What the Attorney General Candidates are Saying About the Gascon and Boudin Recalls

At a local level, District Attorneys in California arguably have more power to impact day to day lives and events than does the Attorney General.

And nowhere have we seen the impact of this direct influence more than in Los Angeles and San Francisco as the progressive policies of their respective District Attorneys – George Gascon and Chesa Boudin – have been implemented.

And now both are now facing recall from office – the vote will be taken on Boudin in June and, if enough signatures are gathered (which seems likely at this point), the vote on Gascon’s fate should occur in November.

Both are advocates of such concepts as “restorative justice,” dis-incarceration, and lessening criminal sentences.  And both cities they serve have seen massive increases in various types of crime during their time in office.

In light of recent San Francisco election results, the recall of Boudin – a woke city possibly recalling a woke politician for implementing woke policies – seems to be set to succeed.  Unlike Gascon, though, Boudin seemed to have been quite up-front about his policies in his initial election campaign – in other words, at least he has the courage of his convictions (like his parents, who have terrorist murder convictions of their own.)

Gascon’s campaign against former Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, however, was a bit different.  Policy details were unquestionably and purposefully downplayed as Gascon rode the crest of the anti-law enforcement wave to office, essentially demonizing Lacey as the black face of white supremacy before the Los Angeles Times actually did so to Larry Elder last year.

Hence today’s question:

A pair of state District Attorneys – Chesa Boudin and George Gascon – are currently facing recall efforts.  Do you support or oppose these efforts and why?

Daniel Kapelovitz:

I oppose these recall efforts.  Both Boudin and Gascon enacted policies that they campaigned on. A majority of the people voted for those policies. Most recalls are a waste of time and money.  (I did run for governor in the 2001 recall election, but I campaigned against the recall and only ran as an alternative candidate if the recall went through.)  Unless an office-holder does something truly egregious or illegal, it’s better to wait until the next voting cycle and vote that office-holder out if the people no longer agree with his or her policies.  Furthermore, I agree with most of their efforts to reform our broken criminal justice system.

Nathan Hochman:

I strongly support both the Boudin and Gascon recalls as these two DAs have proven themselves  unwilling to do the job of District Attorney, have enacted dangerous blanket policies to not prosecute  violent and serious felons to the fullest extent of the law at the front end and then advocate their early release on the back end, leading to our communities becoming much less safe and secure.

Should these recalls fail, or other DAs around the state similarly refuse to enforce the law, I believe it would be my constitutional obligation as Attorney General to step in and bring attorneys from the AGs office to prosecute the serious and egregious crimes these DAs choose not to properly prosecute.

California will no longer be open for business for violent and serious felons or anyone thinking that crimes have no consequences.

Eric Early:

They should both be recalled –  they are the equivalent of public defenders acting as our Chief Prosecutors.

It should be no surprise that over 90 percent of Gascon’s Deputy District Attorneys support his recall.  If they are not recalled and I become AG, I will follow California law, and charge certain attorneys in the DOJ to review Gascon’s and Boudin’s case files to determine which of their cases I will pull from them. The plan would be to allow their deputies to handle the cases, but instead of reporting up to Gascon, they would report up to me.

We need to protect our law-abiding California citizens again, and our victims of crime.

Anne Marie Schubert:

I fully support the recalls of Boudin and Gascon. They want to dismantle the system. These two men talk tough, but they’re not actually holding people accountable. For instance, Boudin won’t prosecute fentanyl drug dealers. Gascon won’t file things like special circumstances or gang enhancements, as he thinks people should get out of prison after 15 years, no matter what they’ve done. Murderers in prison are toasting Gascon, celebrating that they’re going to get out of prison early. We are emboldening criminals to commit even more crime, and Boudin and Gascon aren’t doing anything about it.

And now to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Obviously, he has continued to refuse to participate in this series and he has publicly been tap-dancing, soft-shoeing, and shimmy-shaking specifically around this issue.

That being said, one can make certain inferences from particular facts:

-He endorsed both in their initial runs for their current offices.

-He is very closely ideologically aligned with both Gascon and Boudin.

-Smart Justice California – a bored housewives club of Silicon Valley zillionaires each trying to out-woke each other for some reason or another (personally, I thought that’s what fashion, museum donations, and pool boys were invented for)  – opposes both the Gascon and Boudin recalls and has donated a significant amount of money to Bonta’s current campaign (and the Assembly campaign of his wife Mia).

You do the math.

Read all of the articles on California’s Attorney General race HERE.