tonight on kqed newsroom, what happens when professional coaches and athletes weigin on national conversations like and control. we discussed the impacts they can wield and political spheres. and, june's primary election is around the corner. what are the races to watch? politics and government reporters share their insight. plus, ballots are whizzing through specialized machines that sort and count. this week's look at something beautiful. coming to you from kqed headquarters in san francisco this frid, june 3rd, 2022.

hello and welcome to kqed newsroom. i am free at david clements. funerals began in uvalde for the 19 children and two adults killed in the mass shooting at a texas elementary school. in a rare evening address to the nation last night president biden called for more gun control laws but acknowledge that getting a ban on assault weapons past would be hard because of republican opposition. leaders have also spoken out against the lack of gun control as well as the leaders of two bay area sports teams. san francisco giants manager dave kepler and golden state warriors coach steve kerr have loudly protested gun violence in recent days. joining us now to discuss their actions is jamie who is a sports writer for the associated press based here in the bay area for the past couple of decades and she has been following the stories closely. thank you for being here. it is such a busy time for you with the warriors playing in the finals right now and you

were there last night. >> thank you for having me and it was a shocker for warriors fans who have seen their team goat 9-0 in the postseason at home until last night when the the three-pointers in an aming comeback. >> very unexpected. the warriors coach steve kerr did not make any specific comments about gun violence last night but he did last week and i would like to play what he had to say first. we can talk about that. >> 90% of americans, regardless of political party, want background checks. 90%. we are being held hostage by 50 senators in washington who refuse to even put it to a vote despite what we the american people want. they won't vote on it because they want to hold on to their own power. it's pathetic. i've had enough. >> so angry, so much passion.

have you ever seen him in all the time you have covered the warriors get this angry before? >> not to that extent but i have seen him make impassioned speeches before about gun violence. but this was different. it was last tuesday night playing in dallas in the state of texas where the shooting was and it touches close to his heart and he has been affected by gun violence, lost his father 1984, gunned down in beirut. the president of american university. and steve was a freshman in college playing in arizona, university of arizona the time, so this is something that goes to his core and has affected his family. he knows what this is like as a victim, as somebody who has grieved gun violence. >> and it is not the first time

he has spoken out publicly about gun violence. he says, he's sick of it. it's enough. you can see the frustration. he is channeling what a lot of us are feeling. >> yes, people have just looked to steve to be a voice and it has matter to a lot of people to see him speak out and taylor swift tweeted. he saw people in all walks of life tweeting about what steve kerr did last week. getting up and walking out, not speaking about basketball úbefore game, which is very rar when we typically talk to both coaches about basketball before every game and he said this is not about basketball today and he exited. >> steve kerr's comments then seem to have also potentially spurred on the san francisco giants manager to share his own thoughts and his experience and he has said, dave kaplan, that

he will not be coming out of the dugout for the national anthem until he feels like the country is in a better place. let's listen to what he had to say. >> i don't plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until i feel like, i feel better about the direction of our country, so that will be the step. i don't expect it to move the needle necessarily. it's just something that i feel strongly enough about to take that step. >> so he did go on to stand shortly after that for memorial day and he said, you know, he felt it was important to stand on that particular day but that he has been following what happened since then. what has he done this week? >> he has not taken part in the cincinnati, two games in in a

philadelphia, and in miami. gabe has always been one who wants to use his platform in a positive way to speak out about issues as well, whether it is mental health, which he has done, i mean, all kinds of social issues. seeing steve kerr, steve has been an example to others everywre but especially here in the bay area. i'm sure that doesn't hurt for gabe kapler to see what another professional coaches doing right down the street here in the city to try to make a small difference and they may be doing it in a different way. steve has been asked about gabe's stance and said that would not be the way i would do it, but applauds gabe kapler for using his platform and that is one thing steve kerr said this week leading up to the finals, we

don't all have to do it in the same way. we don't all have to use our platform if we are not comfortable, but if we are comfortable absolutely speak out on something that matters. >> and there have been protests across the nation, not just our sports teams here in the bay area. tell us about what you are seeing her other teams. >> yes, this was pretty moving to see last week. the tampa bay rays and new york yankees for an evening used their twitter handles, both of them in collaboration, to offer statistics on gun violence and provide those details over the course of her hour-long the game was, let's say three hours, that was what they did. they did not tweet about baseball, they did not tweet photos of home runs or videos of highlights of the game. it was a long-running list of gun violence.

