today on getting answers. super tuesday gives way to wonderful wednesday for some but not for others. is california leaning right or is it just a function

of primaries? one measure voters passed in san francisco will give officers more leeway in police chases, and some warn that's a disaster waiting to happen. and amidst the closures of stores in union square, there's something glorious blooming. tulip mania celebrates spring, and you can take part this saturday. you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us. it is the day after a consequential primary here in california and the bay area, and while there are no huge surprises there, definitely tea leaves to be read with regard to changing priorities locally and statewide. plus, the presidential stage is set with nikki haley bowing out today after disappointing super tuesday. joining us live to talk about all this and more, the vice president of political data inc, paul mitchell. hey, paul. >> hey. how are you doing? >> i'm good. i mean, i'm sure you're excited because there are several close ones, and that's where i want to start with the closest contest, the one about statewide prop, the one that we have. prop one. governor

newsom's mental health plan, a bond and a redirection of existing money to create more housing and treatment beds for homeless people. take a look at this, paul. this is too close to call. right >> it is really close, and the real issue is that we probably have about another 40% of ballots still to be counted, probably in the range of two and a half, maybe 2.8, maybe even 3 million ballots still to be counted. so in a sense, we're just over halfway there. and the question is, what will those later counted ballots look like? the later counting counted ballots can be younger, so in that way it would benefit this measure, but also in the last couple of elections, we've seen a lot of republicans, those more conservative, more trumpy republicans, not trusting vote by mail and instead taking their ballot to the polling place, handing it directly to a person and so there might be some some counties in particular where you have a lot more republican voters voting in person. so it's really kind of an unknown. what are the outstanding ballots and

how will those ballots potentially differ from what we've seen so far, so i think still that this ballot measure is likely to pass, but it might get closer before we know. >> yeah. i mean, it got closer and closer as we inch closer to election day. so we'll see which way this goes in the end. okay. how about the race for the late senator dianne feinstein's seat? the night went pretty much exactly how representative adam schiff had hoped. right. let's take a look at these figures here. >> yeah. so it went, definitely how adam schiff had hoped. and it went away that we kind of thought it would almost from the beginning when we see that steve garvey number, that's the most important thing to look at in this right now, and that is that he's at 32. but the reality is that republicans and republican leaning independents are usually about 40% of the vote in a low turnout primary. and we know he was getting somewhere around 75 to 80% of those republicans. so he was almost gifted this 30,

32. just at the outset, he was going to get a number, something like that. the real jostling, the back and forth, the pulling, the trying to convince people and persuade people was between the other three democratic candidates. it's almost like they were running different races. steve garvey just had to have a square jaw and sit there and say, i'm the republican. he spent $0 effectively in advertising for himself, while democrats had to convince voters to vote for them based on issues, personality or other things. and, adam schiff clearly came out ahead. but this race will really be remembered in the primary for that steve garvey effect, not only in this race, but actually down ticket. and i think we'll start talking a little bit more about other races. but there are other races where you could say, would that have happened if it wasn't for the fact that over $10 million were spent promoting steve garvey and pushing, pushing republican turnout? like what? >> what down ballot races might you be talking about? >> so if we look at a lot of the

legislative races around the state, and i know this isn't your area, but where adam schiff's actual congressional congressional district is safe, safe, safe democratic seat, the second place candidate in that race is a republican, a surprise second place in a multi-candidate field. the two legislators that were running for his district, both those districts are safe, safe, safe democratic districts. and in both of those districts, a republican surprisingly made it into the top two. this is a fact of a low turnout election where you have more affluent, more conservative voters and it has this trickle down. >> and so. okay, i'm sorry, paul. so are you then saying adam schiff by ensuring that he will be facing off against a republican in the general, making it easier for him to win than if he went up against a democrat, that he might have maybe made the state legislature a little bit more red, come november, or it won't go that far. >> it what it did is it probably stymied the hopes of a lot of democrats who are looking to run

