You know that whether you're in North Beach or Mission Bay where you are in reach for the past whether you're in the Excelsior. The city expects to update the election results with newly counted votes this afternoon San Francisco mayor London breed is declaring victory in her re-election campaign and she can the latest returns show breed getting 68 percent of 1st place votes k.q.e.d. Politics reporter Guy Marcia Roddy has more just after 9 o'clock breede came on stage at her election night party for a victory lap and you know knowing me well our year was. Last year breed won a tightly contested special election to fill out the term of late May or at least in this race she faced little opposition but the road ahead promises to be tougher and less breed can make a dent in San Francisco's housing affordability problem she said that issue is at the root of the city's biggest challenges like homelessness and dirty streets so we went back to get that rainbow was and was going to. Rebuild again her 1st full term in January giving her the possibility of running the city for nearly a decade I'm gone Mars are already k.q.e.d. News looks like San Francisco voters will narrowly passed the city's largest affordable housing bond in history the $600000000.00 bond to pay for housing across various income levels garnered 69 percent of the vote according to the latest count k.q.e.d. Is housing editor Eric Aguilar Proposition 8 campaign organizers estimate the bond will produce about $2800.00 units a lot of that money is going to go toward low income housing but there's about $60000000.00 that will go toward moderate income housing and another $20000000.00 for teacher housing which I think played a big role in getting this bond this giant bond path it's a lot of money and voters probably recognize that there is an affordability crisis at all levels right. Now prop eat and ordinance to allow housing specifically for educators to be built on publicly owned land looks to pass with more than 74 percent of the vote in or Renda officials plan to move forward on temporarily banning some short term rentals this comes after a mass shooting at a Halloween party at a home rented through air b.n. B. That left 5 people dead and several others injured the city council last night asked its staff to draft an ordinance that would bar property owners from using their houses a short term rentals if the owners do not plan to live or beyond sight when guests are there resident Laura Lyons called on the council to tighten the rules of it encourage the city to negotiate a deal with air b.n. B. And the like similar to the way San Francisco has done where you can set specific terms and those can be communicated and finds very steep fines some at last night's meeting requested a vigil for the shooting victims and a focus on gun violence one of the young people killed in that or in the shooting was 19 year old Oceana Tompkins Kate Wolf has more on the student from Vallejo Thompkins qualified for the Willie b. Adkins Scholars Program in Vallejo in 2017 during her senior year of high school there she made an impression on Associate Director Tiffany Jones Jones says the morning after the shooting she received 5 calls from former students a few of the girls were just screaming at me all crying on the phone an o.c. On a dark Kill see was one of the one of those killed in well Brenda and I was like Well hearing that I was completely stunned and shocked Jones says Tompkins was pursuing her cosmetology license and wanted to open a salon see well not a young lady that was into illness or in type of stereotypical type of things she had a very hard life and she overcame a lot no arrests have been made. Connection with the shooting I'm Kate Wolf k.q.e.d. News there's more at k.q.e.d. News dot org I'm Brian Watt support comes from Stanford health care where patients and physicians turn one health care matters most support for n.p.r. Comes from Capital One offering the spark cash card for businesses committed to helping business owners turn purchases into meaningful investments that can help drive business forward Capital One what's in your wallet more at Capital One dot com And by the listeners and members of k.q.e.d. Public Radio mild and dry weather conditions persisting across northern California through the forecast period periods of night or morning low clouds and fog will impact coastal and adjacent valley locations throughout least tomorrow then clear conditions prevail and warmer temperatures in northern California the rest of the week into the weekend Bay Area highs today from the sixty's along the coast and bay to the seventy's upper eighty's possibly to 80 again today Ellen. Good morning and welcome to form I'm Scott Shafer in today for Michael Krasny Well yesterday you may have noticed was a lection day and in Virginia and Kentucky the results have Democrats celebrating some big victories taking over seats held by Republicans we'll get to that in a few minutes but when we begin right here in San Francisco we're mere London breed sail to an easy reelection last night but the race for district attorney is a real nail biter razor close battle with 2 very different candidates and yes rank choice voting will decide the outcome we're going to get to that can of worms shortly and here to talk about us not talk about us to talk about it were a little punchy so much we're up pretty late last night Merissa Lagos' is here she is political power to correspond for Cutie and my co-host on political breakdown welcome also here Erica Aguilar She's senior editor for housing affordability at k.q.e.d. Higher pay Scott and Laura Clive and c. Is community health reporter for us here at k.q.e.d. Will be joined by Susan Page from USA Today and a bit but Laura Hi there let's begin with the mayor Marie said because one Bree got reelected in a landslide 68 percent or so she didn't have much opposition there are 5 pretty unknown candidates but the ones that mean for her to win so big you know I think it is more of a mandate than we saw for example when and Lee was reelected and I think it does bode well for you know her political capital that said you still have a city hall that's very divided and I think a lot of personality differences between her and some of them are progressive board members in addition to their policy differences but you know it is a much better place to be his mayor to have that strong of a showing than to not and I think that you know it can strengthen her hand in and hopefully give her yes some of that sort of juice to do some of the things she's been promising I mean I think she knows as well as anyone having grown up here having grown up in public housing that she's really going to be judged on our housing affordability and homelessness crisis and those are 2 very hard things is art. Very hard things to solve but perhaps this outcome does give her you know just a little bit more of an ability to twist arms and to say hey look I have a mandate here that's And we'll get to the other race imo I mentioned it a moment the D.A.'s race but it looks like it's again a very tight race for the District 5 super historial seat and the woman who was appointed to replace her by London breed was Valley Brown and she is in a very close race with Dean Preston attended rights activist who almost beat London Bridge the last time they faced off so if he wins and replaces Valley Brown on the board what does that mean for the mandate that the mayor might have and what what she can really get done Yeah I mean I think