because they all run. I think 99% of them I don't want to say all, but 99% of them run for a good reason. They want to run because they want to help the community, because someone's running for you ran for Burbank City Council because you wanted to help the city, like it wasn't because, you know, I want the title or whatever. So I think most people run for a good reason. But once they get in there, I assume they realize you know there are certain ways of doing things. You need to vote for these things sometimes because you need to they're favorite, to vote on something else in the future, even though you originally said you wouldn't have voted for it, like there's a lot of that stuff going on in general and I think that's a really difficult thing, but it's also something that I think is inevitable in politics, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're the teacher and the student, all right. Okay, and we're going to talk about what you're running for here, and once again, it's the Democratic County Central Committee, which, okay, we're okay, democratic County. What is that area encompass?
Speaker 3:So the Central Committee is the official governing body of the LA County Democratic Party, la County. Okay, so this is an LA County Democratic Party election. It's for registered Democrats in various districts and ours is Assembly District 44.
Speaker 2:Okay, so is there a Democratic Central Committee for California Senate District? It's Assembly Districts, no, but is there one for the Senate District? I don't believe so, or is it?
Speaker 3:they only use Assembly Districts. They use Assembly Districts in LA County. That's how they decide.
Speaker 2:So it could be a Senate District in a different county then.
Speaker 3:If a different county's Democratic Party has it that way, that's probably yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it could be, but they don't have both in the same county.
Speaker 3:It's either one or the other. It's usually by Assembly, because Assembly is more. It's like the House of Representatives, it's more of a popular population kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Right now we have Laura Friedman, who's our Assembly person, here in the 44th, and now she's running for Congress, of course, and our Mayor's going for her seat, which we'll have him on at podcast very soon. But my uh, okay, so what exactly does this committee do? What? What it would you know? And, okay, start with, this is on the ballot. This is on the Democratic ballot, right ballot. You know, I see that we don't have which one about everybody gets, because I'm independent, I don't get this on my ballot. I didn't know about it, right, so why? Okay, so this is on your ballot. So when you see your ballot, you're gonna, you're gonna see. It's kind of like voting for judges. You see the.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna go there all the time and you know I don't. How do I know what this judge has done or what you know it's?
Speaker 3:you know I Alexa, to flip the coin for you right, right, you just picked the best sounding name or something, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you feel terrible because you, I mean somebody really wants this position and you're just, you know E meaning mighty well, yeah, so well, that's.
Speaker 3:The thing is that this, this area of the ballot for those who are registered Democrats Of, when it comes to Central Committee, depending on which district they're in, the part of the ballot that this is in, I call. I call this area no man's land of the ballot. This is the area that you talked about, where there's a bunch of names, a bunch of seats. You have no idea who's who or what's what. You had no idea. You could even vote for judges like this. That's a lot where a lot of People like, hey, I didn't know yet, at the vote for judges like, oh, that's how it is in California, yeah, so it's. This is in the no man's land area of the ballot. It's obviously not city, council or assembly or all this stuff, and every assembly district in LA County has their own election of it and you have you have seven votes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so there are seven seats are open. There's there seven seats open? How many are on the committee all together? Is it all is?
Speaker 3:it seven. It's seven in each assembly district that are elected.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it's not like seven this election and it'll be eight the next election seven. It's all. Seven are for real action.
Speaker 3:The only exception I think that I've read about is that if, for whatever reason, they don't have enough people running and there's only like Five people running or whatever, then I don't I'm not sure what exactly happens. I assume they get it and then they don't have any and then the rest are like appointed. But yes, it's seven seats and you have seven votes In this area. How many people are running right now? Ten total in 44th assembly district, including me. Okay, so good odds, but there is a slate running 70% chance, right, 70% chance but there is a slate running and a slate includes seven individuals who are running together and pooling their resources together To get those seven seats, which is common.
Speaker 2:Are you on that?