for legislature and a lot of voters who thought that they were going to have a top two democratic race. the state senate race that is in your coverage area. that goes from, you know, napa, solano, vallejo out to west sacramento. it's a state senate race with christopher kobold and the mayor of west sacramento topping a republican that almost nobody's heard of. and the two democrats from the west side of the district from vallejo and rohnert park, don't get a chance to vie in the runoff because of this effect of elevating republican turnout and republicans getting into the top two. so it is a function of lower turnout out a unexciting presidential race on the democratic side, almost no primary on the republican side, and all this republican spending a lot of issues and campaigns were affected by this. but i don't think it will mean more republicans in the legislature of congress. it just means a lot of hopes for other democrats were dashed. okay >> got it. all right. let's take a look at the 16 congressional

district here in the bay area in the south bay. that's the retiring anna eshoo seat. do we know the top two here yet? >> no, we don't necessarily, it looks really close for that second spot. it seems as though sam liccardo looks like he will be in the runoff. joseph is probably most likely to be there. that is a candidate that anna eshoo endorsed. evan lowe was counting on younger voters, and, there was also some data suggest that near the end of the campaign, his campaign was gaining a little bit more momentum. and so potentially, if the late votes include more young voters and include a lot more people who actually saw his late running ads, this race could get closer, so it's definitely one to watch. and then you look, that fourth place republican probably wouldn't have been that high. but, you know, that's just probably part of the effect of the low turnout. he won't be able to get into that third into that second spot for sure. >> again, just like the senate

race, the top two vote getters advance to november, the general election. okay, paul, you know, several newspaper headlines i saw today declared california and san francisco less progressive. now looking at results should we interpret them that way? >> well, it is definitely something that we should watch out for. but we also need to be careful because remember, only half or 60% of the ballots have been counted so far. and depending on where you are in the state, these late ballots have what's either called a blue shift or red shift in a county like placer county, inland county, you might see a lot of republicans who are holding on to their ballot and only want to vote in person. and those places the late ballots should break more republican. but in progressive counties in la and san francisco and alameda, throughout the bay area, central coast, in those counties, the late ballots generally are just more young voters. that's really the dominant feature of those late ballots, and they end up being more progressive. so if there are candidates or ballot

measures that look like they're at a, you know, 53, 47 kind of number right now, that could switch one way or the other depending on where you are in the state. >> okay. for our remaining time, i want to talk about the presidential primaries. of course, it was no surprise. even here in california, trump won big over haley, and now haley has suspended and dropped out because she took only vermont out of the 16 contests. so let me ask you, it's looking like it's going to be trump versus biden, but here we have trump with at least four criminal trials before the election. what if he is convicted or deemed ineligible? well, how would the gop even feel the candidate then if haley, the last woman standing, is out? >> well, he could be indicted. he could be convicted. he could be jailed, and he could still be on the republican ballot and actually still win the presidency. there's nothing in our law that prohibits that. and there have been incarcerated individuals like lyndon larouche run for president in the past

without facing any legal challenge to their candidacy, that being said, if the republicans did want to change, they would have the opportunity at the republican convention. remember, these primaries do not actually elect or nominate the president, for that or the nominee for that party. they actually just send delegates to the conventions. the conventions are actually where those delegates gather and they vote for the nominee, and they could theoretically decide not to have it be trump if something were to happen, like a conviction, or him stepping aside. i think the real question is that even if haley has some delegates, whether or not that would be sufficient to make her even a front runner in an open convention, for the republicans, it's more likely that a more trump aligned candidate would be able to win in that room than haley. >> all right, stay tuned. everybody paul mitchell vice president of political data, inc. thank you so much for your

analysis. >> thanks for having me. >> police in san francisco are getting a new set of rules regarding police pursuits. this after voters approved proposition e. it will also expand the use of surveillance cameras. why is the police commission so against it? we'll are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with hr positive, her2 negative metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole. ibrance may cause low white blood cell counts that may lead to serious infections.