this is something we've seen repeatedly in past elections which is like the mayor's don't seem to have a lot of coattails So you know even when they're not being challenge I mean this isn't like if Dean Preston pose it off I mean I guess I should've counted before we came on air but it seems like again and again in the past couple of ministrations you see mayors appoint supervisors and then they get beat at the ballot box by somebody else it'll definitely London breed be one of these appoint Israel I think yeah also and to survive gosh maybe they could just get an elected representative and she's there for a while you know but I do think that you know in terms of her sort of political capital beyond her own raised it is a mixed bag I mean it looks like a like a little uncertain for value Brown and that will definitely slightly change the makeup of the board and potentially make things a lot harder for her on the other hand it is looking like prop a which is going to talk about a little more the housing Baran is going to win it is you know the jewel backed measure to repeal that you say Graham is losing so I think like Bradley it's very it's a mixed bag for London breed and of course you know I don't think that valley or any other supervisor always voted in lockstep with her anyway but she was an ally and I do want to get to those ballot measure in a moment when you open up the phone lines now because I think people have. Gens about the election results both here in San Francisco and maybe nationally as well 866-733-6786 is the number to call 866-733-6786 if you'd like to join the conversation with our politics panel here this morning you can also reach us on Twitter and Facebook were had a key committee forum so another one of the mayor's sort of last minute appointees Susie Loftus who was appointed interim district attorney after George Gascon own rich zine 3 weeks before feel flexion to run for da in l.a. . She is locked in a very tight battle with chess abou Dean who is a much more liberal contender somebody was a public defender currently a deputy public defender What's the dynamic of that race there yes this has been really interesting to watch sort of the votes come in over Tuesday night so we know that in the 1st round of voting which got tally which was basically absentee ballots that arrived at the elections department by Monday night Susie Loftus had a slight lead in them chase a really in the subsequent rounds of counting had pulled ahead but given our rain choice system Susie Loftus appears to be getting more votes from the other 2 candidates in the race Nancy's hung and we have doubts she holds about a $400.00 vote lead now over to a civilian and you know it's again too close to call at this point if those trends hold it looks probably better for Loftus than for Chase say even though he may end up with more 1st place votes and if we want to get more interventionist voting we can but you know it's you know it's in a way an instant runoff so it creates a situation with the county where you can see potentially how people would have voted if it were a head to head race and you know I think that is one where it will be a big disappointment to breed if Loftus can't pull it off and we will get into retro sweating in a 2nd but we should just say that if there without rain choice voting the top 2 finishers which would have been Loftus and with him would have faced off in another election just the 2 of them in December and of course. Very few people vote in those elections which is why one of the reasons why wreck choice voting was adopted we'll get into that in a 2nd but me well I think it would have been a primary in June with a whole other switch but anyway yeah because because that's how it works in most counties around the state were the D.A.'s races in the primary and then if somebody gets 50 plus one I know the voters have changed like which seats you know are up for reelection when but nonetheless it would have a separate election and we will get into the 2nd area you are. Proposition a $600000000.00 bond measure for affordable housing needed $66.00 in 2 thirds vote and looks like it's going to get that what's the message there I think it's that excuse me. People in San Francisco recognize an affordability crisis that's happening probably all levels right now from low income extremely low income to moderate income. People who are just trying to make a living here it's interesting to me you know when I was looking watching these results come in the 1st round came in and it didn't quite get it wasn't there it didn't it didn't make it on 63 percent or something that's right and you know obviously early returns sort of mimic early voting and that I moderated their 1st votes were actually the vote by mail ballots that came in as of the end of the day Monday Monday Yeah right right and so I think what that represents is some people who maybe have been little more hesitant to pass the city's largest affordable housing in Bonn in history I mean it's $600000000.00 We're not talking about a tiny change here it's a lot of money I mean and 2015 election you have $310000000.00 Now that would pass with what is that like more than 70 percent he with 74 percent So $600000000.00 sounds like real money yeah how many units of affordable housing is that going to translate into campaign organizers are estimating about 2800 going back to that 20 . 15 bondo about 1600 units were produced out of that 310000000 and that's how many were promised you remember I'm not the answer to that because my point is you know it's I mean the campaign says one thing and then Reagan's reality is something else exactly especially when construction costs go up and labor costs and the cost of land in the competition which we're all feeling all right Laura Clive and proposition c. Put on the ballot jewel the cigarette maker collected the signatures spent upwards of $101214000000.00 basement more than $50000000.00 or than $15000000.00 and then he said Never mind exact We're going to pull away so what happened so so it failed it failed and we should just say that you put it on the ballot to overturn That's right San Francisco's law what a failure means is that the ban that the city supervisors put in place in the summer stays so that ban will take effect on January 1st 2020 and I think what this means so it really is so far has tanked and I believe it will remain that way so I think right now it's about 80 percent of votes have been no votes on it so that's pretty huge and I think what it's saying is one that people are very concerned about Youth Day paying we have crazy numbers there one out of 4 high school seniors has said that they have 8 in the last month that's a lot of people. This comes after we've worked hard to defeat as a society the use of cigarettes among teenagers and then the other thing is this growing distrust of cigarettes and that is really changed since the introduction of the legislation in March even because we've seen more and more of a ping related illnesses we've had 3 deaths in California and then I think the implications of this failure and the retention of the ban in San Francisco nationally mean that perhaps other large cities additional states are counties will pass similar bans so the counter argument for. Or an outright ban was that hey if you were a cigarette smoker smoking nicotine these cigarettes helped you get off of tobacco and so now what do they do if you're a smoker and you want to use vaporing to get off of tobacco right I mean that's a