Speaker 3:slate, I'm not. Oh, you're the outsider. The outside, I like that yeah, I'm the outsider looking in and honestly, that's how I've always been all my life. I've always kind of been on the outside looking in. I've never really been given this inside look.
Speaker 2:I agree, I don't like being the, I don't like conforming. You know, I'd rather be the, a personality and the guy who kind of rocks the boat a little bit and and you know, that's kind of I'm the news business, you know, and I do my editorials.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like you know I have an opinion and I have. Now I have a platform for it, right, so, um, so what? Okay, so you? I don't think I would. I never pay attention those slates. To tell you the truth, I don't think I go for the person. I don't even think about these slates that you know. We recommend you for these people. I don't care who you recommend. Yeah, why one of them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, the good thing is that for this election for central committee, in my Experience and from what I've seen in the past, it's usually there are slates running usually, but the result isn't always all the people from that slate. It's different from a Dems which I'm sure you've heard of, which is similar, which is like a bunch of people running as a slate for delegate for a California Democratic Party delegate. That one the slate usually wins. Why? Because the assembly members usually behind their assembly slate. They want to make sure that their slumby assembly slate wins in this situation. There's no real backers on any of the slates that I've seen. It's more or so like individuals kind of coming together and putting Slate forward for people to vote for is this a runoff situation or is this one time only, on March 5th?
Speaker 3:It's one time March 5th, yep. And the thing is is that a lot of people are still kind of not sure or not 100% knowing that there's an election coming up in March, because a lot of them are like, oh, you know, it's in June or whatever. No, it's in March this year because, like they don't, they don't they sometimes they don't know that it's like the presidential primaries faster and sooner and marches around the corner already.
Speaker 2:So there are, there are so many people who don't know so much about so many things. You know, they just. You know we all my Ross, my partner and I always say you know what people in Burbank, if they turn their light, switch on and their sweet people comes every week and picks up their trash to the trash guy, they're happy, they don't care how the satchels is made or how it works, right. So, yeah, a lot of people just don't pay attention To details like that. You know, yeah, okay. So let me ask you this now. Okay, nice job, great job. You got elected. Here we go. What does this committee do?
Speaker 3:Okay, what do you do? That's a good question. So, like I indicated, it's the official governing body or Legislating arm of the LA County Democratic Party. They vote on procedural stuff, obviously, but they also vote on endorsements of candidates. For example, they determine the direction that the party is gonna go in in the future. They determine who is the best candidate to be elected for a certain offices, like mayor or Any of these elections that you see right now. They're all going and trying to get the LA County Democratic Party's endorsement and the central committee Votes for endorsement as well.
Speaker 3:So obviously, by determining that, you can kind of put together that the LA County Democratic Party Essentially dictates what the future of this party is gonna look like.
Speaker 3:You know, I know a lot of people who aren't registered Democrats, for example, and they all come up and say, oh, that's great, but like I'm not a Democrat, so why should I really care about this kind of party position that I don't even really have a vote for?
Speaker 3:And I guess my response to that would be like this is the party's LA County Democratic Party's probably the most powerful Political entity I think local party entity in the nation because they represent about three to four million registered Democrats and they have such a strong and big group of Individuals and they have so much power behind them that one endorsement from this organization can dictate the future of an election. So I think it's important because, obviously, the Democratic Party is something that we're gonna deal with one way or another. If you are a Democrat, great. If you're not, you're gonna deal with this party directly or indirectly because, whether you like it or not, la County is More or less controlled by this party. They are overwhelmingly Democrats and their candidates Essentially get supported and endorsed and elected into various seats across the county and we want to make sure that this party is going to represent everybody. We want to make sure that this party is gonna be what's?
Speaker 2:I'm a representative, it is there. Is there a Republican Counterpart?
Speaker 3:to this.
Speaker 2:There is, yeah, but it's not as popular, because obviously and they vote for that and everything else on their ballots. Yeah, okay, so there's an equivalent.
Speaker 3:Have their own. Yeah, they have their equivalent. But the LA County Democratic Party is obviously much, much, much more powerful.