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injuries to civilians. prop e has about 60% of the vote. this allows for more police pursuits and camera surveillance. mayor london breed praised its passage, saying this is vital to fighting crime, but opponents

are sounding the alarm, pointing to the dangers of police chases. that's right. just this morning, a hayward police officer ended up in the hospital after crashing into a hydrant and a pole while pursuing a burglary suspect. it happened at the intersection of west winton avenue and cabot boulevard. joining us live now to talk about this issue, max carter, oberstein, vice president of the san francisco police commission. max, thank you very much for joining us. can you hear us? okay got the zoom audio and video going. i do believe he's frozen. are we able to unfreeze that? >> okay. i'm back. i'm. i'm unfrozen. >> i can hear you now. excellent. max, look, measure e passing replaces a policy that's been in place since 2013. explain what the rules were regarding chases in san francisco and what they will be now. >> sure. under the prior regime,

which, as you noted, was passed ten years ago, was written by the san francisco police department and touted by then chief greg sir, under that policy, officers could engage in a chase in two circumstances. the first is when, they were chasing a suspect who had committed a violent felony. and the second was for any offense, no matter how minor, if the officer believed that there was a bona fide and imminent risk to the public safety, under the new regime, the, officers will now be able to chase for any felony or any, quote unquote, violent misdemeanor, that tirm is not defined in the penal code. and i think there's a lot of confusion and question about what that will actually mean in practice. >> right? i'm sure there'll be debates about what counts as that. but let me just ask you, why are you concerned? how do you think this would endanger the public? >> well, police chases are a

matter of life and death, we've recently had just in san francisco, a spate of, pursuits that resulted in death or serious injury to innocent people. we have in san francisco, sfpd has the highest collision rate of any law enforcement agency. and the lowest apprehension rate, so, so given those factors, any change to our vehicle pursuit policy has to be based on data and evidence. property is certainly not that, it was sloppily drafted. and, the results are unknown, but i'm certainly concerned, given the current statistics, that we will have more unnecessary injuries and deaths of innocent bystanders under this new policy. >> i mean, would it ease your mind if they put in some rules, such as we can only do this in areas where there aren't a lot of people, or maybe late at night, maybe not during, you know, the peak hours of the day when people are out and about, or perhaps more lessons, if you

will, or, you know, driving courses for the officers and how to engage in this. would that make you feel better about it? >> well, krista, i think you laid out a lot of sensible considerations that just simply aren't a part of prop e. so i think that those things you listed out are certainly worth considering. i think other things are responsible deployment of technology that allow for apprehension without engaging in a chase. in the first instance. i think the bottom line here is that you know, long before the mayor announced prop e, the police commission had already started collecting data and evidence from other jurisdictions and from san francisco to come to a reasoned and evidence based conclusion about whether any changes needed to be made, unfortunately, that that that process has now been cut short and we are all left with, with the standards set out by prop. >> i'm sorry, as you were talking about, you know, alternatives to chasing. does this mean you support the other part of e, which is the expanded use of drones, no, i don't support that part of prop e, i

think it's important to note that the police department has never asked for drones in any of its budget requests, before prop, there was already a clear and simple process for the department to obtain new technologies. it was an open public process that allowed the public to engage in it, and placed and ensured that any new technology was used responsibly and had adequate safeguards. prop will just simply do away with that altogether, and we will no longer have the important safeguards that are necessary to protect, individuals privacy and the safety of the public. >> all right. the aclu has raised privacy concerns as well. but look, it's no surprise that many police commission members are not for prop e, because it does have provisions limiting your commission's oversight of police. now, this is happening while voters also backed screening welfare recipients for drugs and moderates running for the democratic central committee, and getting in there,

do you sense a change in the political winds in the city? >> well, i'll i'll leave that to the political pundits. i think what i, what i can say, just based on the facts, is that for prop e, the, the property, the folks in, advocating for property outspent the other side 10 to 1. the money came from a handful of million heirs and billionaires, and this was a very low turnout off cycle election. so i would really, hesitate before i draw any broad conclusions about the state of the electorate in our city. >> all right, look, i know you're not in favor of some of the things that could happen under e. however, as you know, there are a lot of people pointing out, look, the city is facing a serious property crime crisis, something more needs to be done to you. what would that something more be if not this? >> i completely agree that more needs to be done, and i think one of the things we can do is be more intelligent about how we

use our our law enforcement resources that we currently have. right now. we are wasting resources on all sorts of, pursuits that aren't making people safer. and we're not engaging in core law enforcement responsibilities that make people's lives better. things like, foot beats. we just simply have abandoned things like, traffic enforcement. we have completely abandoned in favor of flashier policies that are designed for pr purposes and have nothing to do with keeping people safer, so i would i would i would be in favor of bringing back foot pursuits. i would be back in favor of bringing back traffic enforcement for things that actually cause injury and death in our roadways, for example. >> all right. sharing a different perspective on measure e, we appreciate you, max carter oberstein, with the san francisco police commission. thanks. >> thank you so much. >> sure. it's only early march, but spring is ready to bloom in san francisco. all you need to know is to grab a free, fresh