it was pretty amazing. >> there has been pushed back as well, so we are just learning in florida governor rhonda santos ems to be blocking state funding for a new tampa bay rays training facility in part because of this speaking out against gun violence. and this week he used line item veto power to eliminate $35 million in sports funding and training for youth tournament complex. so it is not without its dangers and its risks for these athletes and coaches to speak up. i think a great example of that is colin kaepernick who decided to kneel back in 2016 to spotlight discrimination in the country and he has had a rough go of it. >> he hasn't taken another nfl snap since 2016, has not had another opportunity. that could change soon. he got a look with the raiders last week in las vegas and

let's see, but that was something that mattered to him and he did not back down and you are not going to see steve kerr back down. you will not see gabe kapler back down . you will not see the u.s. women soccer players back down or the wnba players who have made their impact as well. but yes, erth because as we know different parts of the country have different thoughts and feelings about this and not everything is going to be popular. >> let's talk about one way in which we have seen the needle move in a positive direction from the activism and that is with women's soccer, so we just learned that women soccer players will be paid the same as male soccer players, their counterparts. and they have been active and have spoken out on this issue and raised the noise, made some noise around this. it is positive to see. do you think coaches, athletes,

can make a differce in this way more broadly? >> absolutely. even at the college level during the last two years the san jose state football players took on what they considered an obligation and they lead marches through san jose, peaceful march, and they spoke out. they held forms. they tried to educate. and these are college student athletes. it goes down not just at the professional level. it is admirable to see these student athletes who will be, i believe, future leaders for us taking a stand and trying to make a small difference. they have said that the professional athletes leading the way has helped give them the courage and the inspirion to also follow suit, which means

that maybe that will go down to the high school level and youth and that is what steve kerr hopes for. he went to a bay area high school four years after the parkland shooting to try to make a difference and hold a town hall so to speak, with high school students in the east bay. >> as they use their platforms to advocate for change. janie mcauley, sportswriter with the associated press here in san francisco. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. tourney to california's primary election, ma people already been mailing in their ballots and voting will conclude on tuesday, june 7th. statewide we have been watching the attorney general's race in which incumbent rob is facing several conservative challengers. questions about public safety seem to be playing a role in several leases in here to break it down is politics and government team scott shafer

and thank you all for being here today. nice to have you all in studio with me. there seems to be something a little unusual on the ballot with alex padilla lied twice. what is going on and does he really face any serious competition. >> it is not a typo. we expected padilla to be running but we -- partial second term election and this is a new law in california that is pushing -- puttingus on the ballot because they don't want to enter -- says voters will select a replacement for the u.s. senate see note governor gavin newsom picked alex padilla to fill the seat. this will give them the opportunity to pick who will fill the seat when the election is done in november to the next term in january and will likely be padilla. mark mosher is the republican in this race likely to make the top two. i should note padilla is being

outspent by the entrepreneur dan -- all that interested in winning the senate seat. he is using this candidacy to push back against teslas self driving cars. >> fascinating. not a cheap one either. >> another race is for attorney generals. ron bonta is the incumbent. tell us about the other candidates. >> he is facing three challengers, the most conservative is eric hurley. very trump candidate. believes the 2020 election was stolen which is been proven false. he is antiabortion. he is running conservative and sort of 2022 conservative position. then nathan hochman, l.a. attorney, former u.s. attorney who is also been a private practice defense attorney, really try to carve out a more moderate path but still a republican and he did get the reblican nomination from the party here. i think the person people are

most worried about has been anne-marie schubert, sacramento da. she is well-known for helping prosecute the golden state killer case and she really has been an outspoken critic of a lot of the reforms that bonta has backed, some ballot measures in recent years, and she is, you know, in the general election she would be a bigger threat because she is a no party preference candidate. she left the republican party in 2018 and openly but polls are not showing her numbers up. there was a recent poll that came out and it does show that she is far behind. rob bonta is way ahead and shoulders above. he is in the 40s and the next person is eric huey at 16%. nathan hochman is a 12 and schubert is at eight. the people supporting bonta were into lifting up eric hurley and talking about these

