Landslide: Hochman Defeats Gascon in LA County DA Race

Former Assistant U.S.  Attorney General for the Tax Division and current General Counsel for Ross LLP Nathan Hochman defeated incumbent Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon in a landslide on Tuesday, with Hochman now up with over 61% as of Wednesday morning with 59% of precincts reporting.

Both Hochman and Gascon have been battling it out for the LA County DA race since March, when Gascon managed to get just over 25% of the vote in the primary, while Hochman barely beat out Assistant DA Jonathan Hatami 16% to 13% of the vote, or roughly 36,000 votes. However, the negative backlash over Gascon’s reform-minded policies, which included reduced sentencing, death penalty opposition, and general discontent from many, quickly swung towards Hochman’s favor. With so many opposed to Gascon, Hochman quickly jumped into first in the race following the primary.

The first polls in April found Hochman at 44%, up by 21 points over Gascon at 23%, and 33% undecided. With high crime concerns and a growing number victims and family members of victims directly blaming Gascon for crimes, as well as the loss of loved ones because of his policies, things only grew worse for Gascon over the summer. Huge numbers of endorsements, many of whom previously backed Democratic candidates, suddenly began migrating towards Hochman. A UC Berkeley poll in August found that his lead was still just as high, coming in at 45%, with Gascon only getting 20%. 35% in the poll remained undecided.

As the election neared, Gascon received endorsements from the Los Angeles County Democratic party and the Los Angeles Times. Gascon also made an all out blitz in the last month before the election. He managed to out-fundraise Hochman, despite not having George Soros donate anything, leading to ads galore coming out in LA County. This included ads pointing to Hochman as a former Republican, trying to consolidate party unity around Gascon. He also tried to appeal to voters by backing the push to free the Menendez Brothers. However, this did nothing to help Gascon. A USC/CSU poll released at the beginning of October found that Gascon was now 24 points behind, with 44% in favor of Hochman, 20% Gascon and around 33% undecided. Even more disheartening was the latest poll over the weekend, which found that Hochman now had a near-majority of 50% of voters, with 25% backing Gascon and another 25% undecided.

This led to the election on Tuesday. Hochman was quickly declared the winner shortly after the first votes came in. So many were on his side, with trendlines showing at least a 20 point advantage for Hochman. Gascon quickly conceded Tuesday night.

“It wasn’t outright said, but everyone knew,” said one City Hall worker to the Globe on Wednesday. “Everyone knew for a while how yesterday was going to pan out.”

Hochman wins landslide election

After Gascon called Hochman to concede, Gascon made his concession speech. In it, he said “The rightward shift across America last night is heartbreaking. Democrats have a long road ahead, but the work is more vital than ever and our commitment will not waver. Nevertheless, I have called Mr. Hochman and wish him the best as Los Angeles County’s next District Attorney. I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past four years and grateful to the communities who have been and will always be the heart of criminal justice reform.

“We have had about 30 some years to get where we are today. It would be unrealistic for me or anyone to expect that in four years, we’re going to turn everything around. Including when you consider that in those four years we had two and a half years of a pandemic, which brought so many things to a halt. Definitely, in order for this work to be able to continue to develop, we would need more time.”

After his speech, Hochman celebrated his own victory.

“The voters of Los Angeles County have spoken and have said enough is enough of D.A. Gascon’s pro-criminal extreme policies; they look forward to a safer future. As D.A., I look forward to representing all of the people, whether they voted for me or not, since their safety will be my responsibility.”

Hochman had also earlier said that “It’s a big job, but I am absolutely energized by the fact that I’ve got over 750 prosecutors who are ready to get to work. I’ve got tens of thousands of law enforcement officers who will no longer say ‘my hands are tied’.”

Hochman and his “hard center” approach took center stage throughout the night, with his lead fluctuating but never dipping below 60%. As of Wednesday morning, Hochman is up 1,421,207 votes, or 61.5%, to Gascon’s 891,264 votes, or 38.5%, with 59% of the vote in. In total, it is a 23 point lead, marking virtually all polls on the race being extremely accurate.

“We’d been predicting this for months,” said LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Wednesday. “Every poll we ran we always had people yelling about how much Gascon was doing a terrible job. It was the kind of vigor we only usually get for Presidential candidates or the Governor. Local races almost never have that kind of fervent support. But Gascon did that bad of a job.

“Results won’t be certified until early December, but we should get the full amount in in the next several weeks as by-mail ballots continue to come in. At most, Gascon can improve by, maybe, a few points best case scenario. For Hochman, best case can be getting 65% of the vote or above. What’s obvious is that L.A. County voters had had enough, and we saw that play out last night. Well, the last several months really.

“And let’s not forget that Gascon, a strong liberal, lost to Hochman, who had been a member of the GOP until last year. Republicans rarely win L.A. County offices nowadays. We may have just witnessed, possibly, the beginning of a turnaround.”

Hochman is expected to be sworn in as the next D.A. next month.