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foot traffic and store closures. but some good news is blooming for the city's iconic shopping destination. joining us live now to talk about it is sita vermeulen, head of communication for the netherlands consulate, to talk about tulip day 2024 this saturday. hi, sita. hi >> hi. good afternoon. thank you so much for having me. >> oh, it's great to have you on. i'm so glad you were able to make the time. i know tulip day is such a popular event in san francisco. union square. and i know that tulip is the dutch national flower and symbol. how did the two come together? how did this event come to be? >> well, this is already the sixth time that we're organizing tulip day. >> on on union square in, in san francisco, the idea originated

in the netherlands. it's a it's a it's a national tradition to kick spring off with a huge tulip fest in amsterdam, where we hand out, free tulips to the public. and a couple of years ago, the dutch flower bulb organization, decided that they wanted to. yeah, bring it to the united states as well, the united states is our biggest market for dutch flower bulbs, and they picked san francisco because it's a beautiful city with beautiful weather. also in march. oh that's absolutely true. >> so this is kind of like what panda is to china. tulips are to the netherlands. it's your way of promoting goodwill and diplomacy. right. >> absolutely, absolutely, you said it right. the netherlands is known for, for tulips, in spring, thousands, 100 thousands of tourists come to the netherlands to see the flower fields, to see the tulips, and, and, and we love to bring tulips to, to the united states as well. and it's great because we

don't have to fly there to amsterdam. >> so it's a little cheaper. we can just go to union square. so tell us the saturday when people go, what will they see? how many tulips, all sorts of colors. what will they experience? so union square will be covered by 80,000 colorful tulips, all kinds of colors, they will actually spell out the name, the word union because of, because of union square. oh. and, people can, well, they you have to come early because it it tends to get very crowded and busy, so be early and then the public can go into the flower fields, take their pictures, take their selfies, and then pick up to eight, free tulips and then bring them home and, put them in a beautiful vase and enjoy them all. >> okay. so if you go, you can get a free bouquet. anyone can. or what is the idea? >> anyone can just stand in line. and, as long as there are tulips, you can you can pick them for free. >> yes. to celebrate women, isn't it?

>> it's to celebrate women. international women's day is the day before it's to celebrate spring, and it's just to celebrate happiness. you know, flowers make anyone happy, have you ever seen someone who receives flower, who doesn't smile? so, i think this is something that we can all use every now and then and especially now, as spring starts. >> absolutely. we were showing video from a previous year, but have you already planted them or are they out there already? >> so they are being grown from dutch tulips, but they're they grow here in the united states, in arcadia, northern california. >> and they're being trucked in, on on friday evening, they're being trucked to, to the city, we set everything up in the morning, and then at 1 p.m, the public can join and pick them. but they are growing here in the united states right now. >> okay, so i see there's so many different colors. do they have different meanings? if i were to pick them and try to decide which bouquet to give to someone, what do they signify? >> i am not the expert on what each, what each, flower means.

>> but i do know that, you mentioned it's a it's a way of diplomacy for the netherlands, and we, we sometimes name name tulips after people, first lady jill biden. had her tulip named after her last year and last year during tulip day, we also named a tulip after mayor breed to thank her for welcoming our queen maxima to san francisco the year before. so for special people, we, we name a flower after them. >> oh, of course. and i do know that events such as this really brings foot traffic to union square. it helps all the businesses people get their flowers and they stay and have a little dinner. right. so, fabulous day. and i think the weather will be fine too. so thank you. so much. really appreciate it. tulip day sits on vermeulen with the netherlands consulate. we appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. and remember abc seven news is streaming 24 over seven. you can get the abc7 bay area app and join us whenever you want. wherever you are, we'll take a short

you can go to visit union square .com for more information. thank you for watching getting answers today. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00, answering questions with experts from around ♪ tonight, several breaking stories as we come on the air. the storm moving up the east coast, washington, d.c., to new york city to boston. the watch is up right now. in new york city tonight the national guard being sent into the subway to protect riders and

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