insane now we use this to see newsom s weak spots. is he going to get talents from within from more moderate, levelheaded democrats? shannon: it s possible. this is a report about small businesses, at the height of lockdown, 15,000 small businesses in los angeles were forced to close, half are good. many parts of the economy have recovered but many small business owners have yet to recuperate their earnings. dino, how your business is doing a and your fellow business owners. there are challenges ahead. covid is not over. we fought against the lockdowns. we had several people in our businesses that were calling us daily and literally begging us to work because they were denied access to any sort of funds. they needed to work to feed their kids and keep their homes. there was a point last year in which my wife and i were behind
despite suffering the first known u.s. deaths from the virus. dino. hopefully governor newsom respects this was a broad-based recall effort. it s a grassroots effort. i think covid was sort of the straw that broke the camel s back. largely because california leads the nation in poverty and virtually half of the nation s homeless live in california. there seems to be almost no crime policy. these arbitrary lockdowns serve as an impetus, a catalyst for which we use to institute this recall. it was a great, massive effort by californians collectively. it was nonpartisan. democrats and republicans came together. unfortunately i just feel that for californians, we weren t feeling like we had a viable alternative to governor newsom and i believe that s why the recall failed. shannon: those are saying that the messaging quit being
private citizens. one of the big issues in the california recall election has been governor gavin newsom s strict pandemic rules including small business lockdowns. let s talk with a couple golden state business owners. chef andrew gruel and candidate for walking county supervisor, dino bollen. great to having with us. i know that you have experience because of your business interests and we ve talked with you about facing lockdowns, rule changing, staffing changing. tonight the governor has held on. the people of california feel like that s her best move forward. chef, what do you think it means for business in your state? i think first and foremost, it certainly was a referendum on newsom s policies. it didn t end up the way many people wanted but i think they should be an opportunity moving forward for newsom to say this tent has gotten a lot eager.
over $200,000 in back rent our landlord. fortunately we have a great landlord who has worked with us. i can t imagine that other people who didn t have similar situations, i can imagine what they went through. it begins to tax you so heavily on a daily basis. my wife went a year without any sleep whatsoever in having nightmares every night. it begins to affect you in such a personal level. it s very, very difficult to overcome. fortunately we are doing well. i think the timing of the recall has also benefited governor newsom. if the french laundry had occurred last month and people were still on lockdown, this recall would ve been much more successful. we are open then experiencing some freedom. people are successful again. we got $2400, a stimulus check in the mail. i think all of these things have gone a long way to healing wounds and people have a short memory when they are doing well. shannon: andrew, dino talks about things being open again.