huge concern there I've talked to many adult smokers who say I really will probably go back to using cigarettes more and then when you talk to city supervisors or public health of issues officials they say Ok Well we're looking at you know maybe one adult for a huge number of young people who would become new nearly addicted to nicotine and then I just also want to say this is a ban that's in place until the f.d.a. Approves the cigarettes and they will be seeking if they hear us right right if they approve them they'll be seeking materials that they're due in May of this coming year and so at that point you know we might see the sale of the cigarettes again in San Francisco and you can also go to Daly City well as it has happened in some of the. Area yeah especially for adults I mean so like the gun laws you know you know that if I got in California we're going about it well and it does strike me that you know in a way this might do what the backers are hoping in that sense which is that it's probably easier for an adult to travel to another county and buy something in bulk than for a teenager who might be experimenting or not have those sort of resources but it is I mean it is an interesting moment I think for Joel and just everything we've seen I mean this is their hometown right and I think that that's a big sort of that yeah they really centering We're not banning cigarettes right I mean it's sort of funny although they're banned in a lot of places you know you got to find a place you can legally smoke yeah exactly we're talking about election results from San Francisco we're going to broaden that out in just a little bit to Kentucky Virginia and some of the national races we're talking with cuties reporters Merissa Lagos' politics correspondent Eric Aguilar who's senior editor for housing affordability here. And Laura Clive and community health reporter for us here at k.q.e.d. Give us a ring if you want to weigh in with a question or comment about the election results 866-733-6786 again 866-733-6786 or we should say that although yes Jewel did spend a lot of money to put this prophecy on the ballot and initially at least convince voters to vote for the no side also had a chunk of money toward the end yeah Michael Bloomberg That's right New York City mayor Yeah more than $6000000.00 And so then so at the beginning you know of when this was placed on the ballot I am a saver Sysco resident I was getting tons of mailers from saying vote yes and then say meaning let's overturn the ban and that was funded largely by Jewel and then I started to after they pulled out end of September I started to get a lot of material saying vote no and when that was largely funded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York you know. Let's dig in the ranchers waiting a little bit Murray said Oh fine I know you don't want to and I was complicate his campaign we didn't talk we were talking about this texting each other last night talking about it and talking about of this morning the D.A.'s race before we get into the nitty gritty of rank choice voting and you know we should say that you know people get now they get up to 3 or 45 choices on their ballots there were 4 candidates running for d.a. And if you had to put them on the spectrum from left to right where would you place them so Nancy tongue definitely ran as most sort of law and order candidate She's a longtime prosecutor 1st in San Francisco now I meet a county I'd say she's on the mark and serve it a side although you know it's even Sysco we're talking moderate Dems probably more what makes her more conservative you know I think she was calling for sort of a return to more law and order sort of cracking down on drug sales just talking less about sort of reducing incarceration although it's not as if she again she was like lock everybody up but I think she sort of represented a more typical prosecutor kind of law and order approach. I think to the furthest left is chase of the d. In the deputy public defender who is really running as this insurgent candidate we saw him backed by national activists who have pushed these sort of outsider prosecutor candidates in a lot of cities like Chicago and Philadelphia and he you know really is coming at it with a different point of view I think around incarceration and looking more restored of justice and trying to sort of get people out of the system and then I'd say that through the office and leave doubts were somewhere in the middle depending on the issue leaf had really he's a deputy attorney general for the state of California he had talked a lot about car break ins an issue of course that plagues San Francisco Loftis and if she does pull this out will be interesting to watch because she really comes from a more typical prosecutor background she was a da under Kamel Harris she followed com On to the system to your assistant Da to. The attorney general's office she's been a legal counsel to the sheriff she was on the police commission I mean on paper she definitely embraces a lot of the reforms of recent years that we've seen in California around criminal justice and reducing incarceration but she is definitely a little bit to the right of Chase and so you know I think that you know want to is this race boiled down to Susie who for San Francisco is more of an established town candidate you know a liberal Democrat but still a prosecutor and someone like chaser who is really coming from the outside and trying to fundamentally kind of change the way we look at criminal justice and so when it comes to hot button issues like say police shootings or I know he's definitely I mean was there much of a difference no Among the county thing I mean I think it's more in approach and style I mean I'm not saying there won't be a huge difference I mean I think one thing between Suzy and chose that's interesting is again she's more of an insider candidate I mean she got appointed to the position by breed but even before that she's worked in the D.A.'s office she knows a lot of the da's I think she sees her role as a sort of rebuild an office that quite frankly all. The candidates feel like has been sort of dragged down under gas go on who did focus a lot on the bigger policy sort of reforms but the candidates would say it to the detriment of his office that seen a lot of sort of turnover and attrition among attorneys. And so I think that there was a lot of fear among law enforcement groups including the Police Officers Association huge fan of Suzi office we should say I mean she worked on the police commission on teasing policies and police involved shooting policies that they were not happy with but they really came out swinging against chaser who they saw as a huge threat and they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the end to against him you know he said yeah and so rank choice voting anybody who voted in service or if you vote in another county and you have rank choice voting you know that in that particular race you got to rank all 4 candidates if you chose to and then as those as the bottom candidate in this case leave was eliminated his book 2nd and 3rd place votes get redistributed to the other candidates how has that seemed to work out so far. Yeah you might expect I expected the let's say you know the more conservative candidates if they were at the bottom that their votes would be pretty heavily skewed to the more conservative candidate remaining which would be Susie Loftus it kind of work out that way but not maybe as much as you might expect