Speaker 2:I think we're 70% Democratic.
Speaker 3:It's, it's, it's like that everywhere. I don't have the numbers in Glendale, but Glendale is about the same and LA County in general is just Overwhelmingly Democrat and whether you like the Democrats or or don't like the Democrats, or whatever, I mean, this is your chance to hopefully change the Democratic Party, to elect the right people so we could make sure that the Democratic Party works for everybody, to help, helps workers, help small businesses, try to Stay afloat and succeed. All of these issues are really important, obviously, and we need to make sure that the right people get elected so we can ensure that this party Whether you are Democrat or not Represent as many people as possible, so that we could steer this party and, by steering the party, steering the county in the right direction.
Speaker 2:Is this a term limit situation when you get two terms if you make it on this, or is it not a Term not situation?
Speaker 3:That's a good question. I'm not sure if there are term limits on this. I would have to check that and get back to you but it's like a four-year. It's a four-year term, basically, Okay. The last one was in 2020.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, once again, nice job. You made it and, yeah, you did it. What are you now? What's your? What do you want to do? What do you? I mean, what are you going to bring to this? What's your ideas? I mean you're not going to just say, okay, let's get around and talk about things. You're going to have some visions, you're going to have some a purpose. You know where are you looking at. You know making a difference.
Speaker 3:That's also a very good question. Honestly, one of the biggest things that I'm passionate about. Obviously, our county has a lot of problems with it.
Speaker 3:Obviously, housing is a major issue.
Speaker 3:Everybody around my age I'm 35 years old everybody around my age is looking to get a house and get started.
Speaker 3:You know, like just like our parents told us was going to be the case and you know they haven't been able to do that and I think part of the reason is because our leadership on all levels not just in city council but also in party positions like the one I'm running for they've more or less failed us because they haven't really focused on housing as a problem. They haven't focused on what drives prices up. They haven't focused on what they should do and invest in to be able to increase housing so we could drive the price down and increase supply. So obviously, housing is an important issue, homeless is an important issue, climate change is an important issue. But the biggest thing for me, I think, is helping small businesses and helping workers. I don't know about you, but when you walk around, let's say Burbank or Gwendoil, you see these mom and pop shops like we were just talking about Priscilla's coffee right around the corner, which is my favorite coffee shop.
Speaker 3:It's been around a long time, it's been around a long time, and the thing is is that if you go into those coffee shops, you go into those mom and pop shops and you ask them about the Democratic Party, for example, just as an experiment, more often than not I think you're probably gonna get a scoff, you're probably gonna get eye rolls. Maybe you'll get someone who supports them, but for the most part, when it comes to small businesses, it feels like the party has turned their back on small businesses. It feels like the party has turned their back on workers as well, and I think that one of the biggest things that I'd like to see more of is for the party to be able to create an environment for small businesses to prosper and to be able to do better, and I think that's one thing that just nobody's talking about. No one around in the Democratic Party is talking about.
Speaker 3:How do we help the small businesses? How do we make sure that these mom and pop shops stay up and they don't get closed down by these billion dollar conglomerates and faceless corporations? How do we help the workers and be able to get a good wage and with good benefits and all the stuff? That's one of the important things that I wanna make sure that the party fights for as well, because we've come a long way from where the Democratic Party used to be in Los Angeles and in California in general, but we still have a long way to go to make sure that this party fights for everybody, including the working class and including the small business owners, and it's something that I would like to push more of in this party, because we don't really hear too much about small businesses in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, if you, I agree with you. You're saying now I agree with wages too. I think we have wages federally. They're way too low, yeah, they are. As you raise the wages, you're gonna raise the cost of living and that's gonna become make it more expensive. It's gonna be. Yeah, and you're talking about housing and stuff, and in Burrwick we're dealing with a couple of state bills SB 35, sb 9, that have taken away our control in our city to control how housing, where housing goes and how, you know, they've actually destroyed our ranch or neighborhood, you know, with these projects. Now they've corrected it since, but dam just still been done. But here's my they want these projects made, they make us do it, but then they only have a 10% allocation for low income housing of these projects so they can come in and they can make you know, 400 huge units and only 40 have to be low income. So how are they really solving the, you know, for low income? They're not doing it. So I think our legislators are kind of failing us in that regard.
