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Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón and former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman jumped out to early leads in a crowded field of candidates vying to be the county’s top prosecutor.
As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, Gascón led the pack with 22% of the vote, followed by Hochman with 18%. Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami, a longtime thorn in Gascón’s side who is popular with victims rights advocates, was the only other candidate to break into the double digits, earning 12% of the early returns.
Although polls show Gascón has grown deeply unpopular with a significant portion of L.A. County residents, polls and local political observers have suggested that his strong progressive base will carry him out of a crowded primary field replete with challengers who spent more time attacking him than they did defining their own candidacies.
Four years after taking office on a popular criminal justice reform platform in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Gascón found himself facing a different political landscape in this primary cycle. Multiple polls showed the incumbent with a disapproval rating of more than 50%, and a mix of frustrations with his policies and his perceived vulnerability led 11 candidates to challenge him.
“We’ve already learned that about three-quarters of residents of L.A. County residents have rejected George Gascon,” Hochman said to booming cheers during a speech given at the Luxe Hotel in Brentwood. “These are people who are afraid.”
“Now is the time to throw out George Gascón” he added, to loud echos of “throw him out.”
Gascón spent the early evening fielding questions from reporters in Grand Park in the shadow of the downtown criminal courthouse. The incumbent said he felt good about his chances and plans to watch results roll in with his family at home in Long Beach.
“This has been an arduous primary, we’ve had a lot of community support but it’s obviously been very heavily contested,” he said.
Gascón has undoubtedly had some successes in his term — including stepped-up efforts to exonerate those wrongfully convicted and an increased focus on prosecutions of police officers accused of misconduct and excessive force — but his term has been rocked by public disputes with his own prosecutors and a litany of civil suits that have already cost the county roughly $7 million. Some of his reforms were deemed illegal by a judge in 2021 and critics have also blamed his policies directly for heinous crimes.
Property and violent crime rose in L.A. County from 2019 to 2022, according to California Department of Justice data. But other counties with more traditional prosecutors saw violent crime surge at much higher rates in the same time frame, a data point Gascón often stresses. LAPD data also show homicides and robberies have declined over the last two years and criminologists argue that its disingenuous to solely blame a district attorney’s policies for crime surges or declines.
The field chasing Gascón includes four prosecutors from within his own office, three judges and two former federal prosecutors. With resumes and messages that largely mirrored one another — 10 of the 11 challengers promised to roll back nearly all of the policies Gascón announced during his inaugaration speech — it became hard for a challenger to stand out from the pack.
Hochman, who unsuccessfully ran for state attorney general in 2022 as a Republican, raised the most money in the primary. Now running as an independent, Hochman promised to “get politics out” of an office he says was made increasingly partisan by Gascón and the broader progressive prosecutor movement nationwide. Dozens of Hochman supporters noshed on an international selection of cheeses and mini creme brulees while they awaited early results Tuesday evening. Partygoers eagerly refreshed early election results, cheering as Hochman pulled ahead.
“We’re very cautiously optimistic we will end up in the top,” Hochman said between selfies with jubilant supporters. “As soon as we’re confirmed to be in the top two, the trial of George Gascon begins.”
Although he favors alternative sentencing outcomes for nonviolent defendants struggling with mental illness or drug addiction, Hochman also promised to seek the death penalty in some cases and make use of sentencing enhancements for gang and gun crimes, measures that can sometimes double the prison time for certain defendants. Critics have argued that enhancements are disproportionately used against people of color.
Running as a moderate who can balance reform with justice, ex-federal prosecutor Jeff Chemerinsky was one of the lone candidates to embrace criminal justice reform while challenging Gascón. He raised the second-most money in the field and political observers considered him a serious contender as a centrist Democrat alternative to Gascón, but his moderate message may have struggled to find ears in a race largely defined by bombast and fears over crime. As of 9 p.m., he sat tied for fifth in the race, far from contention.
“I ran a campaign true to who I am,” Chemerinsky said as his supporters traded concerned looks at early results during a watch party at T Boyle’s, a Pasadena bar where a trivia contest played out in the background.
Chemerinsky said he remains hopeful that Democrats who voted on election day will bump him up into the November contest. He disagrees with much of what Gascón has done, but also said he’d largely eschew trying juveniles as adults and had serious reservations about the use of gang enhancements. Such positions have led other challengers to describe him as “mini-Gascón.”
Hatami was one of the three biggest fundraisers in the field, and the pugnacious prosecutor’s long history of publicly criticizing Gascón and his involvement with attempts to recall the district attorney made him popular with victims’ rights advocates. He was the only candidate to break from the pack in a USC/Dornsife poll earlier this year, snaring 8% of the vote and finishing a clear second to Gascón. Along with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Debra Archuleta, he received the endorsement of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the largest law enforcement union in L.A. County. Archuleta sat in fourth in the polls as of 9 p.m., garnering about 9% of the vote.
Gascón maintained that he did not believe that any of his challengers made a substantive argument as to how they could do a better job serving as the county’s top prosecutor.
“People can throw rocks, they can say whatever they want to say,” he said Tuesday, adding that he was hopeful for a more policy-focused general election.
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