yes so it does appear at this point in the 1st 4 rounds or so that leaves doubt as and Nancy tongues. You know votes are tending to skew towards Loftus that doesn't mean every single one of them is but let me just give you some hard numbers here so in the 1st round of voting where everybody went and just ranked their candidates Loftus got around 30 percent of the vote left out she got around 15 percent Nancy's time got around 20 percent chance of being got around 32 percent so chase the How to you know a 2 percent margin over Suzy Loftis since leave doubt she got the fewest vote His 1st place votes were basically wiped aside and the other votes you know the 2nd place votes that people had who had voted for leave 1st were redistributed and the Loftis got. You know 3700 of those votes Nancy time got 5900 chaser got 2800 so you can see how it starts to sort of change the dynamic and then they keep running the is in till you're down to 2 candidates and again Loftis got a majority or more than chase of the Nancy time 2nd place votes and so she has pulled ahead again although she still has more 1st place but it's really confusing a similar thing happened you could say in the mayor's race last time when Mark Leno and London breed were running off and you know to breed had by far more 1st place votes but you know as the votes got counted Leno got really really close as the other candidates 2nd choice votes so in the in the point is several about right choice voting and I will hear I'm sure from supporters of rank choice voting as I always do. That this isn't a. To save money because a 2nd election is low turnout and expensive and also to create kind of a consensus choice right so that people who when you add in all they're not my 1st choice there but they're my 2nd choice you add in all those votes you end up with somebody who's a has more broad support Right yeah I mean in some ways it's intended to mirror that runoff without the risk of a lower turnout so you get this option to sort of I mean I think one way to think of it as a voter is to look at you know the ballot and say there's 4 candidates who do I like Ok I like this candidate if that candidate were in the race then who would I vote for that should be your 2nd place vote and so on and so forth and I think the interesting thing in San Francisco is that this was something really pushed by the progressive left as a way again to your point to sort of ensure higher turnout and to make sure that there's a level playing field we also would give you a chance a vote for the Green candidate if that's what you like but then you know yeah and 2nd you can build coalitions right and so you you know there we've seen that and mayors races where there's multiple multiple candidates where people say you know vote me and then vote might my friend over here I think I would say it's been a mixed bag and terms of how it has sort of benefited more liberal candidates obviously and in the Indian press in Valley brown areas that looks like Dean Preston may be pulling that out but it hasn't been in the mayor's race it hasn't been so far on this do you raise you know a slam dunk from our progressive candidate and sometimes that's just because of the makeup of who else is in the race if you have other more lefty candidates like Chase so maybe he would have gotten more of the 2nd place what about phone number again 866-733-6786 we're talking about election results and let's go to the phones and Vincent in San Francisco I think you got a question about rank choice voting. Yeah question and kind of a comment following on the conversation you all were having with respect to the d A's raised as I look at how it's rolling up I'm kind of struck by how little or I would think more of Congress 2nd place would have gone to says the law is considering which is essentially diametrically opposed to a lot of the things the news is advocating for but it's really like $6040.00 break Yeah Yeah exactly yeah I know and sort of cut you off or come out to a break in some but yeah Marie said you want to comment on that and maybe you know does it do you think it may suggest any kind of a backlash against the mayor appointing to the office which some people found offensive perhaps and I think also though in these local races again where the candidates in a lot of ways are fairly close in terms of their positions you might just have people who are voting based on personality who they met at a community event who their friends like I mean I think there's a lot of things that are not as in the weeds a sometimes we like to think in our in our analyst chair all right Vincent thanks for the call Merissa Lagos' thanks so much stick around we're going to talk about national politics I'll say goodbye to Erika Aguilar and Laura Clive and would follow their reporting on these issues housing and they paying and more to come from you both so thanks so much for joining us thank you Sam once again the number to call 866-733-6786 we're going to broaden out our conversation talk about Kentucky and Virginia in just a moment. Here's what's coming up on form in our 2nd hour it's been 25 years since California voters passed Proposition 187 it was aimed at limiting public services like education and health care for immigrants here illegally it helped Governor Pete Wilson get reelected but it also mobilized a generation of Latino voters and many say assured in the demise of the Republican Party in California we'll examine the legacy of probably 187. Visit k.q.e.d. Dot org. And for the latest updates on our programs and guests find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at key q.e.d. Forum Stay with us for more of our conversation about yesterday's election. Support for k.q.e.d. Comes from Carbonite offering data protection to businesses including e-mail spreadsheets calendars and more Carbonite data protection for small businesses. Founders of the Monetti sram Museum of Art and u.c. Davis through June 14th 2020 the museum presents new era dug immersive installation that pushes the limits of perception. Called Opportunity Zones are meant to lore investment into low income areas across the country but in reality what this really is at heart is just a subsidy it's all of us. Subsidizing development in these areas around the country . Are making the rich richer That's next time on the take away from w.-n. My theory and p.r.i. Stay tuned for the takeaway coming your way again today at noon on member supported k.q.e.d. Public Radio sunny today in the Sacramento Valley a high of 78 for Sacramento partly to mostly sunny skies forecast for the Bay Area today. And welcome back to forum on such a for here today for Michael Krasny we're talking about election results with k.q. D.'s politics correspondent Resul law goes and joining us now Susan Page she is Washington bureau chief for USA Today she's currently doing a book titled Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the arc of power Susan Page welcome He's got a great to be with you Well let's talk national politics let's And let's begin with Kentucky where it looks like the Democrat is going to win that race it's very tight but and governor the Republican governor Matt Bevin has not yet actually conceded these sightings or voting irregularities somewhat mysteriously but give us the give us the shakeout in that race and what it means you know that's a big victory for the Democrats. Big should be built like this year is going to be the new governor of Kentucky fallenness in his father's footsteps this is a