City Council Member Calls Rush Limbaugh

Sonora’s newest and youngest City Council member, Matt Hawkins made it onto the Rush Limbaugh radio show on Wednesday morning.

Hawkins, 30, who was sworn in earlier this week, was Friday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day”. 

Here is the transcript of the nationally heard conversation between Hawkins and Limbaugh:

RUSH: Matt, Sonora, California. Welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Thank you very much, Rush. Congratulations on your new marriage to your beautiful wife.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: Hey, I’ve been waiting 18 years to talk to you. I’ve been listening since 1992 when I was living in Roanoke, Virginia, and I am now a brand-new city councilman in Sonora, California, and I used a whole lot of your advice that you had talked about, running. And not only did I… You know, I ran obviously as a conservative, but I got a lot of the democratic support here also.

RUSH: Way to go, sir!

CALLER: And I —

RUSH: This is the essence of grassroots. This is how it happens.

CALLER: Yes. Yes. And, you know, it took a lot of hard work. I ran against two incumbents and one guy who’s a fairly liberal guy — a very nice guy, by the way. But I overwhelmingly won the vote. There were two spots open, and I got the top spot and it was all because I went out there and told people — told the voters — the way it was —

RUSH: Why?

CALLER: — and got the majority of their support.

RUSH: Why did you want to run for city council? What’s wrong in Sonora that you wanted to fix?

CALLER: There’s nothing wrong in Sonora believe it or not. I mean, obviously —

RUSH: Come on. Come on. It’s in California. There’s gotta be something wrong with it.

CALLER: (laughs) That is the next part I was getting it which is the problem with Sonora isn’t Sonora. It’s the state of California. And, you know, I mean, you know, you hear about all the budget cuts and how we’re, you know, in the hole so many billions of dollars. Well, the city of Sonora has been very well run for 20 years, but there’s nobody my generation there. Which I’m 30 years old. I’ve been listening to you since I was 12. I said, “That’s it. It’s time for a Generation Xer to be in office,” and I got a lot of support. I outraised some money-wise and I just kept fighting. I walked the whole city.

RUSH: Let me ask you a couple of questions out there, Matt. What’s the population of Sonora?

CALLER: It’s a little less than 5,000 people.

RUSH: A little less than 5,000 people. Is the police force unionized?

CALLER: Yeah. Everything’s unionized in California.

RUSH: All right. What’s the pension situation for the police force and the firemen and so forth? Are you in good shape? I know they’ve got pensions. Now, Vallejo is, if they haven’t, probably going to file bankruptcy. What’s your pension situation with your public employees?

CALLER: You know, to be completely honest with you, I don’t know the whole situation; going to find out very soon.

CALLER: Oh, very, very soon. (laughs)

RUSH: You will find out. Whatever the situation is you’re going to find it out pretty soon.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Because this is the challenge every community has — be it a city, a town, a state, or what have you — is the unfunded pension liabilities and the retirement pay and so forth. You’re going to have a lot of challenges because public employees expect to retire at age 45 and be paid pretty much the rest of their lives and so forth, and if economic circumstances are such the town can’t afford it, that’s where you come in.

CALLER: Exactly. It’s not going to be an easy job. We’re definitely more business-friendly than, say, somebody in the Bay Area or a city in the Bay Area. Vallejo, you brought up. We’re up in the mountains. I’m sure you’ve been out here or close to it since you start out in Sacramento. But no. It’s a very interesting situation that’s going on in this state, and I personally believe that the state’s going to go bankrupt. I don’t see how the state could keep up all the spending. I mean you can only tax so much ’til people just finally say, “Nope. No more taxes.”

RUSH: Yeah. I know. Except we’ve been saying that for decades.

CALLER: Yes. Yes.

RUSH: And they keep paying the taxes. Some people keep leaving. You didn’t. (laughs) You moved in.

CALLER: Yes. Yeah. I moved in from Virginia. Opportunity knocked out here, then I met my beautiful wife, and next thing you know three kids later.

RUSH: Let me ask you something. When you were living in Virginia did you ever think you had to join the Klan in order to get elected in California?

CALLER: If I wanted to be killed.

RUSH: Yeah. I’m just checking.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: I just wanted to chronicle how things may have changed.

CALLER: Oh, man, that the biggest bunch of BS I’ve ever heard.

RUSH: Well, Matt, good luck to you.

CALLER: Thank you, sir.

RUSH: Good luck to you and congratulations.

CALLER: And thank you for everything you helped me out with.

RUSH: You bet. Congratulations. Grassroots. That’s how it happens.

According to Hawkins, he made it through on his fourth attempt and after speaking with the call screener, he sat on hold for a little over an hour. Once Limbaugh picked up the phone, Hawkins said that he reminded himself that he was talking to an everyday guy and Limbaugh could not have treated him any better.

The “Newsmaker of the Day” is heard each weekday morning on AM 1450 KVML at 6:47, 7:47 and 8:47am. 

The Rush Limbaugh show is the #1 radio talk show in America with over 15 million weekly listeners and is carried on AM 1450 KVML, every weekday morning from 9am – noon.

Written by mark@mlode.com