Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has suffered a series of recent setbacks in his re-election bid, putting the poster child of liberal billionaire George Soros’s criminal justice “reform” movement in deep trouble in one of the most far-left cities in America.
In the latest blow to Gascon’s bid to hang on to the top prosecutor post in America’s most populous county, Jonathan Hatami, one of Gascon’s deputy district attorneys, endorsed Nathan Hochman, Gascon’s challenger in November’s general election. Maria Fernandez and John McKinney, two other Deputy DAs, have also endorsed Hochman.
“Nathan will prioritize the safety of all of our communities and will put the protection of children and the rights of victims at the forefront of his administration,” Hatami told the California Globe. “Unlike Gascon, Nathan understands that for the DA’s Office to succeed, he has to remove politics from the office, making decisions based on the facts and the law, not some personal political agenda.”
Hochman has also racked up several other high-profile endorsements, including from former LA District Attorneys Steve Cooley and Jackie Lacey, the latter a Democrat whom Gascon ousted with an infusion of cash from Soros in 2020.
Hochman is a former Republican and served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the George W. Bush administration. He has not served in public office since 2009 and only changed his party affiliation from Republican to Independent in 2023 shortly before announcing his bid to challenge Gascon.
In any other scenario, these factors would likely doom Hochman from even competing for public office in far-left LA County. However, amid a crime surge and high-profile cases where criminals released under Gascon’s “bail reform” policies went on to commit other grisly and violent acts, Hochman may be poised to ride a wave of backlash to Gascon’s failures.
Polling in the race, although limited, shows Gascon trailing far behind Hochman. In the latest survey out in April, 44 percent of respondents said they intended to vote for Hochman, 23 percent said Gascon and 33 percent were undecided. Hochman notably led two to one among Hispanic voters and three to one among Asian voters, both important demographics in the county.
Gascon’s poor polling numbers track with his weak performance in the 12-person primary election held on March 5. Although Gascon came in first, he secured just 25 percent of the vote, the lowest percentage received by an incumbent in the county’s history. Hochman came in second with 16 percent of the vote, setting up the runoff this November. If the polling in the race is accurate, Hochman need only win a small minority of the undecided voters to win the race.
Nonetheless, Gascon’s opponents have reason to temper their optimism. Although backlash has been building against Gascon’s soft-on-crime policies since virtually the day he took office, three recall attempts against him have all failed. In the most recent effort in 2022, an unusually high number of initial signatures on the recall petition were invalidated, leaving recall supporters just a few thousand verified signatures short of placing a recall question on the ballot.
However, this time Gascon may be without some of his most important tools that led him to victory in 2020 and allowed him to overcome three recall efforts – most notably a deep war chest.
Four years ago, much like other Soros-backed DAs, Gascon enjoyed an enormous fundraising advantage en route to ousting Lacey. In total, Gascon raised $12.4 million, almost double what Lacey raised
But in the primary, Gascon struggled to bring in cash, raising less than $500,000 to Hochman’s $2.75 million. Although progressive money is sure to flow in between now and Election Day – likely from the Soros network – Hochman has built up an impressive cash advantage. This should allow him to neutralize the typical strategy of Soros DAs, which is to bury their opponents in an avalanche of ad spending and get-out-the-vote campaigns in the final weeks of a race.
Moreover, national Democrats seem to recognize how politically toxic Gascon has become. In 2020, Gascon was able to rely on significant support from then-Senator Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom. They, in addition to several prominent celebrities, made full-throated endorsements and commitments to Gascon’s vision of “woke justice” in America.
This time around, neither Harris nor Newsom has offered their endorsement of Gascon. Hollywood elites, apparently recognizing that the political winds have changed, have likewise remained silent.
Nonetheless, Gascon has shown no signs of backing down or apologizing for his record. Despite his mounting unpopularity, he still asserts cash bail is “as unjust as it is unsafe” and defends keeping violent criminals out of jail, declaring “prison cannot be the only answer.”
As has been the case with other Soros prosecutors around the country, it appears no amount of chaos, destruction, and human suffering will lead Gascon to abandon or even rethink his ideological convictions. The only way to end the madness is at the ballot box.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