considered conservative credentials and a way to get republicans -- playbook we are seeing in the last several races. >> this is a reflection of the r next to their names. schubert -- when the polls are read to voters on the phone or online they say what party there with so it is acute to say i am republican and i will vote for the republican and that helps bonta and for the democrats it helps hochman in eric early . >> let's talk a little bit about this tension we are seeing between progressive leadership and this question a public safety. what -- wondering if we are seeing a shift away from progressive leadership and progressive policies that have been put into place over the last few years? >> we have to be careful about making a sweeping conclusion. generally voters are cranky and they are in a bad mood because of pandemic, gas prices and a host of other things. crime, murder have ticked up and that is making people

concerned about public safety here in san francisco three school board members recalled. that was fueled in part by republican money, real estate money. we saw more moderate candidates matt haney win for the assembly and now we have a recall of the da jason putin on the ballot. relatively conservative appointee for haney's seat. matt dorsey. we have a lot of data points that suggest maybe the city is moving that way but at the same time there is still broad support for criminal juice reform. gavin newsom will do very well as is rob bonta at san francisco's we have to be careful about drawing too many sweeping conclusions. >> i think we are seeing pushback to those more progressive -- crime and the concert people have but one thing i noticed interviewing these attorney general candidates they are still talking about rehabilitation, about striking a balance, nathan hochman used that line if you are a hammer to see

everything, if it's a nail, cannot do that anymore. it is important to know the conversation has shifted and i don't see us going back to 1994 three strikes necessarily, but there is always push and pull in politics and we are seeing some pushback. to the san jose's mayor race, are you seeing the same sort of discussion play out? there has been a lot of police union spending some of these -- this is a city were over the last two decades we have seen struggles again and again with staffing and this race for mayor there's an opportunity to throw their weight around. $300,000, chavez, supervisor, probably the leading contender in the race for mayor -- sending out mailers on her behalf district attorney races, solano county, you've seen law enforcement money going and putting their chips on one candidate. >> you have been covering those races. solano county.

that is the one that struck me and we have to talk about ime has ticked up during the pandemic but that is not what people are feeling. on the other hand we have seen in the last two years george floyd's murder, police accountability become p of mind, and what you are seeing is all of these things coming into the mix. diana beckman, the contra costa da, prosecuted successfully a sheriff's deputy and after that we saw a lot of money being dropped into an expenditure account on behalf of her opponent who was really running a more law-enforcement friendly campaign. one quarter million dollars we have seen and this is not just police unions with contra costa. the oakland poa, statewide organization, did this as well. i do think you have to sort of think about how are these prosecutors looking at police officers and how is the public going to respond to that. i think it is an open question where we are at. >> and just the flip and solano

county where you have the incumbent district attorney taking the heat for not pursuing prosecution and recusing herself after police shootings. that kind of -- >> let's turn to scott about the san francisco da we had on the show recently. you interviewed him and certainly police union opposition -- his time in office from the very beginning. what are you eing? does it seem like you hold onto his seat or will he be ousted? >> we are out of the prediction business. >> i would see chase putin is facing a lot of headwinds. the recall question has gotten a lot of money to the tune of $7 million fueled by fuel estate wealthy individuals and he has got about $3 million to fight it so they have an advantage there. not a day has gone by were have not gotten numerous texts,

mailers, all kinds of things. you are not seeing that so much and i think what is happening is people vote with their hearts on this. there is anecdotal evidence. we talked about personal evidence of crime. i have my garage broken into, people have stories like that, viral videos. it is unfair i think that a lot of it gets pinned on the da. auto break-ins are the cost of making arrests 1% of the time the da cannot do anything unless there is an arrest that he can press charges on. i think a lot of this is landing on his head but on the other hand he has got support from the county democratic party . most elected officials are with him, standing with him, and the school board there's a lot of people that cannot wait to get rid of -- school boards of yet some things going for him but he faces headwinds. >> i think it is probably likely that these polls have been showing that but it is deftly not going to be a landslide in