Speaker 3:They are, and it's not just legislators, it's the party as well. So that's the thing that I also wanted to hammer home is that a lot of people like I grew up in a conservative family, for example. I'm a very Republican family, I'm the political black sheep of the family and the thing is is that they always bring this up and, honestly, they're not wrong about that Like there are issues with the Democratic Party and a lot of people don't really-.
Speaker 2:Well, this is every party. It's not you, it's every party?
Speaker 3:yeah, but right now, the Democratic Party is the party that's the most dominant in the area, and the thing is is that the party itself has a lot of issues that it needs to correct, and I'm hoping to be one of those individuals to be able to at least stir the pot and be able to have people think about what we can do with this party to make sure that it represents everybody, regardless of where they stand about some of these issues, because my parents have always told me that not every issue is gonna be resolved by just one ideology. You know what I mean. Like there's gonna be some things that you're gonna agree on with the progressives, there're gonna be some things you're gonna agree on with moderates, and so on, and there needs to be a balance.
Speaker 3:And there needs to be somewhere in the middle where you're gonna be able to create better legislation and create better bills to be able to help the everyday average Californian and Angelino.
Speaker 2:Let's get back to your kind of your platform small businesses and stuff. It's great you wanna help small, and I agree. I mean as a small business. Every year I've gotta send an $800 check to the state. Right, there's a franchise tax board, even though I don't owe any taxes, but I gotta send them $800 a year and they don't do a thing for me. But there's $800 out of you know which. I can't pay riders now. So I understand you wanna help, but what can you do? What are specific steps you can do to help these businesses? You know, what kind of policies can you put in place that's gonna help small businesses to excel?
Speaker 3:Well, the thing is is that the LA County Democratic Party and their Central Committee has the ability to adopt resolutions as part of their party platform.
Speaker 3:So, for instance, we can, whatever situation where there's regulation that doesn't need to be there anymore, we as a Democratic Party in LA County can advocate to have people abolish it or replace it with something else, cause I've always kind of believed that just because we're Democrats doesn't mean we're always gonna be in favor of regulation.
Speaker 3:If there's gonna be regulation that doesn't work or doesn't work out anymore, it's perfectly acceptable to get rid of it. So, obviously there's a lot of things that needs to be done on the legislative level, but one of the things that I would like to do more of is to provide some kind of more relief and grants towards small businesses so they could be able to stay afloat, be able to pay their wages, their employees' wages, be able to make ends meet to a point where they can continue to thrive and succeed. And I would also like to ensure that Armenian American business owners also are able to get some of these benefits that are provided by the government to minorities and to other minorities as well. Because we're considered Caucasian, we don't get as much of the benefits that we would get for small businesses. So I would like to expand that as well and I think that would help a lot of people who have small businesses who are able to help make their business stay afloat and hopefully eventually prosper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny because you're looking at tax relief and stuff. I think most small businesses are kind of in our situation too. We're not paying that much in taxes to start with. We don't make that much money, so our tax bill is not very hard Actually $800 more than I pay at any other time. So when you take it now, we're all gonna decrease it by 20%. You're talking about maybe $50 or something, and to me that's not much of a help. So I think you have to come with policies that are going to our grants, especially because grants do help. I got a couple grants during COVID.
Speaker 3:It helped our business. It really helped a lot of business. Stay afloat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was able to pay my writers. We couldn't shut down.
Speaker 3:news is still the news, right and news obviously is probably the D most important small business in my opinion, because at the end of the day, you're going through the stories, you're trying to make sure that people are informed. These are really important things and we want to make sure that all small businesses are able to prosper at the end of the day, and I hope this message gets across that I have always believed this to be a progressive issue. I've never believed that conservative viewpoint is the small business. I've always thought that small businesses and the Democratic Party have always gone hand in hand At least they should have. It's just it kind of feels like we've turned our back on them and we haven't really done as much to help small businesses as much as I would like to see more of.
