This is Episode 161 featuring a special conversation with Christy Smith.

Three hundred and thirty three votes. That's it. That's all that separated Christy Smith and Mike Garcia in the 25th Congressional race and the deciding number which sent Mike Garcia back to Washington. That's a tight margin to say the least. It's a margin of votes so small that the results could have been different if something as simple as rain on election day had happened. So knowing this, you have to wonder sometimes what goes through Christy Smith's mind these days.

This is why I wanted to sit down and talk with her. Yes, I know she's been on more than a few times in the past year. In fact, as of this podcast, she now has the record for the most appearances on this show. But i was interested in knowing what was going through her mind after such a close election. How she handled the defeat as well as what her thoughts were about possibly running again. Mike Garcia has stated openly he has difficulty working in a bi-partisan way. He has continually voted with the Trump agenda and fought against the Biden agenda. In particular, he was one of the Republican congressmen who made the controversial decision to challenge the certification of the electors on January 6th. Say what you will about his votes-love them or hate them, but Garcia seems to be forgetting this is a purple district which Biden won by 10 points. Something else Garcia seems to be forgetting is that magic number of 333 votes. Some might say that's just the way the election went, but sometimes it goes the other way too. And 333 is not a number that's hard to change.

The conversation with Christy was friendly, detailed and long. So long in fact, that we have broken this interview into two parts. In Part 1, we discussed the results of the election, her thoughts on Mike Garcia, and a lot about her personally. I asked what life was like for her growing up and how she got her perspective on politics that she has today. I got a lot out of her including stories about her having a mohawk as a kid. But I also got more. Christy made an official announcement which, while not really surprising, could impact the SCV, the 25th Congressional District and Mike Garcia's future.

I've known Christy for seven years now. I've always been impressed with her tenacity, her strength and her sheer knowledge of political matters and I'm proud that I can say she is good friend of mine. I admire her pragmatism when it comes to getting things done and in total honesty after 161 shows, I have yet to meet anyone who understands government and politics better than her.