state that trump carried by 30 percentage points in 2016 and he had Bashir is eked out the most modest of victories about 5000 votes out of 1400000 cast they finished the can out although as you as you noted Governor Bevan hasn't at formally conceded yet he could go to court to have a recount I saw the share on the air this morning calling on him not to do that to have a smooth transition to a new administration there the so this is you know this is that the Democrats often don't win in the southern states so this is even though it's a narrow victory it's a big one disappointingly for Democrats so this seems to be a defeat for the unpopular current governor Matt Bevan less than a rebuke of President Tom because the other 5 Democrats 5 Republicans running for statewide office in Kentucky all one yeah So really maybe the it shows the limits of President Trump's coattails I mean he tweeted I almost dragged that unpopular Matt Bevin over the finish line. And is that a fair assessment Well that is the that is the line from the from the White House this morning that the president made up ground just not quite enough ground and it is true Matt Bevin was what is one of the most unpopular governors in the country but it does show that Democrats if Democrats have a good candidate and Republicans have a controversial one you can defeat President Trump's candidate even on his own turf but those who are said Oh you better watch out now Mitch McConnell you're up for reelection and you're next I mean that's a that's a leap is not yes I think that is a leap you know you never want to do too many predictions too far ahead in politics but Kentucky continues to be a pretty red state I do think there are some national concerns for Republicans when they look at the at the Kentucky returns so and that is what we saw happening in the suburbs of Kentucky around Louisville and Lexington in the Kentucky suburbs outside Cincinnati where Democrats made real gains in the suburban territories and that's one of the themes of yesterday that happened in outside Philadelphia in county elections yesterday it happened in Virginia in the Virginia election history the state legislative elections Republicans are developing a big problem with suburban voters and we saw that across the country yesterday does a reminder we're talking about election results with Susan Page Washington bureau chief for USA Today and also with Maurissa law goes k.q.e.d. Politics correspondent host of political breakdown the number to call if you want to join us 866-733-6786 again it's 866-733-6786 you know also get in touch with us on Twitter and Facebook were at key q.e.d. Form or if you prefer e-mail it's a form of key committee dot org I want to point out before we leave Kentucky and go to Virginia Susan that one of the real bright spots where Republicans was that Kentucky elected the 1st Republican attorney general since 1948 and he's at. We're going to American 33 years old Daniel Cameron he was a legal counsel for Mitch McConnell Tell us about him and if you can well this is a breakthrough like he's very he's African-American he's a conservative Republican that makes him kind of a rare breed in our in our politics I think is somebody like Tim Scott from South Carolina who Republicans would love to talk about because they do feel the need to make some inroads among African-American voters who have been among the Democrats staunchest scientist allies in voting so we may be hearing more about him you know he was he was one of a couple of breakthrough candidates 1st black attorney general in Kentucky and a Republican that's an office that had been hold but by a string of Democrats he had the 1st Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate you had the 1st Latina and the 1st woman to be elected mayor of Tucson I think that's I think that's an interesting and bipartisan trend we're seeing in the country that more people more diverse people are winning elections in our country and what you pointed out about the suburbs and the Democrats doing well in the suburbs of city of big cities is that a continuing trend from the midterm elections last year Absolutely and it's one of the things that it's one of the things that gave Democrats control of the house again in last year's midterms that try to turn in the suburbs it's one of the most important things that analysts are watching for in the presidential election next year and Merissa of course we saw that here in California down in Orange County where we not only get a lot of women run for office but a lot of Democratic women won and women clearly mobilized in 2018 anyway and it looks like perhaps going into 2020 we're going to see that again yeah I think it's going to be you know one of those groups that we're going to be kind of gauging as we see other special elections kind of play out and to see how excited people are we do. Heard this morning that Democrats are moving forward next week with the Impeach the public impeachment inquiry hearings and I think the consensus among a lot of pundits is that you know the impeachment didn't necessarily excite the Republican base against Democrats and in these elections as much as maybe Republicans had hoped but again you have to really pull people away from trumpet was much of a democratically so it's not as if I think you know again the Republicans really have trouble Yeah and you sort of have people kind of continuing to play to their base and I think the question remains are Democrats can they kind of get as you mentioned those women in suburbs that they were able to capture in 20000 and maybe get more young people people of color also out to vote who don't always come to the poll so this isn't let's talk about Virginia where they've already already have a Democratic governor but now Democrats have won control of both the upper and lower house of their legislature How did that happen it happened but with some of the these trends you're seeing elsewhere it happened with suburban voters we've seen we've seen Virginia become more and more blue you know used to be a red state it used to be a state Republicans could count on that is no longer the case I think this the results yesterday confirm that this is now a state we would count as a Democrat Democratic state 1st time in 20 years that Democrats have controlled the state legislature this is going to be we're going to see big effect we're going to see big policy impact from this because of the Democratic governor has been unable to get legislation he wanted through this Republican controlled legislature I think we're going to see some groundbreaking gun control legislation in Virginia and as a result of Democrats taking over the legislature we're going to see and probably an increase in the minimum wage in the state and it will also help Democrats control redistricting after the 2020 census that's something that well could have replications you know for and for another. Decade What about in Kentucky will have having a Democratic governor affect redistricting there or not so much because the legislature is still in the hands of Republicans that's right in and understand a state law the legislature can overrule. So they don't just say church controlled by Republicans say they pass a Republican we district can plan one that favors Republicans the governor could be gotten the new governor Governor and the Bashir could veto that but it only takes a majority of the state legislature to override his veto in Kentucky and that could well happen with Republicans still