Speaker 3:And, of course, there's other issues as well that are important as well, like the climate emergencies, also really, really important. Obviously, we're not going to be able to have a planet anymore if we don't actually take care of it. It's incredibly important to leave a habitable planet to our children or grandchildren, and obviously I'm also in favor of investing in green technology and energy so we can eventually wean ourselves off of oil. Now how fast that can happen, that's to be discussed, I suppose because we do have California laws that have put a time limit on some of this Governor wants to have all electric vehicles sold by another 10 years, I think, or whatever.
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting that sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Here's my point is now we're building a lot of more housing and everything else and all the things we're doing, and everybody's going to have electric cars, right, okay, I guess that's where it's going to go. So all of a sudden, now you've got, how are you going to charge all these cars? Our infrastructure is not set up for that. It's just not set up for that. And all these buildings that have multiple units and people have multiple cars it's just not set up for that. I think they're overlooking the fact that we're all going to have cars and nobody's going to be able to drive because we can't plug them in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it's interesting how often this issue comes up for me. Actually, I've had a lot of family members who are Republican who have brought this up numerous times and honestly I welcome the idea of eventually just everybody having an electric car. Like that sounds great for the environment and everything Is that thing.
Speaker 2:Your committee needs to account for your platform to look into.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but at the same time, what we should look into is more of a balancing act of how long this can take and how we can develop our infrastructure to be able to handle having everybody switch to green electric cars. Because that is a good question and it is a good issue that we should all discuss is that, while I'm sure we all would love for electric cars to, happen.
Speaker 3:I'm in favor of it 100% and I'm really glad that the governor has something like that. But I am wondering how fast can that happen, and can we tinker with the time a little bit to make sure that our infrastructure is up to date?
Speaker 2:As you're looking at several thousand dollars for each house to put a charging station in their house, and once again, that's more money. And then the part that I think they haven't they want to talk about sustainability and all those things. Where are all these batteries gonna go when they're used up? That's a lot of battery and acid and everything else.
Speaker 2:And where are all these batteries, that solar things that need charging, all these batteries expire after 10, 15 years and all of a sudden now we're gonna have huge areas of dead batteries, which acid and they're leaking to the ground, to the ground.
Speaker 3:I mean, that could be a whole new super fun situation, you know, yeah, well, yeah, I mean we need to be able to come up with an answer for all of these issues that are gonna come up inevitably, and hopefully that's something that we can do at the Central Committee, to be able to create this platform so that we can guide policymakers in the right direction, cause that is something that we can do, and I mean I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:I think you're being a younger guy and everything else. I think you understand the issues, the coming issues. I think sometimes our politicians have gotten a little out of touch because of their age and the way technology's changed and everything else. And I think having a younger footprint I know our city council right now is younger overall and it seems to be all of a sudden a little more responsive and a little more. They're just not stuffed up anymore.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's Burbank City Council is a good one. Honestly. I come from Glendale and I like my city council too because it is getting younger. We'll see what happens in this election coming up, but it is, in general in the last elections, getting younger. So I agree, I think obviously our city council should look like the community, like it should be people who are of different backgrounds and different age groups, because we need as much representation as possible, and I mean I think that it's a great thing to see so many young people running for office, like I've always kind of was hoping and looking forward to that for a long time and I'm happy to see that finally happen. And in Burbank I know a few of them of the city council members and they're all good people. So I think you got a good city council here.
Speaker 2:So why did you decide to run for I mean number one, like I say, not a very popular office, not a very well known office. How did you find it and why did you decide? This is where you wanted to run and start your journey.
Speaker 3:Well, it's actually a position that I was looking for for a while now.
Speaker 3:I remember that time when I felt like I had a lot of time on my hands and I was volunteering here and there.
