Los Angeles County District. Lawyer. George Gascón is expected to advance to a runoff in November, but it is too early to say who his challenger will be.
While polls show Gascón has become deeply unpopular among a significant portion of Los Angeles County residents, polls and local political observers have suggested that his strong progressive base will carry him out of a crowded primary filled with rivals who They spent more time attacking it than defining it. his own candidacies.
Four years after taking office on a popular platform of criminal justice reform following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Gascón found himself facing a different political landscape this primary cycle. Multiple polls showed the incumbent president had a disapproval rating above 50%, and a mix of frustrations with his policies and his perceived vulnerability led 11 candidates to challenge him.
While Gascón has undoubtedly had some successes during his tenure (including increased efforts to exonerate wrongfully convicted people and a greater focus on prosecuting police officers accused of misconduct and excessive force), his tenure has been seen rocked by public disputes with its own prosecutors and a litany of civil lawsuits that have already cost the county approximately $7 million. Some of his reforms were deemed illegal by a judge in 2021 and critics have also directly blamed the policies for his heinous crimes.
Violent and property crimes increased in Los Angeles County from 2019 to 2022, according to data from the California Department of Justice. But other counties with more traditional prosecutors saw violent crime increase at much higher rates in the same time period, a fact Gascón often emphasizes. LAPD data also shows that homicides and robberies have decreased over the past two years, and criminologists argue that it is disingenuous to solely blame a district attorney's policies for increases or decreases in crime.
The camp pursuing Gascón includes four prosecutors from his own office, three judges and two former federal prosecutors. With resumes and messages that largely mirrored each other — ten of the 11 contenders vowed to reverse nearly every policy Gascón announced during his inaugural speech — it became difficult for one contender to stand out from the rest.
Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 2022 as a Republican, raised the most money in the primary. Hochman, now running as an independent, vowed to “take the politics out” of a position he says has become increasingly partisan by Gascón and the progressive prosecutors' movement across the country.
While favoring alternative sentencing for nonviolent defendants who struggle with mental illness or drug addiction, Hochman also vowed to seek the death penalty in some cases and make use of enhanced sentences for gang crimes and gun crimes. of fire, measures that can sometimes double the prison time for certain defendants. Critics have argued that the enhancements are disproportionately used against people of color.
Running as a moderate who can balance reform with justice, former federal prosecutor Jeff Chemerinsky was one of the only candidates who embraced criminal justice reform while challenging Gascón. Chemerinsky disagrees with much of what Gascón has done, but he also said he would largely avoid trying juveniles as adults and had serious reservations about the use of gang enhancements. These positions have led other opponents to describe him as “mini-Gascón.”
Other main rivals include district MP. Lawyers. Jonathan Hatami and Eric Siddall, and Superior Court Judge Debra Archuleta.
Hatami was one of the three biggest fundraisers in the field, and the bellicose prosecutor's long history of publicly criticizing Gascón and his involvement in efforts to oust the district attorney made him popular among victims' rights advocates. . He was the only candidate to break away from the pack in a USC/Dornsife poll earlier this year, earning 8% of the vote and finishing a clear second behind Gascón. Along with Archuleta, he received the endorsement of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the largest police union in Los Angeles County.
Siddall, a veteran prosecutor of cases involving gang crimes and assaults on police officers, has won the endorsement of the union representing rank-and-file prosecutors and has also frequently clashed with the district attorney through the union. Siddall also ran as a moderate, claiming to represent a “new generation of prosecutors” who want to balance reform and aggressive prosecution of violent criminals, but he and Chemerinsky often found themselves fighting over the same airspace.
