Democrat Elites in Los Angeles Desperate to Recall Radical DA they Got Elected

AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott

For years, progressives and mainstream media outlets have ignored and dismissed the criticism and recall efforts against far-left District Attorneys who were backed by money from liberal megadonor George Soros. They’ve defended soft-on-crime policies as a “new era” of criminal justice and insisted such attacks are simply “racist” and “antisemitic smears” aimed at Soros himself. Now, however, many of those same cultural elites are funding the recall effort of Soros-backed Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon.

According to fundraising disclosures obtained by Los Angeles Magazine, a wide array of liberal donors and Hollywood elites have turned their back on the embattled Los Angeles DA and are actively working toward his recall. The list includes major film studios executives, socialites, and industry leaders like “supermarket magnate and President Clinton confidant Ron Burkle; President Biden’s pick for ambassador to Norway…and Hillary Clinton bundler and Pacific Palisades real-estate baron Jordan Kaplan.”

These supporters are not simply the average wealthy citizens of Los Angeles County. They are all politically savvy Democratic donors who have in the past supported policies like those advanced by Soros and his cadre of radical prosecutors in places like Chicago and Philadelphia. This sudden shift is a remarkable 180, and now puts these establishment Democrats in league with the few Republicans left in LA trying to boot Gascon from office.

George Gascon’s 2020 electoral victory cost $12.4 million, one of the most expensive in Los Angeles history. $2.25 million of that amount came from liberal billionaire and mega-donor George Soros, who explicitly backed Gascon based on his platform of radical criminal justice reform. The almost $10 million of additional funding came primarily from wealthy donors in California who also believed in his reforms. His opponent, Incumbent DA Jackie Lacey, raised only $7 million. Her funding largely came from police unions who correctly feared that Gascon’s policies would unleash a wave of crime and violence on the city.

At no point in his campaign did Gascon hide his vision for criminal justice “reform.” In fact, as protests and violent riots spread across the country following the death of George Floyd, Gascon rode the wave of progressive hostility toward law enforcement by aggressively embracing the “Defund the Police” movement and advocating for radical reforms.

Gascon’s extremist agenda became clear from his very first day as DA, as he took actions which even the New York Times described as “an all-out attack on the status quo.” Gascon immediately ended cash bail and abolished the death penalty, life sentences without parole, and the prosecution of anyone younger than 18 as an adult. Incredibly, he even blamed tough-on-crime policies – of which LA already had precious few – as the cause for rising crime. He pledged to end long prison sentences, including for serious crimes like murder. Gascon also appeared to attack the very prosecutors who would now be serving under him as the root of LA’s crime problem. During his campaign, when asked in an interview how he would deal with employees who might be opposed to his policies, Gascon referred to them as “internal terrorists.”

Progressive activists and billionaire liberal boosters were nonetheless enthralled and hailed Gascon as the future of police reform. Unbeknownst to them, another group was also gleeful with Gascon’s election. According to the New York Times, two inmates at a California state prison, one a convicted murderer, toasted cups of prison moonshine to Gascon. Both could be eligible for early release under Gascon’s plans.

So, what was it that soured Gascon’s support?

In December of last year, 81-year-old socialite Jacqueline Avant, a beloved and deeply connected Beverly Hills resident, was shot and killed in her home during an armed robbery. The suspect was only caught after accidentally shooting himself at another home robbery that night. Avant’s death followed a series of home invasions in high-end areas around LA. That same month, an entire Christmas party at a private and exclusive LA residence was held at gunpoint and robbed. In another harrowing example of rampant crime, one couple in a wealthy neighborhood had their car lit on fire right outside their own home, but were unable to file a report with either the police or fire department after both claimed to not have jurisdiction in the matter. The anti-NRA elites of the California Hills have now bought out multiple gun stores in the area, and the waitlist for a concealed carry permit grows every month. According to one report, orders for Panic Rooms, expensive, high-end safe rooms for families to hide in during emergency situations, are up 1,000%. Many residents are afraid to even shop in broad daylight without private security. The very people who donated millions of dollars to Defund the Police movements are, very quietly, asking for a refund. It’s likely that, when they called for the imprisoned to be set free, they never imagined those inmates would end up in their own backyard.

These billionaire boosters are not alone in their rejection of LA’s DA. Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to support Gascon’s recall. The 5-0 decision is non-binding, yet still is a shocking repudiation of a DA who LA’s elites once believed was the future of criminal justice in the Golden State.

It thus appears as if the naïve idealists pushing for a “transformation” of the criminal justice system never stopped to think about what the real-world results of such policies might be. Or, perhaps, they simply assumed that the criminals empowered by Gascon’s tenure would stick to targeting the poor and working-class of LA. As is so often the case with progressive policies, those pushing the hardest for their implementation are the most horrified when they themselves are faced with the reality of the disaster they created.

Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.