in control so in terms of redistricting I think it doesn't do Democrats much good in Kentucky talking with Susan Page Imrie salon goes about election results going to go to the phones in just a moment a reminder the number is 866-733-6786 let's go to Bill in Oakland welcome. Howdy I have a general question about this year election situation where I'm starting to think I'd like that here because we have local county state and federal elections on the same year and we have so much time and energy so on a given year I might be campaigning for city council and my girlfriend would be traveling to a swing state to try to work on registering 30 involved there. So I can do both Yeah I would be we'd have like a continuous election cycle but it's almost like we do anyway yeah Marie So what are your thoughts about that because the midterm elections typically the turnout or off year elections whether it's a midterm or in this case an odd year turnout tends to be lower or at least the more motivated voters I guess turnout. You know it's a double edged sword right on the one hand yes people who are engaged like this color probably more likely to be able to spend the time on the local races or really dig into the issues but we do know that just in general when you have these off year elections fewer people come out a less diverse coalition of voters comes out and a lot of times I think the fact that it's so you know I don't say under reported because we've all been reporting on it but it's not the big story the way it presidential races means that people don't necessarily spend the time to really think about things who are maybe not as engaged and so you know it's it's not looking great for example for the turnout in San Francisco you know we know while see where it gets but it's around 23 percent right now and hopefully that goes up a bit but you know the great all better than l.a. Which tends to pee in the single digits sometimes for some of these off year elections here's a comment from a listener who tweets How important was turnout in the Kentucky gubernatorial race for sure doesn't seem to have more absolute votes than Hillary Clinton did I don't know Susan Page if you're up on those comparative numbers there but what are your thoughts. That's more than I do because I haven't compared to. So congratulations that really engaged in sophisticated audience but that doesn't mean that is like you know in the Bashir now is he you know and up and coming Democrat on the national stage potentially or is this just hey let's get rid of Matt Bevin we really don't like this guy's approval rating 34 percent when one thing I would say that you would not expect and here election to have turned out like a presidential election would so would not be surprising if he didn't have the kind of absolute numbers that Hillary Clinton did last time around I mean what you. What you expect given likely turnout models you know I do think Andy Bashir is he's he's If I think he's 41 years old he's a moderate Democrat he ran a he ran a good campaign in an unexpected state I think that gives him some standing when Democrats try to figure out how to win say the presidential election next year we've seen some Southern Democrats including a group of Southern Democratic mayors who sent a letter today urging national Democrats to think about the South as a region that they need to be more competitive in so you could see somebody like Andy Bashir emerge as a voice that Democrats are willing to listen to well in health care of course is playing out big time in the primary for the Democrats there's a big argument about what's the way forward is a Medicare for all or that shoring up the Affordable Care Act How did health care play out in Kentucky if at all health care was an important issue in Kentucky you know what you want anybody here did not talk about that would be impeachment he talked about local issues and he talked a lot about health care his his dad Steve this year when he was. The 2 term governor of Kentucky implemented Obamacare in the state of Kentucky was a program I think was called Kentucky cares it had a local. Well it had a lot he gave it a local branding but it was Obamacare and the the efforts by Gov Matt Bevin to dismantle some aspects of Obamacare including the expansion of Medicaid was one of the same issues that the governor Governor Bevan and help his Democratic challenger aren't about the phone number again 866-733-6786 or you can send your comments on Twitter and Facebook were at k.q.e.d. Form Roger tweets rank choice voting is bogus it is based on the false assumption that humans really have meaningful 2nd much less 3rd choice preferences humans don't actually think that way Merissa. Are we capable of chewing gum and walking at the same time you know I ring to his voting is always going to be infuriating to a lot of people and Don Perata still trying to figure out how he lost the only. One was a bit of I will say that you know New York just adopted it as a City and 71 percent of voters Good luck guys Godspeed now I mean it is a hard thing to do I think when you because people get you know you see this in the Democratic primary right like you want to really get attached to a candidate when you do that you sort of need to think poorly about the other candidates in order to fully embrace this one person and what wrong choice voting asked you to do is kind of that aside and say Ok but who do I like next and yeah I don't know I haven't seen any sort of deep dive psychological studies but I think our caller has a point that that is not an easy calculation for a lot of voters want it is a lot easier I think to choose between 2 people in a runoff than it is between 5 or 10 if I marry a choice I am so I think that and also again you know to to the earlier conversation you know people only have so much attention spans they only have so much time in the day and again I mean I moderated a couple of the Da debates for example even given the sort of stark differences in style between a chase of a d.n.c. Office. They did agree on a lot of things and all 4 were very articulate too so we didn't made it more complex we had a really strong group of candidates in the city a race regardless of how you feel about any of them individually and that's not usually the case I mean if you look at the other races one and read was running against 5 largely unknown people except for the one candidate who put up a what was seen as a racist billboard did come in 2nd we might add about 15 percent of the vote and then you have like the District 5 races where you know again you have to really top contenders and then a couple of other people who are really not serious candidate All right let's go to the phones Don in Oakland you're next. Yes. This is for Susie and your panel from USA Today Scott what issues for the suburban voters are driving them to vote democratic they may call you Susie page Well no one calls me to the page as they do next. Well what are your thoughts about that you know I think that to on every on every poll that we've done in nationally or in key states the number one issue people invariably cite is health care and I think you know that's that's it trumps everything else it comes foreign policy issues it trumps education maybe it trumps the economy because the economy is pretty good for most people at the moment unemployment is low but health care is continues to be a big concern for Americans and that's one reason why we see I think this very big debate about everything from trying