Progressive prosecutor George Gascón, Los Angeles County district attorney since December 2020, is in a tight race to hold on to power against independent candidate Nathan Hochman.
The reason is quite simple: Gascón, who enjoys the financial backing of liberal billionaire George Soros, is a polarizing, soft-on-crime prosecutor who enables violent crime to flourish, impacting Los Angeles’ most vulnerable citizens.
In contrast, Hochman has bipartisan support from across the county, including from legacy Democrats like Rory and Max Kennedy, a daughter and son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and many others — because Hochman wants to enforce the law fairly and independently while holding criminals accountable.
Gascón first served as DA in San Francisco from 2011 to 2019.
There he co-authored Proposition 47, a “criminal justice” reform measure passed by California voters in 2014.
The measure reclassified non-violent felonies and led to the release of thousands of inmates, ultimately weakening law enforcement’s ability to deter repeat offenders.
Prop. 47, Gascón said, was meant to “reduce incarceration rates” and “address systemic inequalities” to turn our legal system “upside down.”
The notion of not prosecuting crimes in the name of social justice — which, to be clear, means failing to enforce the law equally — undergirded radical Gascón’s policies then, and does so even more today.
The result is always the same: more crime.
During Gascón’s time in San Francisco, property crime increased by 49%, and his office filed misdemeanor charges in only 40% of the cases presented by the San Francisco Police Department.
In other words, Gascón dropped 60% of the arrests made by the SFPD as if they never happened.
Meanwhile, California is caught in a pandemic of assault, robbery, car theft, and shoplifting — this last up a staggering 39% statewide in the last year — largely as a result of Gascón’s worldview.
I lived in Los Angeles from 2017 to May 2020 with the intention of moving back to one of the world’s greatest cities.
But the crime-rate increase and the stories of friends being robbed at gunpoint kept me from returning.
In Los Angeles, shoplifting has skyrocketed by 133% since Gascón became DA.
And it’s not just stolen goods: Violent and property crime reports are also up in LA County.
Crimes within the LA Metro system alone surged more than 65% in the first three months of this year.
This chaos is exactly why I created the Caldwell Institute for Public Safety after my innocent teenage brother was murdered in 2022: to combat crime and violence across the US by fostering safer communities through innovative strategies, robust community partnerships and combating soft-on-crime prosecutors and legislation.
We’re not alone: Even some of California’s most liberal prosecutors and politicians have distanced themselves from Prop. 47, pushing for an overhaul of the measure.
But not Gascón.
His infamous “Day 1 Directives” for LA included the elimination of cash bail for most offenses, the elimination of sentencing enhancements (such as gang enhancements on firearm use), resentencing and review of old cases with “overly punitive sentences,” and an end to charging juveniles as adults, regardless of the offense.
Here’s what all this means in practice: In August 2019, two teen gang members gunned down Jose Flores Velazquez, an astrophysics PhD candidate who’d accepted a job with NASA, and his best friend, Alfredo Carrera, a soon-to-be father.
Gascón’s new policy ensured these “minors” would serve less than seven years in custody.
Prosecutors in Gascón’s office began opposing his agenda immediately.
The DA has been named in more than a dozen civil suits, nearly all of which were filed by his employees.
To date, 20 prosecutors have accused Gascón of workplace retaliation, alleging he pushed them out of leadership positions or into undesirable assignments because they challenged his progressive policies or pointed out portions of his Day 1 directives they considered illegal.
Calls for Gascón’s ouster via recall began only 16 months after he assumed office, and three significant recall efforts have been launched during his time as Los Angeles DA — none successful.
Fortunately for LA, there’s an alternative: Hochman, an attorney and former federal prosecutor who served as assistant US attorney for the Central District of California and later as the assistant attorney general for the US Department of Justice Tax Division under President George W. Bush.
Hochman has been recognized nationally for his focus on public safety, combating corruption and upholding the rule of law.
The crime surge in LA isn’t a huge mystery to Hochman, who uses common sense.
“When you stop prosecuting certain crimes … criminals benefit, crime increases, and the public suffers,” he’s said.
On his watch, Hochman has promised, violent criminals who use guns will be “prosecuted and punished, not released back to the street to commit more crimes.”
His deputies will “prosecute ‘smash-and-grab robbers’ to the full extent of the law,” and will go after fentanyl dealers and makers.
I believe him, and many others throughout Los Angeles County do, too.
In April, the children of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy announced their support for Hochman, saying Gascón is “not qualified” to be DA.
“Gascón prohibits his prosecutors from filing charges they believe are appropriate,” Kennedy’s daughter Rory said in a statement.
“He boycotts parole hearings and leaves grieving victims to fend for themselves.”
Robert Kennedy was murdered in 1968 while campaigning for president, and the man convicted of the murder, Sirhan Sirhan, was denied parole 15 times prior to Gascón’s election.
However, Gascón opted not to fight the release of their father’s assassin during a 16th parole hearing in 2022.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed the parole board’s release recommendation — but if Gascón had had his way, the murderer would have gone free years ago.
In November, the citizens of LA will vote to choose the DA candidate who offers a better path for their children, loved ones, coworkers and neighbors.
It is very clear to me which vision will elevate public safety and the rule of law.
Gianno Caldwell is a Fox News analyst.