Speaker 3:I was looking for, you know, getting involved politically as well, and I was told about this position back I want to say like 2019 or something and I was told that it's an elective position that Democrats vote for and it's on the ballot, so you should think about running for it. That was a while ago and I thought about it, but I never really kind of pulled the trigger. But I've been seeing I don't know the way the party's been working and I've been seeing the way people elected officials have been like over the last couple of years or so and I've been seeing all of these issues that have been plaguing our community for so long. I felt like the time was right to pull the trigger on it and to run for something like this. And it is technically a small election in the sense that now no one really talks about it and knows about it very much, but a lot of people vote for it because it's all of the 44th assembly district registered Democrats who could vote for it.
Speaker 2:It's a large area.
Speaker 3:So it's a large area for people to run in as like a no name nobody like myself and other people were running and it's interesting and it's stop provoking, because I do want to represent my community as best as I can and I want to be able to represent my community and I've always had this feeling that I feel like I should give back to my community more, and I feel like the best way to do that is to get involved politically. In my opinion, it's where change happens, it's where change begins, and it starts from the bottom up. It starts from a grassroots movement that I hope to be able to replicate from people that I've looked up to as mentors in the past. So it's just like something that I've looked at for a while and I just felt like the time was right to pull the trigger, because there's just so many issues going on that I would like to see resolved and, at the end of the day, that's what running for office is.
Speaker 3:Inside you, there's something that kind of tells you something's not right. No one else is gonna do this, you're gonna have to do this yourself, and I've always been an outsider. I've always been the kind of guy who nobody gave too much of a chance to. So not being on a slate is fine. I know the people on the slate. They're all good people too, and it is part of the course of so far my career is to be from the outside, looking in and trying to find the way in, I guess.
Speaker 2:It's easy to sit on the outside and complain but to actually say you know what? I don't want to do something about it. I respect that position because that's what kind of right you have. The news business a little bit too. I try to make a difference. When I can, I at least point things out and be kind of a watchdog at times and highlight things that should be highlighted. So I respect you for wanting to get involved in that.
Speaker 3:Thank you I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Now are these. Would you ever become like a delegate, then, for the convention too? Is that, are you?
Speaker 3:a habit. Yeah, I'm currently a delegate for Laura Friedman at the California Democratic Convention, who has endorsed my campaign. So I'm really, what about nationally? Nationally, I would love to. Yeah, I don't know how they do that nationally. I assume that the members of Congress are able to appoint delegates for certain things. That would be great, but I would have to hope for Laura Friedman to pull through, which I have a feeling she'll do a good job. We'll see what happens in March. But yeah, I mean, I'm already a California Democratic Convention delegate and that was actually fun too.
Speaker 3:I went in early this year. It was in Los Angeles, in downtown LA, and in November was in Sacramento and I enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun. It was like Disneyland for me. You know, it's like it's political Disneyland for a lot of us and it's like Sacramento is a cool city, like it's a very quaint little town and it has like a pretty cool kind of downtown area with a bunch of bars and stuff. So it's just nice to see a bunch of politicians just drinking and talking about stuff.
Speaker 2:Actually the thing that's really on their minds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, just get them to start drinking some whiskey.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what I do here. I decided what to do at the end of all of our podcasts and hopefully people have gotten to know you a little bit, Okay, so I'm going to give you a couple minutes and you just know your camera is right here and keep looking at that camera and I'm going to give you a few, three, four minutes and you state your case of why somebody should put a check next to your name on that ballot on March 5th. So go ahead, it's all yours.
Speaker 3:Well, I wanted to thank you all for having me here today. My name is Manuel McPapian. I'm running for County Central Committee of the 44th Assembly District. The Democratic Party in LA County right now is an incredibly powerful organization, and it has been there because of so many people working so hard to make it what it is today. But there's a lot of issues plaguing our community that we need to resolve, and it really starts at the party stage, because the LA County Democratic Party guides policy. It votes on endorsements, it does all these things that politicians and candidates look for in order to get elected, and we need people in these positions to be able to tackle these issues like housing affordability, homelessness, climate change all of these big issues that are coming our way. We need to be able to have someone in that position to be able to create the legislation we need in order to make sure that we have representation across all areas of government. I have been endorsed by Laura Freeman and Nick Schultz, mayor of Burbank. I've been endorsed by the California Young Democrats, along with the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region.