the same way we saw the school board recall. if polls are any indication. and shifting the mood, the examiner put out a poll this week showing 36% for the recall but overwhelming support for a lot of those criminal justice reform policies that he has pushed, so people may not like chesa boudin but they don't seem ready to kind of abandon all of his policies. >> i hear you. [laughter] >> i will ask for another prediction. who wants to predict whether or not the san francisco police and mayor are going to walk in the pride parade? >> is that going to happen? >> this is a big dustup that could've been avoided honestly. this is going to be the first pride parade since 2019 and a lot has happened. george floyd's murder, black lives matter, a lot of racial reckoning, a lot of folks in the community, especially trans people of color are very

comfortable with police, they have had bad experiences with cops and so the pride committee decided that the lgbt cops could march in the parade but they could not wear full uniforms and so they decided the police officers decided they were not going to march at all. >> and the mayor said that, the sheriff said that, fire department said that, it turns out it may have been a miscommunication which i won't go into but they seem to have resolved it and it is all contingent on the pride alliance will march in full uniform and others will be marching in partial uniform and don't of that side size without arade police with guns and anything else. you have to have that so there will be a police presence. on the sides. this will be a full on celebration. >> the mayor has also signaled her support with her budget proposals recently. >> i think she sees this as winning political issue and we don't know yet but there is certainly a sense by a lot of folks here and elsewhere there under fire and i think the

mayor has decided she is fully on their side on this which is very different than what she was talking about with george floyd's murder. i think we will ha to keep watching this but for sure this is putting democrats between a rock at her place here and nationally. >> let me get -- we have talked a lot about the perception of public safety but there is another major problem which is inflation of the price of gas, food, it is skyrocketing and there seems to be little to no relief in sight. so i'm curious if you think that is playing in it all to this particular election and if not, what about for the fall? >> we look at congressional races of a now the state and you can look at the messaging, polling, inflation is a huge issue. there was a poll of california top concern for voters compared to 24% like abortion which was 2% and look at the ads the republicans were trying to take

democratic seats and flip democratic seats in the midterms of their ads and messages are focused on the cost of living and that is whether you are in san diego or preset county and that is the message they are driving home democrats don't have a ready answer. they don't even have control steering wheel at this point. you look at president joe biden putting out his inflation -- up a journal and the top message was i'm going to let the federal reserve handle this. >> i don't you will see democrats, punished at the statewide level. gavin newsom will be fine. alex padilla will be fine. you may see it in the tight congressional races, four seats in particular that flipped from democrat to republican in 2020. so those are the places, one in the central valley, two in orange county, one in a lake. the fate of those races could determine potentially who controls the house and speakers. >> and right now as we are sitting here of course inflation and gas prices are top of mind but let's not

úforget the shootings over the past few week, the gun control debate happening right now in washington, d.c., and of course we are awaiting this roe v. wade decision from the supreme court so i feel like it is hard to know what is going to be top of mind in a few months becae just a few months back public safety was topping the list and now it is inflation and these congressional races you have democrats on the defense but yeah, it seems like there is almost this tendency to punish local officials for the things people don't like and national and statewide seem to be getting the pass. >> thank you all for being here. kqed's politics and government team. >> thank you. >> for this week's something beautiful we bring back one of her favorite segments with this look at democracy in action. scanners and other machines have automated aspects of our voting and added a whole new element of visual interest.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> a look at how the magic happens. that is the end of our show for tonight. kqed newsline online or on twitter or email us. you can

reach me on social media at. we will see you here next friday night. have a great weekend.

>> the gun debate and economic challenges. ♪ >> the nation on edge. >> fellow americans, enough. let's hear the call and the cry. let's meet the moment. let's finally do something. >> as president biden calls on congress to pass new gun laws. >> he began firing at anyone in his way. >> and more horrific mass shootings. including in tulsa, oklahoma. >> i think i've got partners at the table who have a lot of credibility in the republican caucus. that makes me feel good about our chances. >> hopefully we can find a way to come together and make some progress on this horrendous