Defeat the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Defending social justice prosecutors.
My art is on Instagram @klonskyart
It’s election day in California.
Statewide voting interest is at a record low. Only 11% have voted early in the primary.
In contrast, the Biden/Trump contest brought out record numbers of California voters.
There is one California election, however, that has created national interest: the recall of Chesa Boudin.
In the last election for San Francisco District Attorney, Chesa Boudin won in what was part of a national trend of big cities electing progressive, social justice prosecutors.
Here in Chicago we elected a progressive, Kim Foxx, as States Attorney on a platform of bail reform and police prosecution following the cop murder of Laquan McDonald.
The Fraternal Order of Police have been on her case ever since.
In Philadelphia, Larry Krasner has been re-elected District Attorney with a national reputation as a social justice prosecutor.
With Chesa Boudin as chief prosecutor, San Francisco has been a leader in reforms including ending cash bail for some defendants and sentencing rules.
In San Francisco, property and violent crime both dropped by double-digit percentages during Boudin’s first two years in office.
But mirroring a national trend, homicides have risen since 2019 — though the city that year experienced its fewest killings in more than half a century.
There is no question that the perception, and in some cases the reality, of crime and violence, is being used by opponents of criminal justice reform as a wedge issue.
Boudin is facing his second recall election since taking office.
Opponents have spent an estimated $7 million on this latest effort.
This morning’s polls show the race tied with 47% supporting recall and 47% supporting Boudin.
Turnout will decide.
Behind the recall are big money special interests.
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco is the face of the recall effort. It donated heavily in favor of the recent school board recall and weighed in on 2020 ballot measures: opposing higher taxes on commercial buildings and opposing increased taxes on real estate transactions.
Its principal officer is listed as Jay Cheng, a deputy director at the SF Association of Realtors. 55 people have given this PAC money since 2021. Their average monetary contribution is $93,000.
Most of the PAC’s money has come from donors involved in investment or real estate. Its biggest donors are mainly donors to Republican races.
The recall is definitely a not-so-stealth Republican effort.
William Oberndorf, a major supporter of Sen. Mitch McConnell, and other Republican politicians have given $600,000 to the Neighbors PAC since 2021.
The poster city for gentrification, San Francisco is no longer the progressive mecca we knew it decades ago, which makes it an even bigger challenge for those like Boudin.
It seems clear to me that although Boudin is the specific target, what we are seeing is also part of a national effort to stop the momentum of electing progressive district attorneys.
Yet the movement continues. In Little Rock, Arkansas, public defender Alicia Walton is lost a close race for the position of chief prosecutor for the county. Her opponent in the May primary was a 20-year prosecutor backed by the police.
In Oregon, Brian Decker ran for district attorney of Washington County. Decker attacks mass incarceration and assembly-line prosecution.
In Omaha, Nebraska, David Pantos is challenging an incumbent. He argues that the criminal-justice system is broken, advocates drug legalization and says that he won’t seek mandatory-minimum sentences or sentencing enhancements for repeat offenders.
Of course I’m cheering for Chesa Boudin today.
And I’m cheering on the movement of social justice district and states attorneys.
Big money Republicans (and some Democrats) are working extra hard and spending big bucks to turn the movement back.