Judge Debra Archuleta, Candidate for Los Angeles DA

Judge Debra Archuleta is confident – confident she was a good prosecutor, confident she is a good judge, confident she will make it out of the March primary, confident she will win next November, and confident she will be an excellent Los Angeles County District Attorney.

“I’m the most qualified candidate, the most experienced candidate, and the candidate who will beat (current LA DA) George Gascon,” Archuleta said.

Archuleta notes that she is the only candidate to have run – and comfortably won – a tough countywide election when she was first elected judge in 2016.

Taking an unpaid leave of absence from the bench to campaign, Archuleta said she was encouraged to run for the office “to take out Gascon” by many local civic power centers.

Like at least eight of the other nine candidates running against him, Archuleta looks at Gascon’s tenure in office as an unmitigated disaster.

Pointing specifically to large homeless encampments, it is common knowledge, Archuleta said, that they are run by criminal syndicates and that they have become so large and so dangerous because Gascon has refused to do his job and prosecute offenders.

“George Gascon chooses not to enforce the law and everyone is suffering,” Archuleta said.

A particular problem with Gascon’s ideological take on law enforcement is his hypocritical stance on guns.  While he supports gun control, Gascon refuses to file gun enhancements to charges against criminals.  

In other words, it seems he is against typically law-abiding people owning guns, but is fine with criminals actually using guns.

“Use a gun, go to jail,” said Archuleta, adding that using “strikes” and “enhancements” can keep the most violent offenders – who typically have extremely high recidivism rates –  off of the streets.

Archuleta said she will eliminate Gascon’s blanket policies, clear the 14,000 case filing backlog, and hire the 200 or so deputy district attorneys the office needs to operate at full strength.

As to the backlog, Archuleta said they appear to be “quality of life crimes that really impact small business owners and communities of color, and should not be merely waved aside as Gascon has done.

Archuleta said she believes in “reform with consequences,” that Proposition 47 has been a disaster, and that the idea of zero bail is yet another “blanket” policy that needs to be addressed.

“You have to look at the offenders rap sheet, their history,” when assigning bail, Archuleta said. “Every situation, incident is different.”

Archuleta said her current role as a a family court judge has given her a personal and troubling direct look at the impact of Gascon’s policies and ideology.

“I remove 10 babies – born addicted to meth and fentanyl – a week from their mothers’ custody,” Archuleta said.  “Think about that – the dealers Gascon is not putting away are selling meth and fentanyl to obviously pregnant women.”

As to the race itself, Archuleta said her campaign savvy will serve her well, pointing to an early poll – taken before she had really started campaigning –  that essentially put her tied for second is a good sign for both March and then November.

Whether or not she – or any of her eight fellow candidates – will actually face Gascon in November is far from certain.  Archuleta – along with a growing number of others – believes Gascon may not make it out of the primary.

It is possible the field will consolidate slightly before March and the progressive voter bloc that – along with millions of dollars in George Soros’ money – put Gascon in office is badly fractured.  While some are sticking with Gascon, others are becoming more aware of his essential unelectability and switching over to Jeff Chemerinsky, AKA ‘Gascon Lite.’

If Gascon does not make it through the primary, what will he do?  Well, Oakland might be hiring soon…

For more information on Judge Archuleta, you can visit her website at:  https://judgedaforda.com/