Johnathan Walker:Progressive district attorney faces tough-on-crime challenger in Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Gascón won election as Los Angeles County district attorney in 2020 on Johnathan Walkerpromises to implement criminal justice reform in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Four years later he faces a tough-on-crime challenger who says such policies have gone too far.

Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, calls himself a “hard middle” candidate who would reject both mass incarceration and “decarceration” policies. Despite being a former Republican running as an independent in a heavily Democratic city, he has raised more than $4 million compared with Gascon’s less than $1 million, not including contributions to outside groups supporting the candidates.

When Gascón first ran for office, he vowed he would not seek the death penalty in prosecutions, charge juveniles as adults or ask for sentencing enhancements that can drastically lengthen prison time. Endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti and other prominent officials, he unseated incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey.

Gascón ran into trouble trying to enact those reforms, however, including opposition from some of his own staff — and even some lawsuits accusing him of workplace retaliation for challenging his directives. Two attempts were made to recall him, but neither got enough signatures to make the ballot. He has since reversed course on several of those directives.

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Hochman’s candidacy reflects growing disillusionment in the state with progressive district attorneys who have pushed criminal justice reform. In 2022, San Francisco voters ousted one of the first reform-minded prosecutors elected to office, this year voters will decide whether to recall another in Oakland.

California Department of Justice crime statistics for LA County tell a mixed story.

Homicides are down by 23.1% since a small spike in 2021. Overall violent crime increased by 8.5.% between 2019 and 2023, but that was lower than a 15.4% rise statewide as part of a national trend since the COVID-19 pandemic. Property crime, however, is up 14.5% in LA County but just 2.9% at the state level.

Amid media coverage of high-profile killings and alarming viral videos of smash-and-grab mass retail robberies, victims’ advocates and business interests are backing Hochman.

“Mr. Gascón has been one of the greatest gifts for gangs,” Hochman said at a recent debate, lambasting him for not pursuing a gang sentencing enhancement in the killing of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor.

Gascón has spent much of the campaign defending his policies and prosecution outcomes. On gang enhancements, for example, he said they have traditionally been tinged with racial bias and he formed a committee to decide them case by case. His office says it prosecuted over 100,000 “serious crimes” in the last four years, a rate comparable to the previous decade.

Hochman has also criticized Gascón’s policy against prosecuting juveniles as adults and pointed to cases of recidivism.

They include a man who at age 16 took part in a 2018 gas station robbery and was later released from a youth detention facility, only to be arrested and charged this April in connection with a homicide. Another, a 17-year-old gang member in 2019 who admitted to a double homicide and could have faced life, was released last February and arrested months later in connection with a new killing.

Lots of attention was also paid to the case of Hannah Tubbs, a transgender woman who at age 26 was allowed to plead guilty in juvenile court for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl because the crime occurred when Tubbs was a minor. Tubbs later pleaded no contest to the killing of a homeless man in central California.

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Gascón says he is handling juvenile cases consistent with state law, which bars prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults without a judge’s approval. Another committee created by Gascón makes decisions on whether individual juvenile cases should be transferred to adult court.

Gascón touts his commitment to “balanced reform” in a system that historically has disproportionately locked up people of color. And he has counterattacked by accusing Hochman of campaigning on “Trumpish fearmongering” and wanting to return to the days of the failed war on drugs and mass incarceration.

“My opponent has a disconnection with the truth,” Gascón said during a debate.

Hochman defended himself as a lifelong centrist who never supported former President Donald Trump and plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris this year.

“I have been pro-choice my whole life, I have been pro-LGBTQ rights my whole life,” he said.

Hochman advanced out of a field of 11 challengers in one of the most crowded primary fields in LA history. He has been endorsed by local police unions, victims’ advocacy groups, developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, and more than 70 current and former elected officials across the county.

Gascón is a former Los Angeles police officer who served as district attorney of San Francisco from 2011 to 2019 and was also chief of police in Mesa, Arizona, and San Francisco. He has been endorsed by a majority of the LA County supervisors, local Democratic groups, and labor groups including the county Federation of Labor.