Speaker 3:You have seven votes for Central Committee in the 44th Assembly District. I would be honored just to be one of them and to represent my community and to be able to ensure that we can create a Democratic Party in LA County that fights for all of us, that fights for workers' rights, that fights to resolve and fight climate change and to make sure that we of our generation are able to afford a home and buy a home and live the American dream, just like our parents promised that we would. And it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of hard work. I know that I have a big mountain ahead of me that I need to climb, but I'm looking forward to it and I can't wait to get out there and talk to more people, and I want to thank you all for being here today. I would be honored to get your vote and earn your vote. Really for Central Committee for the 44th Assembly District Very good.
Speaker 2:Not a fun, huh yeah, so you just sold some people. Probably. Hopefully I'm not going to say, hey, I want to donate to his campaign or I want to help him out, or canvas form or something. Are people going to get a hold of you and how do you want them to get hold of you and all that.
Speaker 3:I have a website. It's mcpoppion2024.com. That's M-A-G-P-A-P-I-A-N-2024.com. I have a link tree as well. It's link tree slash mcpoppion2024. And there you'll find all my social media accounts and an e-fundraising link for anybody who wants to donate to my campaign and the way to get a hold of me. If you'd like, if you want to just meet with me, just to talk to me, that's fine too. I'm open to that. I am in Gondel, so just send me an email or something and I'm sure I'll get a hold of it and be able to meet with anybody who wants to meet with me. Because, at the end of the day, I want to be able to represent everybody, and I know that not everybody is a Democrat listening to this podcast, I'm sure. But I also know that this issue, this seat, is going to affect everybody, and that's what I hope to do to be able to represent everybody as well.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you what I've learned a lot today, things I never knew about, and I respect the fact of what you're doing, and thank you for coming on and educating myself and our listeners, and I think they'll appreciate it too. What's next for you? What are you doing to campaign right now? What are you doing out there doing?
Speaker 3:I just have a two-person team in my campaign. So right now we're just focusing on social media, getting the word out via emails. I'm setting up my phone bank and texting stuff right now and the ballots are coming soon already. They're going to be in the mail in February I want to say early February, february 5th or so or something like that. So I'm going to be reaching out to as many people as I can. It's mostly social media, email, texting kind of situation, because this is really only a two-person team right now and honestly, like I said, I've come from this humble beginning sort of when it comes to politics.
Speaker 3:I don't have an obviously a very well-known name. I don't have all the stuff behind me and no major corporation, no major money behind me. I'm just an average person from Glendale trying to do the right thing and I'm hoping that that's the message that people get the most out of all. This is that I'm just an outsider looking in, trying to see if I can stir up some change on the inside, because a lot of people don't know anything about the LA County Democratic Party. They don't know who their representative is, they don't know who all these individuals are that are dictating what the future of this county is going to look like, and it's not their fault. They're not really told too much about this stuff and I'm hoping to help change that for the better for every day individuals. And hopefully that happens. But even if it doesn't, it's a learning process, right, like, if it happens, great. If I, for whatever reason, don't make it, then it's going to be a learning process to learn and to remedy for next time.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, that's a manual. Poppin, you got it there you go.
Speaker 2:And he's running for the LA County Democratic Party of the 44th Assembly District. We appreciate you listening. We will be back with more meat to candidate things. Our policy is if you're a candidate and you will be on the Burbank ballot, please let us know and we will have you in for a podcast and let people hear all about your viewpoints and who you are and get to know you a little bit, because that's you kind of want to know who you're voting for, and that's a great way to do it. So, craig Sherwood, saying thank you very much for watching and listening and we will talk to you next time. Thank you.