Soft-on-crime Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon faces a full field of primary challengers on Tuesday after dodging two previous recall attempts aimed at ousting him over his progressive prosecutorial policies.
Eleven candidates — including several of Gascon’s current and former deputies — are competing with the incumbent to be LA’s top law-and-order enforcer in an open-primary race that is expected to lead to a runoff election between the top two vote-getters in November.
Gascon survived one recall effort within his first 100 days in office and a second in 2022, when organizers narrowly missed collecting the necessary signatures to trigger a special election to oust him.
The left-wing prosecutor won election in 2020 on a criminal justice reform pledge following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis — but critics say his policies have enabled violent and repeat offenders to evade justice.
Those policies include decisions to abolish cash bail, to not prosecute juvenile offenders as adults, to lighten sentencing guidelines for gang members and to retry cases involving prisoners convicted of both serious felonies or non-violent crimes — all with the help of career public defenders he hired.
Gascon is one of many progressive prosecutors backed by liberal billionaire George Soros, receiving more than $6 million from his dark money network, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Los Angeles in October was dubbed the number one city for organized retail theft for the fifth year in a row, according to a report from the National Retail Foundation, amounting to $18.2 billion in losses.
Violent crime decreased slightly by 3.2% last year, while homicides dropped by 17% after reaching a 15-year high in 2022.
A January California Elections and Policy poll found a majority (51%) of Los Angeles voters disapprove of Gascon’s job performance, but he still leads the other candidates by a slight plurality, with 15% support.
Jonathan Hatami, a child abuse prosecutor who worked under Gascon, and former federal prosecutors Nathan Hochman — a 2022 GOP candidate for California attorney general — and Jeff Chemerinsky all showed single-digit support.
They were followed by Maria Ramirez, another Gascon subordinate who sued her boss ahead of the 2022 recall effort, along with Craig Mitchell, a Los Angeles superior court judge whose term ends in January 2025.
“By prosecuting criminals & following the law, which is really our main job, the DA holds wrongdoers accountable, helps ensure that justice is served, deters future criminal behavior & victimization, and promotes a sense & feeling of safety & security within our community,” Hatami said on X Monday.
“The DA also significantly impacts the lives of victims and their families by providing justice, closure and a small sense that survivors and their lost loved ones were heard and mattered,” he added.
“George Gascón never ran or campaigned on any of that. In his first two years, he didn’t even mention those ideals. He’s also never once been an actual prosecutor, so I also think he just doesn’t believe in any of that. Unlike Gascón, I do.”
Eric Siddall, yet another prosecutor who served under Gascon and is in the running, said the DA never prosecuted a case in court before his election and “continues making politically motivated prosecutions where he puts ideology ahead of evidence, and his personal preferences ahead of the law, leading to a staggering number of defeats in the courtroom.”
“This ideology-driven incompetence doesn’t just cost taxpayers money — it also diverts valuable personnel away from taking on important cases to put violent criminals behind bars and keep our community safe — instead sending them on wild goose chases that can’t be won,” Siddall said on X last week.
It could be days before the top two vote-getters are known. Polls will remain open until 11 p.m. ET, while mail-in ballots will be accepted from registered voters through March 12.
