LA Deputy District Attorneys Endorse Nathan Hochman

Even with a few primary votes remaining to be counted, the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) – the deputys’ union – has already made known who it wants to win the November runoff: Nathan Hochman.

In the primary election earlier this month, Hochman placed second to incumbent District Attorney George Gascon and while the fact of the endorsement comes as no surprise the swiftness is surely mean to send a clear message to LA county voters:  get rid of Gascon.

The ADDA has been heavily critical of Gascon’s policies and management, or lack thereof, style since the very beginning of his administration, filing suit against Gascon within his first month in office challenging his directive to the deputys to forgo sentence enhancements.

Since then, the ADDA – and individual deputies – have filed suits regarding and otherwise alleged a number of ethical, legal, and employment missteps Gascon has made.

In fact, when the matter of recalling Gascon in 2022 came before the union of his employees, 97.8% voted to support the recall.

“The ADDA believes that Nathan Hochman is the best candidate to support a pro-labor workplace agenda and to foster a constructive, open and collaborative relationship with the ADDA and its members,” said Michele Hanisee, ADDA president.  “We appreciate his commitment to the work done by our prosecutors and look forward to building a positive working relationship that benefits our members and the public.”

For his part, Hochman said he is honored that the ADDA has endorsed his candidacy.

“I’m extremely proud that the ADDA has voted to endorse me over their boss, George Gascon, who has recklessly and repeatedly trampled on their rights, retaliated against prosecutors who questioned his dangerous pro-criminal policies and prevented these hard-working prosecutors from fully advocating for victims,” Hochman said. “When I am elected, I will work tirelessly to support our County’s talented prosecutors, rebuild our office’s relationship with law enforcement, restore public safety and send a message to criminals that there will be consequences for their actions.”

Hochman noted that the ADDA support follows earlier endorsements by former three-term L.A. County D.A. Steve Cooley; Michael Harris, Co-Founder of Death Row Records; Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris; former L.A. Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff; former federal judge and prosecutor Stephen Larson.

Gascon’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Going into the fall campaign, observers believe, and current polling shows, that Gascon is intensely disliked by LA County residents and even if the expected outside monetary assistance from George Soros and affiliated progressive groups the Smart Justice PAC and the very very rich women behind it – Quinn Delaney, wife of a San Francisco developer Kaitlyn Krieger, wife of the guy who co-founded Instagram, Patty Quillin, wife of the guy who started Netflix, and Elizabeth Simons, daughter of a hedge fund billionaire – pours in he is in for a very tough race with Hochman.

However, Hochman’s past registration as a Republican (he’s now an independent/no party preference) is something that could be seen as a weakness in Los Angeles and will most likely be a point of focus of the Gascon campaign.  In other words, Gascon will try to cut/paste Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall campaign in which he almost never spoke about California but only focused om the putative evil of Donald Trump.

Like Newsom, Gascon – with crime stats up and the quality of life in the county being degraded by his actions/inactions since he took office – cannot run on his record so will almost certainly engage in Trump-baiting.

There are two crucial differences, though, between Newsom’s recall and Gascon’s attempt at re-election.  First, Newsom’s favorability was hovering about 50% by the time was vote taken; Gascon’s is currently below 30%.

Second, in at least the last 80 years no incumbent district attorney has done as poorly as Gascon did in his primary and those that came close to Gascon’s 25% or so vote were clobbered in the fall.

As to the matter of funds, Hochman – who raised far more than any other candidate for the primary – should be able to match Gascon’s woke money tsunami dollar for dollar.

And the race is on!