to dismantle Obamacare as as Republicans many Republicans support to going to a universal coverage system like Medicare for all our Don thanks for the call and Susan or Susie if you prefer. What you know this issue of health care in the Democratic primary you know there is on the one hand Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and. Tickler saying we've got to go big you know we've got to really get rid of health insurance and move toward a single payer kind of system where the government really controls it all and then you've got say Biden people to judge and others saying no no no you know you have to be let's let's maybe add a public option Medicare for all who want it that sort of thing is there anything instructive about that in these election results from either Virginia or Kentucky thing you know we really see 2 theories of the case and how Democrats can win the White House back next year one is generate huge enthusiasm among new voters younger voters and minority voters people who don't usually go to the polls and that would be the theory behind Medicare for all something big and bold something exciting that promise to do something we've never done before as a country and then there's a 2nd and that would be Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders I 3 of the case but we see a really conflicting idea about what to do from for as you mentioned from Joe Biden the front runner which is we need to we don't we can't be that disruptive we have to appeal to voters in the middle to swing voters we've got to get back to voters who voted for President Obama and then voted for Trump we need to win them back and Medicare for all will scare them off and if you're looking for lessons from yesterday I think Biden m.p. Buddha judge and Amy clubbish are some of those more moderate candidates could point to Kentucky as evidence that that the Moema did approach in the approach of let's let's keep Obamacare and improve it really worked in that state. Read some listener comments here let's see lot of rank choice voting comments David writes I don't hear anyone talking about the fact that whoever wins the District 5 race that would be Dean Preston or valley Brown will have a run again next year the election is just to finish London breeds term as supervisor reset. Any thoughts about that I mean if certainly if Preston were to win it would still have an impact on the dynamic on. Forward Yeah I mean again it's it's always interesting in San Francisco politics because often the personality differences are bigger larger than the policy differences but that translates into real challenges at city hall we're seeing it right now with the mayor and some of the more progressive members of the board of supervisors trying to come together around a mental health proposal to really delve into what's been an incredibly challenging problem and Terrance's go and I think they've both come to the table at this point but yeah when you have you know even if it's a slight skew of the board sort of away from the mayor it is going to change the dynamics in terms of her legislative agenda how much sort of juice she has when it comes to getting her budget priorities done and you know of course just the sort of message it sends about whether you know the sort of coattails question although I'm not sure your average citizen cares about. And we should say that we're expecting an update on the numbers from the elections office around 4 o'clock this afternoon so will maybe have maybe have a little bit more clarity All right let's go to the phones again and Don in San Francisco welcome. Donna in San Francisco are you there. Sorry about that hi thanks for taking my call go have I just wanted to I just wanted to talk a little bit more about choice but I think that we often miss that people are irrational beings and they choose not to. But she does not make the right choice and I think that in the earlier comment kind of touched on that what what do you mean by that the v.a. That they will vote for someone they didn't intend to vote yes or no I think that they see you take a look at your 2 main da choices and they have very similar approach similar policy objectives but the people who endorse them really may turn somebody off if you take a look at it in San Francisco we've got about a 1000 mailers about each of these people Bernie Sanders endorsing one and pretty much the entire Democratic Party endorsing the other if you're a regular party Damn you're going to go with one if you're a t.s.a. Member you're going to go with the other and you hate each other for some reason and you can take a look at that going up into the national elections well where you see people's 1st choice as Joe Biden people 2nd choice of party Sanders which makes no sense from a policy perspective yeah but if you take it in take it further people just don't really pay attention to these things they don't understand how choice voting works and the people who do can manipulate. The vote and I think that it's an interesting perspective and I think that's when you take a look at people being irrational beings because they are. They're not going to be able to make those really tough decisions because they've been. You know I have 2 distinct to make those one against another but yeah well Maurice I think it is true that we I think historically have been used to voting you know one or the other but you know I think maybe it's you know underselling voters a little bit say they're not paying attention I mean I think people do think about these things if they're going to bother cast about race but I think back to the earlier point it's like if you have 2 candidates that you see is very binary and then you're not excited about the other ones it does sort of present situation where we see sometimes people just don't make a 2nd and 3rd choice even if they vote for the same person 3 times right which they're not going to work out well no because they're run away from Yeah so yeah I do think though it is. It's I don't know it doesn't I'm not sure honestly in a lot of these in a lot of these races if it would have changed the outcome per se if we had had a runoff versus rain choice voting of course the possible to prove that but it does I think sort of make people do some mental gymnastics that makes them a long time to I do think that it's not going to see one solution please yeah yeah go ahead I don't know nearly as much about it as as you all do I would say that it's one of the examples we see of experimentation in elections to try to make our politics a little less frozen and along polarize lines to avoid having just the loudest and most extreme voices in both parties try and you know you see that with the right choice voting you see that with jungle primaries you see it with trying to move to a less partisan redistricting there's just a lot of interest in trying to figure out are there not that there's one thing that we could do that would kind of fix where our politics seems to be spiraling but that maybe there are some some some different ways of approaching elections that could have an effect and it's it's interesting to me that we're going to see some big cities work on rank choice voting in most and we'll see whether it has the effect that that is for opponents say it may yes it. Good point and resell you have a top 2 primary California was intended to close sort of boost more moderate kinds of candidates not sure it's worked out that way but you know well that that's what I was going to say I mean I