District Attorney 2020: Lacey vs. Gascón
JACKIE LACEY
What is being called the most important contest in the country outside of the presidency is the race to be top prosecutor in Los Angeles County. Sparring for the seat are incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey, seeking a third term, and her challenger, former San Francisco District Attorney (from 2011 to 2019) George Gascón, who moved south to run for the Los Angeles County job.
That there is national attention on the race is evidenced by the Friends of Bernie Sanders website supporting Gascón. (berniesanders.com/get-involved/george-gascon)
In contrast, the organization representing approximately 1,000 local deputy district attorneys, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA), has endorsed incumbent Lacey. ADDA president Michele Hanisee writes: “Jackie Lacey . . . is an experienced, career prosecutor with a record of reforming the justice system while keeping crime at historically low rates. She has kept politics out of the D.A.’s office and respected the rule of law. Gascón, on the other hand, is running on a promise of ‘turning our court system upside down.’” (tinyurl.com/y2pm4vd7)
Lacey’s own campaign website is jackielacey.com.
GEORGE GASCÓN
Gascón, an author of 2014’s Proposition 47 that changed criminal sentencing rules, is said to be a beneficiary of the funding of George Soros, who has been underwriting the campaigns of “progressive prosecutor” candidates across the nation. “The American Conservative” website (tinyurl.com/y3fwm3ys) reports that Mr. Soros and his allies “have spent well over $1 million to defeat Jackie Lacey.”
The so-called Progressive Prosecutor Movement has had success in electing anti-incarceration criminal prosecutors in communities across the country since about 2016. For example, in Portland, Oregon, the current Multnomah County D.A., 39-year-old Mike Schmidt, was just elected in May. (tinyurl.com/y25a4act)
Gascón’s website is georgegascon.org.
Among Gascón’s endorsers in this nonpartisan contest are a host of Democratic Party organizations and individuals plus prominent newspapers. (tinyurl.com/y4d5p3qs)
Replacing incumbent Lacey also has been a primary goal of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles since at least 2017. See: blmla.org/jackie-lacey-must-go. In contrast, Lacey is supported by numerous peace officer associations. See: jackielacey.com/endorsements.
Voting starts when the mailed ballots are received in early October.
Category: News
