Cooking Up Change With Andrew Gruel

Jack Hibbs (0:00)

So Andrew, being in California, as you and I are, I have a lot of complaints. I grew up in a home where my dad taught us if people don't vote, they cannot complain.

But if you vote, you should expect to see change. I'm a big fan of that. I've never missed a vote since I was 18 That said, there's a lot wrong in the state of California. And there's a lot wrong in this beautiful Southern California region where you and I live.

Am I alone in feeling rather intense about, call it grievances, that I have with the way that my government's taken me? You're not alone. And the thing is, is it actually transcends party lines. That's the craziest part about this is that you can have a conversation with anybody out on the street right now, not knowing what their political persuasion is, and they will agree with all of your grievances, but then they'll vote in a different way. Wow. Why is this? You're right. I mean, California's been messed up for 16 plus years. Yeah. Total Democrat control, right?

Mm-hmm. But they don't vote any different. In fact, if you look at things, when we have the opportunity to give ourselves a tax increase, we the people somehow vote for that tax increase. We even vote the wrong way. But the party itself just continues to repeat the same, and you would not think that they would be rewarded, but it appears that way.

Yeah. What do you think might be different with this election and the election that you're running for? And by the way, by the time we come, just so you know, by the time we come to the end of this podcast, I want people to know all about you. And I'll frankly say it. I want people to support you to get you across the finish line. So I'm really biased in this. I need you to win. I want you to win.

But I know that you... that you think right, you think clearly, you're an established businessman.

I don't think people need to know much of an introduction regarding your achievements. You're so successful. But why in the world, why in the world would you...

Pull back from your businesses and your investment time and beyond city council of the wonderful city of Huntington Beach and to be running again. What's with that? And sorry, I smiled because I felt like I was my it was my wife talking to me as well. Well, wait a minute. She couldn't know. But it's a question I asked myself. I've learned that local everything is local, right? Local politics. If you want to see change tomorrow, you focus on local politics, school boards, local city council and certain committees and commissions. That is where it all starts. Everything grows from there. Those are the roots. You have to plant the seeds. And those are the roots. You don't change like tomorrow. I'm not going to be able to change anything from a federal perspective. Yeah. So for me, if I, everybody's been asking me for years, you ever going to get involved in politics? The answer unequivocally was no. Yeah, sure. I'm not. And then two years ago, when Tony Strickland, who was on city council, moved to state Senate, there was an open seat. Michael Gates, who's currently running for attorney general, he came to me and he said, would you have any interest in perhaps taking that seat? And I laughed. I said, of course not. Like, no. Yeah. And, you know, I went and I told my wife, I said, can you believe this? He asked me.

But that seed was planted. And about a month later, he asked me again. And he asked me again. And finally, I said, you know what? I have to go talk to my family about this. We need to think about it. And then ultimately, I realized if I'm ever going to change anything in regards to politics, this is where it has to start and potentially stop.

So that's why I'm involved. That's why I stopped everything. And it was funny because I remember Michael originally told me, oh, it's going to be it's two meetings a month, maybe five, 10 hours. But that's not the type of person I am. When I do something, I go all in almost to to the point where my wife says, slow down. Yeah. Pull back. So, you know, Huntington Beach is the tip of the spear when it comes to fighting everything that's happening, not just in Sacramento, but nationally. Yes. Because our federal. Here's my biggest problem. Our government has gotten way too big, and we know that. We see it with the numbers. The numbers don't lie, right? Let's take all the emotion out, look at the federal deficit, the budget, all of that. Now, I'm a food guy, right? So what really triggered me 15 years ago was when I looked and I saw that the federal spending on health care was 15%, then 20%, then 25%. We've only gotten sicker over the past 10, 20, 30 decades. Of course, yes. So we're tripling the spend and we're only getting sicker. Well, that is... emblematic of every single aspect of government. The more we spend, the more we insert ourselves, the worse the problem gets or the more problems there are. Now let's get back to California. That's the formula for California. Sacramento, every single time they get involved in a subject, a problem, the problem gets worse or another problem starts that otherwise wasn't there to begin with, and then they increase the size of government to fix the very problem that they created. The American way. Throw money at it. Throw money. Surely we can fix it. Exactly. And as we are learning through various brave people like Nick Shirley and others, where the money, nobody can find it. Where is it at? Where did it go? We may never know. But that said...