think always there's some unintended consequences and you know of course it depends on the district in the sort of political reality of any given jurisdiction but like I said I mean in San Francisco ranches voting I think was largely embraced by the left as a sort of way to level the playing field that hasn't always worked out although it has in some cases and I think you know moderates really pushed the open primary system as a way to get more what they saw as sort of less strident people in the state legislature and now we have the super duper majority of Democrats in both houses although that caucus is a lot more diverse than it was 10 years ago and you do have these purple district Democrats who are really playing the role that Republicans were a decade ago and sort of pro-business Democrats Yeah exactly Charles go back to phones and Leo in San Francisco welcome. I was wondering in the San Francisco race why it's been a lot of very many Republicans as if you know my parents ballot and I was wondering like trial is it a bipartisan race if it's mostly Democrat you get it they get less bigger is really interesting questions of course so a lot of these races are not partisan so you could be Republican and not declare it like they're just they're not there nonpartisan yet so the candidates are I suspect some of the other candidates might mention it yeah so the candidates in these races are not running as a Democrat or Republican but we have an overwhelmingly Democratic city in San Francisco a large number of independents as well a pretty small minority of Republicans so that accounts for who ends up running and you know we often see a handful of sort of mark and surveyed of candidates in some of these races and they usually get 10 to 20 percent of the vote depending on the person Leo did you ask your parents a question. Lee are you there. Leo go away questions for Leo and 13 years old I'm so glad you are ready and eating that's really exciting it's awesome Susan Page you've got just about a minute left here next week we're going to have impeachment inquiry hearings public on television and radio What are your thoughts about that and how that might change the equation if at all in the Senate or in the house or just generally in the country and well I think it's enormously important it's we're going to see who Democrats think the most compelling most persuasive witnesses they've heard behind closed doors we're going to see them on your television screens and you know they hope to tell him until they will tell a story that outlines President Trump pressuring the leader of a foreign country with withholding military aid in order to encourage him to launch an investigation here against a political rival This is a big moment for our country I'm not sure it changes anything I mean Democrats seem to have the votes to impeach the president the House Republicans have not a single clear defection in the Senate which means he would deficit trumpet survive an impeachment trial but this is one of those momentous this will be one of those momentous weeks in Washington certainly a big moment for the speaker Nancy Pelosi says if you can write a book about her. Yes I hope to be doing. Susan Page one or as we call our Susie Washington bureau chief for USA Today she is writing a book called Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the arc of power thanks for joining us thanks also always to Maurice a lot goes political correspondent here at k.q.e.d. And earlier in the hour Erica Aguilar and Laura Clive as well Scott Shafer here today for Michael Krasny thanks so much for listening and stick around we got more to talk about the next hour the anniversary of Proposition $187.00. Funds for the production of forum are provided by the members of k.q.e.d. Public Radio and the Germanicus Foundation and the generosity foundation before the 2nd hour form begins let's talk some traffic Joe McConnell is here I did not have a stall a person called the tunnel Highway 24 westbound before the tunnel between the 2 right bores the slowest traffic on 24 westbound isn't there yet it's the slowest through Orinda from past St Stephen's and for the around crossroads Highway 4 westbound Bailey collision left lane blocked their cemetary bridge westbound before the toll plaza there was a crash it's clear but it's still pretty heavy from almost 80 Joe McConnell for Kiki would support for k.q.e.d. Today comes from Geico protecting people in their vehicles for over 75 years Geico is proud to offer emergency roadside service to Bay Area drivers and you can learn more a Geico dot com or 180947 hot 0 I'm Dave Freeman Good morning you're listening to member supported k.q.e.d. Family 88.5 San Francisco. 89.3 North Highlands Sacramento and we're also live online a k.q.e.d. Dot org forum continues at 10 o'clock. From k.q.e.d. Public Radio in San Francisco this is forum I'm Scott Shafer in today for Michael Krasny coming up this hour and 25 years ago this week California voted on Proposition 187 it was aimed at immigrants here illegally or illegal aliens as they were called blocking them from getting social services including education and health care the measure passed easily but it was eventually struck down by the courts but also awakened political activism in the Latino community pushing a generation of young people to register vote and run for office. This hour we'll look back at 187 and whether it helped pave the way for Donald Trump get started right after this news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying a federal judge is striking down a trump administration rule that would have allowed healthcare providers to opt out of performing abortions or other services on religious or moral grounds today's ruling out of the Southern District of New York vacate the so-called conscience rule that would have enabled the government to withhold federal funding violators the rule was due to take effect in just over 2 weeks the public phase of the House impeachment inquiry will begin in earnest next week with the House Intelligence Committee holding public hearings with several u.s. Diplomats N.P.R.'s him back reports from Capitol Hill the president is accused of leveraging military aid to get the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into the Biden family after weeks of closed door depositions witnesses will now appear on camera in an open setting House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said u.s. Diplomats William Taylor and George can't will testify on Wednesday and former ambassador to Ukraine. Will testify on Friday those open hearings that will be an opportunity for the American people to evaluate the witnesses for themselves to make their own determinations about the credibility of the witnesses but also to learn firsthand about the facts of the president's misconduct shift said the inquiry has thus far shown that the president quote enlisted whole departments of government to get Ukraine to investigate his potential domestic political opponent to mak n.p.r. News Washington for the 1st time in a generation the Democrats will be in control of both houses of Virginia's legislature both parties spent big in the Commonwealth as we'll hear from N.P.R.'s our McCammon in Richmond the results from the off year elections in Virginia and other states offer an important glimpse into voter sentiment leading into the 2020 presidential election at a Democratic election night watch party in Richmond governor Ralph Northam announced that Virginia is officially.